New Course for Fall 2013!

“Perceiving the World: Self, Society, and the Senses in Historical Context.”
SOC 285 Section 02, TR 1:50-3:05

“Seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, smelling–we’re taught at an early age that these five senses are our means of experiencing the world around us. Despite the seemingly stable nature of our senses, this course will show that the way different cultures have organized and used the senses has varied widely. Using an interdisciplinary approach that draws on sociology, history, anthropology, media studies, and psychology, this course will trace shifts in perception and their accompanying social effects between the eighteenth century and today. Through a series of diverse topics, such as color, railroads, perfume, and drugs, this course will investigate the relationship between the physical and the social, the role of daily experience in our considerations of history, and the political implications of the body.”

Offered by new Social Sciences visiting faculty member Carolyn Purnell, there are no pre-requisites for this course. It will be of special interest to pre-med, bio-med, artificial intelligence/CS, architecture, civil e, natural and social science, psych, history and philosophy students as well as the generally curious.