Core Comittee Approves New Courses

The Core Committee approved two new courses for the Core program at a recent meeting, and also approved one course for cross listing and an additional departmental class for Core credit.

On March 20, the Core Committee approved Weary Professor of German and Comparative Literature Judith A. Ryan's Foreign Cultures class "Jugend Gegen Hitler" (Youth Against Hitler), and Jeffrey D. Sachs '76, Stone professor of international trade, will offer a Social Analysis course entitled "Wealth and Poverty in the World Economy."

"I think it's a great subject and I do sense there will be a lot of interest. I am delighted to teach in the Core," Sachs says.

Ryan's course, which will be taught entirely in German, will focus on the resistance efforts of young people against Nazism. Some groups that will be studied include White Rose and Edelweiss Pirates, a rowdy group with anarchist tendencies who wore the edelweiss flower as a kind of insignia on their clothing, Ryan said.

The emphasis of this course will be on everyday life in Nazi Germany and what it felt like to live during the Nazi era.

The reading list for Ryan's class will include fictional and autobiographical accounts, Nazi proclamations and regulations and oppositional flyers and posters.

In addition, "Hitler Youth Quex," a film about a young man who is desperate to join the Hitler Youth group, will be screened.

One book of interest, says Ryan, is Fragments by Binjamin Wilkomirski. It was published initially as an autobiography but it was later discovered not to be autobiographical at all. Wilkomirski invented experiences in concentration camps, and the original publishing house retracted the book, causing an international scandal.

Ryan says she chose to teach the course in German because "language is a substantial vehicle for culture in language." While some of the course's texts could be studied in English, not all of them have been translated.

Ryan emphasizes that all discussions will be conducted in German.

"I'm going to pretend I don't speak English," she said.

Whereas Ryan has been "well-trained" by her previous experience working within the Core, Sachs will be teaching within the Core for the first time.

Sachs's course will cover the theory, history and modern practice of economic development and how it is affected by international relations, geography and culture.

He said he will address the question, "Why are some countries rich and others poor?" and discuss ways to promote economic growth.

Sachs says the readings, which include some of his own works, are "broad and interesting."

Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, Fernand Braudel's The Perspective of the World, and Philip Curtin's The World and the West will be studied, as well as works by Adam Smith and Max Weber, among others.

Working with the Core Committee was relatively painless, say both Ryan and Sachs.

"It was easy. They were enthusiastic and very helpful," Sachs says. "Everything went very smoothly."

Other changes in the Core for next year are that Biological Sciences 50: "Genetics and Genomics" will count for Science B credit next year, and Historical Studies A-77: "The Emergence of Modern China ca. 1600-2000" will be cross-listed under Foreign Cultures.