College Unveils New Courses

University President Lawrence H. Summers’ now-infamous remarks on women in science made their way onto front pages of America’s newspapers last spring. Now, the remarks—and the national controversies they caused—are making their mark on the syllabi for Harvard courses.

This fall, students interested in gender politics, the sociology of science—or just Larry—will be able to indulge their interests in Sociology 163, “Women and Science: Sociological Aspects,” taught by Lecturer on Sociology Gerhard Sonnert.

“This has been a long term interest of mine,” Sonnert wrote in an e-mail. “I would not consider the course a reaction to President Summers’ comments on women scientists... but [his] remarks have led to a huge surge in publicity and focused more attention on the work that we scholars in the field have been doing for a while.”

Sonnert’s course is one of a slew of new classes—including offerings from famed scholars and hot new hires—that will be joining the over-3,000 course buffet offered by Harvard in the 2005-2006 school year. This year’s catalog was uploaded to the Registrar’s website last week.

Bass Professor of Government Michael J. Sandel, who routinely draws students to his lectures by the hundreds, is offering a course that promises to draw interest from a wide range of students, including premeds, philosophers, and current-events junkies.

Along with Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences Douglas A. Melton, who is also the co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Sandel will teach Government 1093, “Ethics, Biotechnology, and the Future of Human Nature.”

Sandel said that the course, which will feature lectures by several visiting scholars, will stress the interdisciplinary nature of many contemporary issues in the sciences.

“Students will learn the science of genomics and stem cell research, and also grapple with the ethical and political implications of new developments in biotechnology,” Sandel wrote in an e-mail.

Other Government department courses may draw crowds of students as well.

Conservative writer William Kristol ’73, who is the editor of the Weekly Standard, will be co-teaching two courses with high-profile government professors this year.

In the fall, Kristol, who is a visiting lecturer on government, will offer Government 1792, “Intellectual Foundations of American Foreign Policy,” with Kaneb Professor of National Security and Military Affairs Stephen P. Rosen ’74.

And in the spring, he will co-teach the graduate seminar Government 2080, “Topics in Political Philosophy: Natural Right,” with Harvey C. Mansfield ’53.

Warren Professor of American Legal History Morton J. Horwitz, who drew 413 students to Paine Music Hall last fall for Historical Studies B-61, “The Warren Court and the Pursuit of Justice, 1953-1969,” is offering another legal history core course, Historical Studies A-84, “American Constitutional History from the Framing to the Present.”

“This is a course I took when I was a graduate student [at Harvard],” Horwitz said. “I thought it has been missing from the Harvard Curriculum and had to be added.”

Professor of Visual and Environmental Studies (VES) David N. Rodowick’s Literature & Arts B-11, “The Art of Film,” will allow students to take a Lit core that focuses solely on film.

Rodowick said the course, which he believes is the first VES course ever to be included in the Core, will be very similar to a VES course he offered last year.

“I’m including more contemporary films than before and I’m going to stress in lecture how to be visually sophisticated and read film,” said Rodowick, who taught Visual and Environmental Studies 170a, “Introduction to Visual Studies and Film Studies,” last year.

Recent star-hire Niall Ferguson, a professor of history and author of the best-selling books, “Colossus,” “House of Rothschild,” and “Empire,” will teach his first courses at the College next spring, when he will offer both History 10b, “Western Economies, Societies, and Polities from 1648 to the Present” and, with Saltonstall Professor of History Charles S. Maier, History 1965, “International History: States, Markets, and the Global Economy: Conference Course.”

“Europe will still be the center of gravity [in 10b], but only in as much as it genuinely was the dominant continent for most of the three centuries after 1648,” Ferguson said in an e-mail, “I’ll lay more emphasis on warfare, empires and economics.”

President Summers will no longer offer the lecture course he taught last year, Social Analysis 78, “Globalization and its Critics,” but first-years will have the opportunity to compete with hundreds of their fellow students for a handful of spots in his freshman seminar, “Globalization: Opportunities and Challenges,” which returns to the course catalog after a one-year hiatus.

“I did miss [teaching the Freshman Seminar],” Summers wrote in an e-mail. “I suspect in a year or two that I will again offer a large course.”

Molecular and Cellular Biology and Organismic and Evolutionary Biology courses are listed separately under Biological Sciences this year, just below the new introductory Life Sciences sequence.

Notable absences this year include Chemistry 15, “Inorganic Chemistry” and Economics 1030, “Economics and Psychology.” Professor of Psychology Daniel T. Gilbert, the popular teacher of Psychology 1, “Introduction to Psychology,” will not offer the course this year. It will be offered solely by Medical School Professor of Opthamology Jeremy M. Wolfe.

—Staff writer Adam M. Guren can be reached at guren@fas.harvard.edu.