Contemporary Studies

Interpret today

The contemporary period is marked by continuous transformation, with new challenges but also new possibilities for change emerging constantly. The Contemporary Studies Program (CSP) engages with the ideas, thinkers, and movements that have contributed to new understandings of the world, community, self and other. In CSP you will:

• choose from a wide range of interdisciplinary courses that explore ideas about ethics, aesthetics, and politics; contemporary art, modern film, and digital media; new biotechnologies, nature, environment, and the body, and many others;
• consider the place of science and technology in the contemporary world and challenge the supposed dichotomy of science and culture;
• engage with texts by environmental philosophers, thinkers of the Global South, Indigenous thinkers and race and gender theorists;
• participate in classes on transformative thinkers such as Ludwig Wittgenstein, Hannah Arendt, Judith Butler, bell hooks, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson and Michel Foucault;
• conduct conceptual analyses of issues such as marginalization, social justice, migration and belonging, freedom and responsibility, while incorporating a range of critical perspectives;
• participate in innovative teaching and learning environments; for example, laboratory observation sessions, community-outreach, and gallery visits;
• use critical skills and creative talents.

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CSP+ News & Events Courses

Study abroad in Berlin

This month-long Contemporary Studies elective provides an opportunity to explore the themes of collective memory, public space, and historical trauma in Germany’s capital city. Through daily seminars, site visits, and museum tours, you learn about the political, architectural, and social stakes of the struggle to take responsibility for history in a city that is both burdened with the past and alive to the future.

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Publish your work

Hinge is an academic journal written, edited, and published annually by the students in the Contemporary Studies Program. It is interdisciplinary in scope, not only because of the variety of academic backgrounds of our peers and contributors, but because an interdisciplinary approach is fundamental to understanding any aspect of the contemporary world. The papers are revised versions of the work produced by the students in Contemporary Studies program classes.

Read the latest volume