Courses

Introduction to and analysis of major myths in classical literature. Topics include the changing attitudes and applications of myth from Greek epic to tragedy, as well as modern approaches to myth. Readings include Homer, Hesiod, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. All readings in English.

Pushing back against this trope of homelessness, this course illuminates the robust, vibrant, and multifacetted
qualities of a home in the Diaspora, lasting for over a millennium, that both Ashkenazi and Sephardi
Jews managed to create for themselves in lands, predominantly populated by Slavs. They did so despite the
many constraints of legal and religious discrimination, threats of physical violence, displacement, and countless
forms of exclusion from dominant society. Moving across centuries, countries, and languages, we will revisit the
contributions of the Jews to their so called “host cultures” by way of diverse media—literary and non-fictional
works, memoirs, artistic works, songs, feature and documentary films, journalistic pieces, and more. By the end
of this journey, we will have gained a deeper understanding of the ways in which the Jews and Slavs have been
intimately imbricated and intertwined since times immemorial.

All course materials are available in English. No reading knowledge of Russian or other Slavic languages
is required. Course participants with the reading knowledge of any region-specific language are encouraged to
consult the respective originals, provided by the instructor upon request. This course will be of interest to those
majoring in Slavic and/or Jewish Studies, as well as anyone interested in Comparative Literature, History, Art
History, and Film and Visual Studies.

Equivalent to ECON UN1105, the first course for the major in economics. How a market economy determines the relative prices of goods, factors of production, and the allocation of resources; the circumstances under which it does these things efficiently. Why such an economy has fluctuations and how they may be controlled.

Prerequisites: ECON UN1105 The course surveys issues of interest in the American economy, including economic measurement, well-being and income distribution, business cycles and recession, the labor and housing markets, saving and wealth, fiscal policy, banking and finance, and topics in central banking. We study historical issues, institutions, measurement, current performance and recent research.

Prerequisites: STAT UN1201, ECON UN3211 Intermediate Microeconomics and ECON UN3213 Intermediate Macroeconomics. Equivalent to ECON UN3025. Institutional nature and economic function of financial markets. Emphasis on both domestic and international markets (debt, stock, foreign exchange, Eurobond, Eurocurrency, futures, options, and others). Principles of security pricing and portfolio management; the capital asset pricing model and the efficient markets hypothesis.

Prerequisites: STAT UN1201, ECON UN3211 Intermediate Microeconomics and ECON UN3213 Intermediate Macroeconomics. Equivalent to ECON UN3025. Institutional nature and economic function of financial markets. Emphasis on both domestic and international markets (debt, stock, foreign exchange, Eurobond, Eurocurrency, futures, options, and others). Principles of security pricing and portfolio management; the capital asset pricing model and the efficient markets hypothesis.

Prerequisites: MATH UN1101 and ECON UN1105 or the equivalent; one term of calculus. Corequisites: MATH UN1201. This course covers the determination of output, employment, inflation and interest rates. Topics include economic growth, business cycles, monetary and fiscal policy, consumption and savings and national income accounting.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 or the equivalent. Introduction to the principles of money and banking. The intermediary institutions of the American economy and their historical developments, current issues in monetary and financial reform.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 or the equivalent. Introduction to the principles of money and banking. The intermediary institutions of the American economy and their historical developments, current issues in monetary and financial reform.

Prerequisites: STAT UN1201 Intro to Stats w/Calculus, MATH UN1201 Calculus III, and either intermediate micro or macro (UN3211 or UN3213). Equivalent to ECON UN3412. Modern econometric methods, the general linear statistical model and its extensions, simultaneous equations and the identification problem, time series problems, forecasting methods, extensive practice with the analysis of different types of data.

Uncertainty is ubiquitous and information about that uncertainty plays a key role in economic
decision-making and exchange. In this course, we will first consider how individuals and society
can manage uncertainty. We will then focus on how economic relationships may suffer from
some parties not having all the information that is relevant to their decision-making. We will see
how these kinds of information asymmetries invite lying and cheating. We will also study how
parties can structure their agreements to address the problems that such information asymmetries
create.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213. This course examines labor markets through the lens of economics. In broad terms, labor economics is the study of the exchange of labor services for wages—a category that takes in a wide range of topics. Our objective in this course is to lay the foundations for explaining labor market phenomena within an economic framework and subsequently apply this knowledge-structure to a select set of questions. Throughout this process we will discuss empirical research, which will highlight the power (as well as the limitations) of employing economic models to real-world problems. By the end of this course we will have the tools/intuition to adequately formulate and critically contest arguments concerning labor markets.