MIT OPENCOURSEWARE 2011: Feminist Political Thought

Feminist Political Thought

As taught in: Spring 2010

A postcard from 1913 depicts a cartoon of a girl scolding a boy about women not being allowed to vote.  Suffrage is discussed in session #3. (Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.)

Instructors:

Prof. Elizabeth A. Wood

MIT Course Number:

SP.601J / 17.006 / 24.237 / WGS.601J

Level:

Undergraduate

Course Features

• Assignments (no solutions)

Course Description

In this course we will examine the development of feminist theory over time. Some subjects we will examine in detail include suffrage and equality; radical feminism; psychoanalysis and feminism; theories of power; sexuality and gender; embodied knowledge; pornography; identities and global feminism; militarism; and the welfare state. Throughout the course we will analyze different ways of looking at power and political culture in modern societies, issues of race and class, poverty and welfare, sexuality and morality.

Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Seminar: 1 session / week, 3 hours / session

Assignments

Students are responsible for:

• Each week's reading
• 2-3 page weekly response paper
• Co-leadership of one class, providing questions for discussion that day
• 10-12 page research paper
• Class presentation

We will also experiment with the forms in which we write. Students may choose to write their response papers in the form of letters to the editor and/or op-ed pieces.

Grading

Grading criteria.

ACTIVITies	PERCENTAGEs
Class participation and leading discussion	20%
Eight response papers	40%
Research paper and presentation	40%

 

Calendar

Course calendar.

SES #	TOPICS
1	Introduction to the course
2	What is feminist theory?
3	Suffrage and equality
4	Materialist feminism Guest lecturer: Anne McCants, Professor, History Department, MIT
5	Feminism and difference
6	Power and identity
7	Sexuality and gender
8	Embodied knowledge Guest speaker: Ian Smith, Student Activist, MIT
9	Pornography, rape, and the politics of consent Guest speaker: Rae Langton, Professor, Linguistics and Philosophy Department, MIT
10	Gender and the welfare system Guest speaker: Andrea Campbell, Professor, Political Science Department, MIT
11	Gender and militarism
12	Final presentations
13	Identities and global feminism
14	Third wave feminism and wrap-up discussion

 

Readings

Required Books

[Feminist Theory] = Kolmar, Wendy K., and Frances Bartkowski. Feminist Theory: A Reader. New York: McGraw Hill, 2009. ISBN: 9780073512266.
[Exile and Pride] = Clare, Eli. Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness and Liberation. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780896086050.
[Curious Feminist] = Enloe, Cynthia. The Curious Feminist: Searching for Women in a New Age of Empire. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780520243811.
[Theorizing Feminisms] = Hackett, Elizabeth and Sally Haslanger. Theorizing Feminisms. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. 187-88. ISBN: 9780195150094.

Course readings.

SES #	TOPICS	READINGS
1	Introduction to the course	No readings
2	What is feminist theory?	[Feminist Theory] pp. 2-54. [Curious Feminist] Chapters 1-5; pp. 1-10, 69-82. McIntosh, Peggy. "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack." In Working Paper 189. White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondence through Work in Women's Studies, 1988. (PDF) Parker, Pat. "For the White Person Who Wants to Know How to Be My Friend." In Making Face, Making Soul. Edited by Gloria Anzaldua. San Francisco, Aunt Lute Books, 1995. ISBN: 9781879960107. Uttal, Lynet. "Nods That Silence." In Making Face, Making Soul. Edited by Gloria Anzaldua. San Francisco, Aunt Lute Books, 1995. ISBN: 9781879960107. Lorde, Audre. "I Am Your Sister: Black Women Organizing Across Sexualities." In Making Face, Making Soul. Edited by Gloria Anzaldua. San Francisco, Aunt Lute Books, 1995. ISBN: 9781879960107.
3	Suffrage and equality	[Feminist Theory] pp. 60-90, 93-100, 104-9, 201-210. Addams, Jane. "Women and Public Housekeeping." In [Theorizing Feminisms] pp. 187-88. Young, Iris M. "Five Faces of Oppression." In Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990. pp. 3-15. ISBN: 9780691023151. (PDF)
4	Materialist feminism	[Feminist Theory] pp. 90-92, 100-4, 109-22, 126-27, 299-307, 211-14, 230-44. (Engels, Gilman, Emma Goldman, Mother Jones, Kollontai, Eastman, Margaret Sanger, Heidi Hartmann, Charlotte Bunch, Gayle Rubin, "Traffic in Women".) Folbre, Nancy. The Invisible Heart: Economics and Family Values. New York, The New Press, 2002. Chapters 1-2; pp. 3-52. ISBN: 9781565847477.
5	Feminism and difference	[Feminist Theory] pp. 128-58, 215-21, 260-90, 312-19. (Stella Browne, Joan Riviere, Virginia Woolf, Karen Horney, Margaret Mead, Simone de Beauvoir, Helene Cixous, Luce Irigaray, Nancy Chodorow, Mary Daly, Marilyn Frye, Audre Lorde, Monique Wittig, Carol Gilligan.) Young, Iris. "Humanism, Gynecentrism, and Feminist Politics." In [Theorizing Feminisms] pp. 174-87.
6	Power and identity	[Feminist Theory] pp. 160-201, 245-48, 388-97. (Betty Friedan, Mary Douglas, NOW, Valerie Solanas, Kate Millett, "Redstockings Manifesto" (1969), Mary Ann Weathers, Anne Koedt, Pauli Murray, Radicalesbians, Older Women's League (OWL.) MacKinnon, Catherine. "Difference and Dominance." In [Theorizing Feminisms] pp. 244-55.
7	Sexuality and gender identity	[Feminist Theory] pp. 209-97, 327-32, 413-23, 434-42, 502-7, 516-22. (Adrienne Rich, Carole Vance, Catherine MacKinnon, Judith Butler, Judith Halberstam, Anne Fausto-Sterling.) Rubin, Gayle. "Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality." In [Theorizing Feminisms] pp. 527-40.
8	Embodied knowledge	[Exile and Pride] pp. 1-40, 67-138. Kadi, Joanna. "Stupidity 'Deconstructed'." In [Theorizing Feminisms] pp. 40-50. [Feminist Theory] pp. 529-40. (Rosemarie Garland-Thomson.)
9	Pornography, rape, and the politics of consent	Stoltenberg, John. "Confronting Pornography as a Civil Rights Issue." In [Theorizing Feminisms] pp. 298-310. Duggan, Lisa, Nan Hunter, and Carole S. Vance. "False Promises: Feminist Antipornography Legislation in the U.S." In [Theorizing Feminisms] pp. 311-24. (PDF - 1.2MB) Marcus, Susan. "Fighting Bodies, Fighting Words: A Theory and Politics of Rape Prevention." In [Theorizing Feminisms] pp. 368-81. Langton, Rae. "Speech Acts and Unspeakable Acts." Philosophy and Public Affairs 22 (1993): 293-330. (PDF)
10	Gender and the welfare system	Fraser, Nancy and Linda Gordon. "A Genealogy of Dependency: Tracing a Keyword of the U.S. Welfare State." Signs 19, no. 2 (1994): 309-36. Lubiano, Wahneema. "Black Ladies, Welfare Queens, and State Minstrels: Ideological War by Narrative Means." In Race-ing Justice, En-gendering Power. Edited by Toni Morrison. New York, NY: Pantheon, 1992, pp. 323-63. ISBN: 9780679741459. Crittenden, Ann. "How Mothers' Work Was 'Disappeared'." and "The Welfare State Versus a Caring State." In The Price of Motherhood. New York: Holt, 2002, pp. 45-64, 186-201. ISBN: 9780805066197.
11	Gender and militarism	[Feminist Theory] pp. 508-15. (Cynthia Enloe) Cohn, Carol. "Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals." In Feminist Theory in Practice and Process. Edited by Micheline R. Malson, Jean F. O'Barr, and Sarah Westphal-Wihl, and Mary Wyer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991. pp. 107-138. ISBN: 9780226502946. [Curious Feminist] Chapters 7-10, 13, 15-16, pp. 99-144, 152-54, 193-232.
12	Final presentations	No readings
13	Identities and global feminism	[Feminist Theory] pp. 221-25, 319-26, 362-68, 397-401, 407-12, 466-69, 491-98, 533-61. (Fatima Mernissi, Chandra Mohanty, Gloria Anzaldua, Vandana Shiva, Ynestra King, Beijing Platform, Uma Narayan, Saba Mahmood.) [Curious Feminist] Chapters 2-4, 17, 19, pp. 19-68, 233-36, 268-305.
14	Third wave feminism and wrap-up discussion	[Feminist Theory] pp. 442-53, 469-72, 474-90, 499-501, 522-23, 541-45. (Patricia Hill Collins, Angela Davis, Winona LaDuke, Third Wave feminists, Kimberle Crenshaw, Griselda Pollock, Baumgardner and Richards, Joanne Barker.)

 

Assignments

Research Paper: Feminist Theory & Current Life

Your mission, should you accept it, is to take a current or relatively recent set of events or topic of concern that has been in the media and think about how the issues of feminism come to bear on this topic.
What are the feminist theory angles in your topic? How has the media portrayed your topic? How can theories about gender and language or gender and performance or the ideological formations relating to sexuality (to take a few examples) help us better understand real conflicts and politics in the world today? What can theory tell us about what observers have and have not understood about your topic?
The papers should be 10-15 pages in length, double-spaced.
Possible Topics:

• Prostitution and morality
• Chromosomes and gender identification
• Work and family studies
• The reform of welfare
• Paternity/maternity issues in childrearing and/or divorce
• Global organizing of women's labor
• Pornography and the Internet
• Women and military service
• Race, class and gender in the 2008 election campaigns
• Women's body image
• Discrimination against people who don't conform to the dominant beauty ideal
• Date rape and other issues of violence against women on college campuses
• Women in sports: Title IX
• Can men be feminists?
• Women and credit in the Third World
• Femininity, masculinity and political leadership

Resources for paper topics

Shah, Anup. "Women's Rights." Global Issues: Social, Political, Economic, and Environmental Issues That Affect Us All. March 14, 2010.
Abortion Conservation Project, Inc.
Pro+Choice Forum

Pedagogy

My philosophy of teaching is based in the notion of student-centered learning. My working hypothesis is that students can learn most effectively when they feel a direct need to take in new material, digest it thoroughly, and integrate it into their understanding of the world.
Accordingly, my goal is to provide readings that will challenge students to think about the world around them in new ways, whether to open their eyes to the suffering associated with poverty or to introduce them to the global interconnectedness in sneaker production. I ask them to analyze thorny issues such as pornography, free speech, and the protection of women; the evolution of motherhood and the devaluation of women's work in the home; the politics and practices of the welfare state; the challenges and dilemmas of militarism for women's participation in the body politic, and so on.
Recently, I have asked students to learn practical forms of writing as well: how to write a letter to the editor and an opinion piece and how to analyze the materials they are reading from a feminist theory perspective. Letters to the editor and op-ed pieces can empower students to feel that their views matter; and, writing such pieces can encourage students to research a topic thoroughly so that they have all the information at their fingertips. The world we live in has grown so complicated that it more than ever requires everyone to add his or her voice, to demonstrate a sense of citizenship through careful attention to issues and to communicate those insights and understanding.

 

 

Related Resources

Internet Resources

Shah, Anup. "Women's Rights." Global Issues: Social, Political, Economic, and Environmental Issues That Affect Us All. March 14, 2010.
Abortion Conservation Project, Inc.
Pro+Choice Forum

Boston-Area Public Service Learning Opportunities

The My Life My Choice Project
An initiative designed to reach adolescent girls most vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation
Cambridge Commission on the Status of Women
A city department that works to promote equality and justice for all women and girls and advocates on their behalf with other city departments and officials
Rosie's Place
Offers long-term and emergency assistance to poor and homeless women who have nowhere else to turn
Teen Voices & Women Express
An organization that supports and educates teen girls to create social change through media and writing
Barakat
Improves the well-being of marginalized groups in South and Central Asian by increasing access to quality education and a healthy environment
Science Club for Girls
Increases the science literacy of girls from Kindergarten through 12th grade by providing free programs in hands-on learning, mentorship, and leadership
Project Have Hope
Works with a group of 100 women by helping to improve the quality of their lives
ReVision Urban Farm
Provides fresh, affordable and locally grown produce to families in the city with limited resources
Fenway Community Health
Enhances the wellbeing of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and all people through access to health care, education, research, and advocacy
Crittenton Women's Union
Helps low-income women achieve economic independence
Nutrition Education Outreach Project
Fights hunger and teaches families nutrition skills in the Boston area.
United South End Settlements
Provides comprehensive programs that address the needs of individuals and families, from infants to seniors
Ministries of Aides International, Inc.
Offers diverse programs such as basic computer classes, resume building classes, job placement, translation services, and ESL courses
The Second Step
Offers a comprehensive program for survivors of domestic violence

 

 

Download Course Materials

This package contains the same content as the online version of the course.

For help downloading and using course materials, read our frequently asked questions.

1.32 MB

 

MIT OPENCOURSEWARE 2011: Physical Intelligence

Physical Intelligence

As taught in: January IAP 2002

Walking, which represents an extraordinarily complex coordination of actions, is one of the topics explored in the course. (Image courtesy of Flickr.com. Photo by Juliebee.)

Instructors:

Noah Riskin

MIT Course Number:

PE.910

Level:

Undergraduate

Course Description

For all of the bodies attached to the many great minds that walk the Institute's halls, in the work that goes on at MIT the body is present as an object of study, but is all but unrecognized as an important dimension of our intelligence and experience. Yet the body is the basis of our experience in the world; it is the very foundation on which cognitive intelligence is built. Using the MIT gymnastics gym as our laboratory, the Physical Intelligence activity will take an innovative, hands-on approach to explore the kinesthetic intelligence of the body as applicable to a wide range of disciplines. Via exercises, activities, readings and discussions designed to excavate our physical experience, we will not only develop balance, agility, flexibility and strength, but a deep appreciation for the inherent unity of mind and body that suggests physical intelligence as a powerful complement to cognitive intelligence.

Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 2 sessions / week for 5 weeks, 1 hour / session

Course Description

Physical Intelligence classes take an experiential approach to the investigation and application of our innate ability to learn physical skills. Philosophically, the curriculum is founded on the premise that physical education is more than strength training, flexibility and aerobic fitness; physical education is also the development of our ability to access and benefit from the physical intelligence of the human organism.
The core of the Physical Intelligence program is a three-semester curriculum that uses the MIT gymnastics gym as a laboratory to introduce and develop physical intelligence, and then to apply the experience to academic pursuits. Selected readings and discussions combine with experience-based learning leading not only to the development of balance, agility, flexibility and strength, but to a deep appreciation for the reciprocity of mind and body that suggests physical intelligence as a powerful complement to cognitive intelligence.
In the research that takes place at MIT the body is present as an object of study but is all but unrecognized as an important dimension of our intelligence and experience. Yet the body is the very basis of our experience in the world; it is the very foundation on which cognitive intelligence is built. Though we appear to move beyond such physical learning early in life, our thinking, learning and understanding are constantly referencing this experiential base, aptly reflected in the Mens et Manus motto of the Institute.

About the Instructor

Noah Riskin

Noah Riskin studied painting and trained in gymnastics at Ohio State University, 1981-86. In 1985 he shared the NCAA national title on the parallel bars with his identical twin, Seth, and led Ohio State to its first NCAA Team Championship. In 1986 he received his BFA degree.
Noah continued his athletic career to become a US Men's National Gymnastics Team member, and a national and international champion. In 1993, as a Merit Scholar, he received his MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. And, from 1994-97 he was a research affiliate and fellow at the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies. 1998-2000 Noah was Faculty in the Integrated Media and Dance Departments at The California Institute of the Arts where he developed and taught "Technology and the Body," a three course curriculum exploring the meeting of technology and the body for performance.
Noah has presented his art and lectures at venues as diverse as the Center for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland, the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics at Harvard University, and the Exploratorium in San Francisco. He has taught at Tufts University, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Rhode Island School of Design, The California Institute of the Arts, and MIT.
Currently, Noah continues his art, research and teaching as the Head Men’s Gymnastics Coach, Physical Education Instructor, co-Director of the DAPER/Edgerton Center's d'Arbeloff High-speed Imaging Grant Project at MIT, and creator of the Physical Intelligence Initiative.
This summer, as a resident fellow at the Northwood University Alden B. Dow Creativity Center, Noah is pursuing his artwork and research on the subject of twins, leading to the production of Gemini, a performance scheduled for November '96 at P.S. 122 in New York as part of a Franklin Furnace "emerging artists" performance series.

 

 

Calendar

Course calendar.

SES #	TOPICS	KEY DATES
1	What is Physical Intelligence?
2	Orientation in Relation to Gravity	Activities: "Meeting Gravity" and "The Art of Falling"
3	Perception	Activity: "Mapping Perception"
4	Proprioception	Activity: "Exploring a Sense of Weight"
5	Spatial Perception	Field Trip: Brandeis University Activity: "Spatial Perception: Our Sense of an 'Outside' World"
6	Complex Coordination	Field Trip: MIT Leg Laboratory Activity: "Walk This Way"
7	Learning and Development	Field Trip: MIT Day Care Activity: "A World of Objects"
8	E-motion	Activity: "Fear Factor"
9	"Tooling"	Activity: "Technological Innovation: Physical Problem Solving"
10	Flight	Activity: "A Thousand Words"

Lecture Notes

The lecture notes on this page are copyright 2005, by Noah Riskin and Aline Newton. They are used with permission.
Course notes.
SES #	TOPICS	LECTURE NOTES
1	What is Physical Intelligence?	From the extraordinary performances of Olympic athletes to simple, everyday actions such as standing and walking, all of our movements depend on an ongoing process of spatial orientation, organization in relation to gravity, proprioception, and sensory perception. Physical Intelligence, then, is this remarkable coordination of intention, muscle, motor and sensory/perception systems functioning in extraordinary accord with the environment-embodied mind in action.
2	Orientation in Relation to Gravity	Before you take a step or raise an arm, your body has already anticipated the shift in your center of gravity and made countless tiny adjustments to help you maintain your balance. These "pre-movements" are what keep you from tumbling forward reaching for a glass, or falling when you turn suddenly upon hearing your name. Patterns of preparatory movement organize your orientation to gravity, and set the tone for all other, more complex actions. This week we will explore the individual strategies each of us employs to establish our highly refined and subtle rapport with gravity.
3	Perception	Perception is the basic language of physical intelligence. When we sit, stand, reach, or run to kick a ball, it is sensory information that guides our movement. Conversely, action underlies perception: we move our fingers to touch; we turn our heads to catch a sound or to see. Sensory perception can actually be considered simulated action based on physical experience: to see a chair is to imagine the action of sitting in it. As Merleau-Ponty said, "vision is the brain's way of touching." And, we might add, touching is one way the body sees. Sensing and motor skills are in constant conversation with each other. The organization of our movement patterns depend upon our habits of perception. How, then, might an education of the senses be included in physical education?
4	Proprioception	While we see, touch and hear the world around us, there is also the process locating ourselves from inside. This manifests primarily as a sense of our weight and perceived boundaries defined by where skin meets world. Sensations from the skin, from muscles and bones make up the "somatic self", telling us where we are and where we end. Antonio Damasio theorizes that a large part of what allows us to feel like the same person from day to day is the sameness of these signals from the body day after day; "somatic markers" tell me that I am still "me". Most of us have only a vague sense for our physical selves on this level. Yet, as a key dimension of physical intelligence, proprioception can be cultivated. Furthering our work from Week 3, we will excavate these perceptions to gain an appreciation and awareness for our "inner" sense of a physical self.
5	Spatial Perception	Locating ourselves in space is the other side of our physical sense of self. Using primarily sound and vision, we orient ourselves to the world around us. Using our physical sense of self as our point of reference, we construct the spatial relationships we see. This is the threshold or interface where our "inner" world of perceptions meets an "outer" world. Movement is organized and reorganized based on these relationships. Physical intelligence, then, is the fluency with which we conduct this kinesthetic conversation.
6	Complex Coordination	Walking represents an extraordinarily complex coordination of actions, delicately tensioned between balancing and falling. Once mastered, we walk with hardly a thought-on varied terrain, at different speeds, while carrying heavy objects, and in conversation with others. In walking, the entire body-head, spine, torso, arms, legs, hands and feet work together in rapport with the physical conditions-gravity, ground, spatial relationships - to propel us forward. Contrary to conventional understanding, it is not the skeleton that walks, but a whole-body web of tissue, stretching and contracting to harness the potential energy available. Physical intelligence coordinates this complexity. With so many variables, many strategies are possible. Thus, the pattern and rhythm of our gait is highly individualized. And, though locomotion can be nearly effortless, we can and do get in its way. Week 6 we will experiment with the biomechanics of walking, looking specifically at the contribution of legs, arms and spine to see if we can experience what seems a mundane activity in new ways.
7	Learning and Development	The basic grammar of human movement begins before we are born. In utero, tiny undulations from head to tail begin the complex coordination of motor skills that will so occupy an infant and toddler as he or she learns to negotiate the world. Watching a child learn to walk is testament to the physical intelligence - and persistence, of the system as trial and error establishes skill. Further, physical play in childhood greatly expands our range and repertoire, as every aspect of our balance, coordination, and motor skills is challenged. Here, a vocabulary of fundamental movement is developed that serves us for a lifetime-from everyday activities to Olympic level performances.
8	E-motion	Walking a 4-inch beam, 50 feet in the air is no easy task. Below a level of conscious awareness, the brain is constantly responding "emotionally" to the world. Before we are even aware of feeling afraid, for example, physical responses have already begun: pounding heart, sweaty palms, tense muscles. The physical sensations in turn tell us what we are feeling. This is yet another aspect of physical intelligence, or communication with our organism. Such reactions have their roots in human evolution, but may not be completely adapted to the lives most of us lead. A fear of heights and performance anxiety are more obvious "outside" threats. However, we can experience poor perceptual orientation or being off balance, as "danger," creating muscle tension and restriction that greatly affects how we live our body. As experienced in previous classes, we can learn to become aware of such automatic/autonomic processes. In this class we will experiment with situations that bring these responses into awareness. Our effort will be to understand both their affect, and how we can better work with such powerful influences.
9	"Tooling"	Your body is your first tool. Before language or concept, learning is a physical process built upon the interactions of body and world; eyes and hand reach into the world, our legs transport us. Inversely, tools are extensions of the body, born of its interaction with the physical world; a hand becomes a hammer, bipedal action becomes a bike. Even when we consider information technologies, we must ultimately look to the physical experience of the body in its context for the roots of such machines. As the basis of our experience, the body is present-often visible-in all that we create. The body and the tools it creates, then, are manifestations of our physical intelligence.
10	Flight	"Air" Jordan, Wonderwoman, Baryshnikov, or simply a child's leap from a swing set; what is the perennial appeal of defying gravity, if only for a moment? From high-level athletes who make it look effortless, to the aspirations underlying the space program, human beings are constantly teasing the limitations of the body and of our physical condition. In our final week we will use "flight" as a vehicle to overview the cultural tension between the body and the passion of our scientific/technological pursuits.
 
 
Assignments
Course assignments.
SES #	TOPICS	INVESTIGATIONS AND ACTIVITIES
1	What is Physical Intelligence?
2	Orientation in Relation to Gravity	"Meeting Gravity" - We will take advantage of DAPER's high-speed imaging system to reveal the subtle premovements that keep us in balance. "The Art of Falling" - A 40-foot padded incline allows us to play the line between balance and falling. Again, high-speed video will afford a detailed look at the elaborate compensatory dance the body does to maintain its balance under such extreme conditions. The best stumble wins.
3	Perception	"Mapping Perception" - Students spend an hour blindfolded in an open field. Turning off the eyes, our project is to notice the rich array of sounds, smells, textures in which we are constantly immersed but tend to ignore. Following, we will each create a sensory map of the experience that we will use to compare and contrast our experiences.
4	Proprioception	"Exploring a Sense of Weight" - From a collection of materials (e.g., foamcore, wood dowels, inflatables) we will build wearable structures to alter our body's sense of weight, relative position and scale.
5	Spatial Perception	Fieldtrip - We will visit Brandeis University's Volen Center for Complex Systems: Human Spatial Orientation and Motor Control. "Spatial Perception: Our Sense of an 'Outside' World" - In this exercise we employ body-mounted lighting instruments such as laser pointers and LEDs in a black box performance space to give new meaning to our changing relationship to the space around us.
6	Complex Coordination	Field Trip - A visit to MIT's Leg Laboratory to compare and contrast the physical intelligence an organism demonstrates against that of artificially intelligent machines. "Walk This Way" - Using LED target markers on the body for reference points, high-speed video and movement analysis software allows us to distill the individual characteristics of each person's gait. With this information, we will experiment with the range of movement patterns revealed to gain perspective on our individual strategies.
7	Learning and Development	Field Trip - A visit to the MIT day care to watch babies work to become toddlers. "A World of Objects" - Curiosity about the world motivates movement; our early interaction with objects forms basic gestures-reach, push, throw-structures the basic grammar of movement. We will explore simple movements in relation to objects to discover how they underlie more complex ones.
8	E-motion	"Fear Factor" - Walking a 4-inch beam, 50 feet in the air, among other ropes course activities.
9	"Tooling"	"Technological Innovation: Physical Problem Solving" - From a large collection of materials students will be challenged to design and build tools to solve fanciful technology-minded, body-based problems, e.g., "be here and there at the same time.", "walk standing still."
10	Flight	"A Thousand Words" - To make a concept map illustrating connections between our scientific/technological society and our effort to transcend the limitations of our physical condition, we will pour through recent issues of Wired, Technology Review and other magazines in search of telling images (what they have to say may surprise you!).
 
Download Course Materials
This package contains the same content as the online version of the course.
For help downloading and using course materials, read our frequently asked questions.
1.30 MB


 
 

MIT OPENCOURSEWARE 2011: Global Climate Change: Economics, Science, and Policy

 

Global Climate Change: Economics, Science, and Policy

As taught in: Spring 2008

Comparison of likely temperature increases over 1990-2100 with no policy (left), and stabilization of greenhouse gases at 550pm CO₂ equivalents (right). (Figure from the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change.)

Instructors:

Eunjee Lee
(Teaching Assistant)
Prof. Henry Jacoby
Prof. Mort Webster
Prof. Ronald Prinn
Travis Franck
(Teaching Assistant)

MIT Course Number:

15.023J / 12.848J / ESD.128J

Level:

Graduate

Course Features

• Selected lecture notes
• Assignments (no solutions)

Course Description

This class introduces scientific, economic, and ecological issues underlying the threat of global climate change, and the institutions engaged in negotiating an international response. It also develops an integrated approach to analysis of climate change processes, and assessment of proposed policy measures, drawing on research and model development within the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change.

Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

Calendar

Course calendar.

SES #	TOPICS	KEY DATES
1	Introduction and overview
2	Institutions I: political and analytical organizations
3	Review of the mathematics of climate analysis
4	Climate I: past climate, and gases, aerosols and radiation	Homework 1 distributed
5	Economics primer
6	Climate II: dynamics of the atmosphere and oceans
7	Economics of the global commons	Homework 1 due Homework 2 distributed
8	Economics I: economic growth, technology and greenhouse gas emissions
9	Institutions II: the international climate negotiations
10	Economics II: the economics of greenhouse gas emissions control
11	Introduction to the Toy Integrated Global System Model
12	Climate III: interaction of atmosphere, oceans and biosphere	Homework 2 due Homework 3 distributed
13	Analysis of the benefits of greenhouse gas mitigation
14	Economics III: climate policy analysis
15	Emissions trading and tax systems
16	Climate machine IV: regional impacts of climate change
17	Review of methods of uncertainty analysis	Homework 3 due Homework 4 distributed Policy exercise distributed
18	Integrated assessment I: sensitivity and uncertainty analysis
19	Sea level rise and adaptation
20	Methods for decision under uncertainty	Policy exercise: preliminary note due
21	Integrated assessment II: deciding global effort and burden shares	Homework 4 due
22	Climate change and the Arctic region
23	Climate V: unresolved problems in climate analysis
24	Discussion of homework sets and the policy exercise
25	Student team presentations	Policy exercise: final memo and report due
26	Final summary and discussion

Grading

Grading criteria.

ACTIVITIES	PERCENTAGES
Homework (15% each)	60%
Team project 1	10%
Team project 2	25%
Class participation	5%

 

 

Readings

Course readings.

SES #	TOPICS	READINGS
1	Introduction and overview
2	Institutions I: political and analytical organizations	Uniting on Climate: A Guide to the Climate Change Convention and the Kyoto Protocol. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), 2007, pp. 7-38. (PDF - 3.7 MB) Summary for Policymakers, Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Fourth Assessment Report. (PDF - 1.9 MB)
3	Review of the mathematics of climate analysis
4	Climate I: past climate, and gases, aerosols and radiation	Karl, Thomas R., and Kevin E. Trenberth. "Modern Global Climate Change." Science 302 (2003): 1719-1723. Prinn, Ronald. "Non-CO2 Greenhouse Gases." In The Global Carbon Cycle: Integrating Humans, Climate, and the Natural World. Edited by Christopher Field and Michael Raupach. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2004. ISBN: 9781559635271. Summary for Policymakers, Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Working Group I, Fourth Assessment Report, pp. 1-17. (PDF - 3.7 MB) Andreae, Meinrat, Chris Jones, and Peter Cox. "Strong Present-Day Aerosol Cooling Implies a Hot Future." Nature 435 (2005): 1187-1190.
5	Economics primer	Callan, Scott, and Janet Thomas. Environmental Economics and Management: Theory, Policy and Applications. 4th ed. Florence, KY: South-Western, 2006, chapter 2. ISBN: 9780324320671. Kolstad, Charles. Environmental Economics. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1999, chapter 4, pp. 49-77. ISBN: 9780195119541.
6	Climate II: dynamics of the atmosphere and oceans	Schneider, Stephen. "Introduction to Climate Modeling." In Climate System Modeling. Edited by Kevin Trenberth. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993, pp. 3-26. ISBN: 9780521432313. Hansen, James, et al. "Earth's Energy Imbalance: Confirmation and Implications." Science 308 (2005): 1431-1435. Penner, Joyce. "Climate Change: The Cloud Conundrum." Nature 432 (2004): 962-963.
7	Economics of the global commons	The Economics of Climate Change: A Primer. US Congressional Budget Office, 2003, chapter 3. (PDF - 2.9 MB) Callan, Scott, and Janet Thomas. Environmental Economics and Management: Theory, Policy and Applications. 4th ed. Florence, KY: South-Western, 2006, chapter 3. ISBN: 9780324320671.
8	Economics I: economic growth, technology and greenhouse gas emissions	The Economics of Climate Change: A Primer. US Congressional Budget Office, 2003, chapters 1, 3, and 4. (PDF - 2.9 MB) Weyant, J. "Economic Models: How They Work and Why Their Results Differ." In Climate Change: Science, Strategies, and Solutions. Edited by Eileen Clausen. Washington, DC: Pew Center on Global Climate Change, 2001. ISBN: 9789004122765.
9	Institutions II: the international climate negotiations	Jacoby, Henry, and David Reiner. "Getting Climate on Track after The Hague: An Update." Chapter 15 in The Global Governance Reader: Concepts and Issues. Edited by Rorden Wilkinson. New York, NY: Routledge, 2005. ISBN: 9780415332064. Thirteenth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the FCCC and Third Sessions of the MOP to the Kyoto Protocol, 3-15 December. Pew Center on Global Climate Change, 2007. Bali Action Plan, Decision -/CP.13. Framework Convention on Climate Change, December 2007. (Also skim the COP-13 items at UNFCCC)
10	Economics II: the economics of greenhouse gas emissions control	Pizer, William. "Choosing Price or Quantity Controls for Greenhouse Gases." In Climate Change Economics and Policy: An RFF Anthology. Washington, DC: Resources for the Future, 2001. ISBN: 9781891853043. "The Role of Coal in Energy Growth and CO2 Emissions." Chapter 2 in The Future of Coal: Options for a Carbon-Constrained World. PDF available at The Future of Coal. McKinsey Greenhouse Gas Reports: McKinsey has several different reports related to greenhouse gas reduction. This site has related links and full reports: McKinsey & Company Executive Summary, Reducing U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions: How Much at What Cost? McKinsey & Company, 2007. (PDF) Jaffe, Adam, Richard Newell, and Robert Stavins. "Energy-Efficient Technologies and Climate Change Policies: Issues and Evidence." In Climate Change Economics and Policy: An RFF Anthology. Washington, DC: Resources for the Future, 2001. ISBN: 9781891853043. Babiker, Mustafa, John Reilly, and Henry Jacoby. "The Kyoto Protocol and Developing Countries." MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, Report No. 56, October 1999. (PDF)
11	Introduction to the Toy Integrated Global System Model
12	Climate III: interaction of atmosphere, oceans and biosphere	Prinn, Ronald, et al. "Integrated Global System Model for Climate Policy Assessment: Feedbacks and Sensitivity Studies." Climatic Change 41 (1999): 469-546, sections 1, 2 and 3. Sokolov, A. P., et al. "The MIT Integrated Global System Model (IGSM) Version 2: Model Description and Baseline Evaluation." MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, Report No. 124, July 2005. (PDF - 1.4 MB)
13	Analysis of the benefits of greenhouse gas mitigation	Nordhaus, William, and Joseph Boyer. Warming the World: Economic Models of Global Warming. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003, chapter 4. ISBN: 9780262640541. Stern, Nicholas. "Economic Modeling of Climate Change Impacts." Chapter 6 in The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007. ISBN: 9780521700801. Oppenheimer, Michael. "Defining Dangerous Anthropogenic Interference: The Role of Science, the Limits of Science." Risk Analysis 25 (2005): 1399-1407.
14	Economics III: climate policy analysis	Nordhaus, William, and Joseph Boyer. Warming the World: Economic Models of Global Warming. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003, chapter 7. ISBN: 9780262640541. Executive Summary, Scenarios of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Anthropogenic Concentrations. U.S. Climate Change Science Program, Synthesis and Assessment Product 2.1a, 2007. (PDF) Toth, Ferenc, et al. "Exploring Options for Global Climate Policy: A New Analytical Framework." Environment 44 (2002): 23-33.
15	Emissions trading and tax systems	Ellerman, A. Denny, Paul Joskow, and David Harrison, Jr. "Emissions Trading in the U.S.: Experience, Lessons and Considerations for Greenhouse Gases." Washington, DC: Pew Center for Global Climate Change. (PDF) Paltsev, Sergey, et al. "Assessment of U.S. GHG Cap-and-Trade Proposals." Climate Policy 8 (2008): 395-420. Parry, Ian, and William Pizer. "Combating Global Warming: Is Taxation or Cap-and-Trade a Better Strategy for Reducing Greenhouse Emissions?" Regulation 30 (2007): 18-22.
16	Climate machine IV: regional impacts of climate change	Talbot, David. "Planning for a Climate-Changed World." Technology Review, May-June 2007, pp. 63-70. National Assessment Synthesis Team, U.S. Global Change Research Program. Climate Change Impacts on the United States. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 1-37. ISBN: 9780521000758. Summary for Policymakers, Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Working Group II, Fourth Assessment Report. (PDF) Stroeve, Julienne, et al. "Arctic Sea Ice Extent Plummets in 2007." EOS Transactions of the American Geophysical Union 89 (2008): 13-14. Tedesco, Marco. "A New Record in 2007 for Melting in Greenland." EOS Transactions of the American Geophysical Union 88 (2007): 383. Wolff, Eric. "Whither Antarctic Sea Ice?" Science 302 (2003): 1164. Whitfield, John. "Alaska's Climate: Too Hot to Handle." Nature 425 (2003): 338-339.
17	Review of methods of uncertainty analysis
18	Integrated assessment I: sensitivity and uncertainty analysis	Prinn, Ronald, et al. "Integrated Global System Model for Climate Policy Assessment: Feedbacks and Sensitivity Studies." Climatic Change 41 (1999): 469-546, sections 4 and 5. Webster, Mort, et al. "Uncertainty Analysis of Climate Change and Policy Response." Climatic Change 61 (2003): 295-320. Forest, Chris, Peter Stone, and Andrei Sokolov. "Estimated PDFs of Climate System Properties Including Natural and Anthropogenic Forcings." Geophysical Research Letters 33 (2006): 1-4. Webster, Mort. "Communicating Climate Change Uncertainty to Policy-Makers and the Public." Climatic Change 61 (2003): 1-8.
19	Sea level rise and adaptation	Gibbons, Sheila J. Arenstam, and Robert J. Nicholls. "Island Abandoment and Sea-Level Rise: An Historical Analog from the Chesapeake Bay, USA." Global Environmental Change 16 (2006): 40-47. Chao, B. F., Y. H. Wu, and Y. S. Li. "Impact of Artificial Reservoir Water Impoundment on Global Sea Level." Science 320 (2008): 212-214.
20	Methods for decision under uncertainty
21	Integrated assessment II: deciding global effort and burden shares	Webster, Mort, Lisa Jakobovitz, and James Norton. "Learning about Climate Change and Implications for Near-Term Policy." Climatic Change 89 (2008): 67-85. Aldy, Joseph, and Robert Stavins. "Introduction: International Policy Architecture for Global Climate Change." Chapter 1 in Architectures for Agreement: Addressing Global Climate Change in the Post-Kyoto World. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007. ISBN: 9780521692175.
22	Climate change and the Arctic region	Bunn, Andrew, et al. "Northern High-Latitude Ecosystems Respond to Climate Change." EOS Transactions of the American Geophysical Union 88 (2007): 333-335. Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. Highlights Brochure, Impacts of a Warming Arctic. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 1-16. ISBN: 9780521617789.
23	Climate V: unresolved problems in climate analysis	Kerr, Richard. "Confronting the Bogeyman of the Climate System." Science 310 (2005): 432-433. Harvell, C. Drew, et al. "Climate Warming and Disease Risks for Terrestrial and Marine Biota." Science 296 (2002): 2158-2162. Kerr, Richard. "A Bit of Icy Antarctica Is Sliding Toward the Sea." Science 305 (2004): 1897. Morton, Oliver. "Is This What it Takes to Save the World?" Nature 447 (2007): 132-136. Mann, Michael, et al. "Atlantic Tropical Cyclones Revisited." EOS Transactions of the American Geophysical Union 88 (2007): 349. Emanuel, Kerry. "Increasing Destructiveness of Tropical Cyclones Over the Past 30 Years." Nature 436 (2005): 686-688. Schiermeier, Quirin. "Clear Skies Raise Global-Warming Estimates." Nature 435 (2005): 1142-1143.
24	Discussion of homework sets and the policy exercise
25	Student team presentations
26	Final summary and discussion

 

Lecture Notes

Lecture notes files.

SES #	TOPICS	LECTURE NOTES
1	Introduction and overview	(PDF)
2	Institutions I: political and analytical organizations	(PDF - 1.0 MB)
3	Review of the mathematics of climate analysis	(PDF)
4	Climate I: past climate, and gases, aerosols and radiation	(PDF - 1.3 MB)
5	Economics primer	(PDF)
6	Climate II: dynamics of the atmosphere and oceans	(PDF - 1.1 MB)
7	Economics of the global commons	(PDF)
8	Economics I: economic growth, technology and greenhouse gas emissions	(PDF)
9	Institutions II: the international climate negotiations	(PDF)
10	Economics II: the economics of greenhouse gas emissions control	(PDF)
11	Introduction to the Toy Integrated Global System Model
12	Climate III: interaction of atmosphere, oceans and biosphere	(PDF - 1.2 MB)
13	Analysis of the benefits of greenhouse gas mitigation	(PDF)
14	Economics III: climate policy analysis	(PDF)
15	Emissions trading and tax systems	(PDF)
16	Climate machine IV: regional impacts of climate change	(PDF - 3.2 MB)
17	Review of methods of uncertainty analysis	(PDF)
18	Integrated assessment I: sensitivity and uncertainty analysis	(PDF)
19	Sea level rise and adaptation	(PDF - 2.6 MB)
20	Methods for decision under uncertainty	(PDF)
21	Integrated assessment II: deciding global effort and burden shares
22	Climate change and the Arctic region
23	Climate V: unresolved problems in climate analysis	(PDF - 2.9 MB)
24	Discussion of homework sets and the policy exercise
25	Student team presentations
26	Final summary and discussion

 

Assignments

This section contains the problem sets and policy exercise. Note that the model software needed for problem set 4 could not be made available on MIT OpenCourseWare.

Assignment files.

ASSIGNMENTS	SUPPORTING FILES
Problem set 1 (PDF)
Problem set 2 (PDF)	Sample worksheet (XLS)
Problem set 3 (PDF)	Sample worksheet (XLS)
Problem set 4 (PDF)
Policy exercise (PDF)

 

Download Course Materials

This package contains the same content as the online version of the course.

For help downloading and using course materials, read our frequently asked questions.

21.35 MB