Overview
The Capitalism Studies graduate minor is offered through The New School for Social Research.
This minor introduces students to foundational texts that have informed approaches to the study of capitalism. It will ground their understandings of capitalism as both an intellectual formation and as a historically and geographically contingent object
of empirical enquiry and will allow students to familiarize themselves with the major debates animating the study of capitalism, both past and present. The minor provides a robust architecture for exploring the multiple disciplinary insights and methodological
resources that scholars have brought to bear in understanding the multivalent, historically contingent, and geographically diverse formations of capitalism.
Students in the minor also have access to a wide range of resources and activities through the Robert L. Heilbroner Center for Capitalism Studies — from lectures and seminars by visiting scholars to research fellowship opportunities.
Curriculum
This graduate minor requires successful completion of 9 credits. Students are encouraged to select one course from each of the subject areas in the chart below, and may shape their course selection to match their research interests.
Course availability may vary from semester to semester. Some courses may be in development and offered at a later time. Students seeking to pursue alternative coursework in other subject areas to fulfill the minor should consult with their advisors.
Spring 2024 courses are listed below. Please consult this spreadsheet for an archive of past courses.
| Subject Area | Course Options | Requirements |
|---|
| Theories and Critiques of Capitalism | GPHI 6654: Reading Marx, Theorizing Capital GPHI 6157: Hegel's Master-Slave Dialectic and After GPHI 6306: Arendt's Anarchic Ontology GPHI 6765: Mind Design GECO 5305: Political Economy of Gender GSOC 6239: Colonialism, Modernity, and Their Afterlives GECO 5077/NURP 5077: Inequalities and Varieties of Capitalism GLIB 5146: Women in the Avant-Garde GLIB 5202/GPOL 5206: Freedom By Design PGUD 5005: Urban Theory Lab PSCE 5015: Decolonized and Decarbonized Dinner Party NEPS 5029: Toxicity, Ecology, and Health: Restoring the Body-Territory | 3 credits |
| Histories of Capitalism | GHIS 5003: The Worlds Money Makes GHIS 5140: America in the World GHIS 5105: The United States since the 1960s GECO 5900: The Economics of Socialism from J.S. Mill to Joseph Stiglitz GECO 6264: Money and Banking GECO 5105: Historical Foundations of Political Economy II GSOC 6280: Revolutions, Nationalism, and Federalism PSCE 5060: Racism, Classism, and the Constructed Environment PSCE 5155: The Right to Shelter NINT 5171: Hollywood and the World NINT 5329: Cuba: Critical Concepts NPUP 6164: The Critical Multilateralism | 3 credits |
| Approaches to Contemporary Capitalism | GECO 5077/NURP 5077: Inequalities and Varieties of Capitalism GECO 6206: Post-Keynesian Economics GLIB 5149: What Was the Human? GLIB 5152: Sad Planets GPOL 6423: Oligarchy: The Politics of the Few GSOC 6220: The Social Life of Stuff GSOC 6285: Studies in Transgressions NINT 5163: Pipeline Politics GHIS 5255: Since 9/11: America's Wars in the New Century GPSY 6436: Global Mental Health GPSY 6444: Humanization and Dehumanization PMFM 5050: Manufacturing and Production PSOF 5105: Fashion and the Land PSDS 5510: Resilient Mutual Development PSDS 5517: Power and Race in Creative Fields PSDS 5601: Finding the Adjacent Possible NURP 5050: Visions of a Post-Neoliberal Future Grounded in Human Rights NEPS 5014: The Future Will Be Cooperative: Coops, Community Land Trusts, and the Commons NEPS 5004: Global Environmental Politics and Policy NEPS 5031: Eco-fascism and Ecosocialism NEPS 5400: Urban Resilience | 3 credits |
Learning Outcomes
A student who has completed this graduate minor will be able to:
- Distinguish between a variety of disciplinary approaches to the study of capitalism and identify the key theoretical frameworks and political positions that have influenced and continue to shape the field of capitalism studies
- Demonstrate, through written work and oral presentations, knowledge of capitalism's historical emergence and pivotal transmutations
- Employ insights from interdisciplinary scholarship to engage in informed debates and discussions about contemporary issues ranging from inequality to the regulation of markets and corporations to the global ecological implications of capitalist development
- Apply both research techniques and theoretical insights to produce original scholarship on capitalist formations, both past and present
Faculty
Julia Ott, Associate Professor of History, The New School for Social Research
Eligibility
The Capitalism Studies graduate minor is available to graduate degree students across The New School.
Students can retroactively apply successfully completed courses toward a minor upon declaring or applying.
After a student successfully completes a minor's requirements, the minor will appear on the student's academic transcript at graduation.
For questions about this minor, please contact Julia Ott, Associate Professor of History at The New School for Social Research, at [email protected].