300-Level Transfer Seminars
Transfer Seminars are special sections of the 300-level Justice Core courses that all transfer students are required to take. They are taught by experienced faculty who are experts in their fields and will be able to connect you to academic and professional resources. Each seminar is assigned a peer success coach, who provides ongoing support and serves as a connection to the campus. For the Fall 2026 semester students should select ONE course from the following subject areas:
Asian American Identity and Struggles for Justice
- ANT 339-01, T/TH 3:05 PM−4:20 PM
- Instruction Mode: In Person
- Registration Code 34589
- Professor Tomoki Fukui
This course explores the historical and contemporary complexities of Asian American identity and community formation. Using interdisciplinary and comparative ethnographic approaches, students will investigate the struggles and triumphs of Asian Americans in overcoming obstacles in their pursuit of full citizenship and citizen’s rights in light of U.S. immigration and public policies, political and cultural discourses, and day-to-day lived experiences. Students will analyze the interconnections between categories such as race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, and language. The goal of this course is to equip students with conceptual tools for critically thinking about the ever-shifting terrain of Asian American identity in the wider contexts of Orientalism, U.S. imperialism and nationalism, racialization and racism, economic restructuring, globalization and transnationalism, and other social processes and transformations. Students will explore how cross-racial intersections and coalition building have been accomplished in the post-civil rights era and can be accomplished in current struggles towards social justice.
The History of Crime and Punishment in the United States
- HIS 320-01, M/W 12:15 PM – 1:30 PM
- Instruction Mode: In Person
- Registration Code 37097
- Professor Jonathan Epstein
The History of Crime and Punishment in the United States
- HIS 320-02, M/W 3:05 PM−4:20 PM
- Instruction Mode: In Person
- Registration Code 37096
- Professor Jonathan Epstein
This course will examine the history of crime and punishment in the United States by focusing on infamous crimes throughout the history of the republic, and the relationships among crime, social values, and social structure. Among the crimes are the Salem Witch Trials, the Donner Party, the “Black Sox Scandal,” the “Leopold and Loeb Case,” the “My Lai Massacre,” and Jeffrey Dahmer. Please note that this is a history course, not a current events course.
History and Justice in the Wider World
- HIS 352-01, M 10:50 AM – 1:30 PM
- Instruction Mode: In Person
- Registration Code 35379
- Professor James Delorenzi
History and Justice in the Wider World
- HIS 352-02, W 10:50 AM – 1:30 PM
- Instruction Mode: In Person
- Registration Code 35377
- Professor James Delorenzi
This course explores the modern history of imperialism in Africa and the Middle East, focusing on the themes of justice, injustice, and inequality. Through a series of case studies, we will explore the following questions: How have Western colonialism and imperialism impacted the non-Western world? What do laws look like in societies based on racial and economic inequality? How did people challenge colonial oppression? Are international law and AI part of the problem? And what does empire look like today, in 2026? Along the way, we will practice important communication and critical thinking skills, from reading difficult texts to developing persuasive arguments, presenting your ideas, and effectively responding to others.
Comparative Perspectives on Justice
- HJS 310-03, T/TH 4:30 PM−5:45 PM
- Instruction Mode: In Person
- Registration Code 36405
- Professor Hyunhee Park
Justice has been an important issue to people since ancient times, yet its concepts and practices have differed in various cultures. This course studies justice in the non-Western world as it is variously represented in historical, literary and philosophical texts. The course builds analytical skills and extends its coverage across geographical boundaries to the Mideast, Asia, Africa and the Americas. By studying how social, political, and religious institutions shape understandings of justice and injustice, and how these concepts define race, gender, ethnicity and class, the course focuses on articulations and practices of justice that are different from the Western constructs. Through comparative investigations of encounters between societies resulting from conquest, trade and social exchange, the course explores justice as culturally inflected, the product at once of a particular regional or national identity and history, and of intercultural contact.
Stop, Question, Frisk & the Law: Terry v. Ohio in Cultural and Historical Perspectives
- HUM 300-02, M 9:25 AM – 10:40 AM
- Instruction Mode: Hybrid
- Registration Code 34595
- Professor Nora Cronin
This course explores through historical and cultural perspectives the landmark Supreme Court case Terry V. Ohio, which confirmed that it is not unconstitutional for police to "stop and frisk" a person they reasonably suspect to be involved in a crime. The class will pay particular attention to the decision’s shifting consequences for America’s criminal justice system across six decades. The course will culminate in a close examination of the competing statistical claims made in recent challenges to the NYPD’s use of stop-question-frisk in New York City. Along the way, students will refine their legal research and workplace writing skills. This class prepares students, as future criminal justice professionals, to analyze and contextualize struggles for justice through legal studies and the humanities.
Crime and Punishment in New York City: What’s Lit Got to Do with It?
- LIT 326-03, T/TH 12:15 PM – 1:30 PM
- Instruction Mode: In Person
- Registration Code 34884
- Professor Elizabeth Yukins
Crime and Punishment in New York City: What’s Lit Got to Do with It?
- LIT 326-04, T/TH 9:25 AM – 10:40 AM
- Instruction Mode: In Person
- Registration Code 34885
- Professor Elizabeth Yukins
Why has so much literature been produced about the people and neighborhoods of NYC? In this course, we will examine what our city offers in terms of diverse cultures, complex histories, pervasive social myths, and under-examined economic realities. With a focus on crime and punishment, we will specifically examine how authors use New York City as a setting to explore tensions between individual aspirations, family traditions, and community rules. Amidst these powerful forces, how and why does crime occur? In addition, who gets to define what’s a crime and what is not? In the literature we will read, authors use stories to raise questions about who in American society has been able to access education, to shape community standards, to pass laws, and to judge purported criminals. Over the course of the semester, we will analyze how histories of crime and punishment link with social anxieties about class, race, gender, and sexual identities, and we will debate philosophical questions about our city’s system of laws, rewards, and punishments. Possible texts we will read include Bartleby the Scrivener, Through the Eyes of Rebel Women: The Young Lords, and The Watchmen.
“Yellow Peril” and Yellow Exclusion: Korematsu v. United States
- HUM 358-01, M/W 9:25 AM – 10:40 AM
- Instruction Mode: In Person
- Registration Code 35669
- Professor Toy Fung Tung
Starting with the landmark Supreme Court case, Korematsu v. United States (1944), this course will explore the long history of legalized racism against those of Asian ancestry, starting in the 19th Century and culminating in Executive Order 9066 (1942), allowing U.S. citizens of Japanese ancestry to be put in internment camps, which was upheld by Korematsu. We will explore the history, significance, and aftermath of the Korematsu decision from legal, social, and cultural perspectives. We will study the Korematsu case itself and learn about how the Supreme Court functions to “make law.” We will examine the human cost of the Korematsu decision by investigating archives relating to the camps, including diaries, pictures, maps, interviews and stories. We will look at films and other sources documenting racist attitudes of the time, such as movies about Dr. Fu Manchu and Charlie Chan.
Latinx Struggles for Civil Rights and Social Justice
- LLS 322-01, M/W 12:15 PM−1:30 PM
- Instruction Mode: In Person
- Registration Code 36998
- Professor Brian Montes
This course provides an interdisciplinary overview of the experiences of Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and other Latinx during the Civil Rights period. It focuses on the Latinx social movements during the 1960’s and their consequences today for the struggles for civil rights and social justice of Latinx and other racial minorities in the United States. Topics include access to education and employment; immigrant right; detention and deportation; race and crime; Latinx and African American alliance building; Latinx citizenship and the military and gender values and sexuality.
The Latinx Experience of Criminal Justice
- LLS 325-02, T/TH 12:15 PM−1:30 PM
- Instruction Mode: In Person
- Registration Code 36667
- Professor Nitza Escalera
This course analyzes the criminal justice system and its impact on the lives and communities of Latino/as and other groups in the United States. Particular emphasis is placed on Latino/as human and civil rights and the role that race, ethnicity, gender and class play in the criminal justice system. Interdisciplinary readings and class discussions center on issues such as the overrepresentation of Latino/as and racial minorities in the criminal justice system; law and police-community relations; racial profiling; stop and frisk policies; immigration status; detentions and deportations; Latino/a youth; media representations; gangs; and access to education and employment and the school-to-prison pipeline.
Immigrant Rights in the Americas
- LLS 341-02, T 4:30 PM – 5:45 PM
- Instruction Mode: Hybrid
- Registration Code 35995
- Professor Justino Rodriguez
This course explores the reception of foreigners in different nations, including immigrants in the Americas, as globalization has increased the fear of foreigners, leading to debates on immigrant rights in all parts of the world, and raising the question of who gets to belong to a given society. Students will assess the factors that lead Latin Americans to leave their homelands and examine the ways that immigrants' national origins, race, class, and gender shape and differentiate their experiences in US society. This course focuses on the changing relationship between legal status and access to rights in the United States and aims to provide students with the conceptual and empirical arguments necessary to assess and debate the issue of immigrant rights in the Americas today.
Philosophical Issues of Rights
- PHI 302-02, T/TH 10:50 AM – 12:05 PM
- Instruction Mode: In Person
- Registration Code 35958
- Professor Mary McClure
This course will explore a number of philosophical issues regarding the nature, justification, content and scope of rights. Fundamental issues include what is meant by the notion of a right, how rights are justified, and what rights we should have. Other issues will also be explored, including whether rights are universal or culturally determined, whether there needs to be a special category of women’s human rights, whether the scope of rights encompasses animals and ecosystems in addition to humans, and whether rights exist for groups as well as individuals.
Philosophy of Law in Global Perspective
- PHI 317-02, M/W 4:30 PM−5:45 PM
- Instruction Mode: In Person
- Registration Code 34834
- Professor Katherine Caldwell
Philosophy of Law in Global Perspective
- PHI 317-05, M/W 10:50 AM−12:05 PM
- Instruction Mode: In Person
- Registration Code 34836
- Professor Christopher Trogan
This course asks the big philosophical question about the nature of law—what is it? Students will consider problems of the nature and identification of law in post-colonial, post-revolutionary, traditional, customary, and international contexts. The course will introduce particular problems drawn from struggles for justice in jurisdictions around the globe, and then look at how philosophers and legal theorists have tried to answer the what-is-law question in these contexts. Critical perspectives on the nature and identification of law will emerge from inquiry into problems arising in particular jurisdictions. Issues with the identification of law may be drawn from jurisdictions in the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Europe, and theoretical perspectives may vary by semester.