IST 394 Topics in Interdisciplinary Studies

Naomi Klein's This Changes Everything: Capitalism and the Climate. Klein exposes the myths that are clouding the climate debate.

We have been told the market will save us, when in fact the addiction to profit and growth is digging us in deeper every day. We have been told it’s impossible to get off fossil fuels when in fact we know exactly how to do it—it just requires breaking every rule in the “free-market” playbook: reining in corporate power, rebuilding local economies, and reclaiming our democracies.

Isabel Wilkerson's Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. 

Davis Epstein's Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. Provocative, rigorous, and engrossing, Range makes a compelling case for actively cultivating inefficiency. Failing a test is the best way to learn. Frequent quitters end up with the most fulfilling careers. The most impactful inventors cross domains rather than deepening their knowledge in a single area. As experts silo themselves further while computers master more of the skills once reserved for highly focused humans, people who think broadly and embrace diverse experiences and perspectives will increasingly thrive.

Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Alexander shows that, by targeting black men through the War on Drugs and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control, even as it formally adheres to the principle of colorblindness.The New Jim Crow challenges the civil rights community—and all of us—to place mass incarceration at the forefront of a new movement for racial justice in America.

Elizabeth Feldman Barrett's How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain. Psychologist and neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett proposes a theory of emotionthat is driving a deeper understanding of the mind and brain, and shedding new light on what it means to be human. Her research overturns the widely held belief that emotions live in distinct parts of the brain and are universally expressed and recognized. Instead, she has shown that emotion is constructed in the moment, by core systems that interact across the whole brain, aided by a lifetime of learning. 

Colin Woodard, American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America. Woodard takes readers on a journey through the history of our fractured continent, offering a revolutionary and revelatory take on American identity, and how the conflicts between them have shaped our past and continue to mold our future.

Helen Nissenbaum, Privacy in Context: Technology, Policy, and the Integrity of Social Life. Arguing that privacy concerns should not be limited solely to concern about control over personal information, Helen Nissenbaum counters that information ought to be distributed and protected according to norms governing distinct social contexts—whether it be workplace, health care, schools, or among family and friends.

Robert Penn Warren, All the King's Men. “Depicting the rise and fall of a dictatorial southern politician...the timeless story and memorable characters raise questions about the importance of history, moral conflicts in public policy, and idealism in government.” (Jonathan Cullick. Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men: A Reader's Companion)

Robert Sapolsky’s recent book, Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst, brings biology, psychology, neuroscience, anthropology, and social science to the complex study of human behavior.