WCS - World Cultural Studies
This multicultural course introduces the student to the forms and meanings of cultural expressions from around the world, with an emphasis on world literature. It provides students with the skills necessary for the appreciation and comparative analysis of these works as representations of rich and diverse cultural values. A primary focus of the course will be the role of culture in the formation of national and individual identity, paying special attention to gender, sexuality, race, class, and struggles for social justice. All works will be read in English.
This multicultural course introduces the student to the forms and meanings of cultural expressions from around the world, with an emphasis on world literature. It provides students with the skills necessary for the appreciation and comparative analysis of these works as representations of rich and diverse cultural values. A primary focus of the course will be the role of culture in the formation of national and individual identity, paying special attention to gender, sexuality, race, class, and struggles for social justice. All works will be read in English. This course is reserved for students enrolled in the Honors College.
A study of selected topics for elective credit. These courses will appear in the course schedule.
This course provides students with an historic overview of films from a variety of European countries. Students will gain the vocabulary necessary to analyze individual films and for the comparative analysis of films from different cultural and historical contexts. The course will focus on issues such as national and individual identity, film as aesthetic form, gender and sexuality, and popular culture. (cross-listed with COMM 307)
Exploration of Japanese culture and society from local and global perspectives. Topics may include language, arts, literature, music, food, traditional and contemporary culture, entertainment, media, religion, gender, education and work. The course aims to foster in-depth cultural understanding beyond stereotypes and to develop critical thinking and analytical skills to reflect on one's own experiences and assumptions about cultural similarities and differences. All readings, discussions, and lectures in English. No knowledge of Japanese is necessary. Cross-listed with JAPN 310.
This course is primarily a 'hands on' communicative course to develop cultural competence (verbal communication). Task-oriented communication strategies in cross-cultural training will be practiced by presenting students with models who demonstrate appropriate cultural skills. The course will include cognitive learning with lectures from experts (invited speakers), analysis of critical incidents and assigned readings, and application of sophisticated concepts from the behavioral and social sciences. Students will practice these skills by giving presentations, enriching self-awareness with group discussions on prejudice, racism, values and customs, and participation in guided cultural encounters (such as field trip assignments that demand new behaviors). Students will participate in role-playing and in simulations of real-life demands in extended experimental encounters with another culture or complex approximations of another culture. Effectively, students will learn how to communicate and collaborate with other people and cultures in a global age.
This is an intensive writing course designed with writing assignments that examine various cultural contexts that enable students to understand cultural content, style, audience and organization. The main objective of the course is increased awareness of and sensitivity to appropriate word choice, and syntax in the targeted languages. Students will engage in writing for different cultural audiences and in varied contexts such as literary, artistic and media expressions around the world. Special emphasis is placed on the methodology of close reading as students hone the analytics skills and vocabulary necessary to interpret idioms, regionalism, cultural expressions and overall intercultural skills observed in various genres and cultures. Students will analyze compelling global issues and the diverse cultural perspectives that inform them.
Struggles for human rights and social justice often find their most evocative expression in creative works from around the world. In this course, students will work toward an understanding of different cultural perspectives that inform global concepts of human rights. The course will focus on literary texts, film, testimonies, visual art, and other cultural forms of bearing witness. Students will also consider the fundamental value of these artistic expressions as both spaces of empathy and agents of change in society. Overall, students will consider how these narratives, embedded within, and coded by, sociopolitical contexts, contribute to today’s language of human rights and its application in struggles for social justice.
A study of film as a means of communication from an intercultural perspective. The course is designed to cultivate an ability to deal with film in a critical way, as well as broaden understanding of film and culture in a global context. A variety of cinematic traditions will be examined including film works from Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and North and South America.
In this course, students learn to value diverse global perspectives, and to seek multiple approaches to defining and solving problems based on intercultural awareness. This course will focus on the ways that culture and language influence human behavior, and on the practical development of communicative strategies, from compelling writing to effective discussion and collaboration.
Internships in private, public, non-profit and business organizations that deal with global communications and world cultures.
This course invites students to discover approaches to global problems and concerns through an analysis of cultural expressions from around the world. Students will consider the ways in which literary and artistic expression (literature, film, visual art, music) draw from and impact broader social and political contexts.
This course will examine selected cultural studies perspectives on mass communication. It will cover cultural studies philosophies, theories, and/or approaches to the study of cultural artifacts and practices that may include some of the following: postmodernism, deconstruction, feminism, and post-colonialism. The readings will include theoretical texts as well as artistic or cultural texts that will more clearly illustrate the theoretical positions.
A study of communication styles and strategies around the world. Students will analyze how global concerns and national priorities are articulated across cultures and languages, and they will navigate techniques necessary for effective communication within intercultural contexts. This course, through interactive lectures, discussions, guest speaker presentations and case studies, is intended to prepare students to be fluent in intercultural understanding and global collaboration and to apply these skills in professional settings.
This course explores the cultural movements that have characterized the German-French commonalities and differences from the early 1900s through the 1990s in cross-disciplinary discourses such as film, literature, art, politics, and economics.
This class explores how societies across the world choose to remember people and events through culture. Students will consider 'official' manifestations – government-sponsored or public memorials and art – as well as general and popular culture such as museums, literature, film, TV, music, etc. The class will interrogate not only what is chosen to be memorialized but how it is memorialized, and how public memory of events is shaped by such choices. Students will consider what decisions are made at the local and national level, how those decisions are made, and what consultations or processes are considered necessary or desirable when deciding public memorials and artwork.
The first half of the 20th century was the most creative and destructive period in German and European history. Its rich cultural achievements included Viennese psychoanalytical theory of the turn of the century, Art Nouveau, German Expressionism, and the avant garde aesthetics of the Weimar Republic. Conversely, World War I and II exposed the cultural agony and human depravity of modern civilization. This course will trace these various aspects and developments in a variety of exemplary genres. Readings and discussions in German. (Cross-listed with GER 445/GER 545 and COMM 444/COMM 544)
A study of fictional and non-fictional works by Spanish, Spanish-American, and U.S. Latina writers from the 16th to the 20th century. The course analyzes gender identity and roles and the interaction of gender, race, and class in literary representations of courtship and marriage, spirituality, nationalism, colonialism, and multiculturalism.
A study of fictional texts, non-fictional texts, and films about the Holocaust; a discussion of general theoretical questions of literary and filmic representation, genres, and the possibilities and limitations of literature and film to engage with and work through the Holocaust. Analyses will focus on the languages, rhetoric, forms, as well as recurring themes and aspects addressed in Holocaust literature and film, such as survival, perpetration, violence, gender and sexuality, and trauma. Readings and discussion in English.
A survey of seminal texts by German-Jewish philosophers and writers from the Enlightenment to the present day, including Marx, Kafka, Freud, Schnitzler and Arendt.
Interdisciplinary research and the preparation of a senior thesis in international studies. This is a writing intensive course.
This course is designed to help students enhance their personal and professional development through innovation guided by faculty members and professionals. It offers students an opportunity to integrate disciplinary theory and knowledge related to world languages and cultures through developing a nonprofit program, product, business, or other initiative with other students.
This course invites students to discover approaches to global problems and concerns through an analysis of cultural expressions from around the world. Students will consider the ways in which literary and artistic expression (literature, film, visual art, music) draw from and impact broader social and political contexts.
This course invites students to discover approaches to global problems and concerns through an analysis of cultural expressions from around the world. Students will consider the ways in which literary and artistic expression (literature, film, visual art, music) draw from and impact broader social and political contexts.
Independent readings and study on a topic to be selected under direction of professor.
Independent readings and study on a topic to be selected under direction of professor.
This course explores the cultural movements that have characterized German-French commonalities and differences from the early 1900s through the 1990s in cross-disciplinary discourses such as film, literature, art, politics, and economics.
This class explores how societies across the world choose to remember people and events through culture. Students will consider 'official' manifestations – government-sponsored or public memorials and art – as well as general and popular culture such as museums, literature, film, TV, music, etc. The class will interrogate not only what is chosen to be memorialized but how it is memorialized, and how public memory of events is shaped by such choices. Students will consider what decisions are made at the local and national level, how those decisions are made, and what consultations or processes are considered necessary or desirable when deciding public memorials and artwork.
The first half of the 20th century was the most creative and destructive period in German and European history. Its rich cultural achievements included Viennese psychoanalytical theory of the turn of the century, Art Nouveau, German Expressionism, and the avant garde aesthetics of the Weimar Republic. Conversely, World War I and II exposed the cultural agony and human depravity of modern civilization. This course will trace these various aspects and developments in a variety of exemplary genres. Readings and discussions in German. (Cross-listed with GER 445/GER 545 and COMM 444/COMM 544)
A study of fictional and non-fictional works by Spanish, Spanish-American, and U.S. Latina writers from the 16th to the 20th century. The course analyzes gender identity and roles and the interaction of gender, race, and class in literary representations of courtship and marriage, spirituality, nationalism, colonialism, and multiculturalism.
A study of fictional texts, non-fictional texts, and films about the Holocaust; a discussion of general theoretical questions of literary and filmic representation, genres, and the possibilities and limitations of literature and film to engage with and work through the Holocaust. Analyses will focus on the languages, rhetoric, forms, as well as recurring themes and aspects addressed in Holocaust literature and film, such as survival, perpetration, violence, gender and sexuality, and trauma. Readings and discussion in English.
A survey of seminal texts by German-Jewish philosophers and writers from the Enlightenment to the present day, including Marx, Kafka, Freud, Schnitzler and Arendt.
This course invites students to discover approaches to global problems and concerns through an analysis of cultural expressions from around the world. Students will consider the ways in which literary and artistic expression (literature, film, visual art, music) draw from and impact broader social and political contexts.
This course invites students to discover approaches to global problems and concerns through an analysis of cultural expressions from around the world. Students will consider the ways in which literary and artistic expression (literature, film, visual art, music) draw from and impact broader social and political contexts.