This course provides a broad introduction to the comparative study of peoples, cultures, and languages from major regions of the world. Topical themes may include health, the environment, language, religion, ritual, class, inequality, power, race, and racism, gender and sexuality, internal and transnational migration, ethnicity and (trans)nationalism, and kinship, family, and marriage. Students will explore varied ways of learning about cultural similarities and differences, as well as local, regional, national, and international interconnections and power dynamics among groups. They will examine how divergent sources of popular and academic literature, news, film, and ethnographic works represent cultures and provide-or do not provide-political-economic context. Through mini field assignments, students will be introduced to basic theoretical foundations and methods of field research used to collect and analyze cultural data, including observational practices, interviews, and surveys.
A semester-long study of topics in Spanish. Topics and emphases will vary according to the instructor. This course may be repeated for credit with different topics. See the details in the schedule for descriptions and applicability to graduation requirements.
This course introduces East Asia to the liberal arts student from multiple and cross disciplinary perspectives. The course deals with the rich cultural heritage of East Asia by looking at the cultural exchange within and beyond East Asia over a history of two thousand years. The course includes such topics as early intellectual traditions, religion, arts, language, literature, science, communication and everyday life. It is intended to lay a solid foundation and to generate broad interest in Asia so that students can proceed to a general study of Asian cultures or pursue their interest in specific cultural topics.
This course emphasizes hands-on experience in making, practicing, and investigating various traditional art forms and music such as the Confucian Six Skills and Four Arts, Eight Sounds, and some folk art forms. In the process, the students will use brush pens for calligraphy, make and play flutes or other musical instruments, and create handcrafts, while reading and discussing classic texts, researching on topics, presenting their learned skills, and reflecting the experience. As a result, the students gain deeper understanding of the cosmos, ethics, aesthetics, folklore, and symbolism of the cultures in and beyond East Asia. There will be multimedia materials to be used in class, individual and group projects/presentations, exhibitions, demonstrations, and performances along the course.
In this course, students will acquire skills for engaging visual media in their social environments. Apart from analytical approaches, the course will survey important contributors of German cinema, from its pioneering beginnings to the present. This material will be considered in a broad cultural context where Expressionist Film, for example, is explored together with developments in Expressionist art. As a popular medium, film in various ways taps into the desires, hopes and fears of spectators; we will consider the means by which this is accomplished and discuss the social role that it plays. Though the focus of the course is on visual media in German culture, the aim is visual literacy in general.
By examining translated literary works originally written in Spanish, this transatlantic and transhistorical course will explore the representation of displacement, imperialism, and racism in both medieval Spain and in the contemporary border in northern Mexico. From the expulsion of Jews and Muslims in inquisitorial premodern Spain to the anti-migratory policies of the US in the 21st century, this class will examine political, religious, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural frontiers and how authors have exposed and challenged them at both sides of the ocean in distinctive historical moments. In addition to literature, this course will also study other artistic representations of the border--such as art and films-- and their role in the construction of identity in order to provide a starting point for critical exploration, discussion, and activism. Taught in English.
This course examines various issues of identity through folklore practices in East Asia with focus on China. Topics include: language, ethnicity, myth and ritual, rites of passage, festivals, popular culture, folk arts, and Chinese/Asian American folklore and identity. Texts include those of Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist thoughts and of disciplinary studies. By surveying the topics, analyzing the key texts and contexts, the participants will not only gain the knowledge of the topics but also learn to apply some disciplinary methods to interpret text and practice. The course will include lectures, discussions, debates, presentations, and various projects.
A semester-long study of topics in Global Cultural Studies. Topics and emphases will vary according to the instructor. This course may be repeated for credit with different topics. See the details in the schedule for descriptions and applicability to graduation requirements.
Visual and textual media archive social constructions of reality, but they also in turn shape the everyday experiences that make up such social reality. The movies that people see, the books they read and the various forms of artistic expression all contribute to the context in which they make their way. In this course we will critically engage and discuss representative German films, texts, and art, and thereby explore topics that fuel current debates on notions of identity and multiculturalism, globalization and consumerism, as well as on the increasing apprehensiveness and violence in the urban experience. Students will complete a project that creatively engages a central aspect of the material discussed in the course: a narrative, a short film, or an artwork. Conducted in English.
This course focuses on the rites of passage practiced in different societies, with Chinese tradition as the primary example. The rites of passage includes the life-cycle rituals of birth-marriage-death, seasonal festivals, and other types like the rite of firsts. Related issues like beliefs, tales, gender, age, and ethnicity will be studied in depth. Participants will learn and apply related ideas from various disciplines like folkloristics, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, linguistics, history and religious studies. The readings include translations of the ancient ritual books and contemporary studies. Historical and cultural context will be emphasized in understanding some representative cultures. The goal of the course is to provide the students a platform to learn the subject as a body of knowledge, as a disciplinary theory, and as a method to understand everyday ritual practices, and to equip with some theories in understanding the making and maintaining of identity in multicultural environments.
A semester-long study of topics in Global Cultural Studies. Topics and emphases will vary according to the instructor. This course may be repeated for credit with different topics. See the details in the schedule for descriptions and applicability to graduation requirements.
A semester-long study of topics in Global Cultural Studies. Topics and emphases will vary according to the instructor. This course may be repeated for credit with different topics. See the details in the schedule for descriptions and applicability to graduation requirements.
In an explosion of cultural production, the turn of the 20th century opened exciting new horizons for knowledge and experience. Freud's work on the unconscious and splendid new isms in the arts, technical innovations and the development of new media dramatically changed the perception of urban life. In this course we will consider a selection of texts from this time period, as well as films from its beginnings to the 1930s. Conducted in English.
Students will engage in research on a specific topic related to global cultures. Based on the students' interests, the instructor will suggest a range of topics, methods, and scholarly literature. Afterwards, students will choose and formulate individual research questions, investigate those questions in-depth, and present their original findings and analyses. This course serves as the Senior Capstone for majors in Global Cultural Studies, but is also open to minors in Global Cultural Studies and any students interested in the study of world cultures.
Willamette University