A total of 45 courses have been found.
Examination of Black cultural experiences in the United States and the African diaspora; focus on literature, music, film, comics, anime, popular culture, and visual/performing arts.

This course is designed to introduce students (first year students are encouraged to enroll) from a variety of majors to central themes of African-American culture and history. We will discuss American slavery, racial segregation, the Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights and Black Power Movements. The course will also provide a general overview of African American literature and music. Brief readings (including essays, poetry, and autobiography) will be required. We will discuss the following African American leaders, writers, musicians and athletes: Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, Richard Wright, Jackie Robinson, James Baldwin, Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Ralph Ellison, and Gwendolyn Brooks. We will also screen several documentaries.

Understanding Cultural Perspectives

Racial inequality and experiences of African American families in the United States during the 20th and 21st centuries; historical context for contemporary research on African American family; relative impact of structural and cultural factors on various aspects of African American family life, declining marriage rates, family formation patterns; intersections of race and class in family life; research methods used to examine dynamics of African American family life, including quantitative analysis, structured qualitative interviews, and ethnography.

This course explores racial inequality and the experiences of African American families in the United States over the course of the twentieth and twenty first centuries. The course has four primary goals. First, it will provide a historical context for contemporary research on the African American family. Second, the course will assess the relative impact of structural and cultural factors on various aspects of African American family life, including declining marriage rates and family formation patterns. Third, this course examines the intersections of race and class in family life. Finally, this course seeks to orient students in social science research methods used to examine the dynamics of African American family life including quantitative analysis, structured qualitative interviews and ethnography. Students will be expected to actively engage course readings through writing assignments, class discussions, and presentations.

Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Social and political impact of television dramas featuring people of African descent in the West; examination of production, reception, representation, and industry as it relates to the African American images that are granted tenure on television screens.

Employing a cultural historical approach, this course examines the sites of production, reception, representation and industry as it relates to the African American images that are granted tenure on television screens. Beginning with an overview of radio representation and the ways that they morphed into television representations, this course traces the early scripts available for televisual blackness. The course will progress more or less chronologically in order to investigate the ways black cast television and black representation has shifted and changed throughout the medium’s history.

Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Experiences of African and African American people in the American colonies and the states of the new nation; history of Africans and African Americans as early settlers, enslaved and free, in places such as Detroit, Chicago, New York, and New Orleans; interactions with Indigenous people; role in the war for American independence; long history of resistance to slavery and racial discrimination; exploration of the rich history of community building, creation of significant Black social and cultural institutions, and formation of Black political thought and political activism.

This course is a survey of African-American history from its beginnings through emancipation and Reconstruction. Classes and coursework will examine the African origins of black Americans, the history of the middle passage, the development of plantation slavery, and the many historical changes that shaped African-American life and culture thereafter—from the American Revolution to the Civil War. Topics will include laws pertaining to slavery, the impact of the Haitian and American Revolutions on African-American life; the abolition of slavery in the post-Revolutionary North, the development of a free black community there; the expansion of slavery in the South, antebellum slave culture, and slave resistance. Some readings will explore the African American body under slavery. Some topics that will be covered include the use of enslaved African Americans in early medical research and experimentation, enslaved women’s reproduction, and the role of enslaved people in the healing and medical treatment of others within the enslaved community. We will also examine African-American freedom struggles during the Civil War and Reconstruction. The readings will be attentive to the ways that gender shaped the experiences of slavery and freedom for African Americans and we will also read about the experiences of enslaved children. You should leave the class with a broader understanding of the experiences of African Americans prior to 1865.

All assigned readings will be available on the course ICON site or at the University Library.

HIST 2267 Young Fall 2025

Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Cultural meanings of sport in contemporary U.S. culture; sport experiences, inclusion, and exclusion as affected by social class, gender and sexuality, age and ability, race and ethnicity, and religion.

This course offers students an introduction to current scholarship and debates surrounding issues of inequality in sport. Students will learn how to use a critical cultural studies perspective to examine the meaning of sport within the U.S. In particular, the course focuses on the relationships and dynamics of inequities in sport structured along such lines as class, gender, sexuality, ability, race, ethnicity, and religion. The class is offered in a lecture/discussion section format. Requirements include: multiple short reflection writing assignments; reading assignments; lecture attendance and engagement; discussion section attendance and participation; and course roundtable attendance and participation.

Required course text & technology

McGraw Hill Connect

The required textbook for this course is the Connect (digital) format of Coakley's "Sports in Society" (2020). The Connect platform provides an interactive eBook and integrates with ICON for online assignments. 

The University of Iowa’s Inclusive Access program will be used to provide required course materials. Your IOWA student account (UBILL) will then be charged $50 by the HawkShop, unless you opt out prior to the last add date of the semester. Specific opt out information will be provided in the syllabus.

Understanding Cultural Perspectives
History and variety of American identities, examined through citizenship, culture, social stratification; conflict and commonalities among groups according to race, ethnicity, gender, class, sexuality; how art, literature, music, film, photography, and other cultural artifacts represent diversity of identities. Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Examination of social, economic, and cultural dimensions of global migration in the contemporary world from a transnational and anthropological perspective; primary focus is on Asian migration to the United States, but in comparison to other migration trajectories.

This course, which fulfills the General Education requirement for “Diversity and Inclusion,” introduces you to the various dimensions of migration in our contemporary world with a focus on the United States as a destination country. It examines the movement of people, practices and ideas with attention to broader historical, cultural, economic and political structures that shape these flows. How do macro-level processes such as free trade agreements shape intimate dynamics of personal identity, family and community? What are the relationships between sending and receiving countries? And, at a personal level, how are migrants linked to those in the receiving country as well as those they left behind in their home country? Although our primary focus is migration to the United States, a few comparative case studies will offer insight into broader questions of who moves, why they leave their place of origin, how they are received by host societies, why they select one destination over another, and how transnational migration shapes peoples’ emotional, imaginative and social lives.

This course should enable you to: (1) Define and explain key concepts social scientists use to study nationhood, migration, diaspora and racial/ethnic identity; (2) Explain and apply comparative, transnational and historical frameworks for understanding contemporary migration to the United States; (3) Explain how gender, race, ethnicity, religion and class shape both macro-level policies and individual experiences of migration; (4) Demonstrate how anthropological field research informs the study of nationhood, migration, diaspora and racial/ethnic identity. Though all articles and video content will be linked on our course website, students will be expected to purchase two relatively inexpensive books, including International Migration: A Very Short Introduction by Khalid Koser (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed. 2016) and Becoming Legal by Ruth Gomberg-Munoz (Oxford University Press, 2017). This course will incorporate a variety of evaluation methods (including but not limited to papers), early evaluation, class discussion, and opportunities to practice academic skills of reading, writing and speaking.

Recommendation: It is helpful to have already taken an introductory course in cultural anthropology or international studies, but this is neither required nor expected.  This is an introductory course, and no prior knowledge about anthropology or migration studies is assumed.

Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Examination of historical populace roots of the print.

As a historically populist medium, printmaking has a long tradition of social critique. Printmaking and The Politics of Protest is an intentionally student-centered and interactive course. A combination seminar/studio class, this course includes hands-on, socially focused art projects, scholarship, research, and experiential learning components. Most classes are devoted partially to print demonstrations, group discussions that follow-up on short readings and writing assignment and provide ideation meetings and in-progress feedback for print projects along with studio work time. Students will create zines, stencils and linoleum cut prints on fabric and paper. No prior studio experience is necessary. A sense of community is at the heart of every printmaking class. Students must work in the studios during and outside of class, fostering community within the course and throughout the entire Print Area.

Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Science fiction from around the world; spanning poetry, fiction, drama, film, television, comics, mobile phone games, and music; produced on six continents. Taught in English.

Science Fiction is a genre produced in diverse guises from diverse viewpoints. Not only does it have origins and precedents in multiple places and several languages, it also deals with questions relevant to the entirety of humankind: the role of technology in our lives and on our physical or mental capacities; the geographically uneven impact of human beings on the earth and environment; the desire for, limits to, and human consequences of exploration and conquest; the ideal society; the boundaries between the human and non-human; and the shape of the future (including the recycled past). While Science Fiction is characterized by these overarching themes that transcend the particularity of individual cultures and nations, it is equally characterized by the plurality of approaches to these questions, inflected by the distinct artistic traditions where Science Fiction emerges, and by the distinct media in which it has found expression. In this course, we will study works of Science Fiction in media and genres spanning poetry, fiction, drama, film, television, comics, mobile phone games, and music, produced on six continents.


The key questions we will explore include:

• How does SF represent diversity? How do we account for the diversity of SF traditions?
• How does SF represent inequality? On what in our current world or its history are these representations based?
• How is the concept of the “alien” linked to the concept of the “foreigner,” the “queer,” the “racially other,” etc.? How does it help us understand and challenge assumptions around these categories?
• How does SF represent and respond to colonialization and conquest?
• How does SF portray class and caste? How do these portrayals map onto or critique real-world class and caste systems in our present?
• How does SF challenge the boundaries of the human? What lessons does this hold for how we conceive of dis/ability, neurodiversity, and accessibility?

Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Experiential and theoretical foundation; cultural competence as a concept and practice; conceptual frameworks and models for understanding cultural differences and similarities within, among, and between groups of people with whom others interact in their professional, personal, public, and private lives; appreciating differences while learning to be self-reflective; adjustment of perceptions, behaviors, styles for effective interaction with people from different ethnic, racial, sexual, gender, age, ability, and class groups. Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Examination and analysis of the role of the Bible in contemporary culture; how different groups can read the exact same passages, yet reach different conclusions about how they and others should live.

What role did sex play and how did gender differences influence characters and literature in a heavily patriarchal ancient world? How is the act of sex portrayed in biblical literature and why is it sometimes hidden and at other times so brazenly flaunted? This course also examines the politics of sex, including the institution of marriage, both biblical and modern (as influenced by the Bible), and other sexual laws and prohibitions, both in antiquity and today.

Understanding Cultural Perspectives
What makes popular music important for people; music's power to change culture; production, distribution, reception of popular music in cultural and historical contexts. Understanding Cultural Perspectives
What is the relationship between Beyoncé, Jesse Owens, and Thích Quang Duc?—Protest! Each of these cultural figures put their body on the line using protest as performance to challenge power structures, address social equity, and influence social change; students examine historical and contemporary issues of power, identity, and inclusion, situating protest and dissent as key parts of civic engagement through study of music and performance videos, readings, blogs and other media; students are asked to place themselves in a historical continuum where intersections of class, race, gender, and sexuality are considered.

What is the relationship between Simone Biles, Lil Nas X, Britney Spears and  Thich Quang Duc?.....Protest! Each of these cultural figures put their bodies on the line, using protest as performance to challenge power structures, address social equity, and influence social change. This class will examine historical and contemporary issues of power, identity, and inclusion, situating protest and dissent as key parts of civic engagement through the study of embodied acts, performance videos, readings, blogs, and other media. Throughout the class, you will be asked to place yourself in a historical continuum where intersections of class, race, gender, and sexuality are considered. No Formal Dance training is required for this course.

Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Introduction to African Caribbean dance with emphasis on ritual, performance, and music; exploration of basic fundamentals of African Caribbean dances from Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Haiti, and Cuba, as well as musical instruments used to accompany these dances; practical dance training; theoretical basis for understanding geographical, historical, sociological, and political contexts in which dances originated.

T​his is an introductory course to African Caribbean dance with emphasis on ritual , performance and music. In this course , students will explore the basic fundamentals of African Caribbean dances from Trinidad and Tobago , Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba and the musical instruments used to accompany these dances. In addition to practical dance training, this course will provide a theoretical basis for understanding the geographical , historical, and sociology political contexts in which the dances originated. 

Course Assignments: Participation - 80%, Projects  - 20% 

Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Introduction and overview of important topics and discussions that pertain to the experience of being disabled; contrast between medical and social models of disability; focus on how disability has been constructed historically, socially, and politically in an effort to distinguish myth and stigma from reality; perspective that disability is part of human experience and touches everyone; interdisciplinary with many academic areas that offer narratives about experience of disability. Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Exploration of human experiences of dis/ability and exclusion/inclusion. Taught in English.

Exploration of human experiences of dis/ability and exclusion/inclusion as represented in recent international film and popular writing from Europe, Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; how these experiences contribute to and reflect awareness of the challenges of disabilities as well as public policy; strategies that filmmakers and authors deploy to contain, complicate, and challenge cultural preconceptions of the disabled body; how disability intersects with other major identity categories (i.e., sexuality, nationality, race); tools for researching history, policy, and activism. Taught in English.

Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Students with disabilities, gifted and talented; strategies for effective treatment, collaboration between regular and special education teachers; remediation of academic, behavioral, social problems.

Strategies for effective treatment for students with disabilities, collaboration among general education and special education teachers; remediation of academic, behavioral, social issues.

Understanding Cultural Perspectives

Overviews the liberal arts and history of higher education and the complexities of engaging difference all situated in the context of challenges and opportunities that are inherent to navigating the organizational structures of higher education.

Requirements:

undergraduate standing

Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Introduction to feminist interdisciplinary study of women's lives, with emphasis on race, class, sexual orientation; work, family, culture, political and social change.

What is gender?  What is sexuality?  Why does studying them matter?  This course helps you answer these questions by focusing on the specific ways our daily lives are shaped by gender and sexuality. We will discuss gender and sexuality at the intersections of race and class as well.  These socially and historically constructed categories of analysis exist together and affect each other.  Our lectures and discussion sections will ask you to think critically about gender and sexuality and about the consequences that our assumptions about them have on our daily lives.  We will discuss personal issues—such as body image and sexuality—as well as public and political issues – such as the wage gap, reproductive justice, sexual assault and harassment.  Additionally, we will evaluate and rigorously analyze writing, research, and popular representations of gender and sexuality.  You need no prior familiarity with conversations about gender or sexuality or feminism—just an interest in exploring some of the most powerful issues that shape and affect our daily lives.    

Course assignments will include a midterm and take-home essay final exam, a short paper that allows students to reflect on how course themes and identities are experienced in daily lives, as well as in-class activities in discussion sections.

 

Understanding Cultural Perspectives

Introduction to principles and theories of social justice; students examine the history of influential social movements in the United States and the world in the last century; how intersectionality can create tensions between and among members of social movements; how race, class, gender, age, geography, and our bodies play a role in the application of theories of social justice.

Introduction to Social Justice will focus on the contested notions of justice, human rights, and equality. We will look specifically at particular issues related to race, class, health, policing, immigration, prison, poverty, and the environment, using a social justice lens to explore and critique structural and systemic institutions that disadvantage marginalized and or silenced populations. Our focus will be primarily domestic, but we will look at some issues such as health and poverty transnationally. We will read, watch, and explore the works of theorists, writers, activists, and artists who have spent time working against inequality, disparity, and discrimination.

 

Understanding Cultural Perspectives
How did diversity affect past societies? How does history help us to understand diversity today? Introduction to thinking about diversity and inclusion; topics vary.

How did diversity affect past societies? How does history help us to understand diversity today? Introduction to thinking about diversity and inclusion; topics vary.

Understanding Cultural Perspectives

Introduction to the interdisciplinary field of Jewish studies; topics include history from ancient origins to the present, sociology of Jewish life in the U.S. and internationally, ethical and religious principles and practices, Jewish embeddedness in non-Jewish societies, and controversies within and surrounding the Jewish world.

What’s Judaism? Who’s a Jew? What do people mean when they say “the Jewish community”? And how does all of this matter to the larger world?

Let’s start with some basics.  

Judaism originated in the ancient Near East, became a monotheistic religion, and was the ground from which both Christianity and Islam emerged. That means that Judaism is foundational to world history and culture.  

But while “Judaism” is a religion, “Jews” are also a people: a socially- and culturally defined group whose members often think of themselves as sharing a common ethnicity. Defined this way, Jews may or may not practice Judaism. They may or may not share common ancestry or geographies of origin. They all have other identities as well: gender identities, racial identities, national identities, and so on. Sometimes they even have other religious identities. They inhabit nearly every part of the globe, with only a minority in the place of their ancient origins. 

This course offers foundational knowledge about the history, religion, sociology, and culture of Jews and Judaism. It considers diversity within Judaism and Jewish populations as well as “Jews” and “Judaism” as categories within the larger tapestry of a diverse world. We'll spend our time on collaborative, project-based learning to develop knowledge and skills that will transfer to other classes as well as life outside college.

 

Understanding Cultural Perspectives

Examines relations between Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities in Palestine during the Ottoman and Mandate periods, and between Jewish groups and Arab-Israelis after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. After an introduction to ethnicity, nationality, and religious identity from a theoretical perspective, focus will be on Ashkenazi Jews, Middle Eastern Jews, and Palestinian Arabs. Students will engage with important contemporary issues in Arab-Israel relations.

During this course we will examine relations between Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities in Palestine during the Ottoman and Mandate periods, and between Jewish groups and Arab-Israelis after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. After an introduction to ethnicity, nationality and religious identity from a theoretical perspective, we will focus on three groups of people: Ashkenazi Jews, Middle Eastern Jews, and Palestinian Arabs. Throughout the semester we will problematize these categories, highlighting the heterogeneity of these groups. Lectures will provide the historical and political background for our discussion of themes based on the readings, including Ottomanism in Palestine, Zionist-Arab relations, Middle Eastern Jews as intermediaries between Jews and Arabs, the "melting-pot" approach to immigrant absorption, the Arab population of Israel, the Sephardic/Mizrahi protest movements, and the question of "Arab-Jews." Toward the end of the semester we will also engage important contemporary issues in Arab-Israel relations, for example, the failure of the Peace Process and possible ways forward.

The instructor is Professor Ariel.

HIST 2156 0001 Ariel Fall 2025

Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Introduction to field of Latina/o/x studies through interdisciplinary readings from literature, history, sociology, political science, urban studies, and anthropology; commonalities and differences among long-standing Latina/o/x populations (i.e., Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans); challenges faced by newer arrivals (i.e., Dominican Americans, Salvadoran Americans, Guatemalan Americans, Central and South American immigrants). Taught in English.

Taught in English.

This course does not presume previous coursework in Latina/o/x Studies on the part of students enrolled, and it is appropriate for all UI undergraduate students who are interested in learning about Latina/o/x Studies. This introductory course will take an interdisciplinary approach to a broad array of fields of inquiry related to Latina/o/x community including history, race/ethnic/gender studies, literature, film, music, politics, economics, education, health policy, etc. Our course will also study and reflect on the multiplicity of national, cultural, and ethnic groups encompassed under the larger pan-ethnic rubric of “Latino/a/x” or Latinidad such as Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Dominican Americans, Afro-Latina/o/x, Cuban Americans, and other groups from Central and South America. The latter part of the course will focus on the unique experiences of the Latina/o/x community in the realm of American literature, education, religion, concepts of citizenship and sense of belonging, the American South and the Midwest in both urban and rural areas, and more. This course seeks to incite students’ curiosity and creativity not only in relation to Latina/o/x studies but also in relation to their own ethnic, cultural, or individual identities. Class will consist of topic- and sources-centered discussions led by students, short writing assignments, a midterm, and a final exam centered on Latinos in Iowa. This course is the foundational course for the Latina/o/x Studies minor. See the Latina/o/x Studies website for more information about the minor.

Understanding Cultural Perspectives

Current events that introduce students to political and cultural developments throughout the world.

This introductory level course will use current events to introduce students to political and cultural developments throughout the world. We will read international newspapers and magazines, watch television programs, and listen to podcasts, and will then employ an interdisciplinary approach to help us understand the historical background of current events and their contemporary meaning(s) in global context. In addition to political events, we will highlight sociocultural and artistic themes that connect different parts of the world, for example the politics of popular music, film, or foodways.

Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Exploration of Italian American presence in the U.S. by investigating historical background, multifaceted reality, heritage, and contribution to national culture; examination of Italian American ethnicity as portrayed in American literature, film, and television through an interdisciplinary approach; analysis of how Italian American writers and filmmakers have represented their community and contributed to shape their own cultural identity. Taught in English.

Between 1870 and 1920 more than four million Italians immigrated to the United States and became the largest non-native group in the country. In a multicultural society, the turn-of-the-century immigrants and their descendants pursued assimilation while maintaining customs and traditions that contributed to construct a new identity. This course will explore the Italian American presence in the United States by investigating its historical background, its multifaceted reality, its heritage, and its contribution to national culture. Through an interdisciplinary approach, students will examine Italian American ethnicity as portrayed in American literature, film, and television. In particular, they will analyze how Italian American writers and filmmakers have represented their community and have contributed to shape their own cultural identity. Moving from commonplace images to a more complex picture, this course will focus on the Italian American example to discuss the issues of immigration, ethnic exclusion/inclusion, assimilation, acculturation, and cultural complexity. Requirements include class attendance and participation, writing exercises, a creative project, a midterm and a final exam.

Understanding Cultural Perspectives
The boundaries of community can be set in many ways—by geography, age, ability, race, ethnicity, and more—or by intersection of several of these factors; students engage deeply with media representations of different types of communities, discuss basic concepts of identity and community, and explore some of the major fault lines, biases, and privileges in contemporary life; students critique common stereotypes that often show up in media coverage of marginalized communities to better practice storytelling across difference, focusing on how stories from communities that are underrepresented or misrepresented by media can be amplified. Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Philosophy, history, political science, and legal studies blended into a semester-long meditation on the meaning of freedom of expression, especially in the United States, and specifically on the U.S. Supreme Court; special attention given to the way in which freedom of expression enters into societal debates about benefits and challenges of diversity, and whether and how to rectify structural relationships of inequality; as students learn the history and tradition of how Americans have understood this concept, they reflect on their own perspectives and engage with others who may have different ideas from their own.

This course blends philosophy, history, political science, and legal studies into a semester-long meditation on the meaning of the freedom of expression, especially in the United States. It pays special attention to the forms of reasoning about free expression developed by the U.S. Supreme Court during the 20th and 21st centuries. However, the primary theme of the course is the transition from a traditional, conservative society in the 19th century to a modern liberal one in the twentieth, and the consequences of this transition for how Americans understand the freedom of expression. Part and parcel of this transition has been a greater interest in the protection of individual rights, but also more consideration for social and cultural difference, especially racial and ethnic difference, but economic, religious, and other forms of difference as well. Thus, while the course covers basic areas of free expression law, including prior restraint, libel, obscenity and time-place-manner restrictions, commercial speech and hate speech, it does so in an expansive way.

The material in this course frequently deals with the boundaries of lawful speech and press activities in the United States. Some of the cases will involve examples of extreme speech or unethical journalistic activities that may have the tendency to offend, even when discussed in a controlled, academic setting. Nevertheless, this material is integral to an education on the state of freedom of speech and press in America, an education which is, itself, integral to the formation of critical, civically engaged citizens. Therefore, all of you are encouraged to approach this material with a courageous spirit, an open mind and a critical eye.

This course blends pedagogy from typical undergraduate survey courses and traditional law school courses. To succeed in this course, you must be prepared to learn course content in three separate ways, which reflect this pedagogical blend: 1) recalling “bottom-line” precedents from a high volume of major cases; 2) identifying the definitions and boundaries of key media law concepts; and 3) applying key doctrines and legal tests to hypothetical scenarios.

Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Pretend that you are making a phone call to ask about ordering a textbook and the person who answers is a stranger to you; you will immediately start to form opinions about that person (and about any other talkers you interact with) based upon the way they speak—where they are from, whether they are a native speaker of English, and even how well educated they are—and whether you are aware or not, these opinions and impressions you have will influence your interaction with that person and are based in language ideologies that all people have regarding how others sound; students explore common language ideologies and reflect upon their own. Taught in English.

Pretend that you are making a phone call to ask about ordering a textbook and the person who answers is a stranger to you, yet you immediately start to form opinions about any other speaker based upon the way they speak— where they are from, whether they are a native speaker of English, and even how well-educated they are. Whether you are aware or not, these opinions and impressions you have will influence your interaction with that person and are based in language attitudes that all people have regarding how others sound. In this course we will explore how these attitudes arise and how to question our own attitudes. 

 

Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Exploration of the wide diversity of cultures and individuals who have contributed to mathematical sciences; experiences and cultural messages that have shaped our own mathematical attitudes; numerous mathematical contributions of women, people of color, and members of other underrepresented groups—their accomplishments, challenges they faced, and factors that led to their success; revisiting and revising our own attitudes toward mathematics in light of what is read to incorporate a larger vision of mathematics and of people who do mathematical work. Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Politics in news, culture, commerce, campaigns, and government with attention to current media (e.g., cinema, internet, print, television).

How is viral media changing politics and news? With digital media, the public’s demand for around the clock real-time news has skyrocketed. Over the past twenty years newsroom staff has declined by nearly 40% according to Pew, but there has been a dramatic increase in how much is written about leading candidates and political celebrities. In 2016, Donald Trump received about $2 billion of free media coverage, almost three times as much as received by Hillary Clinton. President Trump’s Twitter campaigning generates coverage from traditional journalists and digital-only media outlets and then is consumed by readers online, who want streaming news around-the clock, and television viewers. There is blurring of digital and traditional media and a feedback loop between the two.

This course is about the media and politics. Scholars and the public agree that a free and healthy press is an essential condition of democratic politics, yet both now express doubt as to whether the press is satisfying this requirement. This course surveys the media, including norms and trends of media coverage, with an eye toward asking whether the media is able to fulfill this function.

This course also extends this discussion of media and politics to understand how political information flows online, investigating how members of the mass public talk about politics online as well as efforts by politicians and parties to organize and campaign online. We will investigate whether social media bridges the gaps in traditional media coverage, whether online platforms promote extremism, whether being a celebrity on the internet translates into political relevance, and more.

Understanding Cultural Perspectives

Introduction to politics of race in the U.S.; history of racial and ethnic groups in the U.S., their relationship with each other, and their interactions with different levels of government.

This course examines the politics of racial and ethnic diversity in the United States. Americans publicly celebrate diversity and its benefits to society. At the same time, we acknowledge that differences based on race, ethnicity, and nativity have divided our nation and undermined key democratic ideals. We explore is tension and study how politics and policy outcomes are shaped by race, ethnicity, and immigration. Students are evaluated based on two non-cumulative exams, a short paper, and participation in class. This course is appropriate for any student. No prior knowledge or skills are required.

This course counts toward the Latina/o Studies minor. See the Latina/o Studies website for more information about the minor.

Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Introduction to the complex relationship between religion and politics; examination of historical and contemporary effect of religion on a wide range of areas (e.g., political culture, political parties, political behavior, public policy); consideration of important policy debates (e.g., role of religion in public life, religious discrimination, various social issues).

Too often the role of religion in politics is ignored and yet religion plays an important role in the lives of the majority of Americans. Not only is religion important to the majority of Americans, but in many cases it can influence and shape the political behavior of individuals and have a substantial impact on the policies of America. This course will introduce students to this complex relationship between religion and politics by examining the historical and contemporary effect of religion on a wide range of areas, such as: political culture, political parties, political behavior, and public policy. The course will also consider important policy debates, such as the role of religion in public life, religious discrimination, and various social issues.

Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Introduction to multicultural competencies and its importance to counseling, psychology, and helping professions; psychological concepts and research pertaining to privilege; racism, race, culture, sexual orientation, social class and classism, and their application in culturally adapted psychotherapy interventions; how these matters and other cultural identities and constructs are handled and used in applied psychology and counseling; focus on intersection of research and practice. Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Practical skills in engaging religious diversity for workplace success; understanding religion's influences on perceptions and choices of business leaders, investors, customers, and coworkers; insight into how to build professional relationships with people from different backgrounds; clarity about your own ethical values.

This online course is intended for students who may be interested in entrepreneurship and leadership, within the business world and beyond. Its aim is to facilitate personal success by helping students to acquire practical skills in engaging religious diversity in the workplace. The course includes critical and creative reflection on core values; the importance of storytelling in building professional relationships; the analysis of real-life cases of religious complications in the workplace; focused inquiry into several influential religions; and guided ethical reflection. The course helps students to understand the significant impact that religions can have on the perceptions and choices of business leaders, investors, co-workers, and customers.  All resources are available on the course ICON site.

Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Impacts of Islam and Islamic institutions on economic, religious, and political systems that produce wealth, use natural and human resources, design financial institutions, and structure business organizations.

 

More information on Prof. Souaiaia's website 
In this course, using Islam and Islamic institutions as case studies, students will explore how people, individually and collectively, domestically and globally, organize different aspects of production and distribution of goods and services for current and future use--given the resources at hand and the determinant value systems to which societies adhere.

Learning Objectives:
As a course that is approved for CLAS GE--Understanding Cultural Perspectives, it emphasizes the conceptual and practical interventions of religious, societal, and state institutions in expanding and/or limiting opportunity, access, and the sharing of resources among members of individual communities and across the world. The course will help students develop understanding and appreciation of religious and cultural diversity that shape economic behavior, social hierarchies, and the forces that produce inequity, poverty, and extreme wealth. The course will provide students with vocabulary, knowledge, and sensitivity to help them navigate a connected world; become more competent in performing their job in a diverse workforce and in complex marketplace; and develop communication strategies that avoid blind spots, negative biases, and discrimination. 

https://ahmed.souaiaia.com/teaching/economics-islam/

Online course; all activities, including exams, will be managed online.

Understanding Cultural Perspectives

Explores how language shapes perceptions of disability, access, and accommodations—acting both as a barrier to and a means of challenging societal norms. Students examine the role of rhetoric in defining ability and how communication practices impact accessibility. Through written, spoken, signed, and digital expression, they analyze how cultural frameworks value or marginalize different bodies and minds. Emphasizing practical strategies, the course equips students to foster accessibility and opportunity in academic, professional, and public spaces.

Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Emergence and distribution of selected social problems; alternative solutions; may include population, inequality, female-male relationships, racism, crime.

This introductory course will use a sociological perspective to examine a few contemporary social problems in the United States. We will begin by investigating how sociologists define social problems. We will then learn about the methods sociologists use to study social problems with a particular focus on how to evaluate statistics about social problems presented by the media, politicians, and activists. In the remainder of the semester we will cover specific social problems, including poverty, racism, gender inequality, family problems, education, and crime, in detail. The lectures, discussions, assignments, and group exercises are designed so that you will understand what a sociological perspective is and be able to apply that perspective to the social problems we cover; gain a greater understanding of each of the social problems we cover and be able to explain causes and consequences of those problems; understand the methods social scientists use to further knowledge about social problems; improve skills that are fundamental to college education including: “numerical literacy” and the ability to think critically about statistics, reading tables, evaluating arguments, pulling together evidence to support a position, and writing with clarity. 

Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Multidisciplinary study of intergroup relations, with emphasis on historical, sociological, and social psychological issues in the study of American minority groups.

This course provides an introductory exploration of the sociology of race and ethnicity. The course is designed to give an overview of number of topics that are central to understanding how sociologists approach the study of race and ethnicity in the U.S. The course is divide into five sections. We will begin by exploring theoretical and historical approaches to race and ethnicity which include discussions of racial classification and racial and ethnic boundaries. The second section of the course will explore racism and antiracism. The third section of the course will explore empirical research on aspects of racial and ethnic inequality in the U.S. including economic inequality, incarceration, employment outcomes and educational attainment. The fourth section of the class will explore recent research on immigration and how immigration changes the landscape of American race relations. The course concludes with a section that considers whether or not the U.S. has entered into a post-racial era. 

 

Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Issues related to Spanish in the United States; aspects of linguistics and sociolinguistics inherent to the existence and proliferation of Spanish in the United States. Taught in English.

The course is asynchronous, but we will meet on Zoom for a virtual meeting on the dates and times listed.

This fully online course examines historical and sociolinguistic aspects of Spanish in the U.S. Students learn through readings, essays, videos, discussions and an independent research project about the demographic and linguistic varieties of Spanish spoken in this country. 

The course focuses on the dynamics of immigration, language choice, language policies, bilingualism and bilingual education, the myths about Spanglish and the social and identity aspects of speaking Spanish in the United States. 

Students will identify language internal traits in various Spanish dialects, and address extra-linguistic factors (race, gender, economic level, education, nationality and age,) and how language use is affected by these demographic characteristics. Taught in English. 

The required textbook is available through online access with the University of Iowa Library.

Understanding Cultural Perspectives

Basic, foundational mental health concepts emphasizing mental health variations and disorders throughout the lifecycle; use of cultural humility and social determinants of mental health as guiding frameworks to better understand differences among groups.

Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Students read and analyze the works of a diverse range of American and international playwrights and documentarians; fundamental skills of reading, hearing, imagining, and writing for local and global stages; emphasis on a broad range of voices, styles, and stories. Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Role of American theatre as a complex tapestry of race, gender, sexuality, and disability; examination of plays and performance outside primarily white-male canon; contemporary social practice and cultural politics in local and national contexts. Understanding Cultural Perspectives

Contexts and functions of translation in the age of globalization; how translations are produced, received, and utilized in various contexts; effects of globalization on ethics, aesthetics, and politics of translation; how we understand cultures when they are received or transmitted through translation; effects of these exchanges on the English language.

Understanding Cultural Perspectives
Service-learning course offered in coordination with local community organizations and nonprofits; students critically consider ways in which written content—creative, promotional, and logistical—can help ensure outreach initiatives prioritize inclusivity; assignments include readings and discussions on community outreach and social justice issues, written reflections on relationships between self and community to enhance interdisciplinary perspectives, and volunteering time and energy with a local organization or nonprofit group in meaningful ways.

Service-learning course offered in coordination with local community organizations and nonprofits; students consider critically ways in which written content (creative, promotional, and logistical) can help ensure outreach initiatives prioritize inclusivity. Assignments include readings and discussions surrounding community outreach and social justice, written reflections about the relationships between self and community to enhance interdisciplinary perspectives, and volunteering time and energy with a local organization or nonprofit group in meaningful ways.

Understanding Cultural Perspectives