History of African Americans in the United States from colonial times to the present; studies Black political, religious, social, and educational institutions in relation to the African diaspora and how various forces of modernity have shaped African American society across the centuries; students will come away with the complexities of Black life in the U.S. through explorations of important scholarship.
This class will serve as a survey course, which is designed to introduce you to the various styles of music created by Americans of African descent since arriving in this country. In a quasi-chronological fashion, we will explore the development of Black music since the 1800’s and sample the major musical styles that have emerged since that time. These objectives will be completed through the completion of assigned readings, in-class lecture/discussion sessions, guided listening to historical recordings, viewing video footage and in-depth exploration of the musical/cultural commonalities between all of the music styles introduced in the class.
Understanding Cultural PerspectivesThis course is a study of the African-American experience since the Civil War. Interdisciplinary in approach, we will utilize literature, primary sources, art, and film to explore this topic. The course addresses the themes of change and continuity in the Black experience. Specifically, we will analyze the changing political economy of Black Americans; migration and urbanization; and the many historical events that have shaped modern Black American life and culture. Special attention will be paid to the internal dynamics within the African American population, particularly issues around identity, gender, class, and region. Major course themes will include labor, resistance, civil rights, art and culture, as well as community and institution building.
Black Culture and Experience 3 s.h.
This course explores black culture and experience within a contemporary perspective. Readings, interactive experiences, course assignments (interview, essays and final paper) and unit quizzes will offer students the opportunity to better understand black culture in the 21st century. The course will explore a variety of important societal topics such as: education, religion, literature, theater, media, politics, sports, criminal justice, health and economics.
Understanding Cultural PerspectivesInequality in American Sport 3 s.h.
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 PerspectivesPopular images and ideas about Native peoples in North America circulate widely, but are frequently incomplete and distorting. This course helps students to critically reflect upon the origins and workings of these long-standing stereotypes. To facilitate this critical reflection, it uses anthropology’s professional struggles with how to best promote more respectful and realistic understandings of complexity and diversity among Indigenous peoples and to better comprehend the workings of colonialism. For a selection of regions in what is now the U.S. and Canada, we examine evidence for pre-colonial Indigenous ways of life, the process of European incursions into Indigenous lands and lifeways, diverse and creative Indigenous responses to colonization, and core themes as well as complexity and diversity in settler ideas and practices. We also examine how these complicated histories continue to inform selected contemporary issues, by considering how Native peoples’ assertions of cultural distinctiveness and political autonomy in contemporary North America continue to generate complex mixtures of support and debate in public discussion. We do so using examples from recent decades, as well as current issues receiving news coverage during the semester. Course grades are based on two exams (composed of multiple choice & short answer questions), periodic short quizzes, three short writing assignments (which connect and develop upon one another), and participation in discussion sections.
Understanding Cultural PerspectivesAs 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 PerspectivesGlobal Science Fiction 3 s.h.
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?
Video Games and Identity 3 s.h.
What is a game? What does it mean to play? Likely, you’ve already noticed that cultural attitudes towards play tend to shift depending on who is playing. In fact, there is great fluctuation in the meanings we attach to play as an activity, cultural form, and topic of discussion. This is because there is so much at stake in these meanings.
This lecture- and discussion-based Understanding Cultural Perspectives General Education course begins with the above questions about what play and games (both analog and digital) are in the first place. For the rest of the semester, we will explore how these questions are inseparable from wider cultural debates among the people who play games. Video games are not simply one of the most significant cultural forms to emerge in recent history, but they are also at the epicenter of conversations about identity within academia, on internet forums, and even political discourse.
This course aims to equip the next generation of media producers with the critical tools necessary to actively participate in these conversations. It will introduce students to structural and historical problems of representation and inclusion, both as they relate to commercial videogames and wider entertainment industries and consumer cultures. In course materials, students will encounter the topics of race, gender, sexuality, age, class, and ability. Our classroom will be a space where difficult and sensitive issues can be safely engaged, and we will treat one another with respect and the shared goal of learning.
Understanding Cultural PerspectivesThis course introduces representations of racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual diversity across American film and television history of the 20th and 21st centuries. We’ll consider questions of identity as they have and continue to intersect with representations of, and issues related to, race, ethnicity, femininity, masculinity, heteronormativity, and LGBTQ+ identities throughout American screen history. We’ll also examine the roles of intersecting systems of oppression (e.g., racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, etc.), feminist activism, and contemporary LGBTQ+ cultures on screen.
Understanding Cultural PerspectivesThis Diversity and Inclusion general education course examines the classical and ancient origins of the world’s modern religions and religious traditions, their diversity, and religious conflict worldwide, focusing specifically on flashpoints where different religious traditions intersect in conflict around the world. By understanding the origins and basic tenets of the world’s religions, we can better understand the fundamentals underlying each religious conflict. Each course module examines an area of religious interaction, reviews the backgrounds of present conflicts, and explores ways in which an understanding of the religious aspects of each conflict can potentially lead to conflict resolution. All the while, students learn the basic tenets of the various religious traditions. Special attention is paid to ancient Mesopotamian and Mediterranean religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, international events, fundamentalism, and protest movements.
At the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Intelligently discuss the ancient origins of modern religious conflicts that define our world.
- Examine the spread of religious traditions geographically.
- Compare and contrast ideological similarities between ancient Mesopotamian, Mediterranean, and modern religions
- Identify the basic tenets of the world’s major religions and how they are practiced today.
- Witness the religious, racial, ethnic, linguistic, economic, and political diversity of the peoples engaged in various conflicts.
- Evaluate whether religion is the actual cause of many of the world’s conflicts.
Sex and the Bible 3 s.h.
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 PerspectivesThis course counts toward the Latina/o/x Studies minor. See the Latina/o/x Studies website for more information about the minor.
Latina/o/x communities are among the fastest-growing demographics in the United States, yet their histories, voices, and cultural practices remain underrepresented in mainstream narratives. This course introduces students to Latina/o/x communication and culture through a focus on history, politics, social movements, and popular culture. Students will explore the historical bases of inequality, examine the challenges and possibilities of cross-cultural understanding, and reflect critically on their own perspectives while engaging with the voices of Latina/o/x intellectuals.
Class meetings combine lecture, discussion, film screenings, and collaborative activities. Students are expected to read actively, contribute to dialogue, and help build a respectful and engaging classroom community. By the end of the semester, students will be able to:
· Interpret Latina/o/x communication practices through historical and cultural contexts.
· Apply course concepts to analyze mediated and institutional discourses.
· Critically evaluate representations of Latina/o/x identity in U.S. culture.
Why take this course? Introduction to Latina/o/x Communication & Culture equips you with tools to understand Latina/o/x identity and expression in historical and contemporary contexts. The skills gained—critical analysis, cultural awareness, and communication—are valuable for careers in education, advocacy, public service, media, and beyond.
Major assessments include reading quizzes (across the semester), two reading inquiry papers (first in the middle of the semester, second in the last third), a discussion facilitation assignment (in the first half), and a final presentation (in the last week). This course counts toward the Latina/o/x Studies minor. See the Latina/o/x Studies website for more information about the minor.
Understanding Cultural PerspectivesThis course examines performance as a powerful form of communication—one that can reflect, disrupt, and transform the world around us. From political performance art and viral music videos to everyday gestures, we’ll explore how moving bodies contribute to cultural and political dialogue. By analyzing examples from dance, music, theater, and the performances of daily life, you’ll gain the tools to decode how bodies speak across cultural and historical contexts. Together, we will unpack questions around power, agency, and identity, and explore the impact of the performing arts within civic engagement and political discourse.
Class activities will include lectures, screenings, student-led discussion, and participatory movement practice. No prior dance training required. This course fulfills the CLAS General Education Understanding Cultural Perspectives requirement. These courses help students better understand social and cultural differences. Students will reflect on their own social and cultural perspectives while increasing their ability to engage with people who have backgrounds different than their own.
Understanding Cultural PerspectivesStrategies for effective treatment for students with disabilities, collaboration among general education and special education teachers; remediation of academic, behavioral, social issues.
Understanding Cultural PerspectivesStudent Success in College 3 s.h.
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.
undergraduate standing
Anne Frank and Her Story 3, 4 s.h.
While in school, many of us read Anne Frank’s diary, see her story staged or watch one of its many movie renditions. Anne and her family’s secret hiding space during the Occupation in the center of Amsterdam—now the well-known Anne Frank House—draws over a million tourists each year. Widely read and translated, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl has come to serve as an educational and formative experience for young readers, particularly when explaining the history of the Holocaust and the Second World War. In her biography of Anne Frank, Melissa Müller suggests that Anne’s name is synonymous with "humanity, tolerance, human rights, and democracy; her image is the epitome of optimism and the will to live." She has come to serve as the icon for victims of the Holocaust, but why and how is this the case? After all, there exist a number of other diaries composed by young individuals in hiding, and yet their stories are barely known. Our course centers on the act of storytelling and how individuals represent their personal histories and narratives and celebrate a shared humanity. Today new forms of media allow for innovative ways to express, record, share and consume a story. As we study the various journals, we will discover and exercise our own forms of storytelling and the ways we relate to one another.
Understanding Cultural PerspectivesPolitics/Memory: Holocaust-Genocide-9/11 3, 4 s.h.
How contested legacies of genocide, global violent conflict, and 9/11 continue to pose an urgent and generationally mediated challenge for critical politics of memory; various approaches to effective or failed coming-to-terms with injurious and difficult past (e.g., Holocaust, Armenian genocide); analysis of museums, sites of memory, and artwork. Taught in English.
This course examines how contested legacies of genocide, global violent conflict and 9/11 continue to pose an urgent and generationally mediated challenge for a critical politics of memory. We will discuss various approaches to an effective or failed coming to terms with an injurious and difficult past (e.g., the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide) by analyzing museums, sites of memory and artwork.
Understanding Cultural Perspectives
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
This class challenges a common assumption that the U.S. has largely moved past racism, sexism, classism and homophobia. Through readings, films, lectures and interactive assignments, we open a dynamic space to explore differences in power and privilege – and to develop an eye-opening understanding of how race, class, gender and nation shape our lives and world. Students will increase knowledge of inequality and its consequences for different communities and individuals. We ask: How are individual lives shaped by larger societal forces? How do our particular identities and social positions shape how we experience and see the world? How are people actively resisting inequality and oppression on a daily basis? How does social inequality shift and change over time?
Course assignments: Attendance; Course participation; Mid-term exam; Final essay; Autoethnographic essay; Quizzes; Class presentation
Understanding Cultural PerspectivesDiversity in History 3 s.h.
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 PerspectivesGlobal Jewish History 3 s.h.
Examines the Jewish experience in the modern period. Jewish history is global (the focus will be on Jews in the Middle East, Europe, the United States, and Latin America). Each community has participated in local politics and in the creation of local cultures, while remaining part of a Jewish Diaspora, held together to varying degrees by ethnic identity and religious tradition. Students will study how Jewish identity is constructed and how Jews negotiate their relationships with each other, with non-Jews in their local societies, and with other Jewish communities.
Are bagels Jewish? Falafel? What about Seinfeld? This course examines the Jewish experience in the modern period. Jewish history is global; Jews have lived all over the world. Each community has participated in local politics and in the creation of local cultures, while remaining part of a Jewish Diaspora, held together to varying degrees by ethnic identity and religious tradition. Focusing on Jews in the Middle East, Europe, the United States and Latin America, we will study how Jewish identity is constructed and how Jews negotiate their relationships with each other, with non-Jews in their local societies, and with other Jewish communities. For example, how have Jews integrated into American society? In what ways have they affected non-Jewish Americans? In addition to surveying the history of different groups of Jewish people(s), we will ask what it means to be a Jew today.
No textbooks required. All assigned readings will be available on the course ICON site.
The instructor is Professor Ariel.
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 PerspectivesWorld Events Today! 3 s.h.
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 PerspectivesCommunity Media 3 s.h.
Freedom of Expression 3 s.h.
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 PerspectivesPretend 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
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 PerspectivesToo 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 PerspectivesExplores 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 PerspectivesContemporary Social Problems 3, 4 s.h.
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 PerspectivesRace and Ethnicity 3 s.h.
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
Spanish in the U.S. 3 s.h.
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 PerspectivesBasic, 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 PerspectivesContexts 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 PerspectivesService-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