Cultural Studies and Languages

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Term
Time & Day Offered
Level
Credits
Course Duration

The Daoist Tales — CHI4113.01

Instructor: Ginger Lin
Credits: 4
If Confucianism is the Yang of Chinese culture, then Daoism is the Yin. Not only has Daoism had a profound influence on traditional Chinese art and thought, but this philosophy remains relevant to modern life in both the East and West. Students will be introduced to the main precepts of philosophical Daoism through modern Chinese interpretations of Taoist Tales. Students will

The Film Trailer Project — FRE4603.01

Instructor: Noelle Rouxel-Cubberly
Credits: 4
In this course, French films are used as linguistic and cultural textbooks. While honing their language skills (listening, reading, speaking and writing), students will focus their critical skills on selected cultural topics (food, clothes, history, gestures, etc.). Students will create film trailers that reflect their understanding of the French linguistic and cultural

The Language of Persuasion — SPA2103.01

Instructor: Sarah Harris
Credits: 5
Students with little or no background in Spanish will learn the language through an immersion in the study of advertising and propaganda from the Spanish-speaking world. An examination of Spanish and Latin American print, radio, film, and television advertisements, as well as political cartoons and propaganda, will allow students to consider critically the truths, half-truths,

The Latin American Short Story — SPA4006.01

Instructor: Jonathan Pitcher
Credits: 4
Along with intermittent textual analysis and some socio-historical context, the intention is to obsess over the ideology of that most lauded of genres, the Latin American short story, from modernismo to its contemporary forms. Students will develop their oral and written skills, progressing from paragraph-level exposition to imitation to an initial defense of ideas. The course

The Latin American Short Story — SPA4006.01

Instructor: Jonathan Pitcher
Credits: 4
Along with intermittent textual analysis and some socio-historical context, the intention is to obsess over the ideology of that most lauded of genres, the Latin American short story, from modernismo to its contemporary forms. Students will develop their oral and written skills, progressing from paragraph-level exposition to imitation to an initial defense of ideas. The course

The Power of Image — SPA4305.01

Instructor: Sarah Harris
Credits: 4
The Mexican photographers, Manuel Álvarez Bravo and Graciela Iturbide, and the Chilean documentary film director, Patricio Guzmán, have a common call: to document the impossible. In this course, we will explore the different ways in which each of these artists use images to capture and re-frame the complexity of their cultural heritage, as well as the beauty and intricacies of

The Power of Image — SPA4305.01

Instructor: Lena Retamoso Urbano
Credits: 4
The Mexican photographers, Manuel Álvarez Bravo and Graciela Iturbide, and the Chilean documentary film director, Patricio Guzmán, have a common call: to document the impossible. In this course, we will explore the different ways in which each of these artists use images to capture and re-frame the complexity of their cultural heritage, as well as the beauty and intricacies of

The Same and Not the Same: A Close Reading of Primo Levi's "The Periodic Table" — CSL2134.01) (cancelled 5/8/2024

Instructor: John Bullock
Credits: 2
Primo Levi studied chemistry in Italy in the 1930s, where he witnessed the rise of fascism. As a Jew, he learned to navigate the treacherous path of being the Other from childhood, but that was little preparation for what was to come. Sent to Auschwitz in 1944, he survived and went on to become one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. His memoir, The Periodic Table,

The Semitic Languages: Five Millenia of Identities, Structures and Relationships — LIN4118.01

Instructor: Thomas Leddy-Cecere
Days & Time: WE 10:00am-11:50am & WE 2:10pm-4:00pm
Credits: 4

The Semitic language family has the longest documented legacy of any in the world, spanning nearly 5,000 years.  Its dozens of distinct but connected languages – among them Arabic, Ethiopic, Hebrew and Syriac – have animated metropolises from Babylon to Carthage to Dubai; over centuries, they have voiced revelation to billions of Jews

The Textual City — SPA4805.01

Instructor: Jonathan Pitcher
Credits: 4
This course will chart the development of identity within the postcolonial Latin American city. The latter will be read both literally and as a guiding metaphor, as a reality ordered by ideas. We will use interdisciplinary theoretical models as discursive markers, selected from architecture, politics, philosophy, literature, and photography, in order to problematize urban

The “Chinese Dream” after COVID? — CHI4403.01

Instructor: Ginger Lin
Credits: 4
With the Covid-19 pandemic, Beijing’s Hong Kong security law, and Xinjiang re-education camps, attitudes towards the Chinese government under the leadership of Xi Jinping have soured globally, challenging Xi’s plans to realize the “Chinese Dream” of “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” In this course, students will use authentic materials, such as print articles,

Thème et Version — FRE4810.01

Instructor: Stephen Shapiro
Credits: 4
In this course we will focus on translating from French into English as well as from English into French. We will work on developing a mindfulness about language use as well as a comparative eye focused on English and French’s stylistic and structural preferences. Grammar and lexical development will also be on offer and will highlight points where the two languages converge

Theories of Revolution — SPA4402.01

Instructor: Jonathan Pitcher
Credits: 4
Over the past two centuries, in an apparently perpetual movement towards democratic independence, Latin America has confronted ruptures in tradition and experimented with a variety of revolutionary discourses to project its multiple pasts into the future. This course will read the postcolonial back into the European and US epistemai, and vice-versa, exploring how Latin

THIS, THAT and the OTHER: An Introduction to Linguistic Referring — LIN2105.01

Instructor: Carly Rudzinski
Credits: 4
How do we, as users of language, guide others to successfully follow our attention and intention in referring to elements of shared physical, social and discursive worlds? How do we, as consumers of language, integrate linguistic signals with available context to successfully interpret these acts of reference? In this class, we will draw on data from a wide range of

THIS, THAT and the OTHER: An Introduction to Linguistic Referring — LIN2105.01

Instructor: Thomas Leddy-Cecere
Days & Time: MO,TH 10:00am-11:50am
Credits: 4

How do we, as users of language, guide others to successfully follow our attention and intention in referring to elements of shared physical, social and discursive worlds?  How do we, as consumers of language, integrate linguistic signals with available context to successfully interpret these acts of reference?  In this class, we will draw on data

Thresholds of Identity: Films and Novels of Migration — SPA4807.02

Instructor: Sarah Harris
Credits: 4
Thresholds of Identity offers the study of novels and films of Spanish migration, domestic and international, through contextualized engagement with selected contemporary texts. Our primary literature and films correspond to each of three recent Spanish migratory trends: 1) mass movement from rural to urban areas in the early twentieth century 2) emigration from Spain during

Traveling in Italian Film — ITA4401.01

Instructor: Barbara Alfano
Credits: 4
In Italian culture, as it happens for every culture, the idea of travel is deeply connected to the country’s social and historical contexts, and to the questioning of personal identity. In this respect, travel becomes a mirror for the traveler. In the case of Italian cinematic narratives, is the mirror sending back surprising images, disclosing secrets, or repeating stereotypes

TV Shows and The Contemporary Chinese Society — CHI4219.01

Instructor: Carly Rudzinski
Credits: 5
This course invites students to observe and discuss contemporary Chinese society by watching seven of the currently most popular TV shows in mainland China. We will discuss topics such as class, gender, marriage, paternal bond, family ethics, Chinese social development, etc., as are represented by these shows of different genres. The aim of this course is to expose students to

TV Shows, Social media and The Contemporary Taiwanese Society — CHI4406.01

Instructor: Ginger Lin
Credits: 4
This course encourages students to explore and analyze contemporary Taiwanese society through the lens of popular TV shows currently airing in Taiwan. Topics for discussion will include identity, democracy, indigenous culture, immigration and multiculturalism,  Tech industry, gender equality, LGBTQ+rights, marriage, family structure, and the broader social development of

U.S.-Asian Relations (c. 1800-Present) — HIS2146.01

Instructor: Carly Rudzinski
Credits: 4
This course explores US relations with East and Southeast Asia from the early 1800s up through the present. We examine how transnational and international forces have shaped pivotal moments across three centuries, including the Opium Wars (1840s-1860s), the Meiji Restoration (1868-1889), US seizure of the Philippines (1899-1902), the two World Wars, the Vietnam War (1954-1975),

Unhomely Thoughts from Abroad — SPA4108.01

Instructor: Jonathan Pitcher
Days & Time: TU,FR 10:30am-12:20pm
Credits: 4

From Simón Bolívar’s recruitment of the exiled Francisco de Miranda in early nineteenth-century London, to the counter-revolutionary Guillermo Cabrera Infante’s Tres tristes tigres, written in a Hampstead flat, much of Latin America’s postcolonial identity has been forged outside its borders. Beyond defining home,

Unhomely Thoughts from Abroad — SPA4605.01

Instructor: Jonathan Pitcher
Credits: 4
From Simón Bolívar’s recruitment of the exiled Francisco de Miranda in early nineteenth-century London, to the counter-revolutionary Guillermo Cabrera Infante’s Tres tristes tigres, written in a Hampstead flat, much of Latin America’s postcolonial identity has been forged outside its borders. Beyond defining home, exiles have defined their alternate environments. De Miranda’s

Version: The Art of Translating from French — FRE4807.01

Instructor: Stephen Shapiro
Credits: 2
In this course we will practice version, the art of translating from French into English. We will work on developing a mindfulness about language use as well as a comparative eye focused on English and French’s stylistic and structural preferences. Grammar and lexical development will also be on offer and will highlight points where the two languages converge and diverge.

Virtual Tours of Japan: Explore and Learn About Japan — JPN2113.01

Instructor: Ikuko Yoshida
Credits: 5
What do you know about Japan? Would you like to visit Mount Fuji in Shizuoka, the Imperial Palace in Kyoto, or the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo? What do you want to see? Do you want to see traditional performing arts like Noh and Kabuki? Do you want to eat sushi, tonkatsu, ramen, or pizza that is topped with corn, tuna, and mayonnaise? Technology such as Google Earth and 360 video

Virtual Tours of Japan: Explore and Learn About Japan — JPN2113.02

Instructor: Ikuko Yoshida
Credits: 4
What do you know about Japan? Would you like to visit Mount Fuji in Shizuoka, the Imperial Palace in Kyoto, or Ghibli Museum in Tokyo? What do you want to see? Do you want to see traditional performing arts like Noh and Kabuki? Do you want to eat sushi, tonkatsu, ramen, or pizza that is topped with corn, tuna, and mayonnaise? Technology such as Google Earth and Street View has