Identity

This course serves as a required step in the Identity Thread of the Integrative Core. In the course, we will explore fundamental premises about human identity within different world cultures, and study ways in which the development of modernity has challenged and remolded those views. The ultimate aim of the course is to present major questions that the study of identity poses, and explores a variety of approaches to investigating these questions. The course will prepare students for other courses they will take within the thread.

This course serves as the first step in the Identity thread of the Integrative Core. In the course we will explore fundamental premises about human identity within different world cultures, and study ways in which the development of modernity has challenged and remolded those views. We will use the lens of identity to explore a number of issues that are at the forefront of modern life. The ultimate aim of the course is to present major questions that the study of identity poses, and explore a variety of approaches to investigating these questions, using writing as a primary tool for this investigation. The cousre will develop student writing skills, and prepare students for other courses they will tkae within the thread.

This course is designed to help students develop the skills necessary to effectively communicate in public, private and professional settings. The course will focus on a broad base of communication theory, concepts and skills and offer students the opportunity to apply those skills.  Students will explore several models of communication, including: invitational, persuasive, dialogic, conflict management, group and interpersonal. Students will explore the foundations of the communication discipline as well as the influence of communication scholars across public and private realms. Once they have developed an understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of effective communication; students will develop the skills necessary to overcome the barriers to effective communication.

The study of cultural differences that influence the exchange of meaning between individuals and groups of different cultural and/or racial backgrounds. The course is designed to provide students with an understanding of the uniqueness of cultures and the resulting variations in communication styles and preferences, and to provide strategies and skills for successfully communicating across cultural barriers. Students will spend at least 20 hours during the semester working with community agencies serving clients from different cultures.
(Normally offered each semester.)

Each course in the Topics in World Literature group will study a selection of literary works that engage the chosen topic--texts of different genres, from historical eras, and from different cultural traditions. The selected readings will present both abstract principles involved in the topic and its immediate, lived realities.
Prerequisite(s): Any First Year Writing course.

A course in the historical and political contexts of modern Irish literature, including the work of William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, Seamus Heaney, and others.
Prerequisite(s): Interdisciplinary Studies 1200 or ENG 2000 Introduction to Textual Studies or junior standing or permission of the instructor.

This course supplements the basic American survey courses. Its aim is to acquaint students with representative autobiography, fiction, drama, poetry, literary criticism, and essays by African-American writers from Frederick Douglass to Toni Morrison.
Prerequisite(s): First Year Writing and Sophomore standing.

An introduction to the culture and contemporary society of Mexico with an overview of the country's history, political system, art, festivals and religious celebrations, and cuisine. Students will read a recent novel and view a contemporary film in order to catch the full "flavor" of the vitality and richness of Mexican culture.

An introduction to the culture and contemporary society of Spain with an overview of language and communication, religion, tradition and celebration, art and architecture, film, literature, and government. The course is designed to highlight the strong sense of identity that contemporary Spaniards feel at being part of the "New Spain" and members of the European Community.

'Who are you?' This question confronts everyone at some point in life.How you answer it is culturally determined, based on how you perceive the connection between yourself and the world you inhabit. In this course we will investigate how the understanding of the self has developed in Western culture, beginning with Ancient Near Eastern religious traditions and teh philosophical discourse of Ancient Greece, and looking at how this understanding has evolved and changed over time. Particular attention will be focused on the challenge to traditional notions of the self that emerged with the development with modern psychological and sociological models of the self.

This course introduces students to major topics in the history of East Asia. Rather than an century-by-century narrative covering prehistory to the present, the course emphasizes the theme of inter-regional relations. Students learn about traditions such as Confucianism and Buddhism that provided a foundation for the development of centralized, Sinicized states in East Asia, as well as the cultural, economic, and political aspects of the tribute system that structured inter-regional relations throughout the pre-modern period. The second half of the semester picks up the theme of inter-regional relations in the modern period by examing the continuing impact of twentieth-century warfare on the Chinese, the Koreans, and the Japanese. Our sources include a combination of secondary scholarship by leading experts on East Asian history as well as primary historical and literary sources.
(Normally offered every year)

An examination of Germany in the twentieth century focusing on the rise of Adolph Hitler, the weakness of the Weimar government, the institutions of the Nazi regime, and the events of World War II and the Holocaust.
Prerequisite(s): HIST 1110 World Civilizations: A Survey of the Global Twentieth Century or HIST 2130 Western Civilization Through Literature or permission of the instructor.

An examination of Germany in the twentieth century focusing on the rise of Adolph Hitler, the weakness of the Weimar government, the institutions of the Nazi regime, and the events of World War II and the Holocaust.
Prerequisite(s): HIST 1010 Topics in United States History to 1877 or HIST 2130 Western Civilization Through Literature or permission of the instructor.

See Department for Course Description.

Key cultural concepts are used to explore music from selected global case studies. Social, cultural, and historical contexts are examined in relation to musical materials and their application in various traditions and repertoires.
Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing and permission from instructor.

The subfield of philosophy known as "metaphysics" can be described as a study of fundamental reality, whereas "epistemology" is just the study of knowledge - what it is, the possibility of having it, and how to get it if it is at all possible. In this course, students will learn analyze, and research some of the more popular problems and concepts within these subfields as they pertain to the nature of persons and their intellectual relationship with the world around them. This will be done largely through close readings of several historical and contemporary texts on these subjects.

This class will provide a perspective on the changes that take place during an individual's life from infancy to old age/death. Participants will study and describe the developing person at different periods in the lifespan. The processes of growth and change taking place in early, middle, and late adulthood will be considered as well as the more traditional concern with development in childhood.
Prerequisite(s): PSYCH 1010 Introduction to Psychological Science
(Normally offered each semester.)

A scientific study of the way in which thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by other people and situational factors. Topics include research methodology, conformity, social cognition, attitudes, persuasion, aggression, prejudice, and interpersonal attraction.
Prerequisite(s): PSYCH 1010 Introduction to Psychological Science.
Recommended: PSYCH 2100 Psychological Statistics and PSYCH 2110 Research Methods in Psychology
(Normally offered each fall semester.)
 

An introduction to the theories and research literature pertaining to memory, language, problem solving, creativity, cognitive development, and perception. Cognitive deomonstrations on the computer will be involved.
Prerequisite(s): PSYCH 1010 Introduction to Psychological Science.
(Normally offered each spring semester.)

This course considers historical, comparative, and methodological issues in the academic study of religion by focusing on the scriptures and history of two different religious traditions and how their theologies and ethical systems originated and developed. Designed as an inquiry into the meaning and function of religion, students will discuss how the different traditions understand the divine, worship, and scripture. Emphasis will be placed on the development of the students' own perspective on religion and the ability to express this perspective clearly and effectively.

This course considers historical, comparative, and methodological issues in the academic study of religion by focusing on the two different religious traditions that originated in the Middle East. Designed as an inquiry into the meaning and function of religion, students will discuss how the different traditions understand the divine, worship, and scripture. Emphasis will be placed on the development of the students' own perspective on religion and the ability to express this perspective clearly and effectively.

The course explores the modern construction of religion and religions as a legal, international, historical, and cultural category. We will investicate what definitions and assumptions are at work and who religous tradition is invented, maintained, or changed and for what ends. Classifications interrogated include religious, spiritual and secular, academic and folk. Materials and movements examined include intentionally provocative juxtapositions of ancient, new, tribal, world, localized and international. It is common in contemporary discourse to privilege individual freedom to choose or create a religious identity, therefore, this course will pay special attention to the ways in which spirituality obscures the extent to which individualistic ideology legitimates the creation of self-identity through consumer and lifestyle choices.

An introductory course in film study that is designed to provide students with a critical perspective of the general trends in cinema as well as initiate inestigation of how identity is expressed through film and video. Students will become acquainted with the formal qualities of film, general film theory, hands-on video making and will acquire an active vocabulary of film terminology. A central goal is to help students develop a set of criteria for the critical evaluation of both professional and personal films. Throughout the semester, students will learn introductory video making vocabulary, principles and techniques and will make their own videos that communicate definitions, formations, and expressions of identity.