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IAH 201-210 Courses - Spring 2010

American Studies emphasis. Focuses on the influence of cultural forms on our understanding of nation, empire, identity, public diplomacy, and globalization. Includes discussion of literature, music and the arts, while emphasizing the importance of media content and popular culture forms. Comparative study of cultural influence, with modules on Latin America, Africa, Europe, and Asia .

This course will examine the changes in American culture that occur as the United States moves from relative isolation at the end of the 19th century to an active and integrated part of the global community by the beginning of the 21st century. The course will examine why this happens and the results of that expanding role on popular culture, economics, religion, foreign policy, politics and personal life.

This course is a comparative study of 20th century domesticity in America and throughout the world. Using the framework of domesticity and the ideology of separate spheres, U.S. women used their position in society to agitate for suffrage, workplace equality, lower prices in the marketplace and consumer rights. While their activities were certainly radical despite the waning Victorian ideology of separate spheres and its influence on women and labor, U.S. women were certainly not alone. Australian and African women fought for regulation of marketplace price controls, Asian housewives sought political office to maintain domestic stability, and as recently as 2003 Latin American women initiated a National Housewives' Union in Venezuela in order to empower overworked housewives. Yet despite the occurrences of paralleled activism of housewives, in what ways was the U.S. domestic ideal used as a tool of cultural imperialism? How did African American settlers in Liberia use domesticity synonymously with civilization, and how was domesticity infused into the curriculum of foreign education for women in Iran?
     This course will not only examine the activities of women globally in the name of domesticity, it will also analyze the approach of American feminist scholars toward the experiences of women internationally. Did women globally define their domestic responsibilities as patriarchal oppression? To what extent did American feminist scholars accurately analyze domesticity both in the United States and abroad? Not only will this course compare and contrast American experiences of domesticity with those of women around the world, but it will also examine the variations of domestic experiences felt by women in the United States.
      Indeed, not all American women fit into the Victorian ideology of separate spheres. Immigrant women, African American women, and working class women in America were all held to the same standard, but experienced domesticity in drastically different ways. Critiquing the ideology of separate spheres, examining the economic contributions of housewives in various countries, and outlining the similarities and differences in domesticity among women globally will provide a better understanding of the common ground upon which women in diverse locales may relate, and will also highlight those culturally distinctive female experiences that make international studies valuable.

We will explore the daily and ubiquitous presence of the United States in the world and the world in the United States with a particular focus on the economic, social, and cultural engagements of the 19th and 20th centuries. We will examine the daily consumption of the items, including material culture, sports, music, and film as well as the movement and distribution of people and ideologies. Students will identify and understand the ways in which the history of the United States has been shaped by forces taking place outside their national borders and how the United States has shaped the world.

The continent of Europe has had an enormous effect on world development over the past twenty centuries or more. During the last six centuries especially, Europeans and their descendents have affected social, economic and cultural development throughout the world. These sections of IAH 202 will analyze four main themes within the context of Europe and the world. The first is the effects of changing environments and diseases on social and cultural structures. The second is the exchange between cultures, ethnic groups, and the environment in a process I call creolization. The third is the relation of the economy to political and legal ideas. The fourth is the place of legendary stories—myths—which people throughout the world use and always have used to explain or understand their lives.

This course will focus on European cultural encounters with peoples in the Americas, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia looking at moments of colonization and empire and cultural exchange, as well as the end of empire and the "reverse colonization" many of the European colonizers have experienced since decolonization after World War II. It is not a course in European history, but an introduction to various issues in the history of empire, and a look at the roots of globalization.

Designed for the non-specialist, this course aims to give students a greater understanding of Latin American Society and culture through the examination of the region?s history, arts, and literature. Over the course of the semester, we will be examining themes of family, race, memory, and nation in Latin American societies from the fifteenth century to present. The course will be divided into four chronological parts. These are: 1) Conquests and Encounters; 2) Independence and Nation Building; 3) Revolution and Populism; 4) Dictatorship and Democratization.

This course explores the global dimensions of Asian politics and cultures from roughly the eighteenth century to the present. The course focuses on empire: its origins in early structures and patterns of cultural contact in Asia , its formal consolidation through colonial rule and spheres of influence, its collapse in the era of Asian revolutions, its refashioning in the Cold War and post-colonial struggles, and its enduring legacies in the era of globalization.

"Africa and the World" is a multi-disciplinary course which will explore Africa's internal dynamics, as well as the processes by which the continent became integrated into the larger world system. The course is divided into nine units, each of which will explore the interplay between the internal as well as the external socio-economic, political and religious forces operating in African societies.

This course examines ethical problems arising from our use of various technologies, including energy technologies, biotechnology, genetic engineering, the internet, and others. Theories of human nature, personal well-being, and moral obligation are introduced and used to think critically about effects of these technologies on society, the natural environment, and our sense of self.

This course introduces students to cross-cultural studies of individualities in Chinese and Japanese literature from tradition to modernity. Analytical explorations will focus on how the self is conditioned and contested in literary works, which redefines the general understanding of East Asia individuals in the context of global transformations. Critical inquiries into these poetic, cinematic and fictional representations aim at enriching the learning minds with both cultural specificity and shared experiences across time and space.

Paradoxically, this course takes as its point of departure a point of disappearance. In other words, this IAH section is devoted to the question of how things come to an end, or rather, how different cultures, religions, philosophers, scientists, prophets and artists have imagined the end(s) of man. We will therefore indulge in a thought experiment, one which involves thinking up to and beyond the end of the world as we know it.

This multi-media course will deal with definitions and re-definitions of Scottish identity and culture, both in the past and especially in modern and contemporary times, as seen in literary works and films. We will read some selected pieces by classic Scottish authors as well as works by modern authors. Films may include low-budget Scottish treatments of Scottish historical themes and high-budget Hollywood versions such as "Braveheart" and "Rob Roy." Representative of the vibrant contemporary film-making scene in Scotland are "Trainspotting," "Shallow Grave," "My Name Is Joe," and films by Bill Forsyth ("Gregory's Girl," "Comfort and Joy," and "Local Hero"). We will concentrate on works which are peculiarly Scottish in subject matter, language, or tone, and may also consider, in passing, the Scottishness of modern rock bands such as Deacon Blue, the Proclaimers, and Runrig. Classes will consist of lectures, film viewings, and discussion.

Nearly every culture has some form of popular music, but how it is produced, and its intersection with history, identity, and social structure demonstrates enormous diversity. Furthermore, the contemporary music industry is deeply intertwined with relationships between various international entities. This course examines how global popular music articulates such themes as race and class consciousness, gender and politics, both through its physical manifestation as sound, and in the ways it generates meaning for performers and consumers.

Music and Culture in the Western World from Classical Antiquity to the Present. Survey of general characteristics of Western arts and culture in Prehistory, Antiquity, the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Modern eras, exploration of culture's effects on music, and music's effects on culture.

The course addresses the complex question of “art” as an important category within contemporary Western culture; one which may not exist as we conceive it in other cultures or other time periods. We will examine this question from a variety of cultural perspectives, and locate the understanding of what art is within the field of “visual culture,” as a more encompassing category applicable to all cultures, and of which art may only be a part depending on the cultural context. Simultaneously, we will address the notions of the “aesthetic” and “anti-aesthetic” or the role of “beauty” in defining art.