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IAH 201-210 Courses - Summer 2009

IAH 201, The U.S. and the World, offers students common opportunities to explore both the unities and diversities of American experience through study of historical, literary, and other materials. The course draws on primary source readings, video texts, music, online discussion forums, and substantial student writing to broaden understanding of the processes by which the American nation, the American people, and American identity/ies have been made and remade in time and of some of the enduring issues and tensions in American life.

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 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.

Major issues in the development of Latin American societies and cultures, presented in relation to European and other cultures. Influences from indigenous peoples, Europeans, Africans, and others. Organized thematically and historically, through study of written texts, literature, and film. Includes unconventional ways of representing history. (i.e., testimonials, documentaries, essays).

"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.

These sections will explore the concepts of culture and cultural change from literary, social, and philosophical perspectives using contemporary materials and examples. The course investigates the complex ways in which identity is defined and re-defined in the competing pressures of cultural systems. Representative readings will include Rene Descartes, Meditations; Andre Dubus III, The House of Sand and Fog; Anne Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down; Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior; George Herbert Mead, Mind Self and Society; George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion; James W. Johnson, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man; Dick Hebdige, Sub-Culture. For these sections, a series of web-based modules will replace one hour of in-class meeting time each week. The modules will allow students to refine their understanding of course content. they deal with, among other things, definitions of culture and sub-cultures, authenticity and globalization; philosophical certainty and culture; theories of language acquisition and identity, and social mobility and behavior.

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.

This course considers the realm of the visual (as opposed to the written) from varied cultural perspectives. While the investigation of what we generally understand as "art" will occupy an important place, we will also explore the wider social and historical field of "visual culture", that realm of visual objects and media that exist in every culture, and that may or may not be culturally perceived as art. The course is organized thematically and is designed to encourage students to engage with a number of questions and issues that will be critical to their education at MSU and to their lives in our increasingly visual age.

This course focuses on major issues in the development of Middle Eastern societies and cultures, presented in global perspective, including influences from European, Africans, Asians, and others. Upon completion of this course the student will be generally familiar with the countries and cultures of the Middle East; have gained a broad exposure to Middle Eastern Literature in translation; be able to tie literary trends to historical and political events connecting the Middle East to the world; have a general understanding of the present and historical relationship of the Middle East to Africa, Asia, and the West; and have been exposed to Islamic art and Middle Eastern music and be aware of the two-way influences between East and West in the arts