CSP 2037: Anthropology and Science Fiction: Close Encounters of the Cultural Kind

4 intermediate liberal arts

This course brings together anthropology and science fiction to explore how humans think about, narrate, and contest encounters across difference. Through a combination of scholarly texts, fiction, film, and other works, we will investigate how people in different times and places have made sense of what it means to be human in moments when multiple forms of personhood are present. We will investigate why societies tell stories about encounters with the Other, consider how cross-cultural encounters transform societies and their ways of imagining and managing change, and analyze how the idea of difference has shaped anthropology and science fiction. Students will create original works that reflect on and tell new stories about cross-cultural encounters.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

ANT4605 Anthropology of Law
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

Anthropology of law is a four-credit advanced History and Society course that explores cross-cultural variation within and among legal institutions. Through the medium of ethnography, as well as original primary-source research into court proceedings and legal disputes, we consider how law becomes a mechanism for the maintenance of social order at the same time that it can contribute to social inequity. We will address central questions in the anthropology of law: How does our cultural background influence how we conceptualize justice? What are the consequences of finding oneself between competing legal systems? Our focus will be to examine critically the social and cultural dynamics behind dispute resolution, corporate law, crime, torts, religious law, and international courts, as well as dilemmas around policing and other ways people encounter "the law" in everyday life. Case studies from diverse legal environments in both industrialized and small-scale societies will help place Western law traditions in a comparative, global perspective.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

CSP2005 Anthropology of Religion

(Formerly CVA2005)
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts CreditsAnthropology of religion is a four-credit intermediate History and Society course. From an ethnographic and qualitative perspective, we will explore religious expression around the globe, including the major Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam but also Buddhism, Hinduism, African religions, and lesser-known faiths from small-scale, non-industrialized societies. Emphasis is placed on the analytic categories for understanding religious experiences and the prospects and challenges of cross-cultural comparison. We will adopt the techniques of anthropological inquiry to consider the social forces at work within religious life, including the political, colonial, gendered, and transnational dimensions of worship. Topics of ritual, mythology, witchcraft, magic, and science will guide our exploration of belief and spirituality beyond the formal boundaries of institutional religions. Experiential assignments, including participant observation and interviews with practitioners from unfamiliar spiritual traditions, are combined with in-depth written exercises to strengthen your intercultural and rhetorical competencies.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

ARB4650 Arab Culture for Business

(Formerly Business Arabic)

4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

This course aims to help students acquire cultural intelligence and develop the tools necessary to learn about business culture of the Arab world and be aware of local traditions and sensitivities. It provides an understanding of Arab business etiquette and culture, and discusses related topics such as travel, dress codes, Islam and business, communication and negotiation styles, attitudes, and hierarchy in the workplace. Students survey countries like UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Lebanon, Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia …etc. They use diverse forms of authentic and recent media and examine materials from different Arabic newspapers and media sources such as Al-Hayat, Al- Ahram and Al-Jazeera to comprehend practical business issues, cultural values and social etiquette in the Arab world and the Middle East.

The course is taught in English. No prior knowledge of Arabic is needed.

ARB4640 Arab Cinema and Culture

(Formerly ARB4600)
4 Advanced Liberal Arts CreditsThis course is designed as an advanced-level conversation class, with a strong cultural component. It explores Arab cinema from the colonial period to the present, and provides an in-depth exploration of "cultural identity" and "politics" in the Arab World. Although Egypt is considered the biggest film producer in the Arab world, the course aspires to represent various cinemas across the region, from Morocco and Algeria to Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Palestine, introducing students to notable moments and phenomena in the history of these cinemas. The course will be taught in Arabic and all films will be in Arabic with English subtitle. In addition to film viewings, students will be required to read critical and theoretical articles that pertain to class discussion. These films and readings serve as the basis for debate, discussion and written analysis of issues relevant to the history, culture and politics of the Arab world and the Middle East. Films will be on reserve at Horn Library, and screenings will be scheduled.

Prerequisites: Students need to be at least at a high intermediate level
This course is open to advanced and heritage speakers of Arabic

ARB4610 Elementary Arabic II: Language and Culture
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

Arabic 4610 is a project-based course designed to give students the opportunity to develop Arabic language and culture knowledge through engaging projects set around daily activities and situations students may experience in the real world. These projects will help students to build vocabulary, grammar and general communicative competence. They will help them enhance the spoken skills necessary for a variety of daily activities and will expose them to the diverse dialects and rich cultures of the Arab World. Projects include cooking lessons at the Foundry, learning Dabke dance, learning Arabic calligraphy, dining at an Arab restaurant … and much more.

You may sign-up for this class if you have successfully completed ARB2200 or its equivalent, or you are a heritage speaker who can understand Arabic minimally.

Prerequisites: ARB2200

LTA2005 Art as a Visual Language
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts CreditsThis course is designed to introduce you to the realm of visual communication - how it's done, how it works and how cultural and personal experiences shape your reactions to it. Fine arts (painting, sculpture, architecture), industrial arts (graphic and product design) and everyday objects will be presented as the workings of visual communication, the role of art and artists in a variety of times and places, the nature of good and bad art and design are explored.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

ART1175 Beginning Painting Watercolor and Acrylic
4 General CreditsThis is an introductory level course designed to bring students through basic aspects of drawing in a wide range of media. No previous experience is required. Issues such as line, tone, mark making, gesture form, light sources, figure/ground relationships, and perspective to overall compositions will be addressed separately and in the many ways that they relate to one another in a drawing. Students will draw observationally from life and from their own drawings, learning how to use each of these concepts as tools in order to draw and see more analytically. We will work with a wide range of materials from basic graphite pencils and charcoal to ink washes, conte crayon on gesso treated paper, silverpoint, collage, and printmaking. Slides of various artists' work will be discussed in relation to concepts and processes explored in class. Student work will be discussed in group critiques with full class participation. Students should be committed to expanding their skills and can expect project deadlines. There will be some expense for materials.

Prerequisites: None

CSP2030 Black American Music
(Formerly CVA2030 African American Music in the U.S.)
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

This course surveys music created by and about African Americans from the 19th century to the present, including spirituals, gospel, ragtime, blues, jazz, classical, R&B, rock and roll, soul, funk, disco, and rap. The course will emphasize: (1) African origins, and the historical and sociocultural contexts in which African American musical styles developed; (2) nontechnical musical analysis of the works studied; (3) the reciprocal relationships between African American music and other American music; and (4) the ways in which music participates in and shapes our national perceptions of and debates over race. No musical background required.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

LTA2031 Top Performers: Business in American Drama
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts CreditsEver since Willy Loman walked on stage with his sample cases in Arthur Miller's 1949 masterpiece Death of a Salesman, it has been thought axiomatic that American playwrights have painted a bleak portrait of sales professionals in particular and businesspeople generally. But a close look at American dramatic treatments of business shows something more complicated. Over the past century American playwrights have located in the world of business and the world of drama a shared preoccupation with the sometimes tricky distinctions between word and act, authenticity and performance, the _real_ and the symbolic. This course will look at a selection of American plays from the early twentieth century to the present, focusing on those plays' treatment of business and economic life. In addition to close scrutiny of dramatic texts and theatrical performances, we will also explore the role of performance in business. In other words, we'll look at both business in American drama and drama in American business. Your performance will be assessed through two papers, a mid-term and a final exam.

This course is typically offered in the following semesters: Fall

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)