As in French I, in this course, you will learn the basics of French, including reading, writing, listening, and speaking. At the end of the quarter you will know how to introduce yourself and volunteer basic information, and how to ask questions of others. You will also have some knowledge of French and Francophone cultures and protocols. This class is divided into four modules, which follow the chapters in the textbook. In each module you will be asked to read, write, speak, and listen in French. You will have daily homework assignments to complete. The class also includes a quarter-long cultural immersion project, in which you will be asked to conduct research on specific aspects of a non-European Francophone country and report your findings to the rest of the class.

As in French I and II, in this course, you will learn the basics of French, including reading, writing, listening, and speaking. At the end of the quarter you will know how to introduce yourself and volunteer basic information, and how to ask questions of others. You will also have some knowledge of French and Francophone cultures and protocols. This class is divided into four modules, which follow the chapters in the textbook. In each module you will be asked to read, write, speak, and listen in French. You will have daily homework assignments to complete. The class also includes a quarter-long cultural immersion project, in which you will be asked to conduct research on specific aspects of a non-European Francophone country and report your findings to the rest of the class.

This course examines relationships between identity and participation in Japanese popular culture as a way of understanding the changing character of media, capitalism, fan communities, and culture. It emphasizes contemporary popular culture and theories of gender, sexuality, race, and the workings of power and value in global culture industries. Topics include manga (comic books), hip-hop and other popular music, anime and feature films, video games, contemporary literature, and online communication. Students present analyses and develop a final project based on a particular aspect of gender and popular culture.

This course explores stereotypes associated with Asian women in colonial, nationalist, state-authoritarian, and global/diasporic narratives about gender and power. Students will read ethnography, cultural studies, and history, and view films to examine the politics and circumstances that create and perpetuate the representation of Asian women as dragon ladies, lotus blossoms, despotic tyrants, desexualized servants, and docile subordinates. Students are introduced to the debates about Orientalism, gender, and power.

Prepares students for working and living in German-speaking countries. Focus on current political, social, and cultural issues, using newspapers, journals, TV, radio broadcasts, and Web sources from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Emphasis on speaking, writing, and reading skills for professional contexts. Activities include: oral presentations, group discussions, guest lectures, and interviews with German speakers. No listeners.

This course examines contemporary and historical cultural production on and from Africa across a range of registers, including literary, musical and visual arts, material culture, and science and technology. It employs key theoretical concepts from anthropology and social theory to analyze these forms and phenomena. It also uses case studies to consider how Africa articulates its place in, and relationship to, the world through creative practices. Discussion topics are largely drawn from Francophone and sub-Saharan Africa, but also from throughout the continent and the African diaspora.

This course explores how and why Japan, a late-comer to modernization, emerged as an industrial power and the world's second-richest nation, notwithstanding its recent difficulties. We are particularly concerned with the historical development of technology in Japan especially after 1945, giving particular attention to the interplays between business, ideology, technology, and culture. We will discuss key historical phenomena that symbolize modern Japan as a technological power in the world; specific examples to be discussed in class include kamikaze aircraft, the Shinkansen high-speed bullet train, Godzilla, and anime.

This course will explore the rise and decline of Greek and Roman civilizations between the first millennium BCE and the first millennium CE. Specifically, it will focus on the political, economic, and social factors that shaped the development and maturation of these two Mediterranean civilizations during the period of classical antiquity and examine how they influenced the social and cultural development of later generations of Europeans. By the end of the course, the student will understand how these ancient Mediterranean civilizations developed and recognize their lasting influences on European culture. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: think critically about the development, maturation, and decline of Greek and Roman cultures during the first millennium BCE and the first millennium CE; identify the cultural origins of Greek civilization in the Mediterranean basin; compare and contrast the political and social organization of Greek city-states; evaluate the impact of the Persian War and the Peloponnesian Wars on the city-states of Greece; assess the political, social, and cultural legacies of Alexander the GreatĺÎĺĺÎĺs military conquests in the Mediterranean basin and Southwest Asia; identify the origins of the Roman Republic and evaluate the impact of political and economic expansion on Roman society; assess the political, social, and economic factors that led to the fall of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire; compare and contrast the accomplishments of Roman emperors during the first three centuries CE; identify factors that destabilized the Roman Empire during the third century CE; assess how Roman leaders responded to destabilizing forces and restructured the Roman Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries CE; evaluate the political, social, and cultural legacies of the Greek and Roman civilizations for the nations and peoples of Europe; analyze and interpret primary source documents from the period of classical antiquity using historical research methods. (History 301)

" This class explores the political and aesthetic foundations of hip hop. Students trace the musical, corporeal, visual, spoken word, and literary manifestations of hip hop over its 30 year presence in the American cultural imagery. Students also investigate specific black cultural practices that have given rise to its various idioms. Students create material culture related to each thematic section of the course. Scheduled work in performance studio helps students understand how hip hop is created and assessed."

This course will introduce the student to the history of Europe from 1800 to present day. The student will learn about the major political, economic, and social changes that took place in Europe during this period including Industrial Revolution, the First and Second World Wars, imperialism, and the Cold War. By the end of this course, the student will understand how nationalism, industrialization, and imperialism fueled the rise of European nation-states in the nineteenth century, as well as how world war and oppressive regimes devastated Europe during the 1900s. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: Think critically and analytically about European history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; Identify and analyze the varying causes and effects of the Industrial Revolution in Europe; Identify, describe, and analyze the development of a coherent set of ideologies in post-Napoleonic Europe: liberalism, socialism, Marxism, nationalism, and Romanticism; Identify and describe the causes and effects of the era of reform and revolution in Europe in the 1820s and 1830s, as well as analyze the Revolutions of 1848; Describe and analyze the effects of urbanizationĺÎĺĚ_ĺÜexpanding cities, rising public health risks, redefined social classes, the evolving nature of the family, and new developments in science and thought; Identify the age of nationalism in Europe between 1850 and 1914. Students will analyze FranceĺÎĺĺÎĺs Second Empire, ItalyĺÎĺĺÎĺs unification, GermanyĺÎĺĺÎĺs unification, and the modernization of Russia. Students will also be able to define the emergence of the modern nation-state during this period; Identify the causes and characteristics of EuropeĺÎĺĺÎĺs ĺÎĺĺĺŤNew ImperialismĄ_ĺĺö of the late nineteenth century. Students will also be able to describe and analyze responses to this imperialism in Africa, India, the Middle East, and the Far East; Assess how and why World War I erupted in 1914. Students will also be able to identify and describe the characteristics and impact of the Great War; Identify and describe the Russian Revolution of 1917, including the fall of the Romanov dynasty and the Bolshevik Revolution; Identify and describe the cultural and social problems that characterized post-WWI Europe. Students will be able to analyze Modernism, ethnic and economic problems in central and eastern Europe, and the Great Depression; Identify and describe the rise of authoritarian regimes in Europe during the 1920s and 1930s. Students will be able to analyze Stalinism, Fascism, and Nazism; Identify and describe the causes and conflicts of World War II. Students will also be able to analyze, identify, and describe the Holocaust; Analyze and explain the Cold War. Students will also be able to analyze, identify, and describe the collapse of Communism and the Soviet Union, as well as the end of the Cold War; Identify and describe the post-WWII social transformations in Europe, including the rise of feminism, the rise of counterculture, and new developments in both science and technology; Analyze and interpret primary source documents from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, using historical research methods. (History 202)

This course introduces diverse meanings and uses of the concept of culture with historical and contemporary examples from scholarship and popular media around the globe. It includes first-hand observations, synthesized histories and ethnographies, and visual and narrated representations of human experiences. Students conduct empirical research on cultural differences through the systematic observation of human interaction, employ methods of interpretative analysis, and practice convincing others of the accuracy of their findings.

Course DescriptionHuman rights, an idea that has come to mean a set of core practices and values that society believes are inherent to each and every individual, was not a construct that sprang from a vacuum. In this course we will address the development of the term human rights, from ancient times through to the present day. As a class, we will focus on the religious, moral, and social implications of believing in such inalienable rights, the development of the concept of individual rights and responsibilities, the conflicts and complications that made contemporary human rights what they, and the 20th and 21st century struggles that have pushed human rights near to a breaking point.As a history course covering a single topic on a global scale, this course will entail a significant amount of reading, and will focus on the tools and practices necessary for successful comprehension of historical materials, both in the primary and secondary form. Through this class, students will learn to differentiate between primary and secondary historical sources, successfully deconstruct both sets of materials, and understand how to summarize and integrate individual sources with the larger historical narrative of human rights. Finally, this course will rely solely on Open-Source Educational Materials, grounding the importance of the democratization of knowledge.

International student exchanges are an increasingly popular aspect of the internationalisation of higher education around the globe. Whether as short-term mobility projects or semester long ‘study abroad’ opportunities, the benefits of such international study experiences have been well documented.

Higher education institutions, departments and disciplines, or individual academics are often tasked with preparing students for such international experiences. Such preparation often focuses on the practical and logistical aspects of student travel, overlooking a crucial dimension of student learning.

Intercultural learning: Critical preparation for international student travel aims to take students beyond practical preparation, to equip them with a critical lens through which to view and understand their international experiences. The book leads students toward a deeper understanding of culture and cultural difference through an exploration of challenging concepts such as imperialism, racism, privilege and intercultural practice.

As an adjunct to traditional approaches, the book adds a significant and valuable dimension to the process of preparing students for international study, increasing the potential for meaningful and transformative learning experiences.

International Women's Voices has several objectives. It introduces students to a variety of works by contemporary women writers from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and North America. The emphasis is on non-western writers. The readings are chosen to encourage students to think about how each author's work reflects a distinct cultural heritage and to what extent, if any, we can identify a female voice that transcends national cultures. In lectures and readings distributed in class, students learn about the history and culture of each of the countries these authors represent. The way in which colonialism, religion, nation formation and language influence each writer is a major concern of this course. In addition, students examine the patterns of socialization of women in patriarchal cultures, and how, in the imaginary world, authors resolve or understand the relationship of the characters to love, work, identity, sex roles, marriage and politics.This class is a communication intensive course. In addition to becoming more thoughtful readers, students are expected to become a more able and more confident writers. Assignments are designed to allow for revision of each paper. The class will also offer opportunities for speaking and debating so that students can build oral presentation skills that are essential for success once they leave MIT. The class is limited to 25 students and there is substantial classroom discussion.

Funded by the University System of Georgia’s “Affordable Learning Georgia” initiative, An Introduction to African and Afro-Diasporic Peoples and Influences in British Literature and Culture before the Industrial Revolution corrects, expands, and celebrates the presence of the African Diaspora in the study of British Literature, undoing some of the anti-Black history of British studies.

This course examines major social and political trends, events, debates and personalities which help place aspects of contemporary French culture in their historical perspective through fiction, films, essays, newspaper articles, and television. Topics include the heritage of the French Revolution, the growth and consequences of colonialism, the role of intellectuals in public debates, the impact of the Occupation, the modernization of the economy and of social structures. The sources and meanings of national symbols, monuments, myths and manifestoes are also studied. Recommended for students planning to study abroad. Taught in French.

Studies the major social, political, and aesthetic modes which have shaped Spanish civilization. Coordinates the study of literature, film, art, and architecture with the historical evolution of Spain. Readings and discussions focus on such topics as: the coexistence of Christians, Moors, and Jews; Imperial Spain; The First and Second Republics; and the contemporary period as background for the emergence of distinctively Spanish literary and artistic movements. Taught in Spanish. This course has several purposes. The major concern will be the examination of Spanish culture including Spain's history, architecture, art, literature and film, to determine if there is a uniquely Spanish manner of seeing and understanding the world - one which emerges as clearly distinct from our own and that of other Western European nations.

In this course, we will study the history of Western art, beginning with the first objects created by prehistoric humans around 20,000 years ago and ending with the art and architecture of the High Gothic period in fourteenth-century Europe. The information presented in this course will provide you with the tools to recognize important works of art and historical styles, as well as to understand the historical context and cultural developments of Western art history through the end of the medieval period. Upon successful completion of this course, student will be able to: demonstrate an understanding of the general arc of the history of the Western world, from Prehistory through the end of the medieval period; identify the major historical events in Western history and the roles of various religious and political leaders in these events; demonstrate an understanding of the vital role that imagery played as various cultures have sought to perpetuate religious, political, and cultural ideologies; understand the relationships between various cultures over timeĺÎĺĚ_ĺÜhow cultures build on the traditions of older cultures to create something new; identify the major stylistic developments in Western art from Prehistory through the end of the Medieval period; discuss the different techniques used by Western artists from the Prehistoric through the Medieval periods and understand which techniques were favored by which cultures; demonstrate an understanding of how technological developments over the course of history changed the appearance, function, and reception of works of art; identify the culture and art-historical period in which works of art were created, based on an understanding of distinctive stylistic features; demonstrate an understanding of how cultures coexisting in different geographical regions related to one another, and how artistic styles were transmitted from one region to another; identify specific monuments and be able to provide basic identifying information: title, date, location, artists, patrons, and art-historical period (i.e. Prehistoric, Egyptian, Ancient Near East, Gothic, etc). (Art History 110)

An introduction to diverse musical traditions of the world. Music from a wide range of geographical areas are studied in terms of structure, performance practice, social use, aesthetics, and cross-cultural contact. Includes hands-on music making, live demonstrations by guest artists, and ethnographic research projects. This course explores the ways that music is both shaped by and gives shape to the cultural settings in which it is performed, through studying selected musical traditions from around the world. Specific case studies will be examined closely through listening, analysis, and hands-on instruction. The syllabus centers around weekly listening assignments and readings from a textbook with CDs, supplemented by hands-on workshops, lecture/demonstrations and concerts by master musicians from around the world.

This course examines the major aesthetic, social, and political elements which have shaped modern Japanese culture and society. There are readings on contemporary Japan and historical evolution of the culture are coordinated with study of literary texts, film, and art, along with an analysis of everyday life and leisure activities.