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TIBCIN 220 Premodern East Asia (5) I&S Hanneman
Examines premodern China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam from their earliest origins to the mid-eighteenth century. Considers social, cultural, political, economic and intellectual developments within a historical framework. Offered: ASp.
TIBCIN 221 Modern East Asia (5) I&S Hanneman
Examines Modern East Asia, focusing on China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam from the mid-eighteenth century to the present. Considers social, cultural, political, economic and intellectual developments within a historical framework. Offered: ASp.
TIBCIN 281 Ancient Literature of Western Civilization (5) VLPA
Examines works of literature and philosophy of ancient Western Civilization as the foundation for subsequent Western writing and thought. May include Homer's Odyssey, Sophocles' Oedipus the King, Plato's Apology, and Virgil's Aeneid.
TIBCIN 282 Medieval and Renaissance Literature of Western Civilization (5) VLPA
Critically examines works of literature and literary theology from the medieval and Renaissance eras in Europe. Explores works as "archetypes," i.e., the foundation for subsequent European writing and thought of all kinds. Includes Dante's Inferno, Shakespeare's Hamlet, and Milton's Paradise Lost.
TIBCIN 283 Modern Literature of Western Civilization (5) VLPA
Examines literary works of Western civilization from the modern era, works important to subsequent Western writing and thought of all kinds. May include Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Goethe's Faust, Kafka's short stories, and Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway.
TIBCIN 352 Cultural Geography (5) I&S
Cultural components and the analysis of the role of culture in the formation of landscape patterns and the development of a sense of place. Emphasizes issues and problems generated by globalization.
TIBCIN 354 History of the Concept of Culture (5) I&S
Investigates the historical concept of culture, from its origins in the nineteenth-century notions of “race” and “evolution,” through its later development in twentieth-century popular and anthropological usages.
TIBCIN 355 The Mind of Modernity (5) I&S Forman
Looks at how since the sixteenth century, new and competing ways of understanding ourselves, the natural and human worlds, and our place in them, have defined European modernity. Examines a selection of original artistic, scientific, philosophical, and literary texts. Emphasizes reading, discussion, and writing.
TIBCIN 357 The Greek Mind and Imagination (5) I&S
Explores what makes the contribution of the Greeks so unique in the formation and heritage of Western Civilization. Examines some of their major human expressions and achievements in art, philosophy, literature, and history. Attends to the continuing influence of these ideas, values, and institutions on the world today.
TIBCIN 358 History of Philosophy: Medieval and Modern (5) I&S
Explores continuity in the concerns of thinkers from different places and eras, including such medieval and early modern philosophers as Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, Hume, and Kant. Examines how they address questions about reality, thought, and the beautiful and the good.
Instructor Course Description:
Amos Nascimento
TIBCIN 359 Themes in Existentialism (5) I&S
Examines the human predicament as treated in the writings of existentialist philosophers and writers such as Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky, Marcel, Heidegger, and Sartre. Examines historical origins, development, and present forms of existentialism. Assesses existentialism’s impact on psychology, religion, literature, and the arts. May be repeated for credit with instructor’s approval.
TIBCIN 360 History of Philosophy: Modern and Contemporary (5) I&S
Examines idealism, pragmatism, and existentialism in historical context to discover ways in which they are responses to past ideas and ways in which they are new. Focuses on the way issues in philosophy remain the same even as ways of thinking about them change.
Instructor Course Description:
Amos Nascimento
TIBCIN 365 Hinduism and Buddhism (5) I&S
Examines Hinduism and Buddhism, two of the world’s most ancient religious traditions - both originated in India, and claim well over half a billion followers in the modern world. Presents the radically different (from conventional Western) perspectives they offer on the context and meaning of human existence.
TIBCIN 366 Islam (5) I&S
Investigates the history and forms of Islam, the predominant religion of the Middle East. Particular attention devoted to understanding values, views, and assumptions that are often quite different from those familiar in the secular societies of the West.
TIBCIN 367 East Asian Religions: Zen and Taoism (5) I&S
Investigates Taoism as a characteristic East Asian world view and of Zen as an East Asian reshaping of Indian Buddhism. Includes readings and discussion of Taoist and Zen materials.
TIBCIN 390 Preparation for Study Abroad (1-5, max. 5) I&S/VLPA
Prepares students for extended study abroad experiences by examining the history, culture, politics, arts of the host country. Encourages reflection on and preparation for intercultural experience through a psycho-social lens.
TIBCIN 450 Contemporary Theories of Culture (5, max. 10) I&S
Studies recent anthropological theory and contemporary cultural theory. Includes topics such as cultural theory, British cultural studies, critical theory, and post-modernism; or ideology, culture, and cultural resistance; ethnocentrism, relativism; class and race; the social body; self and other; gender and sexuality. May be repeated for credit with instructor’s approval.
Instructor Course Description:
Robert Crawford
TIBCIN 451 Renaissance Europe (5) I&S
Development of Renaissance humanism and its influence on culture, politics, and society in fourteenth-, fifteenth-, and sixteenth-century Europe and beyond.
TIBCIN 452 Art, Culture, and History of the Eternal City (10) I&S
Uses Rome as a laboratory to understand the role of art, history, and urbanism in the development of Western culture. Addresses the many facets of the cultural development of Rome and Italy, including geography, history, urban design, art, and architecture. Research-based and includes extensive fieldwork.
Instructor Course Description:
Michael Kucher
TIBCIN 453 Ancient Greek Tragedy (5) VLPA
Examines selected tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.
TIBCIN 454 Comparative Mythology (5) VLPA
Explores selected mythologies; specific studies may be topical, or thematic. Includes the exploration of mythography, critical examination of the form, context, and function of mythology, particularly in its expression of world view and attended values.
TIBCIN 455 Medieval Quests (5) VLPA
Examines important works of literature and literary theology from the medieval era, broadly construed. Special attention to the theme of the "quest." Texts include Augustine's Confessions, Beowulf, The Quest of the Holy Grail, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Don Quixote.
TIBCIN 456 Postcolonial Studies: African Perspectives (5) I&S
Investigates postcolonial cultures located in Africa. Situates the political, personal, and historical dimensions of international and institutional hierarchies in Africa and the African Diaspora. Examines African philosophy, literature, art, folklore, and history as sources of postcolonial nationalism.
TIBCIN 461 Religion and Church in Latin America (5) I&S
Provides an interdisciplinary examination of the political, social, and cultural implications of religion in Latin America. Covers four major themes: the history of the Catholic Church and its influence on politics and socio-economic structures, religious syncretism, liberation theology, and changes occurring in contemporary Latin American Christianity.
TIBCIN 462 African Folklore and Literature (5) I&S
Explores oral and written traditions in Africa. Emphasizes how the aesthetics of storytelling and dialogue shape the production of narrative in contemporary African contexts. Explores anthropological, literary, and historical approaches in viewing the aesthetic qualities of African folklore and literature.
Instructor Course Description:
Solimar Otero
TIBCIN 463 God: East and West (5) I&S
Investigates both western and eastern approaches to understanding “God” (a personal Supreme Being who created the world) and examines ramifications for the way humans have thought.
TIBCIN 465 God and the New Physics (5) I&S
Examines multiple theories and interpretations of physical reality. Explores how new ways of thinking about the world are paralleled by new ways of thinking about God. Examines some new theories and reflects on religious and theological questions.
TIBCIN 466 Modernity and Its Critics (5, max. 10) I&S
Considers various attempts to specify and critique the contours of Western modernity -- in culture, philosophy, and political economy. Themes selected include the impact of Cartesian philosophy, science, and rationality on our concepts of the world, ourselves, our bodies, time, and human relations.
TIBCIN 469 Topics in Ideas, Beliefs, and Cultural Patterns (5, max. 15) I&S
Advanced course offerings in Ideas, Beliefs and Cultural Patterns designed to respond to faculty and student interests and needs.
TIBCIN 490 Society and Culture in Cuba (15) I&S/VLPA
Examines the history, culture, language, and politics of Cuba, as well as the psychological experiences and processes of living and studying abroad. Classes held at the University of Cienfuegos, Cuba.
