Time Schedule:
Jonathan W. Warren
SIS 302
Seattle Campus
Perspectives on foreign cultures through literary example. Interdisciplinary approaches to the study of culture as such and problems of intercultural relations. Prerequisite: either one 200-level ANTH course, LING 203 or SIS 202.
Class description
Students will learn why the move away from area studies toward formal theories which ignore culture has been a colossal mistake. To demonstrate this point we will look at three examples: racial formations, development policy, and the US invasion in Iraq. Students will witness not only how incomplete acultural social analysis of identities, economies and nation-building are but how these ideas have helped to produce mass poverty, disease and death.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
A mixture of lectures and seminar-type discussion of readings and films.
Recommended preparation
A willingness to work hard, openness to new ideas, and some familiarity with US militarism and expansion, North Atlantic economic development policy, and critical race studies.
Class assignments and grading
Two exams: either in-class, open-book or take-home exams.
Participation and success on exams.
