| source Duke (X) |
level |
department International Comparative Studies (X) |
Experimental Art and its Ethics Since 1945 covers all major avant-garde movements of the post World War II era, and concentrates on the conceptual and theoretical impact they have had on the social, political, and cultural conditions of this period. In the aftermath of the atomic bomb and the Holocaust, the capacities of art to express the ethical dilemmas of humankind were questioned. Nevertheless, artists responded to those unprecedented events with coherent and powerful works, and again after September 11th 2001. We will examine the moral, ethical, political, and social exigencies of art, from the existential aftermath of World War II to identity politics, from HIV/AIDS, rape, incest and child abuse to pornography and scatology, from the stateÂs destruction of art to the dilemmas of the post-biological age of genetic engineering; and we shall accomplish this goal through the systematic study of the stylistic development, changes in media, and conceptual orientation of the avant-garde from 1945 to the present. The ethical dimension of this course will consider how the discipline of art confronts cultural concepts of good/bad and right/wrong, how principles of conduct governing aesthetics are carried out in art and its institutions, how standards of behavior, character, or the ideals of character are portrayed in art, and how all of the answers to these questions effect society and culture.
Score: 12.090301 Details | Listing | Web page
The past two decades have witnessed an unprecedented upsurge in democratic forms of rule in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. This course is designed to explore the reasons for this global pattern of political change, to familiarize students with the process of political transition in a variety of empirical settings, and to offer a comparative perspective on the challenges facing political leaders in new democracies. Central emphasis will be placed on major concepts and theories relating to the study of the emergence and consolidation of political democracy.
Score: 12.090301 Details | Listing | Web page
This course is designed as a general introduction to
Score: 12.090301 Details | Listing | Web page
In 2009 South Africa will celebrate fifteen years of democracy under an African National Congress (ANC) government, following forty-six years of apartheid under a National Party (NP) government. What should be celebrated and by whom?
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Continuation of CHN 135. Conducted in Chinese.
Score: 12.090301 Details | Listing | Web page
Continuation of CHN 135. Conducted in Chinese.
Score: 12.090301 Details | Listing | Web page
This course considers the global Chinese city as an object of cultural representation, as well as an engine of cultural representation. We will look at a variety of literary and cinematic texts, with an emphasis on themes of modernization, alienation, nostalgia, migration, labor, and processes of commoditization. Through a detailed examination of cultural representations of ÂChinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei, and New York, we will attempt to rethink the very notion of Chineseness within an increasingly globalized world. Professor Carlos Rojas
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Is globalization undermining the nation-state? Does globalization mean that different parts of the world are becoming more alike? What is globalization, anyway, and when did it start? What is the relationship between national, religious, and ethnic identity? how are they constructed? What assumptions do we bring to our nderstanding of tradition and modernity? How do the different ways in which we understand progress (economic, technological, human rights) affect our understanding
Score: 12.090301 Details | Listing | Web page
Is globalization undermining the nation-state? Does globalization mean that different parts of the world are becoming more alike? What is globalization, anyway, and when did it start? What is the relationship between national, religious, and ethnic identity? how are they constructed? What assumptions do we bring to our nderstanding of tradition and modernity? How do the different ways in which we understand progress (economic, technological, human rights) affect our understanding
Score: 12.090301 Details | Listing | Web page
This course uses concepts, stereotypes, and experiences of gender and sexuality to think about Latin America and uses ethnographic work on Latin America to re-think the categories of gender and sexuality. Are such identities made or born? Do we "have" a gender (and can we have only one?)? Is gender personal or political? Is it what you do, who you are, what people think you are? Why are the stereotypes of Latins as "sensual" and North Americans as "frigid" so long-lasting? How are such ideas connected to other identity categories like nation, race, ethnicity, or class? We will explore these questions through historical documents, ethnography, literature, film, and think about indigenous issues, dictatorship and civil war, and globalization among other themes. Cases will be taken from throughout the Americas, from Virginia to Argentina, to Cuba, from the Guatemalan highlands to Brazil's marginal urban communities.
Score: 12.090301 Details | Listing | Web page
"Geographics of the Erotic. Brazilian Literature in Translation"
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Introduction to modern Hebrew literature and Israeli culture. Emphasis on critical reading of literary and cultural texts, including prose, poetry, drama, and film. Conducted in Hebrew.
Score: 12.090301 Details | Listing | Web page
An historical survey of the main trends in Jewish Mysticism or Kabbalah from rabbinic times down to the Hasidic movement. Direct experience with the classical texts, e.g. the Zohar supplies the raw data for interpretive analysis of how the mystical doctrines and practices grew out of non-mystical Judaism, and how they in turn profoundly shaped the content and intellectual history of Judaism. A central concern will be the correlation of Jewish social history with the mystical developments in belief, ritual, and attitudes toward the societies in which Jews lived. Major emphasis on the Medieval and Renaissance periods is to be noted, as are the methodological application of literary criticism and the psychology of religious experience.
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A consideration of the major forces that shaped the development of Caribbean societies during the 1700s. Themes covered include merchantilist empire, colonial institutions, imperial power, Atlantic culture, slavery, war and peace, the American revolution, French revolution, and Antislavery.
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This course explores language variation in American English, including the variables of region, class, ethnicity, gender, and style. The objectives of the
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A regional geography of Canada; its physical features, topography, climate; the historic economic and social development of the regions; economic and cultural interactions among the regions. Crosslisted with Comparative Area Studies.
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Refinement of stylistic control and range in spoken and
Score: 12.090301 Details | Listing | Web page
This course will introduce you to a representative selection of Russia's extraordinary fairy tales in their cultural and social context. Because Russian culture is steeped in folklore and fairy and folk tales, the stories we will examine will provide you with essential keys to many important motifs and plots in Russian poetry, fiction, drama, ballet, opera, film, decorative folk art, and popular culture. You will be learning how to analyze these tales as oral art; expressions of vestigial folk belief (you will be reading all about Russia's pre-Christian pagan good and evil spirits); explorations of the human psyche; and stylized reflections of social norms (notions of heroism and villainy, family relations, prescribed gender roles). As we sample different thematic groups of tales (e.g., stepmother-stepdaughter tales, sibling tales, "foolish" third son tales, Âwise maiden tales), we will discuss how these plots relate to those of fairy tales we know and how fairy tale plots are constantly reworked in our own culture.
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Continuation of advanced grammar review and
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Broad survey of Asian dance theater performance
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Kundalini Yoga is the yoga of awareness. Awareness is a finite relationship with infinity. It is the active interaction of you as a finite individual identity with you as an infinite potential identity. Two of our three class sessions per week will be the practice of Kundalini Yoga & Meditation, with discussion of yogic lifestyle.
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Kundalini Yoga is the yoga of awareness. Awareness is a finite relationship with infinity. It is the active interaction of you as a finite individual identity with you as an infinite potential identity. Two of our three class sessions per week will be the practice of Kundalini Yoga & Meditation, with discussion of yogic lifestyle.
Score: 12.090301 Details | Listing | Web page
To what extent can one talk of ÂBritish history in the centuries before ÂBritain itself actually existed? In pursuing answers to that very complex question, this course surveys the history of the British Isles, at home and overseas, from the early sixteenth century to the formal legislative creation of Great Britain in 1707. Topics include: the rise of the Tudors in England and Stuarts in Scotland; the Reformation; relations with Europe; state formation and political community; colonial and commercial expansion in the Atlantic, Africa, and Asia; the Civil War; witchcraft; scientific and print revolutions; the Restoration; and the Glorious Revolution and the Anglo-Scottish Union. We will pay particular attention to changing ideas about politics, law, economy, nature, and society in the early modern British world, and especially to the role of empire at home and abroad in defining and shaping ÂBritain  as a place, a people, and a concept.
Score: 12.090301 Details | Listing | Web page
This course counts towards the Markets & Management Certificate.
Score: 12.090301 Details | Listing | Web page
This course focuses on the changes and controversies in modern France. It is a contemporary culture and civilization class that familiarizes students with todayÂs France. All sources come from the French press and broadcasts from the French televised news. Students discover and discuss cultural, social, economic, and political issues of the times. Standard topics studied include the political system, the institutions, the media, religion, immigration, the health system, unemployment, the educational system, foreign policy, France within the European Union, etc. Equal emphasis is put on written and oral skills. This course is an excellent way to prepare for a study abroad semester in France. Prerequisite: French 76, SAT French score of 640 or above, AP French Language 5, AP French Literature 4 or 5, or equivalent.
Score: 12.090301 Details | Listing | Web page