Introduction to Intercultural/International Studies

This course will focus on one theme of international and intercultural importance (for instance, identity, human rights, globalism or technology) and will examine this theme from the vantage points of at least five liberal arts disciplines.  The course will be introduced and co-ordinated by one instructor, who will arrange and connect the various lectures and seminars of the participating instructors in a way that gives the course a logical structure and flow.

Course content will differ substantially in years when different themes are taught.  Content will differ less in years when the same theme is taught (assuming that some or many of the instructors are able to teach in consecutive years). 

N.B.  The following is only an example of course content on the theme of identity, and will not necessarily reflect the configuration of disciplines and topics in subsequent years.

Psychology

• Psychological methods for examining culture and identity
• Researching, describing, and managing multiple cultural identities; implications of variance in identity
• Cross-cultural learning, as in Confucian and Socratic traditions

Communications and Modern Languages

• Cross-cultural learning, as in Kluckholhn and Strodbeck's concept of value orientations
• Diverse communication styles, as in Lisa Stefani's analysis of culture in the classroom
• West and East: how the Chinese language shapes thought and feeling; acculturation in China

Geography

• Perceptions of place, as in Yi Fu Tuan's principles of public space and topophilia
• Identity and sense of place: mental maps and perceptions of place

Political Science

• The role of 'nationalist' identity in conflicts, as in the Balkans, Northern Ireland, and the Middle East
• Political cleavages and relationships between dominant and minority groups
• The attempt to preserve identity within free trade, as in negotiating elements of the WTO and NAFTA

English

• The ways writers construct a sense of identity, as in Nabil Gorgy's short story "Cairo is a Small City"
• Western identity: Classical and Christian fusions, as in the poetry of John Milton or Derek Walcott
• Cross-cultural identity crisis in a novel, as in Christopher Koch's The Year of Living Dangerously