Fall 2019
American Studies
Jimmy Sweet, Native American Language Revitalization (01:991:121). It is taught in English and attached to Native American Language Literature in English (01:050:376 ) and crossed listed as (01:358:388) in English. This module provides an introduction to Native American languages and Indigenous language revitalization practices and techniques. Students will analyze historical and contemporary condition of Native American language and will learn basic Lakota. Open to all students at the junior and Senior level.
Asian Languages and Cultures
Haruko Wakabayashi, Tadoku-Extensive Reading in Japanese (01:991:105). This module is for students who have taken Japanese 102 or its equivalent. It introduces learners to Tadoku- extensive readings in modern Japanese. This module promotes pleasure reading in world language and helps students to develop kanji reading skills.
Yuan-Chen Jenny Yang, Modern Chinese Societies - Key Words in Media (01:991:121). The concept of this module attached to Language and Identity in Modern Chinese Society (01:165:211) is to engage students with current events and how they are reported in Chinese and Western Media. Five topics are highlighted to explore how the use of choice of language shapes individuals and national identities. Taught in Chinese and English for advanced learners and attached to multiple Chinese courses.
Classics
Jay Fisher, The Alphabet: A History (01:991:121). Taught in English for students with beginner’s knowledge, it is attached to ‘Greek and Roman Mythology’ (01:190:207). This module is an introduction to the history of the alphabet and its technology allow us to read ancient texts in the original and in translation. Ideal module for interdisciplinary approaches.
History
Camilla Townsend, Nahuatl, the Aztec Language (01:991:121). This module is attached to 'The Aztecs’ (01:508:391). It is intended for students who wish to understand cultural dimensions relevant to Nahuatl and to engage in indigenous language scholarship with an interdisciplinary approach.
Italian
Andrea Baldi, Italian for Walking in the Metropolis (01:991:121). Attached to the interdisciplinary Honors Seminar and the Italian course, “Walking in the Metropolis” (01:560:368). It aims to offer students some basic Italian language and to connect cultural products like literary texts, contemporary life and cities such as Rome, Florence, and Naples. This module requires no prior familiarity with Italian. While the module will cover some basics of the language, it provides a better understanding of walking the Italian urban environment, its culture, and society. It is ideal for students interested in public planning and policy, architecture, art history, museum studies, and business. Taught in English.
Spring 2020
English
Stacy Klein, Forms of Old English (01:991:121). This module is connected either to (358: 411) or to (358: 412),“Old English Language and Literature.”In both of these courses, students learn to read Old English, the language written and spoken in England from approximately 450-1100 AD. The proposed 991 module has twogoals:1. to provide additional language practice so that all students, even those for whom language acquisition or Modern English is challenging, may enjoy the earliest surviving English poetry in its original form; 2. to help students understand that even in its earliest incarnations, English was never a fixed or insular language but an ever-changing symbolic system whose changes testify to complex interactions between local and more global forces.
German
Alexander Pichugin, Germanic Languages in Cultural and Historical Contexts (01:991:121). This module is intended for students of German interested in knowing more about the history of German language and people speaking it as well as languages related to German. It provides students a brief overview of German and other Germanic languages from both historical and linguistical perspectives. Taught in English.
Jewish Studies
Gary Rendsburg, The Bible in Translation (01:991:121). More than two billion people in the world (almost all Christians, and some Jews as well) access the Bible through translation, in a dizzying array of languages. This course will survey the history of Bible translation, with a special focus on Greek, Latin, Syriac, Aramaic, Coptic, Ethiopic, Georgian, Armenian, and Arabic (in the ancient to early medieval period), and English, German, and other European languages in the late medieval to modern period. The course will consider different types of translations (some more literal, some more expressive), how the various faith communities have accessed Holy Scripture through translation, and how and why English translations in particular (especially the King James Version of 1611) have informed the English language. Taught in English.
Gary Rendsburg, Languages of the Bible (01:991:121). The Bible (= the Jewish Bible, or Old Testament) includes literature spanning one thousand years, written mainly in Hebrew (with small portions in Aramaic), composed mainly in the Land of Israel (though with at least two authors living in Babylonia), and with a geographical span from Egypt to Persia. As such, background information from a host of languages informs the books of the Bible: Egyptian (hieroglyphics), Ugaritic, Phoenician, Aramaic, Arabic, Akkadian (Babylonian), Sumerian, Persian, and Greek. The nature of the influence is seen at every level: from the most basic, in the form of loanwords from all of the above languages, to the most comprehensive, as the Bible echoes the idioms and literatures of the neighboring ancient Near Eastern cultures. All of the above will be surveyed in this 1-credit World Languages course, to be offered each fall semester, especially for students enrolled in Introduction to the Bible I (Torah and Prose). Taught in English
Latino and Caribbean Studies/Spanish and Portuguese
Camilla Stevens, Estás Ready? Exploring Language in Latinx Spoken Word Poetry (01:991:121). This course examines some of the central themes that shape the diverse experiences of Latino populations in the United States. Some of the main organizing topics include the politics of labeling; migration and community formation histories; Latino labor markets; race and racial formations; education and the politics of language; Latino political activism; and popular culture. The main goal of the course is to invite students to think critically and understand the conceptual, political, and historical issues that inform Latino experiences in the U.S. The course requires students to engage in a critical examination of a wide selection of materials ranging from anthropological, sociological, and historical texts to short stories and poetry, documentary and fiction films, and media art in an effort to place the experience of diverse Latino populations in social, political, historical, and interdisciplinary perspectives. The course will serve as the basic intellectual map to the research interests of the department’s faculty and to our higher-level course offerings and goals. The course is required of all majors and minors in LHCS. Taught in English.
Spring 2021
Africana, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures (AMESALL)
Anuja Kabra, Indian Art and Architecture (01:991:105). This multi-level language module, open to language learners and home-background intermediate speaker and beyond of Hindi, flips the approach of language courses attached to content courses. The content module, attached to “Intermediate Hindi II (01:013/505:261),” focuses on Art and Architecture in Ancient, Medieval and Modern India with respect to historical, social and cultural dimensions. Students will be introduced to architectural terms and concepts in Hindi which will enhance their overall experience in acknowledging the beauty of an ancient language and culture. The class will also involve interviews, classroom discussions, oral reports and digital presentations in Hindi that seeks to cultivate a better understanding of sentence structure, expressions and communicative skills in target language.
American Studies
Jimmy Sweet, Indigenous Language Revitalization in the US (01:991:121). A language module attached to the Native American Experience, 050:248:01. This module provides an introduction to Native American languages and Indigenous language revitalization practices and techniques. Students will analyze the historical and contemporary condition of Native American languages, why language revitalization is important, and learn a basic overview of the best practices for Indigenous language revitalization. Best practices include both formal and informal settings, consisting of the home, second language classrooms, and Indigenous community settings. Students will learn about the creation of orthographies, curriculum building, immersion schools, language tables, language apprenticeships, and language documentation and preservation techniques. Taught in English.
Asian Languages and Cultures
Young-mee Cho, Revisiting Gender, Class, and "Alienness" in Korean Culture. (01:991:105). This bilingual Korean/English module, designed for students with at least one semester of Korean, presents students with an opportunity of acquiring in-depth knowledge of Korean culture and recognizing the distinctive viewpoints only available through the Korean language. Due to its design, thematic scope and sequencing, this module could be attached to multiple courses such as K210 Intro to Korean Culture, K250 Korean Language in Culture and Society, K220 Korean Literature in Translation, and K230 Korean Cinema. Open to students with multiple levels of Korean language.
Xiaojue Wang, Screening China: Film Culture and Society (01:991:105). This module is for students with multi-level of Chinese language who have completed at least intermediate Chinese and/or second semester of Chinese for heritage speakers. It is a Chinese module open to some discussion in English and is attached to 01:165:262 “The Chinese Cinema.” It focuses on key cultural notions in modern China as manifested in a wide range of Chinese-language films made in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Chinese diaspora communities, including belated modernity, revolution and nationalism, gender and sexuality, memory and cultural identity, travel, migration and cosmopolitanism. Due to its thematic scope it could also be attached to other courses such as: 01:165:486 Women in Chinese Literature and Film, 01:165:482 Cold War Chinese Literature and Film, 01:165:310 Modern Chinese Literature in Translation, 01:165:451 Readings in Modern Chinese Literature, 01:165:350 Chinese Martial Arts Film and Culture and ,01:165:470 The City in Modern Chinese Literature and Film.
SCI & SAS
Erica Lucci (SCI) & Laura Ramirez Polo (SAS-Spanish and Portuguese), Videogame Localization (01:991:121). The module is a collaboration across disciplines between SAS and SCI about how to make video games linguistically and culturally appropriate. Attached to 01:940:479 – Translation, Media and 04:547:215 (SAS) and/or Social Impacts of Video Games (SCI) it’s a seven-week module intended to be taught on the second half of the semester to make sure students have the knowledge and background they need to participate in the module. Students examine the fundamentals of videogame internationalization, localization, and translation; that is, how to design a videogame that is apt for international audiences (internationalization), and how to make the necessary adaptations for a specific market, including linguistic, technical, and cultural adaptations (localization and translation). For students with Intermediate level of a World language.
A.Y. 2021-2022
Africana, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures (AMESALL)
E. Khayyat, Introduction to Philological Research in Arabic, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Turkish (01:991:121). This module, offered in Arabic, French, German, Italian, Spanish, or Turkish, seeks to introduce students to the practice of philological research. Broadly defined as the practice of interpreting textual records, philology is a fundamental human activity, a quintessential method for the humanities and the social sciences at large, and finally a discipline by itself. Students who opt for one of the modules will perform “close reading” of a text in the language of their choice, or compare translations into English of a text they can read and interpret in the original. (This module is attached to “Philological Inquiry”)
Department of Asian Languages and Cultures
Dr. Jenny Yuan-Chen Yang, Filming My Heritage (01:991:121). In this interdisciplinary module that intersects language documentation with documentary making, students will work in small groups to produce a 10-minute mini documentary film on the linguistic landscape of their heritage Chinese dialect in a diaspora setting. Each week, students will learn the fundamental tools for making a compelling mini documentary, from creating a vision and interviewing subjects to filming footages and editing the film. The module will include a guest lecture from Mason Gross School of the Arts faculty, and a tour of its Documentary Film Lab. In the documentary, students will present the linguistic and cultural background of a Chinese dialect, its departure from standard Mandarin Chinese, and discussions such as speaker attitude and linguistic vitality. Students are expected to incorporate the linguistic and cultural comparison discussions from the parent courses into the project, and draw on their own multilingual and multicultural experience living in the U.S. as Chinese Americans.
Parent courses: This module is attached to the Chinese language ladder courses in both the heritage and non-heritage tracks below:
01:165:121 Beginning Chinese Reading and Writing for Mandarin Speakers
01:165:222 Intermediate Chinese Reading and Writing for Mandarin Speakers
01:165:201 Intermediate Chinese I
01:165:202 Intermediate Chinese II
01:165:301 Advanced Modern Chinese I
01:165:302 Advanced Modern Chinese II
Philosophy
Trip McCrossin, Hume & Kant (01:991:121). The development of the history of philosophy in the “long” eighteenth century, which begins with the Glorious Revolution of 1789 and ends as the Napoleonic Wars do in 1815, and which makes up roughly the second half of the watershed moment in the history of ideas we know as the Enlightenment, is a complex and varied conversation. Among its many strains, a central and vital one, which continues to this day, concerns the nature and prospects of humanity, broadly speaking. May we allow ourselves the luxury of being optimistic, in the sense that we may look forward to making some reasonable sense of the various miseries it includes, or must we resign ourselves instead to being pessimistic, in the sense that some of it forever eludes our best sense-making efforts? Some of the most notable contributors to this conversation wrote in French originally, including Pierre Bayle, Émilie du Châtelet, Gottfried Leibniz, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Étienne de Silhouette, and François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire.
This module is attached to “Hume, Kant, and the Eighteenth Century” (01:730:308). Against the background of its proceedings, we will engage together with manageable selections from their work, some of which has been translated, but is considerably more enjoyable in the original, some remaining to this day untranslated.
