Perspectives on World Cultures: History, Thought, and
Culture from Early Modern to Post-Modern*
Tuesday/Thursday,
Spring 2009
Humanities 202
Course Structure: This course folds together three
Humanities courses and one Arts course:
World History II, World Literature II, Introduction to Philosophy, and
World Music. The result is one year-long
Core course which will be team-taught by professors from each of these
disciplines. Students will receive 12 credits for the successful completion of
all the course components.
Office Hours: T
Dr. Mary T. Furgol - World History II [HS 117HB Section 34333]
Office Hours: T
MT519; Tel. 240 567 7432; bob.white@montgomerycollege.edu
Office Hours: T
*In the Fall and Spring semesters, the freshmen
AN101HC [Section 31886]: Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology;
Prof. Cindy Pfansthiehl, RA104; Tel. 240 567 5072; cindy.pfanstiehl@montgomerycollege.edu
*Or:
EN102HC [31878]: Techniques of Reading and Writing II; Prof. Shweta Sen, SCIB106a; 240 567 7411; shweta.sen@montgomerycollege.edu
Winter Break
Required Reading and Viewing:
Hesse, Herman. Steppenwolf. Picador, 2002. (ISBN 0312278675)
Kafka. Metamorphosis
Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. Ballantine (0449213943)
The Joyous Noel – film
Rabbit-Proof Fence - film
Texts: Most of these texts will serve us for both
semesters. However, several additional paperback texts will be added for the
second semester.
Bowditch, John
and Clement Ramsland eds. Voices of the Industrial Revolution. Ann Arbor pbks.,1961. (ISBN
0472060538)
Ch'eng-en, Wu. Monkey. Grove Press, 1994. (ISBN 0802130860)
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. Signet Classics, 1976. (ISBN 0451524489)
Confucius. The Analects, with an introduction by Henry Rosemont.
Ballantine, 1999. (ISBN 0345434072)
Davis, Paul, et al, eds.
1650-Present. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003. (ISBN 0312405030)
Douglass,
Duiker, William J. & Spielvogel, Jackson J. World History, Vol. II:
Since 1500.
Fiero, Gloria K. Landmarks in Humanities. McGraw Hill, 2006.
(ISBN 0072995505)
Ibsen, Henrik Johan. A Doll House. Signet Classics, 1989.
(ISBN 0451524063)
Solomon, Robert
C. and Kathleen M. Higgins. A Short History of Philosophy.
Solomon, Robert
C. and Kathleen M. Higgins. From
Soyinka, Wole. Death and the King’s Horseman. W.W.Norton & Company, 2002. (ISBN 0393322998)
Titon, Jeff Todd. Worlds
of Music, An Introduction to the Music of
theWorld’s Peoples and
accompanying CDs.
Tzu, Lao. Dao De Jing. Penguin,1988. (ISBN 0140190600)
Additional Texts for Spring semester:
Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot. Grove Press (ISBN 080213034825)
Fugard, Athol. Sizwe Banzi is Dead. Theatre Comm. Group (0930452615)
Hesse, Herman. Steppenwolf. Picador (0312278675)
Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. Ballantine (0449213943)
Wiesel, Elie. Night. Bantam (0553272535)
The
The primary aim of this Humanities Core is to enable
students to perceive and participate in the rich language of inter-disciplinary
studies. In our study of different
cultures and historical moments, we will be looking at events and artifacts in
their cultural, political, and social contexts, with faculty trained in
history, literature, philosophy, and music. These varying perspectives will
broaden the debate and deepen our insights. From time to time outside speakers
will be joining us in Roundtable discussions to help us to explore connections
beyond the humanities -- such as with science, economics and environmental
studies. As we travel across the world
in our classroom, the same interdisciplinary approach will be used for the
The primary
objectives of the Core are:
·
to
facilitate the creation of a learning community among the
·
to ground
the humanities in a rich nexus of social, historical, and cultural contexts
·
to
encourage students to compare and integrate the diverse methodologies and
discourses of different disciplines
Each student is encouraged to seek help from any of the four instructors throughout the duration of the course. If you need help while doing a specific reflection paper, it would make sense to speak with the instructor who assigned that particular topic; likewise with the critical essays. However, each one of the instructors will be happy to assist you throughout the course. Please make use of our office hours!
Student Assessment
You will receive 4 final grades at the end of the spring semester – one each for world music, history, literature, and philosophy. These grades will be calculated using the following criteria in each discipline:
·
3
Reflection Papers (or 2 and a fieldwork paper) 15%
·
1
Critical Essay 20%
·
2 Core Exams
[mid-term and final] 20%
·
2
Discipline Specific Exams [mid-term and final] 30%
·
2 Group
Projects 10%
·
Attendance/participation
in roundtables, museum visits, concerts, 5%
and in-class exercises
Student Assessment
(Continued)
Student performance
will be evaluated on the basis of the following components:
· class preparation and participation - much of the class will be conducted in a seminar style and your input is vital! Keeping up with the readings will be important, as will coming to class ready to question and to take part fully in the process of scholarly inquiry
· class attendance: attendance is expected in accordance with the regulations of the College [see College Catalog]
· timeliness: since this is an interdisciplinary class with four instructors, a considerable amount of planning has gone into choreographing each class session; when students come late to class, this disrupts not only the flow of the individual teacher in charge at that moment, but can also interrupt the class as a whole as the late student looks for handouts or has to join a group discussion already in progress; please, therefore, make every effort to be in class on time
·
academic
honesty: each
· attendance at co-curricular class events: you should attend the outside class events advertised in the syllabus; these have been planned and chosen with great care to expand and complement the core experience; you are given the dates at the start of the semester and so should work your personal schedule around these events; if your class schedule interferes with attending any of them, please inform one of the core instructors
· all assigned material for each discipline must be submitted to receive credit for each respective discipline
· late papers will be downgraded; if there are exceptional circumstances, contact the professor responsible for that paper
· weekly reflection papers* of a minimum of 2 pages each on the course readings
· two critical essays* [8-10 pages each] - although you will be expected to draw your research for these papers from all four disciplines, each paper will focus on two of the four discrete disciplines and will be graded by the corresponding instructors for those disciplines; each critical essay should consist of a critical analysis of sources, not a cut and paste of those sources
·
two Core
exams - one at the end of each semester
·
two
discipline specific exams – one at the end of each semester
·
two group
projects - spring semester
·
one music
fieldwork paper
·
four
world music concerts – two each semester
A minimum of 120 typed, double-spaced pages is expected from each student over the course of the two semesters.
*Throughout the first semester, samples of A papers will be
distributed.
Student Assessment (Continued)
In the middle of the first semester we will provide each student with a
progress report for the four core components.
At the end of the first semester each student will be given four
mid-term grades, one for each of the courses which make up the core. In the spring semester we will hand out
progress reports to students who have fallen below the requisite GPA(3.2). At the end of the second semester each
student will be awarded four final grades, one for each of the courses which
make up the core and at that point their fall mid-term grade will be changed if
necessary to reflect their spring/final grade.
Please keep all graded work in a single binder/portfolio so that it is
readily accessible to you. At the end of
each semester when the instructors are assessing your work, one/more of them
may ask you to submit your portfolio to them.
A = 90-100%; B =
80-89%; C = 70-79%; D = 60-69%; F= below 60%
Support Services
A student who may need an accommodation due to a disability should make an appointment to see each of the Core professors. A letter from Disability Support Services (DSS) authorizing your accommodations will be needed. The DSS office is located in CAB 122; telephone 240 567 5058 ot TTY 240 567 9672
Cancellation of Classes
If inclement weather forces the
Television: NBC Channel 4/WRC; Fox Channel 5/WTTG; Channel 7/WJLA; Channel 9/WUSA; and cable News Channel 8
Radio: WTOP (1500 AM and 107.7 FM), WMAL (630 AM), WAMU (88.5FM).
If the campus or
College closes, class will be cancelled.
It is your responsibility to find out whether class is cancelled. The content of subsequent class sessions or
other course requirements may be changed to accommodate the loss of one or more
class sessions. Your instructors will
notify the class of any changes to the course.
Emergency
Evacuation
Each student should study the emergency evacuation procedures for the campus buildings. These procedures can be found on the front page of MY MC.
Spring 2008
Tuesday 27
January Mid-Term Exam Review
Professors
Case Study #7: Loss of Innocence
Causes; Course; Results
Professor Furgol
Duiker, 628-640
Thursday 29 The
Literature of War – Poetry and Prose
Professors
Collins and Furgol
Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front
Sassoon, Owen and others (
Fiero, 390-394
Music of
Prof. Avery
Tuesday 3
February Pacifism
Prof.
White
Case Study #8:
Professor Furgol
Duiker, pp.
640-648
World
Arts Festival 7:30-9:00 p.m. Music
Recital Hall Hip-Hop starring our own Claire!
Thursday 5 Music of
Professor Avery
Nihilism in Russian Literature
Professor
Collins
Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground (
Friday 6 Philo Café
Tuesday 10 Religion,
Philosophy and Nihilism
Professor
White
The
Russian Revolution: The “Unfinished Revolution”
Professor
Furgol
Duiker, pp. 648-656
Thursday 12
February ‘On the brink’ of a new global paradigm
Aesthetics and Criticism
Professor
White
Beardsley,
‘The Concerns of Aesthetics’
Richards,
‘The Foundations of Aesthetics’ and
‘Synaesthesis’
(handouts)
Aesthetics of Music
Professor Avery
Fiero, pp.396-416, 419-421
Tuesday 17 Case Study #9:
The Mexican Revolution
Professor
Furgol
Duiker, pp. 482-485, 534, 555-559, 678-683
Nueva Cancion and
Wawa Velorio
Prof. Avery
Titon, pp.
387-394, 426-437
Thursday 19 February Class
visit to the Organization of American
States – 9:30
a.m. http://www.oas.org/
*Avery
and Furgol Reflection Paper due
Friday 20 Philo Café
Monday 23 Sophomore
Scholars Capstone Colloquium
6 p.m. Theatre Arts
Tuesday 24 Latin American Philosophy
Professor White
Roundtable on
George
Scheper, PhD
Thursday 26
February Latin American
Literature
Professor Collins
Chile: Pablo Neruda,
selected poems (Davis 6: pp. 672-692) Colombia: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, ‘A Very Old Man with
Enormous Wings’ (
‘The Handsomest
Drowned Man in the World’(handout)
Case Study #10:The Making of
Modernism – Freud and Jung
Introduction to Modernism
Professor White
S. Freud, Civilization and its Discontents
Sykes, ‘Jung and the Hidden Remnant’
(handout)
Tuesday 3 March The
Idea of Modernism: toward a definition
Professors Collins, White
Ayer, ‘The Elimination of Metaphysics’
(handout); the uncertainty principle (handout)
Contemporary Classical Music
Professor
Avery
Fiero, pp.422-423 Timeline
Thursday 5 On Modern Poetry
Professor
Collins
Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and “The
Yeats, selected poems (Davis 6: pp. 181-196)
Cummings (handout)
Modern Art
Professors Avery, Collins, Furgol and White
*Collins and White Reflection Paper due
Roundtable
on Einstein and Quantum Physics, Forrest Hall, PhD 3:30-5:00pm HU116
Friday 6 Philo Café
Tuesday 10 Case Study #11: Depression and Total War
The Roaring Twenties and
the Depression
Professor Furgol
Music during the Depression
Professors Avery and Collins
(Handout)
Thursday 12 March The
Totalitarian/militaristic State:
Professor Furgol
Duiker, pp. 674-678, 684-697
Ethics in war
time
Professor White
Victor Frankl,
‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ (handout)
*Second
Critical Essay Prospectus due
Spring Break: March 15-22
Tuesday 24 Holocausts
Professor Furgol
Elie Wiesel, Night
Duiker, pp.
697-715
H. Arendt, Men
in Dark Times in
E. Wiesel, Legends
of Our Time in Davis, pp.1824-35
Music of the
Holocaust
Professor Avery
Thursday 26 Case Study #12: Alienation and the
Quest for Meaning
Existentialism and the
Professor White
Selections on Existentialism (handout)
Fiero,
pp.422-427
Existentialism -
literature
Professor
Collins
Beckett, Waiting
for Godot
*Ideal
Community Group Update
Tuesday 31 March Case Study #13: Conflicts and Resolutions
Professor Furgol
Duiker,
pp. 658-674, 722-742
Professors
Furgol and White
Duiker, pp. 658-662
Thursday 2 April Indian Literature
Professor Collins
Tagore, “The Hungry Stones” and “Broken Ties”
(
Anita Desai, “The Farewell Party” (
Professor White
Solomon and Higgins, pp. 13-16, 22-25, 298;
and
Handout
Friday 3 Roundtable/Philo
Café Bjorn Krondorfer
Tuesday 7
Music of
Professor Avery
Titon, pp.243-255, 261-262 Raga, 264-266 Tala
and Drummers, 273-4
The Struggle for
Civil Rights Under Apartheid
Professor Collins
Athol Fugard, Sizwe
Banzi is Dead
Thursday 9
Professor Furgol
Duiker, pp.
814-830
Prof. Avery
Tuesday 14
Professor Furgol
Duiker, pp.
669-674, 761-778
Literature of War
– Reprise
Professor Collins
Friday 17 Planning for Sophomore Year and Transfer!!!
HU009
12:00-5:00 p.m. Brown Bag Lunch
Tuesday 21 April Case Study #14: Postmodernism and
the Diversity of Contemporary Life
Music of
Islam
Titon, Chapter
5
Professor Avery
History of
Islam
Professor Furgol
World History at
the end of the 20th Century
Professor Furgol
Duiker, pp.
744-761, 780-812, 848-885
Fiero, pp.425-461
Thursday 23 Islam – a literary perspective
Professor
Collins
Rumi and Mahfouz
Islam – a philosophical perspective
Professor White
*Second Critical Essay due
Friday 24 Philo Café
Tuesday 28 Buddhist Economics
Professor White
Schumacher,
‘Buddhist Economics’
Simulation on
Cartwright
Duiker,
pp. 830-848 and handouts
Thursday 30 April Case
Study # 15: Visions of the Future
What is Postmodernism?
Professor Collins
James Baldwin,
“Sonny's Blues” (
New Visions of
Consciousness
Professor White
Harner, ‘
Colin
Wilson ‘Peak Experience’ (handout)
Roundtable
on Postmodernism with Dr.
Friday 1
May Philo Café
Tuesday 5 May Response to Postmodernism
New Visions of
Consciousness (Cont.)
Professor White
Sheldrake, ‘Evolutionary Habits of Mind,
Behaviour and Form’ (handout)
McCraty, ‘The Resonant Heart’
Schwartz, G., ‘Intelligent Evolution’
Prowse and Backster, ‘Exploring a Sentient
World’
and others
Synthesizing the New Vision
Professors
Collins and White
Bohm, Cosmos, ‘Matter, Life, and
Consciousness’ (handout)
Borges, “The
Wednesday
6 Water for
Life Presentation 2:30 Theatre Arts -
including Bryce Hoover and Student chapter of Engineers without Borders
7:30
p.m. UN Music for Life Concert PAC
Thursday 7 Ideal
Community Presentations
Student groups
Tuesday 12
May Final Exams:
History
of Culture: 10:15a.m. - 11:15p.m.
World
Music: 11:15-12:15
Thursday 14 May Final Exams:
Literature,
History and Philosophy:
08:00a.m.
- 12:15 p.m.
Due Dates
Assignment Due Date
Music, Art and Revolution/War Reflection Paper (Avery & Furgol) February 19
Modernism Reflection Paper (
Second Critical Essay Prospectus (All) March 12
Ideal Community Update (All) March 26
Second Critical Essay due April 23
Arab-Israeli Simulation (Furgol) April 28
Ideal Community Project (All) May 7
World Music Event Worksheets (Avery) May
12