DESIGNATION: Level I elective Honors Class
Students should also sign up for Social Science Culture and Conflict
This is designed to be two classes with two credits (English & Social Science)
GOALS & MATERIAL COVERED: In this consecutive-blocks course, we will explore themes involving the family, politics, war, alienation, gender, migration, and issues of cultural assimilation. The aim is to examine cultures and ensuing conflicts from the perspective of various ethnic/racial/national backgrounds and to investigate how people of differing environments make ethical decisions during times of desperation. Students will be examining nonfiction work/critical essays, primary- source historical images, film, political cartoons and music that help provide frameworks for considering how literature reflects conflict, provides possible opportunities to resolve conflicts, as well as reveals the varying ways in which members of various cultural groups have responded to conflict. By delving into such areas of strife, we will strengthen our ability to empathize with those who have not had their stories heard in the past and consider how that might impact our relationships today. Topics/Units to be explored include: Native American/Indigenous peoples; Revolutions in the Caribbean and Latin America; War and Conflict in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Europe.
Texts may include, but are not limited to Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia, A Tempest by Aime Cesaire, Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko, Zuya by Albert Whitehat, Night by Elie Wiesel as well as select short stories by Junot Diaz, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.