New Courses Offered in Fall 2019
Course | Professor | Campus | Credits |
01:098:255 Heroism | Professor Wendy Swartz | College Ave | 4 credits |
01:098:331 The Sounds of Asia | Professor Sunmin Yoon | College Ave | 3 credits |
Heroism
Course Description:
What makes ordinary people do extraordinary things? What defines a hero or heroine? Are heroes and heroines defined differently? What role do cultural and historical contexts play in these definitions? How do fictional heroes and heroines compare with historical ones? What turns rebels, agitators, iconoclasts, or even fools into heroes? This course offers a comparative examination of conceptions of heroism across cultures, time, and gender. Since the beginning of written records, heroic acts and gestures have had an enduring appeal. Shrines and monuments, epics and songs, paintings and films have been dedicated to extoling heroic figures—real, idealized, or legendary. What can a culture’s heroes or heroines tell us about its values, expectations, and ideals? What motivates someone to go beyond the individual and ordinary to sacrifice for a community, country, or humanity? We will explore the cultural conditioning, ethical reasoning, and moral compass behind some of the greatest heroes and heroines in history and literature, from Greek epic heroes to Chinese assassin-retainers, women warriors to samurais, Shakespearean tragic heroes to contestants in the real life Game of Thrones in medieval Europe, civil rights leaders to women’s rights crusaders, and comic superheroes to modern day heroes.
Lecture: Tuesday/Thursday 1:10-2:30 PM CAC AB 2225
Recitation:
Section 1 | Friday | 9:50 am - 11:30 am | CAC SC 221 |
Section 2 | Friday | 11:30 am - 12:50 pm | CAC SC 105 |
Section 3 | Friday | 2:50 pm - 4:10 pm | CAC SC 119 |
Section 4 | Friday | 9:50 am - 11:10 pm | CAC SC 120 |
Section 5 | Friday | 11:30 am - 12:50 pm | CAC SC 106 |
Section 6 | Friday | 2:50 pm - 4:10 pm | CAC SC 115 |
Click here to watch the Heroism with Wendy Swartz video
The Sounds of Asia
Course Description:
How does music create political space? How do musicians see the world through their own musical pieces and performance? How do particular musical sounds define “Asia”, and how do musical genres connect countries within the transnational Asian boundary? Aiming to understand “Asia” through sound, this course examines not only a broad range of musical genres, instruments, musicians and their performative process in selected places across the Asian continent, but also the socio-political, cultural, and extra-musical aspects surrounding the musical scenes in both the past and present. The general structure of the course will be based on lectures, close-listening, videos, discussions, writing assignments and other class activities.
Lecture
Monday/Wedneday 2:50 - 4:10 pm CAC SC 216