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

 heroism signaturecourse 

 

 

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

 

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