What happens when one major human civilization that originates from one end of the earth comes to meet with another that thrives on the other? Will they prove themselves capable of a fruitful engagement that leads to peace and friendship based on mutual respect and understanding rather than distrust or even mutual destruction? What is the role of language in this cross-cultural encounter? This course aims to explore one such encounter, a truly unusual case in terms of its scale and splendor, namely that between China and the West in the modern period broadly defined. Surely we will not ignore the problems–political, ideological, as well as technical–that arise in this interactive process, but our focus will be on the sunny side of that encounter, on the example of those who embrace and embody through their creative and intellectual work the ideal of a harmonious though culturally diverse world. Prerequisite: None Fulfillment: CORE HPC/IPC; GCS Chinese Media, Arts, and Literature.
What makes a “good death”? How do people imagine, interpret, and describe the processes of dying? How do individuals respond to, live through, and move beyond the death of others? How do beliefs, customs, material cultures, and social structures co-constitute the lived realities of death? Drawing on insights from medical anthropology, anthropology of religion, and anthropology of ethics, this course explores diverse perspectives on the “good death”. With a primary ethnographic focus on China, using an interdisciplinary and comparative approach, we will investigate: 1) the sociocultural constructions of death, 2) the processes of aging and dying, 3) the practices of end-of-life care, 4) debates about voluntary death, 5) how the living deal with the deceased, and 6) how people live with irrevocable losses. Prerequisite: GPS Fulfillment: CORE SSPC/IPC; GCS Major Elective: Chinese History, Society, and Culture.
This course introduces students to perspectives on contemporary Chinese political and social thought as presented in academic publications, media reports, social commentary and postings on the Chinese Internet. It covers selected key topics in the disciplines of political, social, and cultural studies. It examines and compares Chinese and Western views on major developments and current issues. The course also introduces students to a variety of styles of writing and research methods as well as skills of cultural translation relevant to the study of contemporary China and Chinese thought. Fulfillment: Core Curriculum Social Science Perspective on China/Humanistic Perspectives on China or Interdisciplinary Perspectives on China; GCS Elective The Politics, Economy, and Environment of China; Humanities Major Advanced Courses (old Topic Course); Social Science Major Focus Courses Political Science – 200 level.
Our goal is to map China. But rather than making maps through calculations or grids, we will be mapping China conceptually and theoretically. This is to say that in studying China’s regions, physical geography, political territories, cities, counties, and people, our goal is to develop skills for thinking about China spatially. With thousands of years of recorded history and a political system oriented to progress and national development, China is often imagined in terms of linear time. However, from ancient walled cities to the Mao-era work-unit system to the more recent migrations of rural labor, understanding how political, commercial, and social spaces are organized is essential for understanding China’s past and present. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or above. Fulfillment: CORE SSPC or IPC; GCS elective The Politics, Economy, and Environment of China; Social Science Focus Environmental Studies 200 level; Humanities Interdisciplinary or other Advanced course ( 18-19: Critical Concepts or Topic).
In this course, we will see how people in China have used psychology to build a modern nation and promote modern values. Beginning in the early 20th century, we will encounter missionaries trying to replace superstition with science, reformers challenging gender relationships, and intellectuals who critiqued the Chinese character. As we move through the century, we will trace how various people have applied psychological techniques for very different purposes: creating healthy citizens for a new state, instilling a revolutionary spirit, managing corporate employees, and raising exemplary children. During the semester, each student will conduct textual and/or ethnographic research about an aspect of psychological expertise or mental health in contemporary China. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or above. Fulfillment: CORE STS; GCS Elective: Chinese History, Society, and Culture; Social Science Focus Anthropology 200 level.
How did people in ancient and modern China understand health and treat illness? Historically and now, has “Chinese medicine” been an insular or open system? What can health perceptions and healing practices tell us about historical changes in China and its changing relationship with the world? Drawing on insights from the history of medicine and medical anthropology, this course explores health and healing in China through five chronologically organized units and one diachronically comparative unit. We will consider the cosmological, philosophical, and sociological factors that shape different visions of health. We will examine how local and global political processes affect healing practices and their perceived legitimacy and investigate what illness and remedy-seeking experiences reveal about the wider contexts in which medical activities take place. Prerequisite: CCSF-SHU 101L GPS
Examples of complex organizations include hospitals, schools, places of employment, the government, the military, churches, and prisons. Where do those organizations come from? What accounts for organizational success and failure? How can we make organizations better for individuals and society? This course examines different types of organizations, organizational goals and outcomes, institutional authority and structure, organizational change, and organizational fields. Most importantly, the goal of this course is to expand your knowledge and understanding of the relationships between organizations and society. You will learn to develop a critical lens and an analytical framework that can apply to understand specific complex organizations. This course will help you to think about how you might better survive and thrive in our organizational world! Prerequisite: Sophomore Standing. Fulfillment: Social Science core or Sociology focus 300 level.
This course introduces urbanization in China in the context of the East Asian region and globalization. By examination of the development of selected cities and discussion of experimental urban themes, this course aims to depict prevalent patterns of urbanization at appropriate levels, such as neighborhood types, metropolitan areas, and regional urban agglomeration. We examine traditional forms of settlement and place more recent urban phenomena in a broader historical perspective. We explore relevant political traditions and forms of planning administration to reveal underlying social, economic, cultural and environmental circumstances at work, while learning tools and methods of spatial analysis that can be applied to the study of cities all over the world. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: CORE SSPC; Social Science Foundational course or Urban Studies 200 level; Humanities 18-19 Critical Concepts; GCS The Politics, Economy, and Environment of China.
This course invites students from diverse backgrounds and provides an accessible introduction to the burgeoning field of Computational Social Science (CSS). We aim to explore research design and data skills at the intersection of social sciences and digital innovations. This course emphasizes using big and rich social digital data to understand and explain societies and human behaviors. We introduce fundamental topics in CSS, including digital trace data collection, social network analysis, and text-as-data, using the R programming language. Besides discussing the new opportunities of CSS, this course also highlights critical topics, such as data ethics and data-driven bias. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: Core AT; Social Science Foundational Course; Social Science Methods Course.
Examines both theoretical and applied aspects of research design, data analysis, and interpretation. Through readings, class discussion, guest lectures and written assignments, student will gain a thorough understanding of and practice in the components of good food-focused research. Topics include: articulating a research question, locating and using primary and secondary source information, conducting original research, and structuring and executing a research project.
Exposes students to some of the most provocative and entertaining novels written in Japanese since the end of the Second World War. Students see how the collapse of totalizing ideologies brought by Japan?s defeat led to an extremely fertile and yet somewhat atomized literary landscape. In this new postwar terrain, it became increasingly difficult to think of literature in terms of ?schools? or ?influences,? as questions of cultural and individual identity became harder and harder to answer in a world of material prosperity and cultural hybridization.
This course is intended to develop students’ bilingual and bicultural fluency for those who aspire to work in culturally diverse settings. With a focus on China and the US, we will discuss the challenges and strategies to interact with and lead team members in culturally diverse settings.Through a combination of lectures, real-life case discussions, in-class activities, and hands-on practice, students will gain valuable insights into how cross-cultural differences are manifested in daily life and the workplace, and the challenges they create therein. You will acquire knowledge and skills necessary for more effective communication with individuals from cultures different from your own, particularly in a professional setting. Prerequisite: EAST-UA 206 (minimum third-year level Chinese) or equivalent with instructor permission. No business background is required.
French philosopher Jean Baudrillard proposes the concept of hyperreality as the condition in which human consciousness struggles to discern between actual reality and simulations of reality, particularly within societies that are deeply influenced by advanced technology. In the 21st century, hyperreality has become ubiquitous in mediated life, as society becomes more intertwined with social media, virtual and digital environments, and performance spaces. In this course students will engage in the aesthetics and theories of hyperreality in order to create a performative happening that reflects on the embodied experience of contemporary life. Through collaborative research, students will integrate choreography, improvisation, technology, and visual elements to craft an immersive experience that collapses boundaries between performers and audiences. Students will be encouraged to explore experimental compositional strategies where communication unfolds across screens, through bodies, and within designed environments by employing digital performance and mixed reality techniques. Potential tools and techniques which may be utilized include artistry in real time technology, live streaming in performance, motion capture, machine learning, TouchDesigner and wearable technology. This class will include critical discussions and hands-on workshops during which students will refine their artistic vision. Participants are invited to devise an interdisciplinary performance practice in order to bring their installations into being. By engaging in this course, students will gain practical experience in creating and producing interactive installations activated by performance, aiming to create transformative projects where reality and the contemporary imagination converge.
4 points, discussion/seminar. First offered spring 2016, and every semester thereafter. Prerequisite (or co-requisite): Literary Interpretation (ENGL-UA 200). This seminar is a class in creative as well as critical reading. This class posits reading as an activity and explores reading and writing as reciprocal activities: no strong writers are not also strong readers. What can we learn from a text’s forms, modes, codes, and affects? What can we also learn from theories of literature (of poetry and poetics, or drama, of the novel or narrative in general)? How can we read both with and against the grain? And how can a profound engagement with criticism, commentary, and theory help us become better “makers” ourselves? This course assumes that writing is an effect of, and in a feedback loop with, reading: thus this seminar aims to strengthen your capacities for pattern recognition – i.e. sophistication about genre, style, mode. Regular assignments aim to provide a space for critical experiments in reading and writing; the syllabus offers models and goads for reflection and response. Students will direct and distill their inquiries into a substantial final paper (or project).
This four credit course explores how the dynamics of migration have shaped identity and citizenship. By providing students with a range of theoretical approaches, the course will address questions of migration, national identity and belonging from a multidisciplinary perspective drawing from (amongst other fields): Sociology, History, Geo-Politics, Gender Studies, Black European Studies, and Cultural Studies. Taking the so called “refugee crisis” as a starting point, the course will pay particular attention to the figure and representation of the “migrant” going from Italian mass migration in the late 19th century to the migrants crossing every day the waters of the Mediterranean in order to reach Fortress Europe. Yet, a course on migration processes undertaken in 2017 Italy cannot limit itself to a purely theoretical framework. Migration means movements of people bringing along personal histories, families and cultural backgrounds. Furthermore the presence of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers reaching Europe is having a significant impact on the current social and political agenda of European government, as in the case of Italy. Therefore the course will include a series of fieldtrips aimed at showing students how immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers insert themselves into the labor market and society in Italy.
Sponsored by Steinhardt. Central themes, issues, and controversies in American education. What is the purpose of “school”? How did schools begin in the United States, and how have they evolved across time? How do children learn? How are they different from each other, and why and when should that matter? How should we teach them? And how should we structure schools and classrooms to promote learning?
This course will focus on Eco-Materialism (circular design principles — reuse, recycle, renew & rethink) and emergent practices based on principles of Gaia theory, symbiosis, and other systems-centered theories in conjunction with some of the origins, influences, theories, processes, and manifestations of art installation. We will read, watch, and discuss perspectives on Eco-Materialism genres and installation art written/created by artists, curators, art historians, and critics and view work by eco artists and installation artists. Students will create their own installations and writing, experiment with diverse biomaterials, and learn and combine craftsmanship and digital techniques to explore and create their own materials. Do-It-Yourself activism and Critical-Making will enable students to participate in new modes of civic engagement. Moreover, the course will motivate them to remain independent from pre-determined structures, assuming active roles in the art making rather than passive consumers. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: IMA elective; IMB IMA/IMB elective, Visual Arts elective.
This course offers an experience with the intersection of technology and culture through collaborative teaching offered by faculty from Interactive Media Arts (IMA) and Global China Studies(GCS). Throughout the semester, students will dive into the world of Mixed Reality (MR) design, mastering space scanning technology, documenting historical sites, and conducting in-depth historical research. Students will use Unity, a cross-platform game engine, to craft immersive MR experiences that bring historical narratives to life. What sets this course apart is the real-world testing component, where students will refine their designs at actual historical sites. By the end, students will produce a digital immersive time-travel architecture, creating MR experiences that bring cultural heritage to life for modern audiences. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or above. Fulfillment: IMA Advanced Elective; IMB IMA/IMB elective; GCS Elective: Media, Arts, and Literature.