Cultures and Contexts (select one)

Cultures and Contexts prepares students for life in a globalized world by introducing them to the ways humans see themselves as members of social, religious, national, and regional groups. Individual courses focus on political, social, or cultural collectives that are distinct from the dominant traditions of contemporary North America, such as central Asia, Russia, Korea, or ancient Egypt; some courses study diaspora formations and emergent traditions. Primary texts are central to every course, with some faculty concentrating on historical documents, others on art, film, or literary texts. Cultures and Contexts courses share a common aim to examine the ways cultures emerge and interact through trade, colonization, immigration, religious proselytization, and representation in various media; how groups define themselves through beliefs, values, and customs; and how the dominant perspective of Western modernity affects comprehension of the ways in which premodern or non-Western peoples experience and imagine their lives.