Thanks to the COM352 students for contributing a bunch of new pages! I'll be moving these pages into the main area of the wiki soon.

From UMassWiki

Welcome to the Honors 491G class wiki! This class is called "Cross-Cultural Re-Entry Seminar" and it is made up of 15 UMass seniors from various majors. They are all members of the International Scholars Program, organized by the Commonwealth College in collaboration with the International Programs Office. As part of this program, each student has spent at least 6 months in a foreign country, taking college classes and traveling extensively. Below, you will find a part of our syllabus and reading list. Also, this page is the gateway to various course texts (anecdotes, analyses, assignments, comments, dialogues) that will be posted periodically weekly in this class wiki, until at least the end of the semester (and hopefully beyond that). Enjoy!

Course Description and Objectives

The purpose of this course is to help you make sense of your recent international experiences. Since we are working within an academic environment, you will become familiarized with various theoretical concepts dealing with such complex and fascinating issues as “identity” and “culture.” You will not be required to learn these theories by heart; I simply offer them to you in the hope that some of them will help you stitch together disparate cross-cultural episodes into an interesting narrative.

In this course, we hope to go beyond the mere exchange of anecdotes (e.g., “The Bulgarians shake their head sideways when they mean ‘yes’!”), and exercise our analytical and critical muscles (e.g., “How does ‘the Bulgarian yes nod’ make sense in that culture? What does its apparent ‘non-conformity’ say about our own taken-for-granted set of values, beliefs, and norms?). In other words, while I expect us to delight each other with plenty of funny stories about the pains of adapting to a foreign culture, I also hope that we will be able to work through some of these stories in an analytical and critical manner. Throughout the course, we should be able to mine these apparently disconnected anecdotes for wider lessons about meaning-making, “normality,” the construction of identity, in-group-ness versus out-group-ness, perception, subjectivity, intercultural competence, stereotyping, adaptation, the effects of globalization on the individual, and so on. In doing so, we will build on the solid foundation that you have already acquired in your preparation seminars.

From another point of view, we will devote much of this course to providing as many answers as possible to the following three questions:

1. How has your cross-cultural experience changed you and the identities that you claim for yourself?
2. What was your impact on the culture(s) which hosted you? [And, of course, how can you continue engaging that culture, even from a distance?
3. How can your cross-cultural experience contribute to the impact that you will leave on the culture with which you most identify (i.e., your “home culture”)?

Eventually, we aim to trace back most of our discussions to an issue with which you are bound to grapple in all of your future intercultural experiences: the tension between individuality (the need to recognize and maintain the individual’s uniqueness coupled with our reluctance to blanket-label others) and group identity (the need to “belong” to one or more groups coupled with our desire to celebrate “culture” and “cultural diversity”). When is one to think (and speak) in terms of individuals and their choices (e.g., “Raz likes to play soccer”), and when in terms of groups and their characteristics (e.g., “Soccer is very important to Romanians”)? Each option is fraught with dangers, and each might be preferable in certain situations. While this course will not provide you with a sure-fire recipe for making such difficult decisions, it will provide you with some “theoretical equipment” for getting a conceptual handle on these issues.

Writing and Reading

Since this course is an integral part of the International Scholars Program, one of its main objectives is to help create genuine “global citizens.” The “global” part of that refers not only to your recent cross-cultural experiences, but also to your ongoing, active engaging of difference in all its forms. The “citizens” part also refers to a rather complex concept: it is not enough to vote, pay taxes, and obey the law to be a “good citizen.” You must also find ways to engage the community (-ies) in which you claim membership. After all, the training of citizens is one major reason why the state of Massachusetts has established this public university. As part of the UMass intellectual elite, you must seek opportunities for enriching your community’s public discourse with your own points of view. This course gives you two venues for entering that public discourse: 1) an open-to-the-public presentation of your final project towards the end of the semester, and 2) an Internet-based, wiki component to this class. Thus, in addition to airing your views and anecdotes in class, you will also do a significant amount of writing and speaking in public. You will therefore need to be mindful of and adapt to the needs of your audience(s) – a skill that is indispensable to an active citizen.

The wiki is particularly suited to practicing that “global citizen” thing, as it is a smaller replica of the greater public discourse always under way in a functioning democracy. There are no guarantees that your input will ever be taken under consideration by anyone; on the other hand, it might get the attention of the “wrong” people. Anyone can edit your contributions to the wiki, anyone can misinterpret, misquote, and misuse your statements. Like in real life, all you can do to rectify that is persevere, work to set the record straight, repeat your message as often as needed, and engage in debates with both people you like and people you don’t like.

Needless to say, all of your writing will be accompanied by reading assignments meant to get you thinking in ways you might not have considered before.

Tentative schedule of class topics and assignments

Note: All readings are on Ereserves, unless otherwise noted.

September 6 -- Introduction and syllabus. Visit from ComCol and IPO at 6 p.m.

Required Readings: The syllabus. Familiarize yourselves with the class wiki, by reading the info provided in the following web sites:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
• http://www.umasswiki.com/wiki/UMassWiki:About
• http://www.umasswiki.com/wiki/Class:About
• http://www.umasswiki.com/wiki/Template:MandatoryClassReading

September 13 -- Meet with Cross-Cultural Preparation Seminar people in the ComCol lounge (5:30 to 6:30 p.m.).

Assignment: /"Culture" talk.

No Required Readings.

September 20 -- The role of communication in the creation and maintenance of the social world. The power of language.

Required Reading: Carey, J. (1975). A Cultural Approach to Communication.

September 27 -- The constructivist approach and its implications for “culture.” The fundamental process of (human) categorization. Institutional facts, institutions, and categorizing-by-prototypes.

/Graded Assignment#1: News Story Analysis

Required Reading: Anderson, B. (1991). Census, Map, Museum. Chapter in “Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism.”

Recommended Readings:

• Lippmann, W. (1922). The World Outside and the Pictures in Our Heads. Chapter in “Public Opinion.”
• Nietzsche, F. (1873). On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense.
• Plato. The Allegory of the Cave. In “The Republic.”

October 4 -- Identity and Culture. (Race, ethnicity, nationality, and other salient in-groups). Response #2 due.

/Assignment#2: Institution Analysis

Required Readings:

• Smith, S.L. (1998). Identity and Intercultural Competence in Reentry. In Martin, J.N, Nakayama, T.K, and Flores, L.A (Eds.), “Readings in Cultural Contexts.”
• The two Rodriguez pieces [Rodriguez, C.E. (2000). Changing Race: Latinos, the Census, and the History of Ethnicity in the United States.]
• Sibii, R. (2006). Culture. In “Romanianism and Romanianness: Two Frames of Romanian Identity.” Unpublished Master’s thesis. (Handout).

Recommended Reading:

• Hoffman, D. (1989). Self and Culture Revisited: Culture Acquisition among Iranians in the United States.
• Wittgenstein, L. (1953). Aphorism 67 (“Family resemblances”) from Philosophical Investigations.
• Wong, K. (1998). Migration Across Generations: Whose Identity is Authentic? In Martin, J.N., Nakayama, T.K., and Flores, L.A. (Eds.), “Readings in Cultural Contexts.”

October 11 --- Stereotypes, generalizations, political correctness. Response #3 due.

/Homework#3: American newspaper analysis

Required Reading: Lassiter, S.M. (1998). Asian Americans. Chapter in “Cultures of Color in America: A Guide to Family, Religion, and Health.”

Recommended Reading: Said, E.W. (1978). "Orientalism." (in library).

October 18 -- Ethnography (ethnography of communication, discourse analysis, autoethnography). The question of authenticity. Ritual and symbolic scenes. Response #4 due.

/Graded Exercise#4: The Power of Words

Required Readings:

• The three Bohannan and van der Elst pieces. [Bohannan, P. and van der Elst, D. (1998). Asking and Listening: Ethnography as Personal Adaptation].
• Hall, Bradford "J." (1998). Ritual as Part of Everyday Life. In Martine, J.N., Nakayama, T.K., & Flores, L.A. (Eds.), “Readings in Cultural Contexts.”

Recommended Reading: Hastings, S.O. (2001). Social Drama as a Site for the Communal Construction and Management of Asian Indian “Stranger” Identity.

October 25 -- Media and literature as “cultural (re)sources.” Response #5 due.

Homework: For this assignment, you can choose to answer one of the following three questions:

1. /Question 1: Identity in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence
2. /Question 2: Applying the SPEAKING model
3. /Question 3: Ethnography at home

Required Readings:

• El-Nawawy, M. & Iskandar, A. (2003). We Are What We Watch. Chapter in “The Story of the Network that Is Rattling Governments and Redefining Modern Journalism.”
• Croteau, D. & Hoynes, W. (2003). Content: Media Representations of the Social World. Chapter in “Media Society: Industries, Images and Audiences.”
• Sibii, R. (2006). Agenda-Setting. Entry in Jensen-Arnett, J., (Ed.). “Encyclopedia of Children, Adolescents, and the Media.” (handout)

November 1 -- Work on final paper begins. Discussion of final paper topics and approaches.

No Required Readings.

Recommended Reading: Carbaugh, D. (1993). Cultural Pragmatics and Intercultural Competence.

November 8 -- Library research mini-seminar. Methodologies, sources. Public speaking pointers.

/Final Paper Topics

Required Readings: Individual students will be assigned different methodology-related articles, depending on their particular project.

Recommended Readings:

• Philipsen, G. (1990). Speaking ‘Like a Man’ in Teamsterville: Cultural Patterns of Role Enactment in an Urban Neighborhood. In Carbaugh, D. (Ed), “Cultural Communication and Intercultural Contact.”
• Philipsen, G. (1990). Reflections on Speaking ‘Like a Man’ in Teamsterville. In Carbaugh, D. (Ed), “Cultural Communication and Intercultural Contact.”

November 15 -- Class meets without the instructor who will be attending a conference in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Peer review in class and in the wiki. Final paper draft due in the wiki the day the course resumes after the break.

Required Readings: Individual students will be assigned different articles, depending on their particular project.

Recommended Reading: Frake, O.C. (1964). How to ask for a drink in Subanun.

November 29 -- Presentations attended by Cross-Cultural Preparation Seminar students and others.

No Required Readings. Individual consultations are available.

December 6 -- Presentations (ctd.)

No Required Readings. Individual consultations are available.

December 13 -- Conclusions and recapitulation. Final paper due. Bonus due (if applicable). Bonus points can be earned by working with one or more individually assigned texts. Individual consultations on where to take the paper further can be scheduled.

/COMPLETE FINAL PAPERS HERE

Interesting links

• William Safire’s weekly column in the New York Times Magazine (packaged with the Sunday Times).

A thoroughly enlightening column dealing with various labels and phrases that the political and media establishment employ in order to frame public discourse to their liking (e.g., “warrior” vs. “fighter,” vs. “soldier”).

• Strunk, W. (1918). The Elements of Style.

The classic text that all journalists (and many writers) carry in their back-pocket. Provides correctives to many of those recurring student mistakes (e.g., the possessive vs. the plural, “their” vs. “there,” redundancies, misspelled words).

• Korkki, P. (2007). Young Workers: U Nd 2 Improve Ur Writing Skills. The New York Times, August 26.

• Being Bilingual “Protects Brain.” (2007). On BBC News.

• Wolf, M. (2007). Socrates' Nightmare. The International Herald Tribune, September 6.

• NZ police let public write laws. (2007). On BBC News.

• Preston, J. (2007). New Test Asks: What Does "American" Mean?. The New York Times. Take the test immigrants take to get "naturalized" (!) as American citizens.

• Rohde, D. (2007). Army Enlists Anthropology in War Zones. The New York Times.

• Cohen, R. (2007). "The American" in France. The New York Times.