The following six core courses are required for the Global Cultures major (The same courses are required for Global Cultures minors except the capstone seminar). Course description for History 21 are found on this page.
- History 21 A, B, C (these may be taken out of sequence)
- Global Cultures 103 A, 103 B and 191 (Capstone Seminar)
History 21A, B, C and Global Cultures 103A / 103B should be taken as early as possible in the Global Cultures major, but they are not prerequisites for taking courses in your emphases.
GC 103 A should ideally be taken before GC 103 B but you may take them concurrently or reverse the order if scheduling problems arise. (GC 103 A and B are topics vary courses and so may be repeated for credit if the topic changes).
The Senior Seminar G.C. 191 is best taken in the senior year but may be taken before if it cannot be accommodated into the student's final year's schedule.
2024-25 CORE COURSES
FALL
GLBLCLT 103B: Cltrs Colonialsm (S. Suh)
By drawing on literary works that depict interactions between the colonized and the colonizer during Japanese rule over Korea (1910-45), this course examines the complicated terrain of day-to-day life in a subjugated land under foreign rule. In order to appreciate the implications of the literary works for examining the issue of colonialism and to understand the stories’ historical context, students will also read critical essays on the colonial relationship and a history book on Japanese Assimilation Policies in Colonial Korea. The course aims to introduce students both to important literary works about Korea’s colonial experience and to the fields of colonial and postcolonial studies in East Asian context.
GLBLCLT 191: Virtualizing Cultures (J. Lin)
"Virtualizing Cultures” is an interdisciplinary course that explores the dynamic landscape of digital technology and cultural practices, utilizing Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (XR) to dive into how cultures are represented, transformed, and experienced in virtual spaces. Students will engage with concepts from digital anthropology and media studies to investigate digital ethnography, the impact of technology on cultural norms, identity in virtual communities, and the ethical considerations of digital cultural interactions. Through virtual tours, interactive simulations, and project-based learning, students will critically examine cultural diversity, digital citizenship, and the impacts of digital environments on cultural understanding.
WINTER
GLBCLT 103A: Germany & Asia (P. Broadbent)
This upper division course looks at Germany’s storied engagements with China, Japan, Vietnam, and South Korea since the founding of the German Empire in 1871 through to Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative at the onset of the twenty-first century. We will explore Germany’s colonial settlement in China and its role in suppressing the Boxer Rebellion, the influence of German culture, broadly understood, during the Meiji Restoration in Japan, the economic ties with South Korea during the Cold War and East and West Germany’s varied approaches to Vietnamese immigration. Through a study of historical documents as well as cultural artifacts Beyond Europe and Beyond Trade traces the evolution of Germany’s economic, territorial, political, and cultural ambitions in Asia from the late nineteenth-century to the global present and asks how and why Germany’s ties with Asia have evolved from colonial settler policies to soft power economics and cultural exchange in the present time. We will conclude the course by looking at the reversal of power dynamics between Germany and Asia and the impact of global Asia’s economic might in Germany and in the European Union more broadly.
GLBCLT 103A: Culture, Money & Globlztn (M. Le Vine)
GLBCLT 103B: Capitalism & Blk/Fem (S. Harvey)
This course will offer students a working knowledge of black feminist thought and criticisms of capitalism. We’ll read from and about authors/activists including Lucy Parsons, Claudia Jones, Esther Cooper Jackson, Assata Shakur, Angela Davis, and the Combahee River Collective. In doing so we ask how black feminist theory and activism draws connections between colonialism, chattel slavery, imperialism and the life of black peoples in Africa and throughout the diaspora.
GLBCLT 103B: Black Indigenous (S. Harvey)
In this course we explore the histories, politics, and imaginaries of black indigeneity in both the Americas and Africa. We examine colonialism, chattel slavery, and imperialism as forces that shape who counts as indigenous and why.
SPRING
GLBLCLT 191: Global Literacies (Q. Du)
Archived Core Courses