Full course

HUMA-2323-52401. World Cultures Online

Spring, 2021 Three credit hours

Mark Curtis-Thames, Ph.D., Instructor

Contact: office A559. Email me

here

:

mthames@dcccd.edu

.

Office hours: M 9:00-10:00a; T 1:00-2:00p; W 7:00-8:00a. Other times by appointment.

Humanities 2323 State Course Description

This course is a general study of diverse world cultures. Topics include cultural practices, social structures, religions, arts, and languages.

Humanities 2323 Instructor Course Annotation

This course is a specific study of the contribution of diverse world cultures to human life in the Americas. Topic are organized around the integration of the student’s cultural practices, religion, life project, and education given the social structures and history of the Americas.

Humanities 2323 State Student Learning Objectives

Demonstrate knowledge of common terms and concepts associated with the study of world cultures.

Articulate an informed personal response and critically analyze works in the arts and humanities from various world cultures.

Demonstrate awareness of multiple cultural perspectives by comparing and contrasting the cultural expressions of diverse world communities.

Analyze various cultures to navigate diverse cultural spaces and recognize different worldviews.

Demonstrate an understanding of geography and the location of different cultural groups in the world.

Humanities 2323 Instructor’s Student Learning Objectives

1) Demonstrate knowledge of cultural-anthropological, sociological, psychological, historical, and worldview perspectives on American humanness, organized around the Columbian Exchange.

2) Articulate an informed personal response to, and critically analyze, works in the arts and humanities found in Dallas, provenanced from various world cultures present in the Americas.

3) Demonstrate awareness of multiple cultural perspectives by comparing and contrasting the cultural expressions of diverse world cultures as they have been made in the Americas, including the various responses to intercultural encounter, evidenced in Dallas.

4) Analyze various cultures to navigate diverse cultural spaces in Dallas, and recognize different worldviews in Texas.

5) Demonstrate an awareness of the need for intercultural competence within intraAmerican life.

6) Demonstrate knowledge of PreColumbian American cultural diversity and accomplishment.

7) Demonstrate knowledge of the contents of the Columbian Exchange, and its path to contemporary globalization.

Details

See

here

for the student handbook.

See
here
for the El Centro core curriculum, transferable as is to any public university in Texas.

See
here
for dropping or withdrawing from the course.

See
here
and here (p. 5, number 11) and here for plagiarism and cheating. In humanities we respect your ideas more than anyone else, maybe even you, ever has. So whose idea is whose is a big deal. Plagiarism is claiming or even implying that somebody else’s idea is yours. Be clear when you write and speak as to whether an idea is yours, or one you got from someone else.

Written assignments are due at 11:59pm on the day listed.

Writing assignments may be turned in late; but it is 2/3 of a letter grade off for each 24-hour-period late. That is, one day late the best possible grade is not A+ but A-; two days late the best is a B; three days is a C+; four is C-; and five days late one must submit an A paper in order to receive a D. All items are to be submitted on paper unless otherwise specified. An email with assignment attached will give you a time stamp that stops the grade penalty.

Writing follows the Chicago humanities style (also called Notes and Bibliography or Turabian). You don’t have to be an expert. Just use the El Centro / Dallas College Library’s NoodleTools and other aids from the Library and Learning Center for assistance. See especially here. (This is the Philosophy libguide, not Humanities, because the resources I require are here.)

Indeed, I require that *all,* 100%, of your online research be conducted through the El Centro library philosophy site,

here

, or other El Centro library libguides. Google and Wikipedia are not accepted. Any site not accessed through the El Centro library will require my explicit permission.

I’m not kidding. Unapproved sources and the material based on them will be considered wrong, even if (incidentally) true. Submit candidate sites you discover for approval to me via email.

Info on the Learning Center for help with test-taking and writing is here. Other student help: adult resource center here. Counseling here.

Make-up of missed assignments is allowed when you have a documented medical or legal excuse, but not otherwise. The final, if any, may not be rescheduled or made up.

The texts are cheap. Buy them at our bookstore or anywhere. Get them via Learning Materials, IncludED, the Follett Bookstore, or any other manner.

Instructor’s Student Learning Objectives: Assignments

A. You will write three two-page reflections, on Paul Haggis’s 2004 film Crash (you may

substitute Spike Lee’s 1989 Do the Right Thing), Clint Eastwood’s 2008 Gran Torino,

and Denis Villeneuve’s 2016 Arrival. ISLOs 2, 3, 5.

B. You will write four one-to-two-page museum response papers. ISLOs 1, 2, 5, 6.

C. You will make a 2-5-minute video (or Collaborate live-stream) explaining a worldview other

than your own to a same-culture friend or relative. ISLOs 3, 4, 5, with documentation.

D. You will take two objective tests: one on Charles Mann’s 1491, AND one either on Mann’s

1493, OR Immanuel Wallerstein’s World Systems Analysi. ISLOs 1, 6, 7.

E. You will post your own response and comment on at least two of your fellow classmates’

posts in fora (plural of forum) in the Discussion Board.

Grading

Instructor Meeting 5%

Discussion Board fora 21% 7 @ 3% each.

Museum papers 24% 4 responses @ 6% ea.

Objective Test s 15% 2 @ 7.5% ea.

Worldview Presentation 20%

Paper Proposal 2.5%

Rough Draft 2.5%

Final Copy 5%

Presentation 10%

Film analysis 15% 3 @ 5% ea.

Required Materials.

Mann, Charles. 1491. New York: KnopfDoubleday, 2012. ISBN 978-0307278241.

Mann, Charles. 1493. New York: KnopfDoubleday, 2015.

Reynolds, Sana. Guide to Cross-Cultural Communication. Upper Saddle River: PrenticeHall,

2010. ISBN 978-0132157414.

Wallerstein, Immanuel. World Systems Analysis: An Introduction. 2004.

Americas Materials (Partial List). [See addendum at end of calendar.]

Ahlstrom, Sydney. A Religious History of the American People. Second edition. 2004.

Ali, Ayaan Hirsi. Nomad. 2011.

Berry, Wendell. Sex Economy Freedom Community. 1993.

Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. 1984.

Deloria, Vine, Jr. God Is Red. 2003.

“ The Metaphysics of Modern Existence. 1979.

De Tocqueville, Alexis. Democracy in America. 1835.

Du Bois, W. E. B. Souls of Black Folk. 1903.

Faulkner, William. Absalom, Absalom. 1936.

Huntington, Samuel. The Clash of Civilizations. 2011.

Milner, Horace. “Body Ritual among the Nacirema.” 1954.

Peirce, Charles. “Evolutionary Love.” 1893.

**See addendum after Calendar.

Calendar

Week I

January 19 Post and comment in Discussion Board (DB) forum 1, Welcome and

Introductions.

Introduction to the Liberal Arts.

Introduction to the Humanities.

Introduction to the Course.

Read Mann, 1491, ch. 1; Reynolds, ch. 1.

Watch exciting videos. Also, the boring but important ones.

Week II

25 The Americas in the World.

Before the Maya and Aztec.

Read Mann, ch. 2; Reynolds, ch. 2.

Videos R Us.

Week III

February 1 Certification Day: Participate by February 1, 11:59pm.

Post and comment in DB 2, The Americas Before.

Mesoamerican civilization.

Museum: Maya, Aztec, Inca.

Read Mann, ch. 3; Reynolds, ch. 3.

So many videos.

Week IV

8 First Museum Response paper: The Americas before…due February

14, 11:59pm.

Contact.

The Colloquies of the Twelve.

Iberian colonialism.

1493 applies from here, on though we won’t get to it for a while.

Read Mann, ch. 4; Reynolds, ch. 4.

I’m a visual person…

Week V

15 Presentation proposal due February 21, 11:59pm.

Post and comment in DB 3, Not Immigrants, Kidnapped! Due

February 19, 11:59pm.

Africa and Europe prior to 1600.

Museum: African origins and the slave trade.

Read Mann, chs. 5-6; Reynolds, ch. 5.

See how the videos run.

Week VI

22 2nd Museum Response, Colonial America, due February 28, 11:59pm.

Spanish and English colonialism.

Read Mann, chs. 7-8; Reynolds, ch. 6.

All videos all the time.

Week VII

March 1 First Film Reflection due March 7, 11:59pm.

Post and comment in DB 4, Colonial America, due March 5, 11:59pm.

Cotton Mather, Jonathan Edwards, Benjamin Franklin. Read Mann, chs. 9-10. Reynolds, ch. 7.

Mooooore videos.

Week VIII

8

Museum: Spanish and English colonialism.

Read Wallerstein, ch. 1.

Also, videos.

***Spring Break***

Week IX

March 22
1491 Test due March 28, 11:59pm.

Post and comment in DB 5, Revolutionary America.

The American revolutions.

Indian wars and displacement.

Pioneers and explorers.

The American documents.

Read Wallerstein, ch. 2; Reynolds, ch. 8.

Just me and my videos.

Week X

April 5 3rd Museum Response due April 7, 11:59pm: the African-American

Museum.

The antebellum period.

2nd Film Reflection due April 9, 11:59pm.

Presentations draft due April 11, 11:59pm.

Read Wallerstein, ch. 3; Mann, 1493, ch. 1.

Videos all over the place.

Week XI

12 Post and comment in DB 6, Civil Ways and Civil War.

The Civil War.

Emancipation, Reconstruction

Read Wallerstein, ch. 4, Mann, ch. 2.

Impactful, helpful, relatable videos right here.

Last Day to Withdraw, April 14.

Week XII

17 Presentations / papers begin.

4th Museum Response, Latino Cultural Center, due April 24, 11:59p.

The Gilded Age and Jim Crow.

Read Mann, ch. 3; Wallerstein, ch. 5.

Just the videos, sir or ma’am, just the videos.

Week XIII

25 Post & comment in DB 7, America Arrival, due April 26, 11:59pm.

Read Mann, ch. 4; Wallerstein, ch. 6.

All the videos that fit the bandwidth.

Week XIV

29 Pax Americana.

Third Film Reflection Paper due May 1, 11:59pm.

Video around the clock.

Week XV

May 2 9/11 and the Post-American world.

2nd Test due May 9, 11:59pm. E pluribus vocis, unum….quod?

Mostly, videos.

Week XVI

10 Video / Term Papers due May 12, 11:59pm.

Addendum: Readings and Videos.

Appiah, Kwame Anthony. Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers.

Sahagun, Bernardino de. Colloquies of the Twelve. 1564.

Smart, Ninian. Worldviews. Third edition. 1999.

West, Cornel. Race Matters. 1994.

Apocalypto.

Black Panther.

Invictus.

Lincoln.

Twelve Years a Slave.

The Witness.