Department of Cultures, Societies and Global Studies
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Please find our Fall 2018 course offerings listed below.
AFRS 1101 – Introduction to African Studies
Professor: Kwamina Panford
Days, Time: MR, 11:45 am – 1:25 pm
Pre-requisites: N/A
Description: Uses a multidisciplinary approach to offer an introduction and overview of the geographical, demographic, socioeconomic, and political conditions of the African continent, emphasizing sub-Saharan Africa. Africa, "the cradle of humankind," is a vast, complex continent of diverse peoples that has fascinated observers and evoked multiple images. Topical areas of interest range from ethnic relations, politics, colonial experience, and international relations to religion, environment, health, economic development, gender, culture, and literature. Course materials aim to provide contemporary African perspectives and analyses that offer students an opportunity to acquire and interpret broad knowledge about the continent. Click here for more information.
AFRS 1270 – Introduction to Global Health
Professor: Richard Wamai
Days, Time: TF, 1:35 pm – 3:15 pm
Description: Introduces global health in the context of an interdependent and globalized world focusing on four main areas of analysis: infrastructure of global health; diseases; populations; and terms, concepts, and theories. While the focus is on lower-income countries, the course examines issues in a broader global context, underscoring the interconnections between global health disparities and global health policy response. Applies case studies describing interventions to improve healthcare in resource-poor settings in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere to help illuminate the actors, diseases, populations, and principles and frameworks for the design of effective global health interventions. Cross-listed with PHTH 1270.
AFRS 2465 – The Scope and Dynamics of Conflicts in Africa
Days, Time: MWR, 10:30 am – 11:35 am
Description: Surveys the faces, character, and manifestations of violent and nonviolent conflicts across the landscape of continental Africa. Addresses the causes/sources of conflict, types of conflicts and their impact on society, and the conflict resolution mechanisms. The contemporary history of the continent of Africa is defined most markedly by conflict that has impacted heavily on the continent's diverse multicultural societies, polities, and economies. The structure of conflicts in the continent is complex and, indeed, exhibits diverse faces; conflicts differ in their roots, causes, and explanations and between the different regions and population groups in the south, east, central, west, and north. The course critically analyzes this broad range of aspects with specific focus on sub-Saharan Africa using country- and case-based analyses and critical thinking.
AFRS 3424 – Epidemiology of Pandemic Diseases and Health Disparities in the African Diaspora
Description: Examines the epidemiology and determinants of diseases and the public health practice among continental African peoples and African-derived populations in the Americas and elsewhere in the African Diaspora. Emphasizes such epidemic diseases as malaria, yellow fever, tuberculosis, smallpox, the current AIDS pandemic, obesity, and cancer. The course also aims to critically address the breadth of factors behind these pandemics, such as socioeconomic, political, health system, behavioral, and genetic. A cross-cutting theme throughout the course is the entrenched health disparities in society.
AFRS 3464 – Natural Resources and Sustainable Development
Days, Time: MW, 2:50 pm – 4:30 pm
Pre-requisites: Must be Sophomore, Junior, or Senior
Description: Examines the social dimensions of resource extraction. Focusing mainly on developing nations, studies global issues, including developments in industrial nations, to assess their impact on resource extraction and living and working conditions in resource-rich regions. Uses case studies of key countries producing oil/gas, minerals, and forest/agricultural commodities to illustrate the past/current causes of resource mismanagement; their social consequences; and how public policies, legislation, and financial and human resource management with industrialization can be used to avert or reduce the adverse effects of resource extraction, especially in poor countries. Click here for more information.
AFAM 1101 – Intoduction to African-American Studies
Professor: Gia Barboza
Description: Explores several of the possible historical, sociological, cultural, and political avenues of study in the broad interdisciplinary spectrum of African-American studies. Provides an introductory overview of the field and offers an opportunity to identify areas for more specific focus.
AFAM 1104 – The African-American Experience through Music
Professor: Eric Jackson
Pre-requisites: Not open to students who have taken MUSC 1104
Description: Explores the various musical traditions of African Americans, with a specific focus on the United States. Examines the impact of African, European, and Native American traditions on African-American music as well as the role of music as an expression of African-American aesthetics, traditions, and life. Considers historical and contemporary forms of African-American music, with selected video presentations.
AFAM 2270 – Race and Ethnic Relations
Professor: Tiffany Joseph
Description: Focuses on racial and religious groups, particularly with reference to the United States. Emphasizes historical development, specific problems of adjustment and assimilation, and present-day problems and trends. SOCL 2270 and AFAM 2270 are cross-listed.
AFAM 2296 – Early African-American Literature
Professor: Nicole Aljoe
Description: Surveys the development and range of black American writers, emphasizing poetry and prose from early colonial times to the Civil War. ENGL 2296 and AFM 2296 are cross-listed.
AFAM 2360 – Politics of Poverty
Professor: Gia E. Barboza
Days, Time: MWR, 9:15 am – 10:20 am
Description: Explores how and why there is poverty, how it affects people's lives, and how it can be eliminated. Examines the relations between poverty, racial and ethnic factors, and the economic, political, and administrative systems. Evaluates a number of alternatives and provides an opportunity for clarifying individual assumptions and feelings about poverty.
CLTR 1120 – Introduction to Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Professor:Section 01: Alan West-Durán / Section 02: Daniel Noemi Voionmaa
CRN: Section 01: 13249 / Section 02: 13250
Days, Time: Section 01: MR, 11:45 am – 1:25 pm / Section 02: MW, 2:50 pm – 4:30 pm
Description: Examines the rich interconnections between literature and language and the culture that supports them. Discusses the relationship of language to literature and investigates how language and literatures are embedded in culture. Addresses several very broad and important questions, such as the relationship between language and culture; the relationship between language and thought; the definition of cultural relativism; and how ethical dilemmas are expressed in different cultures. Explores the relationship of esthetic and rhetorical traditions in given languages to the culture from which they sprang. In this context, examines the extremely interesting case of American Sign Language and how a gestural language sheds light on these issues.
CLTR 1501 – Introduction to French Culture
Professor: Alice L. Sedar
Days, Time: WF, 11:45 am – 1:25 pm
Description: Offers a very broad introduction to French "culture," by which is meant its principal "high" and "low" versions. An attempt is made to reproduce the knowledge base of a typical well-educated French man or woman. Highlights sports, politics, history, intellectual history, and the arts. Also addresses questions of cultural relativism. Students write a major paper on a subject chosen in conjunction with the professor.
CLTR 1503 – Introduction to Italian Culture
Professor: Luigia G. Maiellaro
Description: Examines chronologically the main aspects of Italian culture, concentrating on the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the modern, post-unification period. Topics include art, philosophy, literature, architecture, film, and historical background. Other topics address significant personages in Italian culture, such as Dante, Boccaccio, Piero della Francesca, Leonardo da Vinci, Alberti, Pico della Mirandola, Michelangelo, and Machiavelli; the differences between northern and southern Italy; and the nature of Italy's cultural heritage and its influence and status today. Conducted in English.
CLTR 1504 – Introduction to Spanish Culture
Professor: Barbara Corbett
Days, Time: MWR, 10:30 am – 11:35am
Description: Examines chronologically the forces that have forged Spanish culture and have made Spain the nation it is today. Traces the development of Spain from the prehistoric caves of Altamira to the present. Observes past and present concerns such as divorce and abortion in a Catholic country, education, the role of women, linguistic diversity, separatism and terrorism, and the incorporation of Spain into the European Community. Incorporates history, sociology, anthropology, geography, economics, and politics. Conducted in English.
CLTR 1505 – Introduction to Latin American Culture
Professor: Élika Ortega Guzman
Description: Introduces students to Latin American culture through the study of a broad array of literary and critical writings by Latin American authors and selected films from Latin America. Authors include Sor Juana, Garcia Marquez, and Jorge Amado. Conducted in English.
CLTR 1506 – Introduction to Chinese Pop Culture
Professor: TBA
Description: Provides a comprehensive examination of modern Chinese popular culture in the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. From film to literature, from music to theater, this course probes popular culture as it has manifested itself and traces its sociopolitical, aesthetic, and effective impact on modern China, with special attention to negotiations between the elite and the popular discourses.
CLTR 1700 – Introduction to Japanese Pop Culture
Professor: Jennifer Cullen
Days, Time: TF, 9:50 am – 11:30 am
Description: Provides an introduction to Japanese popular culture through critical analysis of mass media such as film, television, comics, and animation. Investigates various social and cultural issues, such as gender, family, and education. Films and videos supplement readings. Conducted in English.
CLTR 2715 – New Media Narratives in Latin America
Description: Focuses on Latin America as a region of rich technological creativity in the digital media landscape of the 21st century. Explores how social networks, computational technologies, and digital devices are subject to creative hacks that incorporate alternative economies and knowledge models and enact social and artistic movements. Examines how hacks or adaptations of new media traverse the local dimensions of the current global technocultural landscape and invite reflection on the multiplex relationships fostered by digital media around the world. Offers students an opportunity to analyze cultural artifacts and phenomena in Latin America in a comparative global setting and engage in innovative expression by creating reflexive multimedia artifacts of their own, replicating the creative and adaptive uses studied in the class. Taught in English.
CLTR 3418 – Nationalism
Professor: Amílcar Barreto
Pre-requisites: Undergraduate level POLS 1155 Minimum Grade of D- or Undergraduate level POLS 1160 Minimum Grade of D-
Description: Explores contending theories of identity and nationalism—a powerful force in international and domestic politics. Examines topics such as the process of identity creation, the choice of national symbols, how group boundaries are established, the role of identity in conflict and state building, and the debate over nationalism's constructed or primordial nature. POLS 3418 and CLTR 3418 are cross-listed.
CLTR 3725 – Representing Violence and Human Rights in Latin America
Professor: Daniel Noemi Voionmaa
Days, Time: MWR, 1:35 pm – 2:40 pm
Pre-requisites: Undergraduate level SPNS 2102 Minimum Grade of D-
Description: Studies the idea of violence and how it relates to the social, economic, and political situation in Latin America. Students watch films and documentaries and read novels, testimonies, short stories, and poems of several artistic movements to study how violence is represented/visualized in these texts. Also addresses the topics of historical memory and human rights by using basic theoretical texts about the concept of violence, memory, and human rights. Studies four moments in recent Latin American history: Mexico 1968, Shining Path and Peru in the 1980s and 1990s, the genocide in Guatemala, and the dictatorships in the Southern Cone. Taught in Spanish.
CLTR 1240 – Latin American Film
Professor: Jose Buscaglia
Description: Examines prizewinning Latin American films based on actual events, such as those that occurred during the Argentine military dictatorship of the 1970s, or works of fiction by well-known authors, such as Nobel Prize winner Garcia Marquez. These films ably depict the history and culture of these countries. Conducted in English and the films are in Spanish with English subtitles.
CLTR 2001 – World Cultures through Film
Professor: Alan West-Durán
Description: Introduces the study of world cinema from the past several decades as a form of artistic and cultural expression. Emphasizes the way that different ethnicities and cultures mix and even clash within national boundaries. Readings cover such topics as the postcolonial inheritance, immigration, the boundaries of class, the pressures of modernization, ethnic identities, and historical memory. Examines storytelling in its multicultural aspects and deals with the diverse influences of entertainment cinema and art cinema, as well as measures taken by countries to limit the influx of foreign films in order to protect their own cultural productivity. One overall concern of the course is the place of film in contemporary global culture.
LITR 1150 – Muslim Writers and the Qur'an (in English Translations)
Professor: Shakir Mustafa
Days, Time: M, 11:45 am – 1:25 pm
Description: Covers selected writers who fairly represent a wide range of Muslim attitudes to the Qur'an. Muslim writers use the Qur'an for political and social criticism, question Qur'anic texts related to the status of women, or question the authenticity of the Qur'an itself. After 9/11, however, Muslim writers in the West have presented characters who find in the Qur'an a source of positive powers. Readings are drawn from works such as the following: Leila Aboulela, Minaret; Monica Ali, Brick Lane; Gamal Al-Ghitani, Zayni Barakat; Tehmina Durrani, Blasphemy; Nuruddin Farah, Maps; Taha Hussein, An Egyptian Childhood; Yusuf Idris, "A House of Flesh"; C. H. Kane, Ambiguous Adventure; Hanif Kureishi, The Black Album and "My Son the Fanatic"; Naguib Mahfouz, The Children of the Alley.
LITR 4561 – Masterpieces of Spanish Literature: 12th-17th Century
Description: Traces the development of Spanish literature from the Middle Ages (las jarchas, El poema del Cid, El libro de buen amor, La Celestina) through the Renaissance and Baroque periods or Golden Age (Garcilaso de la Vega, the picaresque novel, the mystics, Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Calderon). Conducted in Spanish.
For information about registering for courses, get in touch with your Academic Advisor!
Questions about our Spanish major? Contact our Faculty Advisor:
Alan West-Duran:
d.west-duran@northeastern.edu
Questions about our language minors?
Language Minor Advising
Questions about our culture, literature, and cinema courses?
s.rich@northeastern.edu
Questions about language courses or placement testing?
wlc@northeastern.edu
Questions about the American Sign Language Program?
Kwamina Panford at African Students 30th Anniversary
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Check out our Fall 2019 Courses!
New courses for Fall 2019:
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