Core Courses
Although they need not be taken in a rigid sequential order, core courses are organized and interrelated, and provide a progression in development. The core courses address the need to explore the self (The Search for Meaning), to encounter the other (The Conquest of Caliban: Exploration and Domination) and to integrate the self and the other in a global community (The United States in a Changing World: Issues in Globalization). External evaluators of the MALS program have praised this interlocking and comprehensive structure, and graduates of the program cite this as one of its most exciting qualities.
The Search for Meaning
This course seeks human meaning through a variety of disciplines: the arts, literature, philosophy and psychology. It integrates this material into the developmental issue of self-knowledge, in which the process of self-reflection will be used to enhance intellectual enlightenment. Autobiographical journals, cultural comparison, film, music, theater and traditional readings will be the means to this end.
The Conquest of Caliban
In its classic expression, this course examines the modern American relationship with other cultures through the first encounters between Europeans and aboriginal Americans. In other formats, the course disengages from American and European encounters and considers diverse global configurations of exploration and dominance. To add cross-cultural perspectives, writings by “conquered” peoples in America and elsewhere will be included.
The United States in a Changing World: Issues in Globalization*
After World War II, American society wrestled with its new preeminence within the community of nations. And within the United States, internal conflict over racial equality, foreign intervention, gender equality, religious and family values and a sustainable environment broadened the conceptions of national and cultural loyalties. In a post-9/11 world, issues of cultural difference, western dominance, and economic challenges present new challenges to the world and the only super power in it.
America as a Multicultural Society*
This course emphasizes the tensions and accommodations between the dominant culture and new ethnic groups and ideas, with emphasis on the “voices” of those outside the mainstream. History, political science, literature and law are integrated to examine themes of ethnic and religious difference, the political and social forces which have held the nation together despite the diverse nature of its population, and how these forces affect contemporary American society.
* One of these courses must be taken. Its alternative may be chosen as an elective if three core courses have already been taken.
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