POST 188/IIS 100: External Studies Colloquium
Fall 2002 Syllabus
Friday 12-3 BH 214
Instructors
Carol Brandt
Scott 110 Tel: 621-8308
carol_brandt@pitzer.edu Office Hours make appointment in book in
Scott 110.
Nigel Boyle
Teaching Assistant
Veronica Briggs
Tel 621-3939 veronica_briggs@hotmail.com
This course focuses on the integration, deepening
and broadening of the affective and cognitive learning experienced through
external study. It is designed as a workshop to provide the occasion,
skills and methodology for additional reflection on and critical analysis
of your particular external study experience. Intercultural understanding—one
of key goals of external study—is not easily acquired. It does not
come automatically with travel and cross-cultural activity but must be
thoughtfully, and sometimes painfully, drawn out of life-experiences.
Using knowledge about culture (general and specific) enables us to be more
deliberate and consequent about cultivating intercultural awareness.
To do this we must develop and reliably employ a set of competencies related
to effective cross-cultural communication.
In this class we will try to see those competencies collectively as a kind
of “intercultural literacy”, which can help us decode the complex alphabet
of cross-cultural interaction and learn to construct and use intercultural
perspectives. Through a series of writing, research and multi-media
projects and related presentations and discussions, you will have the opportunity
to:
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expand your knowledge of the country/culture in which you have been immersed
-
develop a focused proposal for a fundable follow-up study, research or
volunteer project in your host country/culture or in another country/culture
-
reconsider, reinterpret and reframe previous associations, meanings and
conclusions from your experience against a deliberate model of culture
and intercultural understanding
-
acquire and employ IT skills to more effectively organize and present to
others important, appropriate and salient information about your host country/culture
and the intercultural learning process
-
exchange (which involves receiving more often than sending) insights, questions
and concerns with other sojourners about the nature of external study/intercultural
learning experiences
-
put your external study experiences into a comparative framework and work
with other students to help define what sort of institutional objectives
Pitzer college should have for intercultural learning
-
make use of (and further develop) your learning by teaching it to others
in local communities
-
work with Pitzer faculty to improve intercultural education beyond the
"study abroad" semester
Class Format
-
This course will generally follow a workshop model of organization, where
all participants accept a significant responsibility for contributing to
the learning of the group. There will be little “talking head” lecturing,
and class sessions will consist of multiple activities, which will require
regular attendance and active participation. While the instructors
and others, including the students, will make presentations, these will
tend to be interactive and generative rather than teacher-centered.
In addition to the in-class activity, students will be expected to complete
assigned readings, assignments and tutorials, on which the success of the
class will depend.
-
The class meets 12-3 on Fridays. The class will start at noon (sharp!)
with a conversation over a meal prepared by class participants. Each
student will have responsibility for one such meal - something that reflects
the country/culture from which you have returned. Cooking skills
will not be graded but related cultural interpretation skills will.
-
We expect you to keep a journal during the semester and make entries in
it several times a week. This will allow you to document and explore,
at a personal level, the process of re-entry and subsequent rediscovery
of who you are in this society.
-
Required Materials: Semester subscription to the Financial
Times ($29 for daily world-news paper delivered to your dorm).
At the start of each class a lottery will be held to determine which student
will give a 5-minute presentation on that week’s news from “their” country/region.
Requirements and Evaluation
25% In-class: journal, in-class writing assignments, meal talk
and participation
25% Proposal:
grant or project proposal and related presentations
25% Cultural
Ambassador Project: multimedia presentations to class and local school
25% Broadening
Intercultural Education at Pitzer: assignments working with Claremont
faculty & students
Semester
Schedule
Week 1 September 6 (Carol provides food)
Theme: Reflecting on the External
Studies Experience (CB and NB)
In-class writing and discussion exercises will be undertaken.Preliminary
discussion of “Fulbright” and other fellowship ideas will take place.
Week 2 September 13 (Nigel provides food)
Theme:Intercultural
Skills and Understanding: where to next? (NB)
-
Prepare a 5-minute oral news summary of a top story featured in primary
news sources of the country/region in which you studied (who, what, when,
where, why, and your sources), how the story played out in the mainstream
U.S. media (if at all), any background information class members might
need to understand the importance of the issue. (This
assignment will recur each week).
-
Bring pictures, materials, souvenirs etc. from your ES experiences for
a “show and tell”
-
Identify 3 countries, and provisional topics, you would like to study in
as a Fulbright Scholar
-
Review the websites for grant possibilities, starting with the following:
Week 3 September 20
Theme: cultural ambassador Extending the External
Study Experience to the Local Community:Guidelines
for Successful School Presentations (CB and NB)
Location: Pitzer in Ontario Program House and Chaffey
High School, Ontario
Our hosts will be Craig Sawyer and Erik Pielstik,
Chaffey High School Teachers and founders of the Chaffey High School International
Trade Academy
-
Teaching about cultures and countries: content and pedagogy
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Teaching about cultures and countries: technology and technique
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First draft of personal statement and Fulbright project proposal due. These
materials must be presented to the Instructors, at least 2 faculty/advisors,
at least 2 peers and one former Fulbright scholar (contacts will be provided
by Nigel).
Week 4 September 27
Theme Fellowship Workshop (NB)
Presentation of revised drafts of fellowship proposals. Oral
and written critiques of peer’s work due.
Week 5 October 4
Theme: Fellowship workshop/interview technique (NB)
Guest President Laura Skandera-Trombley
Interview "dress rehearsals". Completed Watson
Proposals are due.
During the week of October 5-12 students must
visit the school at which they will make a presentation. Students
will meet their partner teacher, meet the students and sit–in on a class.
Week 6 October 11
Theme:International, Intercultural,
Multicultural: intersections (CB)
Completed Fulbright proposals are due (to Pitzer Research and Awards
Committee).
Read the articles by Milton Bennett. Topic and materials to be
used in cultural ambassadors project to be submitted.
Week 7 October 18
Theme:Cultural Ambassadors
Presentations I (NB and CB)
Students will present completed draft presentations
to the class (or portions thereof)
Fall Break
Week 8 October
25
Theme:Cultural
Ambassadors Presentations II (NB and CB)
Students will present completed draft presentations
to the class (or portions thereof)
Student Presentations in schools will commence.
Week 9 November
1
Theme: teaching Pitzer students about other countries/cultures
(NB and CB)
Brainstorming session: how does Pitzer improve intercultural education
Students will meet with International Students at Pitzer to discuss
their "external studies" experience
Discussion about pre-departure orientation and write a memo to External
Studies about the departure booklet
Discussion about Pitzer courses and academic preparation
Week 10 November
8
Theme: Teaching Comparative Politics (special
focus on Botswana and China) (NB)
Discussion and critique of Nigel Boyle's POST 30
connecting classes through technology; connecting students thru technology
Discussion about other "Hewlett" supported classes at Pitzer
Week 11 November
15
Theme:Claremont
Conferences and Panels (NB and CB)
Guest Boo Witt will talk about applying for Rotary
Fellowships.
Students will participate in this conference and evaluate the importance
of bringing international speakers to Claremont.
CONFERENCE - “Terrorism or Liberation?”
November 14, Hampton Room, Malott Commons
7:30 p.m.April 2002 Siege at the Church
of the Nativity in Bethlehem ¨ Carolyn Cole, LA Times and Robert O'Neill
November 15, Hampton Room, Malott Commons
9:30 - 10:30 a.m. ¨ Begoña
Aretxaga UT "Maddening States: ' Terrorism' and the aftermath of 9/11 in
The Basque Country"
10:45 - 11:45 a.m. ¨ Heather Zwicker
of Alberta "Terror, Realism and the Tenacious Stereotype"
1:30 - 2:30 p.m. ¨ Mark Juergensmeyer
UCSB “Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence”
2:45 - 3:45 p.m. ¨ Allen Feldman
NYU “Ground Zero Point One: On the Cinematics of History”
4:00 - 5:00 p.m. ¨ Roundtable
Discusssion with conference participants
Week 13 November
22
Theme:
Claremont resources, academic and international students (CB and NB)
Students will participate in a panel discussion about Turkey, Cyprus
and contemporary European ethnic conflicts
Participate in I-Place activities
Thanksgiving Break
Week 14December
6
Theme: cultural ambassadorships revisited
Evaluation of School presentations undertaken over
the course of the semester
Week 15 December
13
Theme:Final
Reflections
End of Semester "event"