2017 Gen ed

 

 


 

 

Fall 2017 General Education Offerings

LING160: Language and Society

(Gen Ed credits in Individual and Society; US Society;
Linguistics Minor credits)

Monday/Wednesday/Friday 11:00-11:50 AM, FALL 2017

What is language and what is dialect? What linguistic choices do people
make when they speak? What factors affect these choices? How are accents
perceived and why are they perceived in these ways? What happens when
different languages come into contact? How do people use language to
create identities and communities? Why do languages change across
space and over time, and how do these processes take place?

In this course, we will explore these questions. We will better understand
the role of language in social life and the role of society in the structure and
use of language. We will situate these explorations in real-world matters.

Texts Instructor: Dr. Xuehua Xiang
[email protected]
312-996-5588

Catholicism in US History

Instructor: Dingeldein
CST 150/ RELS 150/ HIST 150

This course will survey the Catholic experience in the United States from the 17th
century to today. We will identify and analyze the interplay between American
Catholicism and American culture over the past few hundred years, examining in
particular Catholics’ colonization of the “New World,” Catholic immigration during
the 19th and early 20th centuries, changes within American Catholicism during the
1960s, and contemporary American Catholic groups and concerns.

US Society course

Fall Semester 2017 MWF 2–2:50pm

GERMANFall 2017 219
Vikings and Wizards, Northern Myth and Fairy Tales in Western Culture:
The Brothers Grimm and Their Cultural Legacy

Professor Patrick Fortmann MWF 12 - 12:50pm Burnham Hall 304

Creative Arts and Past course

The course examines the cultural legacy of the Brothers Grimm, nineteenth-century collectors and editors of
Germanic fairy tales and legends. Their scholarship of Germany’s national myth, The Song of the Nibelungen and the
questions they posed about oral and literary transmission continue to shape modern scholarship. Their life-long
pursuit of fairy tales launched a tidal wave of European folkloric collecting that led to significant advances in
research. The course will consider various interpretive strategies developed to classify and read this new material,
from Propp’s morphology and Aarne-Thompson’s typology to feminist, historical and animal studies approaches.
Through close readings of literary tales, the course provides basic tools for narrative interpretation and critical
argumentation.

Diaspora, Exile, Genocide:

Aspects of the European Jewish Experience
in Literature and Film

GER 125 / JST 125 / REL 127

Through literature and film students will gain an understanding of important aspects of the European Jewish
experience before and after the Holocaust.
We will analyze and discuss texts and films about Jewish life in German and Yiddish-speaking Central and
Eastern Europe from the Enlightenment to the present to learn about cultural interchange between Jews and
non-Jews and between Jews from different countries; Jewish cultural autonomy and Jewish nationalisms;
migration, immigration, and exile; and racism, anti-Semitism, persecution, and genocide.

Fall 2017 TR 9:30-10-45 Grant Hall 205

General Education Credit for Past/World Cultures

Instructor: Dr. Elizabeth Loentz Taught in English
No Prerequisites
[email protected]

University of Illinois – Chicago
FALL 2017 M/W 3:00 pm– 4.15 pm

Italian, Religious Studies, Catholic Studies 293.
Dante's Divine Comedy

(Creative Arts / Understanding the Past Course)

Close readings of selected cantos from Dante's Divine Comedy will bring
into relief the history and culture of the Medieval Mediterranean world. We
will discuss various aspects of medieval culture, such as Medieval views
on women or the persistence of classical tradition, while learning about
Dante's idea of love and relationship to literary models as well as his
political views, philosophical thought and theology. While Dante's poetic
vision of the afterlife offers a panorama of the medieval world, many of the
issues confronting Dante and his age are important to individuals and
societies today: social justice, the relationship between church and state,
personal and civic responsibility, governmental accountability, literary and
artistic influences. No pre-requisites.

Taught in English Professor: Chiara Fabbian, PhD

Department of Classics & Mediterranean Studies

CL
 100:
 GREEK
 CIVILIZATION
 
Instructor:
 Karen
 Ros
 
MWF
 10:00-­‐10:50
 


 
Did
 you
 love
 (or
 hate?)
 Three
 Hundred
 or
 the
 Brad
 Pit
 version
 of
 Troy?
 
 Come
 
find
 out
 the
 real
 scoop
 on
 the
 ancient
 Greeks.
 
 This
 class
 combines
 art,
 
architecture,
 archaeology,
 literature,
 and
 history
 
 to
 create
 a
 complete
 
picture
 of
 ancient
 Greek
 life,
 culture
 and
 society.
 
 All
 readings
 are
 in
 English.
 
Creative
 Arts,
 and
 Past
 course.
 

 

A
Above:

(Above: Athenian "owl" coin, jurors' ballots, scene from a vase showing Achilles and Ajax gaming.)

Department of Classics & Mediterranean Studies

DID YOU KNOW? The Field of Classics and Mediterranean
Studies
CLASSICS MAJORS
Have some of the most diverse career CL/HIST 202 The Ancient World: Greece A person trained
options of any major. in Classics
This course offers a survey of the main comes to see
CLASSICS MAJORS political, social and cultural developments in today’s world
Have the highest success rate of any ancient Greece from the Neolithic period (7th from a wider,
majors in law school. millennium BCE) until the death of richer, and
Alexander the Great (323 BCE). Lectures deeper
CLASSIC MAJORS will be delivered in chronological sequence, perspective—
Consistently have some of the highest with particular emphasis on politics, society,
scores on the GRE. warfare, religion and everyday life. The one that enables
course will also provide an introduction to us to value fully
CL 202 The Ancient World: the major literary and archaeological and appreciate
Greece evidence for the history of Greece in modern culture,
antiquity. Students will be introduced to the and to be more
Instructor: study of select Greek sources in translation. aware of the
Zinon Papakonstantinou unspoken
Past and World Cultures Course assumptions that
Fall 17: LH210 TR 2:00-3.15 lie behind the

way we
approach life.

University Hall Room 1802, 601 South Morgan Street, Chicago, IL 60607 Tel 312.996.5530 https://lcsl.uic.edu/classics-mediterranean

GKM
 285
 /HIST
 
285
 

 
Cultural
 History
 
of
 Modern
 
Greece:
 
1453
 to
 the
 
Present
 


 
Dr.
 Paris
 Papamichos
 
Chronakis
 

 

TR
 2:00-­‐3:15
 
Past
 course
 

Why
 has
 a
 small
 na@on
 of
 less
 than
 ten
 million
 people
 been
 repeatedly
 catching
 
the
 world’s
 a?en@on
 during
 the
 past
 two
 centuries?
 This
 course
 charts
 the
 social,
 
cultural,
  and
  poli@cal
  history
  of
  Modern
  Greece
  and
  its
  transforma@on
  from
  a
 
faraway
  province
  of
  an
  Islamic
  empire
  to
  a
  full-­‐fledged
  member
  of
  the
  world’s
 
wealthiest
  club,
  the
  European
  Union.
  We
  will
  examine
  the
  various
  crises
  the
 
Modern
  Greek
  state
  has
  endured
  in
  poli@cs
  (army
  coups,
  dictatorships,
  civil
 
wars),
 society
 (refugee
 rese?lement,
 immigra@on
 and
 emigra@on),
 and
 economy.
 
Greece
  has
  oRen
  been
  at
  the
  forefront
  of
  global
  developments
  and
  the
  course
 
will
 place
 its
 history
 within
 a
 Mediterranean
 and
 European
 context
 using
 a
 variety
 
of
  historical
  sources,
  images,
  fic@onal
  works
  and
  films
  as
  well
  as
  a
  vast
  array
  of
 
digital
 tools.
 

Introduction to Jewish History
Jewish Studies (JST) 102
Fall 2017

Tuesday-Thursday 11:00-12:15
BSB 315

The Jewish People today comprise approximately one quarter of one percent of the world’s population. Despite
their small numbers, their influence on religion and culture has been remarkable. This course will survey the
history of the Jews primarily from a secular/academic perspective, that is, not as the sacred history of the
people of the Bible, but as a socio-political phenomenon. Since Judaism – the religion of the Jews – has been
important to the self-understanding of the Jewish people, some attention will necessarily be paid to the basic
elements of Jewish religious tradition. There will also be opportunities to reflect on what we mean by “history,”
as well as to consider the relevance of the Jewish experience to that of other peoples, especially those who have
been diasporic minorities.
Instructor: Rabbi Laurence Edwards, [email protected]
Individual and Society and Past Course


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

GER 217 German Cinema CRN 39294 4 credits

Online

Creative Arts and World Cultures Course

The course introduces students to a diverse selection of films made in Germany between 1895 and 2000
and offers practice in examining them as explorations and expressions of the human imagination and the
human experience during the socio-historical events and transitions specific to twentieth-century
Germany (East and West). Through reading assignments, in-class discussion, on-line discussion, quizzes,
homework assignments and paper writing, students will develop analytical skills in the viewing and
interpretation of films and in writing original arguments about film history and cinema culture. Students
taking GER 217 will gain the vocabulary for interpreting, analyzing, evaluating and researching films in
the context of the history that shaped and was shaped by them. They will advance their ability to read,
experience and view films carefully, to think critically, to argue cogently and to communicate ideas about
cinema culture in written and oral form. This course serves as an elective in the Germanic Studies major
and minor, the minor in Moving Image Arts and as a General Education course in the categories of World
Cultures and Creative Arts and Ideas. Students seeking credit for the Germanic Studies major or minor
will do alternative homework portfolio assignments and may be asked to write papers in German and
conduct on-line discussion in German. This is a great course for people with an interest in German
cultural history or international film history in general. 4 credits.
 

PARIS
IN

LITERATURE, FILM, AND CULTURE

Ful lls the Creative Arts, and World Cultures
Gen. Ed. requirement

Examines cultural and literary representations of Paris as well as the
in uence of Parisian urbanism on French cultural and literary genres
and forms. Taught in English.

YANN ROBERT FR 297 / FALL 2017
[email protected] TR 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM

RUSSIAN 120
“THE RUSSIAN SHORT STORY”

IRINA RUVINSKY

3:00-3:50 MWF – CRN 33179
Creative Arts and World Cultures course


 
Russia as young literary nation did not come of age until the period during which
the novel dominated the literary scene. While it was the novel that made Russian
literature legendary around the world, many Russian masters including Tolstoy,
Chekhov, Turgenev and Bulgakov devoted themselves to the cultivation of the
short story. The short story as a genre assumed a role in Russian literature that
rivaled and perhaps even surpassed that of the novel. In this course we will
explore the many cultural and social forces that led to the rise of the Russian
short story as a style unique to Russian literature and its themes.

Women in Russian
Literature

Russ 244/ GWS 244

Fall 2017, MWF 1:00-1:50 PM
Instructor: Julia Vaingurt

Gen Ed Creative Arts and
World Cultures Course

This course • looks at the context for the practice of
women reading and writing through the
• examines genres, themes, and styles of prism of such central Russian literary texts
writing popular among women readers and as Eugene Onegin and Anna Karenina.
writers as well as identifies those writers
who choose to defy literary conventions All reading materials are in English.
and create outside the domains allotted to
women

• contributes to students' understanding of
both gender theory and Russian culture by
analyzing women’s self-perception and its

rendering in literary form.

 

Lithuanian 130 

Introduction to Eastern European Literatures 

TR 12:30 - 1:45 pm, SH 120   

 Creative Arts and World Cultures Course

This course traces the main developments of Eastern European literature during the twentieth-twenty first centuries in relation 
to  Western  literary  traditions.  We  will  focus  on  Soviet  literary  characteristics,  including  socialist  realist,  dissident,  Thaw, 
post-Soviet and postmodernist tendencies, as well as émigré literature. Students will be asked to read canonical literary works 
by  Polish  and  Russian  writers,  with  a  major  focus on Lithuanian literature. Questions such as art and ideology, censorship, 
Aesopian  language,  innovative  literary  techniques,  perception  of  postmodernism  will  be  addressed  either  in  a  comparative 
perspective or by focusing on the literature of one country in its cultural and historical context. 

  

All texts will be in English translation. 

 

 

RUSS/AH
248
TR

11:00-12:15
FA 2017

Prof. McQuillen

Crea%ve
 Arts
 Gen
 Ed
 Credit.
 No
 knowledge
 of
 Russian
 required.
 
 

World Cultures Course

GKM
 105
 

 
Modern
 Greek
 
Culture
 


 

 

 

 

 
Dr.
 Paris
 Papamichos
 
Chronakis
 

 
TR
 12:30-­‐1:45
 

 
World
 Cultures
 Course
 

What
  lies
  behind
  the
  sun-­‐bathed
  beaches
  of
  lush
  travel
  brochures?
  A
  helpless
 
backward
  society
  or
  the
  laboratory
  of
  a
  dismal
  future?
  Now
  that
  Greece
  is
  catching
 
the
 world’s
 a?en@on,
 discover
 the
 rich
 culture
 of
 a
 country
 burdened
 with
 a
 glorious
 
past
  but
  facing
  a
  precarious
  future,
  a
  place
  where
  civiliza@ons
  meet
  but
  ‘Europe’
 
confronts
  ‘Asia’.
  Through
  literary
  texts,
  images
  and
  films,
  museum
  visits
  and
 
sightseeing,
  explore
  how
  Modern
  Greeks
  relate
  to
  An@quity;
  navigate
  between
 
‘Eastern’
  tradi@on
  and
  ‘Western’
  modernity;
  nego@ate
  the
  refugee
  and
  financial
 
crisis;
 deal
 with
 their
 sexuality;
 and
 what
 it
 means
 to
 be
 a
 Greek
 Muslim
 and
 a
 Greek
 
Jew.
 
  All
  texts
  are
  in
  English;
  no
  prior
  knowledge
  of
  Modern
  Greek
  history
  or
 
literature
 is
 required.
 

 

The
 Cinema
 of
 Pedro
 Almodóvar
 (SPAN
 225)
 
Tues/Thurs:
 2:00-­‐3:15
 


 
Pedro
 Almodóvar
 is
 the
 cultural
 symbol
 par
 excellence
 of
 the
 restoration
 of
 
democracy
 in
 Spain
 after
 nearly
 40
 years
 of
 the
 right-­‐wing
 military
 dictatorship
 of
 
Francisco
 Franco.
 Since
 Almodóvar’s
 emergence
 as
 a
 transgressive
 underground
 
cineaste
 in
 the
 late
 1970s
 and
 early
 1980she
 has
 gone
 on
 to
 establish
 himself
 as
 the
 
country’s
 most
 important
 filmmaker
 and
 a
 major
 figure
 on
 the
 stage
 of
 world
 
cinema.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Almodóvar's
 hallmark
 is
 his
 interrogation
 of
 identity
 in
 all
 its
 multiplicity.
 
From
 gender
 to
 genre,
 sexuality,
 nation,
 and
 family,
 are
 all
 subject
 to
 his
 camera's
 
critique.
 And
 invariably,
 as
 we
 will
 see
 throughout
 the
 class,
 Almodóvar's
 favored
 
site
 for
 the
 fluidity
 of
 identity
 is
 the
 human
 body.
 While
 he
 is
 both
 the
 most
 
“Spanish”
 of
 filmmakers,
 he
 is
 also
 the
 most
 acclaimed
 internationally,
 having
 won
 
two
 Oscars
 for
 his
 films.
 Likewise,
 he
 has
 exploited
 the
 traditional
 genres
 of
 popular
 
film
 (comedy,
 melodrama,
 the
 thriller)
 while
 simultaneously
 establishing
 his
 own
 
unique
 status
 as
 a
 transnational
 auteur.
 Subject
 to
 adoration
 and
 to
 vilification
 the
 
cinema
 of
 Almodóvar
 has
 proven
 emblematic
 of
 the
 transformations
 that
 Spain
 has
 
undergone
 since
 1975.
 

 

THIS
 CLASS
 WILL
 BE
 TAUGHT
 IN
 ENGLISH
 
WORLD
 CULTURES
 COURSE
 


 

 


 

 

 
For
 more
 information
 consult
 with
 Prof.
 Steven
 Marsh
 [email protected]
 

 

 

Other General Education Courses Offered Through the School of
Literatures, Cultural Studies, and Linguistics

Polish 150: Introduction to Polish Cinema
Day/Time: TR 2:00-3:15
Instructor: Karen Underhill
General Education Category: Creative Arts and World Cultures Course

Spanish 230: Civilization and Culture of Spain
Day/Time: TR 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Tatjana Gajic
General Education Category: Past and World Cultures Course

Lithuanian 115: Lithuanian Prose Fiction in International Context
Day/Time: TR 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Giedrius Subacius
General Education Category: World Cultures Course