About
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This site is called Intercultural Artefacts to denote:- The goal of cultural studies, which is to understand the significance of cultural artefacts (written language, films, photographs, etc.);
- The philological importance of the artefact, which is how we ‘trace’ the past, including the immediate past;
- The interdisciplinary, intercultural nature of culture, involving processes of transculturation (borrowing and lending): the British spelling of the word “artefact” is used here as a reminder of this;
- This is not to suggest that cultures are always mutual and symmetrical in their relationships but to indicate the contemporary importance of relational skills.
Course objectives top
Students completing the course should be able to do the following:- Know and understand foundational figures, artefacts, events, places, etc. in American culture and history;
- Be fluent enough with the artefacts covered to be able to compellingly establish a meaningful point of reasoning that is coherent and well-supported, demonstrating relational skills, analysis, and contextual awareness;
- View America as a culture composed of diverse peoples, experiences, traditions, and values;
- Gain an appreciation of the ‘balance of evidence’, the complex human drama, circumstance, change, bungling/effective rulers (cf. Barzun);
- Situate American culture within a global context;
- Begin to develop 21st century skills.
Graded components top
- Class charter (prerequisite)
- Weekly collections (minimum 5; prerequisite for presentations) = 30
- ‘Presentations’ = 50
- Final test = 20
Course reading material top
The primary text used in this course is The American YAWP. We will also be using primary sources. Our key resource for categories for discovery (of what to say) is the BYU resource on topics of invention. Resources on artefacts can be found here.Notices top
There will be no class on 17 May.
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