This course analyzes the form, meaning and content of traditional and popular levels of culture, and discusses the respective roles of each in the human environment. Its focus is on face-to-face oral human communication, as well as on communication carried out through the popular mass media. Note: This is an approved LA&PS General Education course […]
An examination of the interaction of Jews and gentiles in selected periods from antiquity through the 20th century. A case study in ethnic adaptation, the course seeks to understand how Jews sometimes adapted their lives to the world around them, and at other times withdrew into themselves, and how at certain times they exerted considerable […]
This course looks at selected passages from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and their interpretative reflection in the western artistic tradition, including pictorial/representational art, music, literature, and cinema.
This course introduces students to the diversity of Buddhist ideas and practices in Asia. Exploring Buddhism as a living tradition, the course focuses on the impact and interpretation of Buddhism in historical and contemporary cultures. The course develops a background in basic Buddhist philosophy in order to explore its broader cultural impact in literature, art, […]
This course explores the ethnic, cultural, and religious diversity of the Muslim world through the travelogues and memoirs of Muslim scholars, pilgrims, envoys and adventurers, who traversed its domains from the tenth century to the present. It problematizes essentialist perceptions of "the Muslim world" as an undifferentiated and monolithic entity, and proposes a dynamic view […]
Major works of literature, philosophy, religion and science since the Renaissance are read and discussed in a search for the distinctively human.
Explores the social and cultural interactions of the peoples of the World from pre-history to the 21st century with the main emphasis placed on the period between 1500 and the present.
The course focuses on 12 of the most significant films since the Second World War in the context of the radical changes that have taken place in Italy from the fall of Fascism to the present, and as critical statements on the phenomena connected with the rapid transformation of Italian society: industrialization and the economic […]
This interdisciplinary course examines Italy's contribution to the development of Western culture from the Middle Ages to the Age of Romanticism. We study representative works which illustrate three main aspects of Italian civilization: artistic creation (literature and the visual arts), politics, and philosophy. The focus is on the role played by Italian writers, thinkers, artists, […]
Examines issues critical to Canadian society and culture through texts representing a range of voices and genres - from text to film, official to creative, rooted in Canada to immigrant. Key themes include those of arrival, belonging and the idea of nation. The course also aims to enhance English language and critical thinking skills necessary […]