NCSSM COURSE CAtAlOG - North Carolina School of Science and ...

literature, and the visual arts to explore influences on Asian cultures and the
social and economic motivations for unrest and for emerging nationalist
movements in the early twentieth century. Readings may include:
Monkey/Journey to the West, Dream of Red Mansions, and Cultural Revolution
literature; writings by Kipling, Roy, Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, and Tagore; and
stories by Kobo Abe, Ishiguro, Mishima, and others.
EN420 Asia III: Modern Asian Cultures
One trimester
Credit: One unit core English credit, one unit core elective credit.
Prerequisite: Completion of three trimesters of AS303 Writing and American
Studies or AS305 American Studies or completion of two trimesters of AS303 or
AS305 and permission of the Dean of Humanities.
Meeting pattern: Four periods per week including lab.
This double credit, interdisciplinary, team-taught course examines Asia from the
middle of the twentieth century to present day by focusing on themes such as
identity, diaspora, and environment within the context of growing wealth,
development, and increasing global and cultural influcence of the Asian world.
We explore South, East, and Southeast Asia through the lenses of film, literature,
oral histories, art, pop culture, and music, as well as traditional historical texts
and narratives. The course emphasizes research, writing, and oral presentations.
EN424 Africa I: Critical issues in North, East, and West Africa
One trimester
Credit: One unit core English credit, one unit core elective credit.
Prerequisite: Completion of three trimesters of AS303 Writing and American
Studies or AS305 American Studies or completion of two trimesters of AS303 or
AS305 and permission of the Dean of Humanities.
Meeting pattern: Four periods per week including lab.
This double-credit, interdisciplinary, team-taught course uses present-day critical
issues in North, East, and West Africa as lenses for examining the history and
culture of those regions. Starting with current issues such as the wave of political
uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, famine and drought in the Horn of
Africa, and environmental concerns in the eastern Great Lakes and Niger River
Delta, we explore the roots of these issues in such topics as climate and
geography and their impacts on culture; the origin of humans and the
development of human societies; the importance of oral traditions; ritual and
cosmological belief systems; and the history of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in
the regions. We also explore the rise of Mediterranean and trans-Saharan trade
networks, medieval West African kingdoms, the impact of the Atlantic slave
trade, European colonization, anti-colonial movements, and independence
and post-independence experiences. Literature from ancient poems and songs
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