Online courses directory (32)

In many ways Scandinavian film and television is a global cultural brand, connected with and exporting some of the cultural and social values connected to a liberal and progressive welfare society. This course deals with the social, institutional and cultural background of film and television in Scandinavia and in a broader European and global context.

This course seeks to interest students in the Latin American culture by studying it from multiple perspectives.

This course is an introduction to modern Indian culture and society through films, documentaries, short stories, novels, poems, and journalistic writing. The principal focus is on the study of major cultural developments and social debates in the last sixty five years of history through the reading of literature and viewing of film clips. The focus will be on the transformations of gender and class issues, representation of nationhood, the idea of regional identities and the place of the city in individual and communal lives. The cultural and historical background will be provided in class lectures. The idea is to explore the "other Indias" that lurk behind our constructed notion of a homogeneous national culture.

Asia in the Modern World: Images and Representations examines visual representations of Asia, interpreting them from both historical and modern contexts. This course is based around using the Visualizing Cultures website. Case studies focus on Japan and China from the mid-19^th to the mid-20^th centuries.

This course examines major social and political trends, events, debates and personalities which help place aspects of contemporary French culture in their historical perspective through fiction, films, essays, newspaper articles, and television. Topics include the heritage of the French Revolution, the growth and consequences of colonialism, the role of intellectuals in public debates, the impact of the Occupation, the modernization of the economy and of social structures. The sources and meanings of national symbols, monuments, myths and manifestoes are also studied. Recommended for students planning to study abroad. Taught in French.

This course is the continuation of 21F105. It is designed to further help students develop sophisticated conversational, reading and writing skills by combining traditional textbook material with their own explorations of Chinese speaking societies, using the human, literary, and electronic resources available at MIT and in the Boston area. Some special features of Chinese society, its culture, its customs and habits, its history, and the psychology of its people are introduced. The class consists of reading, discussion, composition, network exploration, and conversational practice. The course is conducted in Mandarin.

An introduction to the cross-cultural study of ethnic and national identity. We examine the concept of social identity, and consider the ways in which gendered, linguistic, religious, and ethno-racial identity components interact. We explore the history of nationalism, including the emergence of the idea of the nation-state, as well as ethnic conflict, globalization, identity politics, and human rights.

This course has several purposes. The major concern will be the examination of Spanish culture including Spain's history, architecture, art, literature and film, to determine if there is a uniquely Spanish manner of seeing and understanding the world - one which emerges as clearly distinct from our own and that of other Western European nations.

This course is the continuation of 21F104/108. It is designed to further help students develop sophisticated conversational, reading and writing skills by combining traditional textbook material with their own explorations of Chinese speaking societies, using the human, literary, and electronic resources available at in the Boston area. Some of special features of Chinese society, its culture, its customs and habits, its history, and the psychology of its people are be introduced. The class consists of reading, discussion, composition, network exploration, and conversational practice. The course is conducted in Mandarin.

Americans have historically preferred to think of the United States in classless terms, as a land of economic opportunity equally open to all. Yet, social class remains a central fault line in the U.S. Subject explores the experiences and understandings of class among Americans positioned at different points along the U.S. social spectrum. Considers a variety of classic frameworks for analyzing social class and uses memoirs, novels and ethnographies to gain a sense of how class is experienced in daily life and how it intersects with other forms of social difference such as race and gender.

We will explore the changing political choices and ethical dilemmas of American scientists from the atomic scientists of World War II to biologists in the present wrestling with the questions raised by cloning and other biotechnologies. As well as asking how we would behave if confronted with the same choices, we will try to understand the choices scientists have made by seeing them in their historical and political contexts. Some of the topics covered include: the original development of nuclear weapons and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the effects of the Cold War on American science; the space shuttle disasters; debates on the use of nuclear power, wind power, and biofuels; abuse of human subjects in psychological and other experiments; deliberations on genetically modified food, the human genome project, human cloning, embryonic stem cell research; and the ethics of archaeological science in light of controversies over museum collections.

This course includes surveys for both cinematic and literary representations of diverse eras and aspects of Japanese culture such as the classical era, the samurai age, wartime Japan and the atomic bombings, social change in the postwar period, and the appropriation of foreign cultural themes, with an emphasis on the modern period. The directors include Akira Kurosawa and Hiroshi Teshigahara. The authors include Kobo Abe and Yukio Mishima. The films are shown with subtitles in English. The course is taught in English.

International Women’s Voices has several objectives. It introduces students to a variety of works by contemporary women writers from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and North America. The emphasis is on non-western writers. The readings are chosen to encourage students to think about how each author’s work reflects a distinct cultural heritage and to what extent, if any, we can identify a female voice that transcends national cultures. In lectures and readings distributed in class, students learn about the history and culture of each of the countries these authors represent. The way in which colonialism, religion, nation formation and language influence each writer is a major concern of this course. In addition, students examine the patterns of socialization of women in patriarchal cultures, and how, in the imaginary world, authors resolve or understand the relationship of the characters to love, work, identity, sex roles, marriage, and politics.

This course explores stereotypes associated with Asian women in colonial, nationalist, state-authoritarian, and global/diasporic narratives about gender and power. Students will read ethnography, cultural studies, and history, and view films to examine the politics and circumstances that create and perpetuate the representation of Asian women as dragon ladies, lotus blossoms, despotic tyrants, desexualized servants, and docile subordinates. Students are introduced to the debates about Orientalism, gender, and power.

This course provides an overview of Asian American history and its relevance for contemporary issues. It covers the first wave of Asian immigration in the 19^th century, the rise of anti-Asian movements, the experiences of Asian Americans during WWII, the emergence of the Asian American movement in the 1960s, and the new wave of post–1965 Asian immigration. The class examines the role these experiences played in the formation of Asian American ethnicity. The course addresses key societal issues such as racial stereotyping, media racism, affirmative action, the glass ceiling, the "model minority" syndrome, and anti-Asian harassment or violence. The course is taught in English.

Explores Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Māori history, society, culture, language and demography.

This course is presented in both English and Hindi. Videos will feature Hindi subtitles.

This course offers an overview of contemporary India and explores its role as one of the dominant economic and military powers of Asia. We begin with a discussion on India as a multilingual society.  The entire course will be available in both English and Hindi.

The central focus of the course is an examination of contemporary issues in India. This includes perspectives on how Indian culture and language are being affected by the boom in technology; sections on politics and nationalism; economics and the implications of recent moves toward liberalisation of the economy; and security, international relations, and regionalism. In addition, we will examine India’s role in South Asian politics and current issues relating to its regional neighbours in Asia. The aim of the course is to provide students with a comprehensive and wide-ranging overview of India in order that they may better understand its role in the world.

यह पाठ्यक्रम हमें आधुनिक भारत के बारे में एक संक्षिप्त विवरण देता है। और उसके साथ यह भी दर्शाता है कि किस तरह से भारत आज एशिया का एक प्रभावशाली आर्थिक और सैन्य सत्ता बन गया है। इस पाठ्यक्रम की शुरुआत हम भारत के बहुभाषी समाज पर चर्चा से करेंगे।   

यह पाठ्यक्रम हिन्दी और अंग्रेज़ी दोनों भाषाओं में उपलब्ध होगा।

इस पाठ्यक्रम का केंद्र बिन्दू भारत के समकालीन मुद्दों का विश्लेषण करना है। इस में भिन्न-भिन्न दृष्टिकोणों से विचार प्रस्तुत किये जायेंगे कि भारतीय संस्कृतियाँ और भाषाएँ किस तरह से टेक्नोलोजी में आई तेज़ी से प्रभावित हुईं हैं। इसके अलावा हम इन विषयों के बारे में बातचीत करेंगे: राजनीति और राष्ट्रवाद, अर्थशास्त्र और अर्थव्यवस्था के उदारीकरण से हुये परिवर्तन का असर, सुरक्षा, भारत की विदेश नीति और क्षेत्रवाद। इन सब के साथ हम यह भी देखेंगे कि दक्षिण एशिया की राजनीति में भारत ने क्या भूमिका निभाई है और उसके पड़ोसी देशों के संबंध में विचार करेंगे। इस पाठ्यक्रम का उद्देश्य है विद्यार्थियों को भारत के बारे में विस्तृत जानकारी देना ताकि वे ज़्यादा अच्छी तरह से भारत और विश्व में भारत की भूमिका को समझ सकें।

Learn about the history of the Middle East for a deeper understanding of current regional developments!

Learn about the intercultural communication process using Russian –Western communication as an example. Look at the interrelations between different contexts (cultural, institutional, professional, social, interpersonal) of communication focusing on cultural history and national psychology of Russians.

Le cours permet d'apprendre les bases de la planification urbaine à travers ses dimensions techniques, environnementales, sociales et économiques. This course teaches the basics of the urban planning through its technical, environmental, societal and economical dimensions.