Alexander Nevsky 1938 English Subtitles
Stephaine Zitzow
Those of you familiar with cinematic history will know the famous 1938 black and white movie Alexander Nevsky, with its remarkable musical score by Sergei Prokofiev. It was directed by Sergei Eisenstein. Those of you who have not seen it may watch the film (with English subtitles) here:
With an emphasis on early twenty-first century sexual culture, course material engages a range of topics, including the history of the date, media (mis)representation, BlackGirlMagic, LGBTQ+ liberation, sexual agency and enthusiastic consent.
Students become aware of the key characteristics that have defined American culture and values
Students hone methods for analyzing American culture by engaging a variety of artifacts.
Students reflect on the roles of their own experiences and beliefs in their understanding of American culture.
For Fall 2022, students will need to obtain access these three books: Zenana by Laura A. Ring (Indiana University Press 2006), Chicken by Steve Striffler (Yale University Press 2005), and The mushroom at the end of the world by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing (Princeton University Press 2015). These are reasonably priced books. Students are encourage to purchase hard copies from a campus bookstore, but all three books will also be available in digital form free of charge through University of Iowa Main Library. Additional readings will be posted on the course website. So students will not be required to purchase any texts.
Native American Art is a survey of the visual arts of indigenous peoples in North America, with emphasis on those in the regions that have become the United States. Considering many different types of objects in an array of contexts, from the techniques used to produce them, their use, the ideologies and cosmologies they represent, and the evolving circumstances of their creators, this course will help students understand the remarkable characteristics, variety, and importance of Native imagery as vivid expressions of identity, creativity, resistance, and resilience over centuries, even as Native cultures have undergone extraordinary hardships and devastating change over the past several hundred years. Focusing especially on architecture, ceramics, sculpture, textiles and clothing, painting, and performance from the PreContact period to the present, we will explore rich artistic traditions and their legacies as well as transformations that have resulted from involvement with non-Native cultures.
Students will engage in activities and projects as opposed to lectures and exams. Taught in an active-learning TILE classroom, Creativity for a Lifetime brings together the knowledge, skills, and life experiences of students and faculty members interested in an array of disciplines, including art and art history, anthropology, education, rhetoric, social work, aging studies, and the health sciences. To better appreciate the elements of successful aging, the richness of life-long learning, and an appreciation of the role of creative endeavor throughout a lifespan, students will meet Iowa artists and collect their oral histories.
Asian Humanities: China is a general introduction to the various aspects of Chinese humanities from antiquity to the present, including philosophy, religion, literature, art, music, and history. This course will examine a selection of historical documents in different genres, such as stories, poems, novels, and plays, as well as the foundational documents of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. Students will examine key facets of Chinese civilization, ranging from identity, family, self and society through these literary and philosophical documents. Primary sources will be analyzed to understand the similarities and differences between the East and the West, the changing interpretations of the religious and philosophical documents over Chinese history, and the evidence of the impact of historical values on current Chinese society.
This course will promote critical thinking and advances rhetorical and writing skills by prioritizing active learning via classroom discussion, supplemented with lectures. Students will be assessed on active class participation and preparation, their knowledge of the course materials, and their critical engagement with the sources and themes through interpretation and analysis. Class format will be at-home reading, in class lecture and discussion, and short answer assessments.
Introduction to historical development of Chinese script; Chinese character formation; fundamentals of Chinese character writing (stroke sequence, character structure); Chinese calligraphy theories and representative calligraphers; appreciation of Chinese calligraphy as an art form; hands-on practice on writing Chinese script styles including seal style, clerical style, regular style, running style, and cursive style by using a Chinese writing brush. The course is taught in English. No prerequisites are required.
In this course, we will study ancient Greek and Roman magical beliefs and practices from Homer to the rise of Christianity. Topics covered in this course will include: Greek and Roman Mystery Religions (e.g., Orphism, the Eleusinian Mysteries, and the Cult of Isis); Greek and Roman witches and sorcerers (e.g., Circe, Medea, and Canidia); Greek and Roman sages and miracle-workers (e.g., Pythagoras and Apollonius of Tyre); Greek and Roman views on ghosts and the afterlife; and Greek and Roman texts that purport to describe how to perform spells and curses. Ultimately, the aim of this course is to give students a basic understanding of the complex ways in which magic worked in Greek and Roman society.
The focus of this course, which is required for teacher certification, is on social factors such as discrimination, diversity, equity, racism, sexism, and ethnic and socioeconomic pluralism and their influence on American schools and classrooms. The class is limited to persons who plan to obtain a teaching certificate or who are required to have the course because they will be working in schools. The class is organized with a lecture/discussion section format. The lectures are given by faculty and guest speakers; the discussion sections are taught by TAs and faculty members. Papers, individual and group projects and presentations, reports, and tests are among the class activities and assignments. There is a final exam on the lectures in addition to the exams for each discussion section. Several texts and a book of readings are required.
This course is designed to give you an introduction to the sociological analysis of gender in American society. As part of its focus, sociology investigates and exposes aspects of social life that are usually taken for granted. In this course, we will critically examine the multiple ways that gender organizes and structures the social world in which we live. To this end, we will be investigating such topics as the predominant theoretical stances related to the study of gender, femininities and masculinities, how gender structures everyday social interaction, and how social institutions (e.g., education, work, family, the media) create gendered meanings and structures. Finally, we will conclude by considering ways to intervene in many of the processes that perpetuate gender-based inequality.
The course will introduce students to physical activity as a health determinant. Students will gain an understanding of the individual, social, and environmental factors that influence physical activity participation and ultimately physical fitness and health throughout the life cycle. Requirements of the course include: weekly assignments & quizzes, papers, a physical activity log, and examinations.
This course is for students with an interest in learning about the Islamic civilization, the religious practices and beliefs, and/or the history or the regions where Muslims are in the majority. We will examine the traditions and main social and legal institutions of Islam. Arguably, Islam, as a major system of beliefs and practices in the world, affects both Muslims and non-Muslims. Consequently, besides examining the basic tenets, texts, and ideas of the Islamic civilization, this course focuses on the variety of ways in which Muslims and non-Muslims have understood and interpreted Islam. We will review the discussions surrounding the life of the Prophet of Islam, Islamic pre-modern and modern history, the place and role of individuals and society, the legal and economic status of women, and Islamic governments and movements. As a survey course, we will examine these topics through an interdisciplinary approach: we will apply textual, legal/normative, anthropological, geographical, sociological, analytical, linguistic, and historical methodologies.
Social Media Today is a survey course with no prerequisites, intended for students of any major and interest. This course offers an overview of our current understanding of a wide range of social media phenomena from the point of view of researchers, professionals, and critics. We will begin with a brief history of communication technologies, including the first instances of social engagement on the Web. Next, we will discuss key conceptual and theoretical developments that ground informed discussions of social media. We then will examine what the rise of social media means for contemporary culture and society, focusing on a range of topics including: journalism, politics, justice, romance, and marketing. Finally, we will consider future possibilities for digital and social media.
This course is an introduction to 1300 years of Japanese literature and culture with special attention paid to the relationship of classical texts to contemporary novels, short stories, manga, anime, music, and film. Throughout this course we will consider the relationships of textual and visual cultures, of high art and low art, of moments of crisis and the everyday, of the sacred and the profane, and of men and women. All readings for this class will be in English translation; no knowledge of Japanese is necessary. This course includes screenings of film and anime with English subtitles.
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