Syllabus
LIS 122 Introduction to Intercultural Studies
Course Information
Faculty:Dr. Gary Schmidt
Office: Brittain 330
Office hours: MTWRF 9-10
Course times: MWF 10-10:50
Location: TBA
Course Description and Objectives
Introduction to Intercultural Studies (3).In this course students will have the opportunity to view and appreciate the distinctive character of different lands and peoples and acquire a basic intercultural communicative awareness that will prepare them for the study of a language.Students will become familiar with scholarly approaches used in the discipline, which may include linguistics, second language acquisition, cultural studies, film studies, literary studies, interdisciplinary approaches, and/or pedagogy. Content will focus on a particular topic or theme within the context of non-English-speaking cultures.
Student Learning Outcomes
Aftersuccessful completion of the course, students will be able to:
- Apply at least one method of scholarly inquiry to a cultural artifact produced in a non-English- language context (e.g. film, literary text, performance, non-fiction text, or language corpus).
- Reflect on the way differences between the target culture and the home culture are expressed in the cultural artifacts examined in the course.
- Articulate the connection between language and culture.
- Understand the role of communication in culture.
- Identify and negotiate barriers to intercultural communication.
- Interpret humanistic practices, products, and processes through the lense of a different culture.
Course Requirements and Grading
- Reading Journals – 20%
- Class Participation - 10%
- Presentation – 10%2
- 2 Critical Essays with revisions – 30%
- Research Proposal - 10%
- Exams – 20%
Grading Scale:
A =90-100%
B+ =87-89%
B =80-86%
C+ =77-79%
C =70-76%
D+ =67-69%
D =60-66%
F =0-59%
Course material
- What Makes a Man: Sex Talk in Beirut and Berlin. Joachim Helfer and Rashid Al Daif.
- 3 Required Film Screenings
- Additional readings available on Moodle and/or Kimbel Course Reserve.
Course Schedule:
Week 1 – Film: Ma vie en rose (French)
Week 2 – Techniques of Film Analysis/Approaches to Transgender Issues
Week 3 – Film: Lola und Bilidikid(German/Turkish)
Week 4 - Language and Culture: Paradigms of Sex and Gender
Critical Essay #1 Due
Week 5 –What Makes a Man
Week 6 – Culture, Genre, and Writing
Week 7 – Midterm Exam
Week 8 – What Makes a Man
Week 9 – Impediments to Intercultural Communication
Week 10 – What Makes a Man
Week 11 – Differing Cultural Paradigms of Sexual Orientation
Critical Essay #2 Due
Week 12 – Film: La pielquehabito(Spanish)
Week 13 – Masculinity/Femininity: Bodies and Performances
Week 14 – Presentations
Week 15 – Summing Up/Review
Week 16 - Final Exam
Attendance Policy: As stated in the CCU attendance policy (STUD-SENA-332, which can be found online at “Students are obligated to attend class regularly. Absences, excused or not, do not absolve students from the responsibility of completing all assigned work promptly.” As allowed in the university policy, students who miss more than 25% of all class sessions will be given a grade of F unless the instructor determines that certain absences are excused based on the submission of appropriate documentation of illness or family emergency.
Students are responsible for determining what work they have missed and for following due dates noted in the syllabus.
Exam make-up policy:Unless there is a documented emergency, students must arrange make-up exams in advance with the instructor if they know they will be unable to attend class on the date of the exam. The instructor reserves the right not to allow a make-up exam if there is not a reasonable justification for the request.
Late work: Unless in the case of documented emergency, late work will not be accepted without penalty. For each 24-period an assignment is turned in after the deadline the grade will be reduced by one letter grade. Late work more than 5 –days late will be given a grade of zero.
Students with a documented or documentable disability should contact the Office of Accessbility and Disability Services at the beginning of the semester. Go to for details on student rights and responsibilities.