LS 271. Understanding Contemporary Asia. 3 Credit Hours.
This course is taught in English and designed for students who have little or no background in East Asian cultures and languages will offer students an opportunity to explore East Asian societies with a main focus on China, Japan and South Korea by exploring various contemporary cultural and linguistic aspects of these East Asian countries. It aims to increase students’ knowledge of East Asian customs, foods, music, literature, popular art, people, societal norms and languages. By the end of the course, students will acquire a deeper understanding of East Asian cultures and improve their overall intercultural competence.
Session Cycle: Every Fall Semester.
| Fall 2024 | LS 271 | A | 1986 | M | 2:20pm - 4:50pm | (Z. Williams) |
LS 275. How Language Works. 3 Credit Hours.
In this course you will explore the intuitive knowledge that a native speaker of a language possesses and acquire greater insight into the intricacies of human language. Topics include the origins of language, units of meaning, computer processing of human language, sentence structure, speech production, language in context, language in society, language and culture, native and non-native language development, shades of meaning, conversational norms, language change over time, artificial language, and writing systems.
| Fall 2024 | LS 275 | A | 1987 | M | 2:20pm - 4:50pm | (A. Houston) |
LS 302. Language, Thought, and Society. 3 Credit Hours.
Language is a tool for creative expression, cognition, and social interaction. Philosophy of language, neurolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics are all examples of highly successful and productive consilience of language study with the humanities, biology, psychology, and the social sciences. People are sentient beings, capable of experiencing a broad range of psychological states. This course draws on the unity of knowledge in an effort to account for the richness of our mental lives and the flexibility of our behavior.
| Spring 2025 | LS 302 | A | 4001 | MW | 9:35am - 10:50am | (A. Houston) |
LS 303. French Studies. 3 Credit Hours.
Biocultural theory posits the co-evolution of genes and culture. Language, culture, and imagination confer survival advantages to humans as a social species and have preserved evolved human complexity. This course takes biocultural approach to the works of French philosophers such as Montaigne, Descartes, Rousseau, Diderot, Voltaire, Saussure, Derrida, Beauvoir, Foucault, and Lacan. Students may take the course more than once, as different iterations. Topics of a given iteration may include humanism, skepticism, dualism, primitivism, language, textualism, indeterminacy, relativism, feminism, constructivism, historicism, and psychoanalysis. Materials and instruction are in English. This course is cross-listed with HIS 303.
Prerequisites: 200-level history course.
LS 304. Italian Studies. 3 Credit Hours.
This course focuses on the history, society, politics, culture, and economics of modern Italy and its predecessors on the Italian Peninsula. Students may take the course more than once, as different iterations. Topics of a given iteration may include humanism, science, philosophy, the Inquisition, fascism, and the Vatican. Materials and instruction are in English. This course is cross-listed with HIS 304.
Prerequisites: 200-level history course.