Meeting in the Melting Pot
How does your cultural background influence and shape your view of the world and of other people, and how do you interact with others as a result of this? How do belief systems, values and behaviors vary across cultures? We will focus especially on friendship, family, and intimate relationships in this context. This class will explore these questions with a 3 fold approach:
Firstly, we will be looking at the "hard facts" and examine relevant cross-cultural research. We will be focusing especially on the concepts of Individualism and Collectivism. Secondly, we will combine those hard facts with contributions from fiction (literature and film) that shed further light on the questions of our cross-cultural differences (or similarities!). Lastly, we will draw from our own personal experience: the final project of this class will be to develop a written personal narrative that examines one's beliefs and values drawing on the material covered in the class (this may be the student's own narrative or the narrative of a "research subject" of their choosing, for example a relative). You will also be required to undertake research on your own cultural background or the background of your subject.
In addition, there will be a group project: In teams of two, students will come up with their own research question and present their results to the class.
This class relates to the chapters 2 and 1 of the Pacific Seminar I reader (Interpersonal Relationships and Family, as well as Self Identity), and we will likely revisit several of the texts in those chapters. Additional readings will come from current journal articles (such as the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology), short fiction (authors such as Amy Tan, Jhumpa Lahiri, Monica Ali, for example), and textbook excerpts and / or articles that explain relevant cross-cultural concepts (authors such as Harry Triandis and Geert Hofstede). As a seminar, this class will rely heavily on student participation and contributions.
