Students choose from one of five Liberal Studies courses featuring the regions of Africa, East Asia, the Middle East, South Asia, and Latin America. Given the ever-increasing complexity of today’s world, this component of the curriculum is designed to help students understand societies that have long histories and enormous diversity within themselves—societies and cultures that intersect across the globe. These courses introduce aspects of one particular region’s cultural development. “Culture” is broadly defined as including, but not being limited to, disciplines such as history, philosophy, the arts, politics, and social institutions. Course materials stress primary over secondary sources and may include multimedia. In their first year, students choose from one of the Global Cultures courses described below.

African Cultures
This course introduces the great diversity of peoples, places, and cultures in the African continent. Students use a variety of sources, historical texts, literature, and film to explore the paradigms of traditional cultures of pre-colonial societies, and the disruptions of those structures by the incursions of Islam and European colonialism. The course also explores the decolonization of the continent with its attendant struggles for independence, and post-liberation problems. Modernity’s impact on cultural roles and the transformation of African cultures in the Diaspora may also receive attention.

East Asian Cultures
This course introduces East Asian cultures, focusing to a greater or lesser extent on China, Japan, and Korea.  Aspects of East Asia’s traditional and modern culture are presented by study of some of the area’s Great Books, as well as other literary, political, philosophical, religious and/or artistic works from the traditional, modern, or contemporary periods. Issues raised may include national or cultural identity in relation to colonialism/imperialism, East-West tensions, modernism’s clash with tradition, the persistence of tradition with the modern, the East Asian Diaspora, and the question of East Asian modernities.

Latin American Cultures
This course is intended to give a general view of the great diversity in the areas south of the United States. Given the influences of Europe, the United States, Africa and indigenous Indian cultures on the region’s varied cultures and societies, the course may cover different topics and time periods, such as the historical background to the social, political, economic, and/or ethnological issues of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; the course may also explore the artistic developments in different countries and their relationship to larger social structures.

Middle Eastern Cultures
This course offers a general, interdisciplinary introduction to the societies, cultures, politics, and history of the contemporary Middle East and Islamic North Africa. Texts on sociological, historical and political topics, as well as artistic expressions, films, and literary works may be employed to examine the region’s rich historical legacy and current complexity. Topics may include the historical and cultural relations between the Middle East and the West: the impact of historical, economic, and political change on the region’s cultures and societies, and the contemporary state of the region.

South Asian Cultures
This course provides a broad understanding of the social developments of the Indian sub-continent. The countries studied may include India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and/or Sri Lanka. Coverage may focus on the pre-modern, modern and/or contemporary aspects of the region’s experiences, which span thousands of years. A variety of materials, from fictional and non-fictional texts to video and film may be used to explore the interactions of tradition and change in different time periods, and to illuminate such issues as colonialism, sectarianism, and modernization.