Cross-Cultural Studies Concentration (CCST)
Director: Professor James Fisher
Associate Director: Professor Kathryn Sparling
Lecturer: Petra Crosby
Committee Members: Petra Crosby, Michael Hemesath, Roger R. Jackson, Alfred P. Montero, Éva Pósfay, Kathryn Sparling, Qiguang Zhao
The Cross-Cultural Studies Concentration objectives are: 1) to enable students to come to a sharper understanding of their own and their academic focus culture by making comparisons explicit; 2) to bring together American and international students in a program of study and interaction that will prepare them to live and work productively in a culture different from their own; 3) to provide a forum for studying problems and issues, such as pollution, disease, and human rights, that cut across traditional national or cultural boundaries and that tend to be excluded in traditional disciplines or area studies; 4) to create an arena for faculty whose work focuses on different parts of the world to address common issues and problems in a comparative, collaborative framework.
Requirements for the Concentration:
Language is fundamental to understanding other societies and therefore to the concentration. Each concentrator will fulfill the Carleton language requirement in the language of the focus area, or will study in a language-intensive program in the focus area. Upper level language study is also encouraged.
Concentrators will select a nation or region of the world on which to focus their cultural and linguistic study. This area will then be examined from three out of the following four perspectives:
In binary comparison with another culture
In regional perspective (i.e., beyond national borders)
In relation to global issues
Relating to ethnic diversity and diaspora
Core courses:
CCST 100: Growing Up Cross-Culturally (recommended but not required)
CCST 275: I'm a Stranger Here Myself
CCST 200: Theory and Practice of Cross Cultural Study
CCST 395: Senior capstone seminar
Electives:
Four courses from a least three of the four comparative categories listed above, to be selected from the list of pertinent courses available on the department web-site. Students who have participated in the first-year seminar, Growing Up Cross-Culturally, are required to take only three additional courses from any three categories.
American students will also participate in an approved international program (one or more terms), in an area where a language related to their focus is spoken. International students are exempt from this requirement since Carleton is an off-campus experience for them, but they are also encouraged to go off campus.
Cross-Cultural Studies Courses
CCST 100. Growing Up Cross-Culturally First-year students interested in this program should enroll in this seminar. The course is recommended but not required for the concentration and it will count as one of the electives. From cradle to grave, cultural assumptions shape our own sense of who we are. This course is designed to enable American and international students to compare how their own and other societies view birth, infancy, adolescence, marriage, adulthood, and old age. Using children's books, child-rearing manuals, movies, and ethnographies, we will explore some of the assumptions in different parts of the globe about what it means to "grow up." 6 cr., S/CR/NC, RAD,ND, Fall—N. Bilik, S. Carpenter, C. Clark, S. Leonhard
CCST 200. Theory and Practice of Cross-Cultural Study This course introduces students to theoretical, epistemological, and methodological issues in cross-cultural study. Emphasis will be on cultural translation, cultural encounters between groups, and concomitant cultural appropriations, cross-fertilizations, and resistance. How do we define and understand "communities" and "cultures"? What are the dynamics of power involved in cultural encounters? What are the theoretical debates surrounding colonialism and post-colonialism, globalization, and transnationalism? How do we juxtapose regional cultural identities vis-à-vis globalization and transnationalism? The course will examine approaches drawn from the humanities and social sciences, and apply them to case studies from different parts of the world. 6 cr., RAD,ND, Not offered in 2005-2006.
CCST 275. I Am A Stranger Here Myself Designed for students who are returning from off-campus studies or who have lived abroad, and for anyone who has had the experience of being an outsider, this course will explore theories and models of intercultural competence and intercultural transition. Using the actual experience of the students in class as its evidence, it will first develop theories about the nature of intercultural contact and then test their usefulness by applying them to the analysis of specific historical and literary evidence. 6 cr., RAD,ND, Spring—S. Leonhard
CCST 395. Cross-Cultural Studies Capstone Seminar
The first half of the course will deal with topics such as critique of the culture concept, cross-cultural comparison, orientalism and occidentalism, globalization and globalism, translation and transnationalism. The last part of the course will focus on the final assignment: a research paper of 15-20 pages, drawing on the entire experience of the concentration and, usually but not necessarily, the major. 6 cr., ND, Spring—J. Fisher, K. Sparling
Pertinent courses are available in a wide range of disciplines, including but not limited to: Art History, Economics, Area Studies, History, Music, Political Science, Religion, Sociology and Anthropology. For questions about particular courses, please check the department Web site or contact the director.