Thousands of tourists and local residents hike Lēʻahi Crater every day. Learn about the moʻolelo of Lēʻahi Crater and how it was used hundreds of years ago.

This seminar provides intensive study of exciting texts by four influential American authors. In studying paired works, we can enrich our sense of each author’s distinctive methods, get a deeper sense of the development of their careers, and shake up our preconceptions about what makes an author or a work “great.” Students will get an opportunity to research an author in depth, as well as making broader comparisons across the syllabus.

This seminar provides intensive study of texts by two American authors (Herman Melville, 1819-1891, and Toni Morrison, 1931-) who, using lyrical, radically innovative prose, explore in different ways epic notions of American identity. Focusing on Melville’s Typee (1846), Moby-Dick (1851), and The Confidence-Man (1857) and Morrison’s Sula (1973), Beloved (1987), Jazz (1992), and Paradise (1998), the class will address their common concerns with issues of gender, race, language, and nationhood. Be prepared to read deeply (i.e. a small number of texts with considerable care), to draw on a variety of sources in different media, and to employ them in creative research, writing, and multimedia projects.

This course on global integration brings together matters of global markets and institutions, global strategy, organization, and leadership. Global integration, the process by which an organization with units around the world becomes united, will be presented as a link to entrepreneurship and general management. The seminar is offered only to those enrolled in the MIT Sloan Fellows Program and challenges the participants to draw upon their past managerial experiences, especially those affiliated with multinational companies.

Everyday we are bombarded with the word “global” and encouraged to see globalization as the quintessential transformation of our age. But what exactly does “globalization” mean? How is it affecting the lives of people around the world, not only in economic, but social and cultural terms? How do contemporary changes compare with those from other historical periods? Are such changes positive, negative or simply inevitable? And, finally, how does the concept of the “global” itself shape our perceptions in ways that both help us understand the contemporary world and potentially distort it? This course begins by offering a brief overview of historical “world systems,” including those centered in Asia as well as Europe. It explores the nature of contemporary transformations, including those in economics, media & information technologies, population flows, and consumer habits, not through abstractions but by focusing on the daily lives of people in various parts of the world. This course considers such topics as the day-to-day impact of computers in Silicon Valley and among Tibetan refugees; the dilemmas of factory workers in the US and rural Java; the attractions of Bombay cinema in Nigeria, the making of rap music in Japan, and the cultural complexities of immigrant life in France. This course seeks not only to understand the various forms globalization takes, but to understand its very different impacts world-wide.

Students examine Martin Puryear's "Ladder for Booker T. Washington" and consider how the title of Puryear's sculpture is reflected in the meanings we can draw from it. They learn about Booker T. Washington's life and legacy, and through Puryear's ladder, students explore the African American experience from Booker T.'s perspective and apply their knowledge to other groups in U.S. History. They also gain understanding of how a ladder can be a metaphor for a person's and a group's progress toward goals.

This presentation talks about anthropological perspectives of relevance to mass drug administration. Anthropology is a social science discipline focused on studying culture, including norms, values, perceptions and practices and how people enact these in their daily lives.

Media, Society, Culture, and You is an approachable introductory Mass Communication text that covers major mass communication terms and concepts including "digital culture." It discusses various media platforms and how they are evolving as Information and Communication Technologies change.

This book has been peer-reviewed by 6 subject experts and is now available for adoption or adaptation. If you plan to adopt or adapt this open textbook, please let us know by filling out our adoption form (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdIj_Te3hiuJL7cKaofhhUHuDz3_hlVXg6Wg1IPcDZoH2pRrg/viewform?usp=sf_link).

You can view the book's Review Statement (https://press.rebus.community/mscy/back-matter/review-statement/) for more information about reviewers and the review process. An Accessibility Assessment (https://press.rebus.community/mscy/back-matter/accessibility-assessment/) for this is book has also been prepared to see how this book meets accessibility standards.

It is easy to think of love as a “universal language” - but do ideas about love translate easily across history, culture, and identity? In this course, we will encounter some surprising, even disturbing ideas about love and sex from medieval writers and characters: For instance, that married people can never be in love, that the most satisfying romantic love incorporates pain and violence, and that intense erotic pleasure can be found in celibate service to God. Through Arthurian romances, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, love letters, mystical visions, and more, we will explore medieval attitudes toward marriage, sexuality, and gender roles. What can these perspectives teach us about the uniqueness of the Middle Ages—and how do medieval ideas about love continue to influence the beliefs and fantasies of our own culture?

This survey provides a general introduction to medieval European literature (from Late Antiquity to the Fifteenth Century) from the perspective of women writers from a variety of cultures, social backgrounds, and historical timeperiods. Though much of the class will be devoted to exploring the evolution of a new literary tradition by and for women from its earliest emergence in the West, wider historical and cultural movements will also be addressed: the Fall of the Roman Empire, the growth of religious communities, the shift from orality to literacy, the culture of chivalry and courtly love, the emergence of scholasticism and universities, changes in devotional practices, the persecution of heretics, the rise of nationalism and class consciousness. Authors will include some of the most famous women of the period: Hildegard of Bingen, Heloise of Paris, Marie de France, Christine de Pizan, Joan of Arc, Margery Kempe, along with many interesting and intriguing though lesser known figures.

This course introduces scholarly debates about the sociocultural practices through which individuals and societies create, sustain, recall, and erase memories. Emphasis is given to the history of knowledge, construction of memory, the role of authorities in shaping memory, and how societies decide on whose versions of memory are more “truthful” and “real.” Other topics include how memory works in the human brain, memory and trauma, amnesia, memory practices in the sciences, false memory, sites of memory, and the commodification of memory. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments.

Attention high school Spanish teachers! This is a Webquest that I created to be used as a group project in a High School Spanish I class. It is a cultural learning project spanning three weeks for classroom groups composed of four students. Within each group, each student will carry out one of four different roles/tasks in preparation for an imaginary trip that the class is going to make to Mexico and Central America. Each group will have the option of choosing to research one of the seven countries included, which can accommodate a classroom of up to 28 students under the parameters given. The nice thing about this project is that each group will give a presentation on a different country which will broaden the students' cultural knowledge of Mexico and Central America. This project is intended for high school Spanish students but could also be used for middle school. The only technology needed is a computer, projector, and an internet connection. ¡Que lo disfruten!

This course discusses China’s emergence as a global power, which has arisen out of two centuries of significant change. It explores those transformations from 1800 to the present by examining the advent of foreign imperialism in the nineteenth century, the collapse of the last imperial dynasty in 1911, China’s debilitating war against Japan, the communist revolution, and the tumultuous history of the People’s Republic of China from 1949. Also, this course addresses the historical transformations that have shaped contemporary Chinese politics, ethnicity, gender, environment, economics, and international relations.

The goal of this course is to offer a general introduction to 20th and 21st century literature and cultural production about Modern Mexico. Emphasis will be placed on the way intellectuals and artists have presented the changes in Mexico City’s urban life, and how these representations question themes and trends in national identity, state control, globalization, and immigration.

Textbook, slides, and class activities related to culture and socialization. Primary text: OpenStax Introduction to Sociology.

In this activity students will view a few music videos from various Chinese artists in different musical genres. After each video, students will engage in a short discussion about similarities and differences in the genres between American and Chinese music.

In this activity students will view a few Chinese music videos from different genres. After viewing the videos, students will use information provided about each artist to do a mini research presentation in Chinese about the artist they chose.

Students examine and listen to a variety of forms of music to learn about the cultural, geographic, and stylistic diversity available within the United States.

Music is a mobile art. When people move to faraway places, whether by choice or by force, they bring their music along. Music creates a meaningful point of contact for individuals and for groups; it can encourage curiosity and foster understanding; and it can preserve a sense of identity and comfort in an unfamiliar or hostile environment. As music crosses cultural, linguistic, and political boundaries, it continually changes. While human mobility and mediation have always shaped music-making, our current era of digital connectedness introduces new creative opportunities and inspiration even as it extends concerns about issues such as copyright infringement and cultural appropriation.

JAXA Astronaut Soichi Noguchi was the first person to make sushi in space. Hear about this and what it is like to be a member of an international crew orbiting 250 miles above the earth.