Instructor: Norma López-Burton, Department of Spanish and Classics, College of Letters and Science
Description: The American visitor accidentally insults the woman by asking if she is going to have more children. The visiting American dignitary compliments the art piece, compelling the owner to gift it. The invading of another country in the name of democracy. Are they related? Yes, all three—admittedly to differing degrees—show the lack of cultural understanding of Americans in the larger world. As the world becomes “smaller” through technology and globalization, how will we react? Will our future leaders and common citizens have the tools to understand and influence our neighbors without succumbing to ineffective ignorance? In this course, students will learn to examine their own culture and compare the way others live in their world and how they perceive ours. Students will learn to question and compare many aspects of culture in a systematic way by examining the Four Perspectives: “How we see ourselves”, “How we see them”, “How they see themselves”, “How they see us.”
Format: One hour per week class time for lecture and discussion. Discussions will be based on short readings posted on my.ucdavis. Before each class, students will be expected to have read the selections and be ready to participate in the discussion. Grading: Grades will be based on: eight quizzes based on the readings (40%); class participation (30%); and the final paper (30%).
About the Instructor: Norma López-Burton has been a Spanish instructor at UC Davis for 25 years and has supervised the First Year Spanish Program for twelve. She has introduced ways to measure the cultural awareness of students and has made cultural understanding proficiency as part of her Spanish students' grades. Students in this freshman seminar will be exposed to some of the material she presents in her Spanish 390 graduate seminar.