Prospectus

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Cultural interaction: a global perspective

Course
2015-2016

Admission requirements

This course is only available for students in the BA International Studies.

Limited places are also open for exchange students. Please note: this course takes place in The Hague.

Description

The first year courses “Cultural Studies” and “Communicating Power” have discussed how world views and truths about the external reality become constructed through language as well as cultural practice and context. Due to the subjective and discursive nature of these world views, different cultural groups construct different ideas and beliefs about reality. In this course we will examine how these differences in world views affect interaction between cultural groups.
How do different cultural and linguistic groups all over the world interact and what consequences (positive or negative) do the linguistic and cultural differences between these groups have for their efforts of communication? In this context ‘communication’ is a broad concept and we will deal with such diverse topics, both linguistic and cultural, as: postcolonialism, stategies and consequences of ‘othering’, cultural translations and political/economic implications of intercultural interaction.
We will start by providing a theoretical context of the field of intercultural communication, which will serve as a basis for the examination of several case studies. The course will then cover six themes of two lectures each (one provided by ms. Van Naerssen and one by dr. Bertens), in order to provide a broad scope of interwoven topics, both pertaining to linguistic and to cultural aspects.

Course objectives

Students will *Gain insight into the debates on the issues of knowledge production involving critical perspectives from different regions of the world; *Learn to reflect on and interrogate the meaning of the main concepts in cultural, sociolinguistics and intercultural communication studies as applied in different cultural contexts; *Learn to apply the theories and methods discussed in the course to analyze communicative, narrative and visual productions from regions of their choice.

Timetable

The timetable is available on the BA International Studies website.

Mode of instruction

One two hour lecture per week; tri-weekly tutorials.

Attending lectures and tutorials is compulsory. If you are not able to attend a lecture or tutorial, please inform the tutor of the course. Being absent without notification can result in a lower grade or exclusion from the final exam or essay.

Course Load

Total course load for this course is 5 EC x 28 hours is 140 hours, broken down by:

  • 12 lectures: 24 hours

  • 4 tutorials: 8 hours

  • Reading & self-study (for both exams and tutorials): 108 hours

Assessment method

Tutorial (incl. essay): 30%
Mid-term exam, open questions: 30%
Final exam, multiple choice and written: 40%

If the final grade is insufficient (lower than a 6), there is the possibility of retaking the full 70% of the exam material, replacing both the earlier mid- and endterm grades. No resit for the tutorials is possible.
To complete the final mark, please take notice of the following:
the final mark for the course is established by determining the weighted average

Blackboard

Blackboard will be used. For tutorial groups: please enroll in blackboard after your enrolment in uSis
Students are requested to register on Blackboard for this course.

Reading list

The readings will be announced on blackboard.

Registration

Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.

General information about uSis is available in English and Dutch

Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs

Not applicable.

Contact

Hum – OSZ Globalisation

Remarks