Browse Globalization and the University by Series/Report

    Series/Report
    In this course we explore important issues in the study of Contemporary Korean Society and ask how those themes can help us to better understand processes of globalization in East Asia and beyond. Although the Koreas are relatively small countries in Asia, as Michael Robinson writes, “They have played a disproportionately important role in the last hundred years of world history” (2007:1). Their history of colonialism, the Korean War, coming of age in the Cold War, and struggling to rise to the top of the global stage makes them a productive region of the world for thinking about themes such as globalization, nationalism, belonging and modernity. In the first half of the course we look at Korea’s global roots and see how North and South Korea have diverged in their struggle to modernize. In the second half of the course we focus on South Korea’s efforts to define its national identity, and in doing so, have caused many exceptional cases to emerge. We look at issues such as the Korean diaspora, immigration, plastic surgery, and how even as the desire for an English-language education forces South Koreans to travel abroad, the ‘Korean Wave’ of film, TV and music is hitting the shores of most countries in Asia (and worldwide) and has made Korea an enviable producer of global cultural products. We pair ethnographies, historical texts and anthropological articles focused on Korea with key texts in the anthropology of globalization. Additionally we use both documentary and feature film to analyze class themes. [2]
    Instructor, Caitlin Vitosky [2]
    Instructor, Erica Vogel [2]
    Instructor, Nancy Abelmann [5]
    Introduction to the study of Muslims in the United States and broadly the history of Islam in the Americas. Using a comparative approach, we study how the historical narrative of African American and Latino Muslims relates to newer immigrant populations, primarily Arab American and South Asian American Muslim communities. [2]
    KIN 249; Spring 2012 [2]
    Life writing encompasses many genres (diary, memoir, biography, chronicle, confessional poetry) and media (print, web text, video). This class will explore life story research: a qualitative method of inquiry that involves gathering narratives about life experience in order to expand knowledge of a particular social or cultural subject. As an advanced composition course, Rhet 233 includes advanced writing and research activities, such as anticipating audience, exploring stylistic choices, synthesizing and responding to material from multiple sources, planning and shaping a draft, receiving and incorporating feedback, revising, and editing. [1]
    Mireya Loza, Instructor [3]
    Prof. Junaid Rana [2]
    Professor Catherine Viera [1]
    Professor Junaid Rana [2]
    Professor Lauren Marshall Bowen [1]
    Rhet 104, Ethnography of Race and the University, Instr. Samantha Looker: In this course, students take the writing skills that they built during Rhet 103 and apply them to research, with the ultimate goal of completing an in-depth research project. As part of the EUI-Rhetoric Race and the University Project, this class revolves around how race is represented and lived on university campuses, and specifically on our own campus here at UIUC. Students ground themselves in readings on how race is defined and talked about, and then move on to research related issues on our campus. Students will choose a research question related to race to answer in your final research project. As part of the EUI (Ethnography of the University Initiative), this class gives students the opportunity to create original scholarly research based on your firsthand experience with people, texts, and places on campus. In addition to traditional academic sources, students final research project will include several interviews, observations, surveys, and/or analyses of University texts. [1]
    RHET233 Writing a Life [1]
    Rhetoric 103, College Composition I: Race and the University, Yu Kyung Kang: This course is the first half of a two-semester sequence designed primarily to help students improve as writers, readers, researchers and critical thinkers. To this end students were encouraged to think analytically, to read critically and participate actively in the ongoing academic discourse presented in texts, images and discussions. This section of Rhetoric 103 was different from others in that it centered on a particular theme, Race and the University as a part of the Ethnography of the University Initiative (EUI). As a Race and the University course students investigated the way that race defines people, actions, and patterns of thought, and what people make of race and issues of race. Students did this by exploring texts and contexts in the first half, then observed and researched issues particular to our campus in the second half. Over the semester students went through a step-by-step research process that started with a research question and ended with a final research project. As an Ethnography of the University (EUI) section, students conducted innovative research and explored issues of race by coming in direct contact with people, places and texts connected or related to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The course syllabus is available at: http://www.eui.uiuc.edu/docs/syllabi/RHET103F08.pdf. [1]
    Rhetoric 105 was designed to help students develop their reading, writing, and research skills and lay a foundation for the rest of their University career. This course gave students practice in: critically reading and analyzing texts, forming arguments, gathering and evaluating research, synthesizing multiple sources, conducting qualitative research, and composing (inventing, drafting, revising). This section of Rhet. 105 was centered on the theme of “Race and the University.” Our course was part of UIUC’s Ethnography of the University Initiative (EUI)—a cross-campus initiative that supports undergraduate research about the university experience and encourages the archiving of this research. The assignments and discussions asked students to explore their own experience as a UIUC student and consider issues of race in higher education. Students conducted their own qualitative research through observations, interviews, and surveys. [1]
    Rhetoric 105, Principles of Composition, Race & the University, Instr. Kristin McCann: This course entailed continual negotiation of three primary focuses: academic writing, introduction to ethnographic research methodologies, and critical inquiry into issues of race and representation. I approached this course as a semester-long conversation with students, the texts with which we engaged, and the kairos of the physical and ideological spaces in which we were immersed. I encouraged students to draw upon their expertise as current UIUC undergraduates and to consider their stake in the university’s narratives. Students were, of course, not expected to produce a complete ‘ethnography’; rather, to consider what combination of ethnographic research methodologies might be most useful to their specific essays and research projects and what issues they deemed most exigent for their inquiries. Students also had the opportunity to present at the bi-annual EUI conference, alongside other EUI undergraduate and graduate students. The course syllabus is available at: www.eui.uiuc.edu/docs/syllabi/RHET105S08.doc [1]
    This course is designed to introduce students to major ideas and themes in the study of higher education while providing a first introduction to research in the field. The class will provide an overview of the organization and structure of American higher education, helping to situate future coursework and studies. Finally, the course is affiliated the Ethnography of the University Initiative (EUI). Through this affiliation, students will undertake original research on historic or modern issues/concerns/topics at the University of Illinois and produce lasting knowledge about this institution, its culture, and its students. As members undertake their own research, they will interrogate the research in the field. By the end of the course, students should: (1) Understand the development of the modern field of higher education. (2) Be able to articulate the major trends in research on higher education. (3) Be critical readers and users of research on higher education. (4) Understand the diversity and organization of American higher education. (5) Have experience asking and exploring questions involving stakeholders of the University of Illinois. (6) Be able to relate their projects to existing literature and/or research on the University of Illinois. [1]
    When did Muslims arrive in the Americas? What is the history of Muslim immigrants in the United States? This course was an introduction to the study of Muslims in the United States. In examining the multiple racial, cultural, and national groups that make-up this diverse community, students questioned what it means to be Muslim in America. The course began with the first contact between Islam and America in the “Age of Discovery” and the African slave trade to think through the roots of Islam and its role in the contemporary moment. In this moment students also examined how indigenous Americans, referred to as American Indians, are conceptualized in relation to the Muslims of Europe and simultaneously racialized. In historicizing Islam students examined the communities who first arrived as crypto-Muslims to understand the place of Latinos in American Islam. Second, students examined African American Islam in its myriad formations. These two examples were then used comparatively to understand how the historical narrative of African American and Latino Muslims is related to newer immigrant populations. In large part, students surveyed Arab American and South Asian American Muslim communities particularly in urban contexts. These later two populations grew through large immigrant waves in the 19th century and the late twentieth century, particularly after 1965. In addition to the multi-racial and comparative perspective, this course examined intra-religious (sectarian) and interfaith differences and dialogues. This material was explored through an interdisciplinary approach focusing on the scholarship mainly from anthropology, history, sociology, religious studies, and ethnic studies. For many of class discussions this course used Chicago as an ethnographic site to explore the complex make-up and history of Muslim America. [2]