Courses

LCSL 250: Culture and the City in Latin America. 3 hours. Instructor: Dr. Enrique Macari. TR 11:00-12:15.
Explore the archetypical cities of Latin America – Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Lima, La Havana, and more – through their literature, cinema, music and arts. What binds them together? What sets them apart? What problems do they face? Find out in this comparative journey through Latin American urban history. Taught in English. Creative Arts course, and World Cultures course.

LCSL 260: Tales of Healing: Intro to Narrative Medicine. 3 hours. Instructor: Dr. Julia Vaingurt. TR 12:30-1:45.
How are medical ideas and history reflected in literature?  How are literary concepts utilized in medicine? This course will explore the role of stories in defining and treating disease, comprehending experiences of suffering and illness, and helping us cope in times of physical and emotional crisis. Whether you come to medicine as a professional or as a patient, in this class you will develop your skills of understanding and empathy, as we examine together topics including: a patient’s perspective on pain, agency, and the end of life;  a doctor’s viewpoint on the right to treat and contradictions of care; class, race, and medical experiments; mental health; biopolitics and bioethics; integrative medicine; gene technologies; pro-life/pro-choice debates; and epidemics and inoculation.

FR 297: Paris in Literature, Film, and Culture. 3 hours. Instructor: Carly Lapôtre. MW 4:30-5:45.
In FR297, we’ll uncover the hidden histories and evolving identities of one of the world’s most mythologized cities. From Roman ruins to the banlieues, this course blends stories, images and maps to reveal how writers and filmmakers have shaped–and been shaped by–the Paris of their time. We’ll explore famous neighborhoods and monuments beyond the postcard, question stereotypes and trace the deep cultural, political and architectural transformations of the city across time.

GER 217: Introduction to German Cinema. Instructor: Dr. Sara Hall. 3 hours. TR 12:30-1:45 pm
This course introduces students to a diverse selection of films made in Germany between 1895 and 2020 and offers practice in examining them as explorations and expressions of the human imagination and the human experience during the socio-historical events and transitions specific to twentieth-century Germany (East and West). Through reading assignments, in-class discussion, on-line discussion, quizzes, homework assignments and paper writing, students will develop analytical skills in the viewing and interpretation of films and in writing original arguments about film history and cinema culture. Students taking GER 217 will gain the vocabulary for interpreting, analyzing, evaluating and researching films in the context of the history that shaped and was shaped by them. They will advance their ability to read, experience and view films carefully, to think critically, to argue cogently and to communicate ideas about cinema and a non-US culture in written and oral form. This course serves as an elective in the Germanic Studies major and minor, the minor in Moving Image Arts and as a General Education course in the categories of World Cultures and Creative Arts and Ideas. This is a great course for people with an interest in German cultural history or international film history in general. Films will be watched outside of class, supplemented by online discussion and interactive elements on Blackboard. Course Information: Taught in English. No knowledge of German required. Area literature/culture. Creative Arts course, and World Cultures course.

GER 219: Princesses and Storytellers. Instructor: Dr. Patrick Fortmann. Online Asynchronous.
This course analyzes the structure, meaning, and function of German fairy tales and their enduring influence on global literature, film, and popular culture. Concentrating on the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and the course examines fairy tales from a variety of cultures and traditions, ranging from Norse mythology to present-day America. The course is organized in topic-based modules. It will investigate the origins of the fairy tale form in cultures of oral storytelling and its eventual transposition to print. Students will examine the historical and socioeconomic circumstances that informed the Grimms’ project of collecting, editing, and disseminating tales as well as emerging practices of tale creation. The course will also introduce standard scholarly approaches to interpreting fairy tales and their adaptations, such as folk lore studies, narratology, gender studies, psychoanalysis, and animal studies. Through close readings of literary tales, the course provides basic tools for narrative interpretation and critical argumentation. Course Information: Taught in English. Area literature/culture. No knowledge of German required. Creative Arts course, and Past course.

GER/HIST 228: Iron and Blood: Germany in the Making (The Making of Modern Germany). 3 hours. Instructor: Dr. Patrick Fortmann. TR 9:30-10:45.
“Iron and Blood: Germany in the Making” The course offers a comprehensive survey of the German experience in Central Europe and elsewhere, in the so-called “long nineteenth century” – in many respects the formative period for the making and un-making of the nation in the world. It specifically focusses on major political, cultural, and socioeconomic trends in Germany and beyond that influenced the multifaceted processes of nation-building in a global context. The course considers the impact the Germans had on the world and, conversely, the decisive impact the world had on the Germans. Working through divers textual, audial, and visual sources and in dialogue with recent scholarship, the course explores questions of memory and legacy and aims at decentering persistent ideas of nation and ethnicity by way of highlighting the interrelatedness of migration and identity-formation. Course Information: Same as HIST 228. Taught in English. Past course.

SPAN 226: Cervantes’s Don Quijote: The First Modern Novel between Islamic Spain and the New World. 3 hours. Instructor: Dr. Keith Budner. MW 4:30-5:45.
Let’s follow an obsessive reader who thinks he’s a knight in shining armor into a world of feminist shepherdesses, cross-dressing priests, and devious wizards. These characters appear in Don Quixote, the first modern novel that we’re going to read alongside Mexican poetry, Incan histories, and love stories from Islamic Spain. Taught in English. Prerequisite(s): Completion of the university writing requirement.

ITAL/SPAN/LCSL 285: Zombies, Plagues, and Other Pandemics in Literature and Visual Media. 3 hours. Instructor: Dr. Giordano Mazza. Online Asynchronous. Term B.
Pandemics and their effects on human beings on a physical, emotional, and societal level, as seen through literature and visual media across nations.

ITAL/RELS/CL 293: Dante’s Divine Comedy. 3 hours. Instructor: Dr. Chiara Fabbian. MW 4:30-5:45.
An in-depth study of the Divine Comedy, read in English, against the historical, religious, philosophical and cultural background of the Middle Ages.

CEES/HIST 418. Topics in German History. 3 hours. Instructor: Dr. John Abbott. MWF 1:00-1:50.
No nation’s history was more consequential in shaping twentieth-century events than Germany’s. Even before the First World War, German industrial might, combined with the nation’s volatile politics and vibrant culture, cast deepening shadows across Europe. In the world wars to follow, Germany’s vaunted military was central to the titanic clashes that, by 1945, had decisively recast world power relations as well as Europe’s territorial divisions. Central to Germany’s twentieth century, of course, is the Nazi era, a time of unparalleled horror and persecution that, to this day, challenges our capacity for rational explanation. And the twelve years that made up Hitler’s “Thousand Year Reich” provide this course its narrative fulcrum and central interpretive challenges. Yet these questions cannot be answered by reference to the Nazi years alone and, for that reason, we start our story with Germany on the eve of World War I, carrying it through the endphases of World War II in.

CEES 460: The Idea of Documentary. 3 hours. Instructor: Dr. Matthew Kendall. T 3:30-6:00.
This course explores the history of the idea of documentary in 19th, 20th, and 21st-century Central & East European Media. We will consider how new forms of media and reportage like print journalism, photography, and sound produced a new effect of documentation, and how this effect appeared in expected and unexpected artistic contexts. Throughout the semester, class discussions will explore relationships between representation and reportage, fact and fiction, and sincerity and performance. May be repeated up to 2 time(s), with consent of the instructor, and if topics vary. Prerequisite(s): Junior standing or above; or consent of the instructor.

LCSL 250: Introduction to Comparative Cultural Studies. 3 hours. Instructor: Dr. Michal Markowski.
One of the most essential and desirable skills in today’s divided and conflicted world is understanding how people live, work, and create in a multicultural environment. Join us as we explore how authors and artists represent and problematize the boundaries of national and cultural identities. Is culture a “biased” term or “neutral? Is it universal? Is culture a political idea, or it shies away from politics? What is the relationship between culture and civilization? Are different cultures comparable? How does globalization impact artistic individuality? What is globalization? How does translating texts and cultures allow the global circulation of ideas? The course will help students better comprehend how the specificity of national cultures is appropriated and consumed by readers and audiences across the “world.” The course will also explain the origin of categories and concepts we use when speaking about culture. Emphasis on diverse worldviews across Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Francophone cultures and their interactions. Competencies developed: analysis, critical thinking, equity & inclusion, and intercultural communication. The course format implies active participation and discussion of reading materials in English.

SPAN 225: Spanish and Latin American Culture through Literature and Film. 3 hours. Instructor: Dr. Steven Marsh.
Introduces students to the Hispanic cultures, both Peninsular and Latin American, as represented in literature and film throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Course Information: Same as MOVI 225. Taught in English.

SPAN 226: Early Modern Spanish and Colonial Latin American Literature in Translation. 3 hours. Instructor: Dr. Keith Budner.
“Foodie Spain: A Cultural History of Hispanic Gastronomy from Islamic Al-Andalus to Colonial Mexico”
This course is taught in English. Spain’s history can be told through its food—consumed via the very flavors and recipes that span ancient Iberia to the present day. Indeed, where conventional histories are seasoned by kings and conquerors, Spanish gastronomy serves up a history—or histories—where race, religion, gender, and social class take center plate. Medieval Iberia’s Muslims and Jews not only influenced the peninsula’s cuisine long after the expulsion of these populations, but also rendered certain ingredients and dishes socially suspect. The Spanish Empire’s colonization of the Americas and parts of the Pacific brought with it new products and foodstuffs, yet also a new host of political questions. And whether at the marketplace or in the royal kitchen, the question of who did the cooking always left a gendered aftertaste. On our gastronomic tour, we’ll follow colorful characters like the ever-hungry trickster Lazarillo, courtesan-cook Lozana, and glutenous squire Sancho Panza as they guide us through garden parties of Islamic Granada, fermented fish factories in Roman Spain, and chocolate harvests in colonial Mexico.

ITAL/MOVI 280: Italian and Italian American Cinema. 3 hours. Instructor: Dr. Chiara Fabbian.
Italian and Italian American films and cinematic movements presented within the context of Italian culture and its diaspora. Course Information: Same as MOVI 280. Taught in English.

FR 215: Paris in Film. 3 hours. Instructor: Dr. Roselyne Gerazime.
Exploration of multicultural Paris in French films. Conversational and writing practice with grammar, vocabulary, and cultural information about films, the history and culture of Paris, and comparisons between Paris and Chicago as global cities.

FR 295: Science Fiction and Fantasy in the French-Speaking World. 3 hours. Instructor: Carly Lapotre.
Imaginary worlds, fantastic voyages, strange creatures, wild machinery and technology are some elements of French sci-fi and fantasy that we’ll explore in FR295. We’ll look at graphic novels, comics, movies and more. Whether you’re new to fantasy and sci fi, or want to compare the French versions to what you already know, join us on the voyage!

GER 217: Introduction to German Cinema. 3 hours. Instructor: Dr. Heidi Schlipphacke.
German cinema as communication and art; its production, reception and ideological perspectives

KOR 230: Korean Pop Culture in a Global World. 3 hours. Instructor: Dr. Hanae Kim.
An introduction to the global phenomenon of Korean popular culture, including music, film, and television. Examines diverse K-Pop themes such as cross-cultural impacts and its possibilities for the future.

CEES/MOVI 250: Eurasian Cinema: Film and Media Across Borders. 3 hours. Instructor: Dr. Matthew Kendall.
Explores the legacy of Eurasian cinema with films from the Russian empire, the Soviet Union, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Topics include: silent film, montage, animation, transition to sound cinema, cinematic realism, and digital media. Course Information: Same as MOVI 250.

CEES/LCSL/LING 406: History of European Standard Languages. 3 hours. Instructor: Dr. Giedrius Subacius.
If “a language is a dialect with an army and a navy,” then among the many dialects that make up a language, the standard variety has the largest military. This course is all about the phenomenon of “standard languages.” The standard variety is primarily written with the goal of providing linguistic uniformity in the face of social diversity. Standard languages are often thought of as prestigious, “most beautiful,” and may serve as a symbol of national identity while also being the official language of a country. We will analyze and discuss the “birth” and development of language standards, the development of individual standard languages, and we will see emerging historical–theoretical patterns. Some standards were initiated by kings, others—by intellectuals of peasant origin. Of over 50 present standard languages in Europe, a number will be investigated, compared, and classified: English, German, Albanian, Estonian, Greek, Yiddish, Italian, French, Spanish, Lithuanian, Polish, Ukrainian, Norwegian, Croatian, Serbian, Luxembourgish, Russian, etc.

RUSS 241: Dostoyevsky. 3 hours. Instructor: Dr. Matthew Kendall.
Selected short stories and novels. Taught in English.

RUSS/GWS 244: Women in Russian Literature. 3 hours. Instructor: Dr. Julia Vaingurt.
This course examines genres, themes, and styles of writing popular among women readers and writers, as well as identifies those writers who choose to defy literary conventions and create outside the domains allotted to women. Students will gain understanding of both gender theory and Russian culture by analyzing women’s self-perception and its rendering in literary form. The authors studied come from different walks of life, social classes, and political identities, and yet most are united by the tendency to question the patriarchal social order and gender normativity. We will study the context for the practice of women reading and writing through the prism of such central Russian literary texts as Eugene Onegin and Anna Karenina. All reading materials, lectures, and discussions are in English. No knowledge of Russian is required.

RELS/JST/CL 225: Topics in Muslim-Jewish Relations. 3 hours. Instructor: Dr. Izzet Coban.
“Intellectual Encounters and Intertwined Histories” This course explores the intricate relationship of Judaism and Islam from the rise of Islam until the end of the 20th century. Their shared history is characterized by a dynamic interplay of exchange, imitation, dialogue and conflict. Unlike other approaches, this course adopts a regional survey, examining how these two rich religious traditions interacted across various cities and regions of the Islamic world. Moreover, the course offers insights into the intellectual crossroads between Muslims and Jews, particularly in the second half of the semester, where we focus on the intersections of their thought in areas like hermeneutics, theology, philosophy, law and mysticism.