PHL 272Y - Intensive Course Abroad ()

(LER-SA)

POLAND: THE POLITICS OF MEMORY This course explores the formation of community as a continuous revising, contesting, and institutionalizing of cultural memory. Poland is an especially interesting case today, as it undergoes the process of re-imagining itself as both a nation and, in the face of the rapid growth of the Polish diaspora, a culture. Polish identity formation has historically taken place in relation to the presence of Jews and Roma. Since the collapse of Communist rule there has been a blossoming of discourses around Poland’s Jewish past, the history of anti-Semitism, and the right-wing xenophobia that has emerged in response to the borders opening since 1989. This course investigates the way in which Poles today (in the so-called “new” Poland) are engaged in the process of reforging Polish identity and cultural integrity through a complicated retrieval of the past and encounters with both old and new “Others.” Students will examine how identity is shaped by disputes concerning the Other, as that Other is imagined historically and in cultural artifacts like monuments, museums, literature, and film, in order to map relationships between discourses concerning memory and those concerning democracy, globalization, human rights, distributive justice, capitalism, tolerance, and genocide. The course consists of a seven week preparatory course on Goucher campus (one credit) and a three week trip to Poland to visit the cities of Warsaw and Krakow. (three credits). Spring. Offered 2015-16 and alternate years. Grebowicz.

 (GEN. ED. #3) (LER-SA) Three week intensive course abroad in January or summer.

CHINA: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE (1 or 3) A seven-week pre-course will familiarize students with basic Mandarin Chinese and contemporary Chinese culture, as well as traveling in Asia (one credit). This is followed by a three-week intensive course in China in the summer (three credits total). Spring semester. Offered 2014-15 and alternate years. DeCaroli.