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Fall 2009 Merrill College Core Course
MERR 80A, 80B, 80X: Cultural Identities and Global Consciousness
This fall, the Merrill Core Course will discuss an American urban autobiography, the memories of a survivor of the “tragedy in Darfur”, a vivid memoir of identity about growing up Iranian in America and American in Iran, and a fourth book to be determined shortly. More broadly, we will discuss poverty, nationalism, the role of women, political systems, and cultural achievements in several regions of the world. We will focus on the ways individuals are able to assert their own cultural identities and to speak out in the name of social justice.
This course is designed as an introduction to university-level work, and as such it stresses the skills of reading, writing, and clear thinking. We will read and discuss four books. Substantial writing will be assigned; we will work throughout the quarter on improving compositional skills. Our goal is to develop an active analytical approach to learning.
The
faculty expect that students taking the course will have read
The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur before arriving in September.
| Author |
Title |
Publisher |
| Hari, Daoud |
The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur |
Random House |
| Hayslip, Le Ly |
When Heaven and Earth Changed Places |
Plume |
| Moaveni, Azadeh |
Lipstick Jihad |
Public Affairs |
| Rodríguez, Luis J. |
Always Running |
Simon & Schuster/Touchstone |
| Lunsford, Andrea |
Easy Writer (any 3rd edition - 2009 |
Bedford/St. Martin's |
These books may be available at your local bookstore. You will be able to purchase these books on campus at the Bay Tree Bookstore.
Merrill 80L is a two-unit visual laboratory, with a film screening one evening per week, for a total of eight viewings throughout the quarter (four of these viewing will be required for all Core course students). The Lab is designed to run concurrently with the Merrill College Core Course. Students who wish to take the visual lab (for two credits) need to register for it separately. The visual texts included in this lab will sometimes complement, will sometimes be in contention with, but will mostly be different from the written texts chosen by the Provost to be read by all Merrill Core. Students are expected to read an article per week related to the feature film or documentary to be viewed that particular week, and to write a one-page paper responding critically to the visual text under scrutiny. This lab is required of those students admitted to the Merrill Frosh Scholars Program.
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