- News Comparison: Compare the coverage of one news story as covered in three different newspapers from a variety of places around the world. For example, you might read about Joe Biden’s inauguration day as described in The New York Times, Der Spiegel, and Moscow Times. Then compare the coverage by thinking about the following questions: What, if anything, is different about the way the story is represented in the different sources? How does the “spin” on the story change across sources? What is the focus of the story as depicted in each source? Why do you think the news source depicted in that way
- Cultural Interview: Interview someone from another culture who is living in the US.** Try to come up with 10 questions before you sit down for the interview, but don’t feel tied to those questions. Try to let the interview unfold naturally. Examples of questions might be: What surprises did you encounter when you came here? Do you feel you have adapted? What is frustrating about living here? What is fun about living here?
Simply writing a transcript of the interview is not sufficient for the assignment. You need to weave together the responses to your questions with the concepts and themes in our course.
**International students – interview someone from a culture other than your own.
- Film Analysis: Watch a film that depicts another culture.** You could watch a documentary that explores a sub-culture in the United States or another culture in the world. You could also watch a foreign film from another culture. Think about the culture you are learning about. What themes from the film relate to what we’ve covered in class?
**International students – choose a film from a culture than your own or one that depicts a sub-culture within your own culture.
Film Ideas/Literature/Podcasts
- Literature Study: Similar to the film analysis, read a piece of literature from another culture or a sub-culture within your own culture. What does it teach you about that cultures’ communication? What other aspects of the text connect to the themes presented in our class?
- Cultural Exploration: Visit an area where you live that is a gathering place for people different from your own cultural group, i.e. restaurant, place of worship, community center, etc. How do you feel as a “foreigner” there? Do you speak the language? What differences in communication (verbal and nonverbal) do you observe? What other differences do you notice?
- Your Own Idea: Create an exploration of your own – but please check with the instructor for approval.
And here is the film postcards
A list of films, readings and podcasts that are easily accessible and would fit this assignment well. This is not a comprehensive list, but rather just what is off the top of my head. You can email us for specific recommendations if there’s a culture you want to learn more about, but aren’t sure where to start.
Films: Suggested titles (PBS free at pbs.org):
City of God
Gran Torino
East is East
My Beautiful Laundrette
Crash
Whale Rider
Boys Don’t Cry
Transamerica
Babe
Life in Debt
The Chosen
American Factory
13th
I Am Not Your Negro
Sound & Fury (about deaf culture)
Marriott Library Marriott Reserve (HV2392.2 .S68 2008
Marriott Library ARC Click Request: Multimedia (PN1997 .S647 2002 )
Unspoken, America’s Native American Boarding School
Growing up Trans (PBS)
Stickup Kid (PBS)
Two American Families (PBS)
Rape in the Fields (PBS)
Poor Kids (PBS)
Literature (Authors)
Toni Morrison
bell hooks
Chinua Achebe
Junot Diaz
Jhumpa Lahiri
Bryan Washington
Elie Wiesel
Amy Tan
Jamaica Kincaid
Khaled Hosseini
Marjane Satrapi
Haruki Murakami
Ha Jin
Zadie Smith
Podcasts/Radio
Preach (from KUER)
On Being
1619
Death, Sex, & Money
Still Processing
Snap Judgement
This American Life
Moth Radio Hour
Revisionist History
Code Switch
Your Wrong About
Sample Solution
