A bridge beyond the West: Encountering China (2023/2024: Semester 1 – Fall)

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Cursusdoel

At the end of the course, students will be able to:
  1. recognize the importance that China has in our everyday reality
  2. recognize ways of thinking and understanding beyond the west
  3. use conceptual tools to recognize and describe Chinese frameworks relevant to Human Health, Earth and History
  4. assess Chinese understandings of Harmony and elaborate on them in writing;
  5. apply social and political models and concepts developed in ancient and contemporary China, to understand the West from a non-western perspective; and be able to discuss their merits and their limits;
  6. reflect on and apply these models and concepts to an interpretation of current world affairs, including material culture.
  7. understand the importance of positionality and of engaging in the task of listening to effectively encounter other worldviews,
  8. practice intercultural dialogue in oral and in writing exercises
Relationship between tests and course goals
Description of assignment Weight Assesses which learning goals?
  1. Discussion Boards
  2. Midterm Exam
  3. Class Presentations
  4. Final paper
 25 %
25%
25%
25%		 1,3, 4,6, 8
1,2 and 3,4, 7
2,3,4,5
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8

Vakinhoudelijk

Everyday as we grab our shoes, our phone, our laptop we live in a world deeply shaped by China. Moreover, China’s emerging position as a leading nation is becoming undeniable in the (post)pandemic world. Underneath our everyday life objects there is a cultural and material history that we remain ignorant of.
This course aims to bridge this gap, and to respond to the urgent need of an intercultural dialogue with a region of the world whose culture, philosophy and history we know little about.
Experts on China studies, cross-cultural philosophy and decoloniality will join forces to develop and teach a course that provides students with the tools they need to enter in dialogue with China and understand better the world in which we live. We will put Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist assumptions about human being, health, nature, and politics related to the concept of harmony (hé), in dialogue with case studies from social movements, artistic practices in contemporary China. Students in the social sciences learn about the need to overcome Euro-centric perspectives but they are given little alternatives. Students will learn about the prominent role of China as a global political and economic power. This course will look into Asian social and political thought as well as into Asian methodologies to understand our Global reality. Students will learn how the west and the global is theorized and understood from non-western social science perspectives.

Format

This interdisciplinary course combines a China content with an innovative pedagogy, meant to let students practice diversity by listening and entering in dialogue across differences. Each section will first offer a dialogue between traditional Chinese wisdom and sociological analysis of relevant aspects of contemporary Chinese society; with these tools, a case study will be analyzed, and finally an intercultural dialogue with experts will take place, in which students can use the dialogical tools learned.

Werkvormen

UC INT 1 course

Toetsing

Discussion Boards

Verplicht | Weging 25% | ECTS 1,88

Final paper

Verplicht | Weging 25% | ECTS 1,88

Class presentation

Verplicht | Weging 25% | ECTS 1,88

*midterm FEEDBACK*

Niet verplicht

Mid-term exam

Verplicht | Weging 25% | ECTS 1,88

Ingangseisen en voorkennis

Ingangseisen

Je moet minimaal 60 punten van het bachelor programma hebben behaald

Voorkennis

Er is geen informatie over benodigde voorkennis bekend.

Voertalen

  • Engels

Competenties

  • Academisch schrijven
  • Internationale en interculturele oriëntatie
  • Interdisciplinariteit
  • Kritisch lezen
  • Luisteren

Cursusmomenten

Gerelateerde studies

Tentamens

Er is geen tentamenrooster beschikbaar voor deze cursus

Verplicht materiaal

  • DIVERSE
    assigned readings

Aanbevolen materiaal

Er is geen informatie over de aanbevolen literatuur bekend

Opmerkingen

Counts towards HUM or SSC major and is part of the China Studies track.

Coördinator

dr. C. Robbiano c.robbiano@uu.nl

Docenten

dr. C. Robbiano c.robbiano@uu.nl
dr. R.D. Vazquez Melken r.vazquez@ucr.nl

Inschrijving

Let op: deze cursus is niet toegankelijk voor studenten van andere faculteiten, bijvakkers mogen zich dus niet inschrijven.

Naar OSIRIS-inschrijvingen
Permanente link naar de cursuspagina
Laat in de Cursus-Catalogus zien