MC: Modern Languages and Cultures
MC 200 — Mediterranean Crossings: Migration, Integration, and Social Unrest
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
This course looks at how migratory experiences through the Mediterranean have been depicted by migrant writers and filmmakers. Students examine selected films and literary texts and analyze them within the context of migratory phenomena. Texts discussed also include short stories, films and documentaries, photography, literary criticism, and popular songs.
MC 201 — Mafia Movies: Crime and Corruption in Italian Popular Culture
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course looks at Italian film and television representations of the Mafia. Students view selected films and analyze them within the context of the historical and social development of organized crime in Italy. Texts discussed also include novels, historical studies, film criticism, photography, documentaries, and popular songs.
MC 202 — Rome: The Making and Unmaking of the Eternal City
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
Perhaps more than any other city, Rome is caught between two seemingly incompatible realities: the vitality of a modern capital in constant expansion and the inertia of an ancient city that houses countless treasures of artistic, archeological, religious and historical significance. In this course we explore a variety of texts (ancient and modern) and films which have shaped the image of Rome over several millennia.
MC 203 — Gender as Performance: Representation of Masculinities in Latin American/Latinx Theatre
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
This course provides an introduction to Latin American and Latinx theater from the point of view of gender studies and the representation of masculinities. Students gain an understanding of the different trends that led to the development of theatrical manifestations in Latin America while learning about their historical, socio-economic, political, and cultural context from the late 60s up to today.
MC 204 — Images of the Mind: Introduction to Chinese Calligraphic Art (Interdisciplinary)
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This is an interdisciplinary course cross-listed with FA 204 introducing students to Chinese calligraphy. Through guided training students gain knowledge of key concepts, methods and techniques of calligraphy and brush pen writing. Students receive a thorough background in the history of the art form and its significance in Chinese culture, literature and language.
MC 205 — Mexican Cinema: Between The National and The Global
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course is cross-listed with FI 206. Students analyze films produced in Mexico from the 1930’s to the present; from the nationalistic underpinnings of earlier productions to contemporary transnational ventures intended to for globalized market. This course considers how Mexico’s history and socioeconomic features inform the aesthetics of Mexican cinema.
MC 206 — Arab Literature and Culture: An Introduction
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
This course examines the rich and variegated cultural background of the Arab tradition by looking at language varieties, literary traditions, customs, and representative institutions. It provides an interdisciplinary overview of the major aspects of Arab culture through the study of primary literary texts, media and films. Taught in English.
MC 207 — Devouring the Screen: Food in Film
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
An exploration of world cinema through the theme of gastronomy. Students learn how food is depicted across various cinematic genres and cultural contexts. Analysis focuses on the development of the “food film” and how cinematic and televisual representations of food communicate issues of gender, economics, politics, sexuality, and ethnic identity.
MC 208 — Paris: Imagined and Real
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
In this course, we explore the space that Paris occupies in both the imagination and history. Paris is many things to many people, as evidenced in various genres of literature, painting, photography and film portraying Europe’s most populous city. Students will be encouraged to complement and/or readjust their own perceptions of the City of Lights, based on readings, screenings, and forays into the works of literature and literary expression depicting and representative of Paris.
MC 209 — Hispanic Cultures In New York
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
This course focuses on the development of Hispanic culture in New York from the turn of the 20th Century to the present. Students examine the cultural production from the earlier waves of Hispanic immigration to contemporary expressions of Latinx culture through diverse media sources: writing, video, film, audio, and the visual arts.
MC 210 — WORK IT! Labor and the Making of Contemporary Italy
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
This course uncovers changes, and recurring trends, in labor history in Italy. Students address the complexity of Italy’s economic transformations-from reconstruction to the shifts in migration patterns as affected by labor demands-by exploring how industrialization was narrated, celebrated, challenged, and even influenced by literary and cinematic texts.
MC 211 — Brazilian Cinema: Inventing Places and Spatial Myths
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
Students analyze films from diverse periods in Brazilian cinema through a series of places that explore geographic and symbolic spaces in the nation’s cultural imaginary. The City, The Backlands, The Amazons, and the topic of Nomadism are studied considering aspects of Brazilian culture related to race, gender and social class.
MC 212 — All In The Family: Representation of Italian Families in the 20th and 21st Centuries
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
What are the origins of the myth of the Italian family? This course investigates the sources behind the enduring legacy of this trope of Italian society, through a wide variety of media. Students learn about the social, historical, and cultural forces that shaped the idea of la famiglia.
MC 213 — Italian Style: Fashion In Italian Culture
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
This course examines fashion in Italian culture from the Middle Ages through the present day. Drawing upon historical sources as well as cultural expressions including literature, film, and advertising, we look at fashion’s significant place in Italian history both as an industry and as an expression of sociopolitical change.
MC 241 — Italian American Cultural Studies
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
An examination of the cultural expression of Italian Americans from the late 19th century to today. Students analyze a wide variety of texts including literature, theater, film, music, and the visual arts, and contextualize the history of Italian Americans within issues of ethnic identity in the United States.
MC 251 — Italian Cinema
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course is cross-listed with FI 246. Students survey the defining elements of Italian cinema from inception to contemporary Italian cinematic practices. Screenings include Neorealist masterpieces, cinema d'autore, commedia all'italiana, spaghetti Westerns, and contemporary Italian films.
MC 252 — Latin American Fiction: 1960-Present
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
An examination of selected Latin American fiction (in English translation) from the 1960s to the present. Focuses on literary themes, author's writing techniques, and situates the texts' sociopolitical and historical context of Latin America.
Prerequisite(s): EN 131 or equivalent.
MC 261 — Latin American Cinema and Resistance
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
Students are introduced to Latin American cinema, considering the pivotal role of diverse forms of resistance, focusing on issues crucial to understanding the continent's cinematic creation, including cultural identity, race, ethnicity and gender. They develop a critical understanding of the evolution of Latin American film practices since the 1960s to current trends.
MC 262 — Revolution as Spectacle: Mexico
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
An exploration of the cultural context of Mexican Revolution, between 1910 and 1940. Cultural production is examined using interconnected perspectives from critical sources and written and visual archival material. Study of the impact of Mexican literary and artistic revolutionary movements in Latin America and the United States during this period. This course is taught in English.
MC 263 — Contemporary Spain through its Cinema
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course analyzes Spanish films since the establishment of democracy in 1975 to the present to examine different narratives of cultural identity in contemporary Spain in key aspects related to gender, immigration, political identities and the transatlantic relation with other Spanish American national cinemas.
MC 300 — The Poetics of Sound in Hispanic Caribbean Literature
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
This course is designed to explore the interconnectedness of literature with the music of the Hispanic Caribbean (Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Puerto Rico). While our main focus will be the study of seminal literary texts, we will also look at selections from films/ animations and other forms of visual arts to gain additional opportunities to appreciate an artistic, cultural, social, and political profile of the Hispanic Caribbean. This course will be taught in English.
MC 301 — Imaginary Encounters: Representations of the Caribbean (Honors)
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
In this course, students examine diverse representations of the Caribbean region, from the time of Columbus’ arrival to the present, in scientific, legal and literary texts, as well as through the lens of cartography, the visual arts and film. Class discussion will address issues pertinent to colonialism, imperialism, race, gender, ethnicity and cultural identity.
Prerequisite(s): Qualification for Presidential Scholars Program, or 3.5 GPA with approval of Dean of Liberal Arts.
MC 302 — Faire La Cuisine: French Food and Identity
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
This course examines the construction of France’s complicated culinary identity, the power of its influence, and its struggle to remain relevant. Students explore a variety of French and Francophone texts such as recipes, cookbooks, etiquette guides, menus, articles, restaurant reviews, works of fiction, autobiographies, plus documentaries and films. In English.
MC 303 — Black in Paris: African American, African, and Caribbean Writers in the City of Lights (Honors)
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
This course will explore the long-historical relationship that African American, African, and Caribbean writers have had with the city of Paris from the colonial period to the postcolonial eras. Central to our discussions will be two of the most prominent 20th Century Black cultural Movements: the Harlem Renaissance and the African and West Indian Negritude Movement.
Prerequisite(s): Qualification for Presidential Scholars Program, or 3.5 GPA with approval of Dean of Liberal Arts.
MC 304 — Introduction to Caribbean Studies
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
Introduction to Caribbean Studies introduces students to the Caribbean region and societies with an emphasis on their history, sociology, politics, and cultures. Systematically reflecting on the relevance of the past to the present, students will explore current global trends and their impact on the Caribbean region and its diaspora.
MC 305 — Tang Poetry and Calligraphy: Classical Traditions of China (618-907 CE)
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
This course introduces students to Chinese calligraphy and poetry during the Tang period (618-907 CE), the golden age of Chinese art and culture. Students develop extensive knowledge of the classical tradition of Chinese language and literature, an understanding and appreciation of Chinese thought and culture and their place in the broader East Asian cultural ecology since the Middle Ages.
MC 306 — Africa: Contemporary Voices in Francophone Culture
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
This course focuses on cultural contributions to the wealth of an Africa rising in the Francophone region. Students will be able to identify a shift from the center-periphery model of postcolonial theory to Ngūgī wa Thiong’o’s notion of “globalectics.” Emphasis will be placed on the ways in which film, literature, music, fashion, pop culture, and the visual arts produce knowledge about the cultures of Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and their diasporas.
MC 307 — Postcards from Italy: Marginality and Urban Ecologies in Modern Italian Culture
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
Italy’s artistic past is often an obstacle to understanding its present. This course looks at four Italian cities in written and visual narratives and explores the connections between people and environments, as well as how Italians deal with industrialization, climate change, migrant labor, mass tourism, and changing socioeconomic patterns.
MC 308 — White Gold: Sugar, Power and the Creation of Atlantic Capitalism (Interdisciplinary)
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
In this team-taught course, students study the political and economic implications of the rise of sugar to dietary prominence and the literary representations of this phenomenon. Students examine the human costs of consumer behavior.
MC 313 — Writing Women of the Italian Renaissance
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
An examination of lives and literary endeavors of a select group of Italian, Renaissance era, women writers. Topics include how female writers were written about within the context in which they wrote, the purpose and motivation for writing, type of texts written, audience served, and the effect of social class and religion on work. This course is conducted in English.
MC 331 — Emotion Pictures: Film and Television Melodrama
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
Students are introduced to the genre of melodrama and its development from the silent era through the present day. Students analyze formal and thematic elements, with a focus on political and social-cultural contexts: Screenings include classical Hollywood pictures, soap operas, telenovelas, and films from Asia, Europe, and Latin America.
Prerequisite(s): any FI, HA or MC course.
MC 345 — Food for Thought: Gastronomy in Italian Literature and Culture
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
An overview of italian literature reveals how, through food, Italians have affirmed and defended their cultural heritage. Utilizing an analysis of influential literary texts, students examine the historical evolution of Italian cuisine from the excesses of the Roman table to today’s ‘slow food movement’ and Taught in English.
Prerequisite(s): EN 121 or equivalent.
MC 351 — From Modern to Contemporary Latin American Women Writers
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
An introduction to Latin American literature written by women. Using the lens of sociopolitical realities on the Latin American continent, students critically examine work created in diverse genres. Course is taught in English.
MC 499 — Independent Study Modern Language and Culture
1-3 credit; 1 lecture hour