University Curriculum Committee
Proposal for New Course
1. Is this course being proposed for Liberal Studies designation?
If yes, route completed form to Liberal Studies.
Yes X
No
2. New course effective beginning what term and year? (ex. Spring 2009,
Summer 2009)
3. College
Fall 2011
See effective dates schedule.
Arts and Letters
4. Academic Unit /Department
5. Course subject/catalog number
7. Long course title
CCS 250
Comparative Cultural
Studies
6. Units/Credit Hours
3
Cultural Perspectives
(max 100 characters including spaces)
8. Short course title (max. 30 characters including
Cultural Perspectives
spaces)
9. Catalog course description (max. 30 words, excluding requisites).
A topics course emphasizing interdisciplinary inquiry into cultural practices and products in a global
framework. Includes comparative analysis of artistic, literary and religious practices from the disciplinary
perspectives in CCS.
10. Grading option:
Letter grade
X
Pass/Fail
or Both
(If both, the course may only be offered one way for each respective section.)
11. Co-convened with
11a. Date approved by UGC
(Must be approved by UGC prior to bringing to UCC. Both course syllabi must be presented)
12. Cross-listed with
(Please submit a single cross-listed syllabus that will be used for all cross-listed courses.)
13. May course be repeated for additional units? yes
X
no
a. If yes, maximum units allowed?
6
b. If yes, may course be repeated for additional units in the same term?
yes
no
X
(ex. PES 100)
14. Prerequisites (must be completed before
proposed course)
15. Corequisites (must be completed with
proposed course)
16. Is the course needed for a new or existing plan of study
(major, minor, certificate)?
yes
X
no
Name of plan?
Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Cultural Studies
Note: If required, a new plan or plan change form must be submitted with this request.
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17. Is a potential equivalent course offered at a community college (lower division only)
If yes, does it require listing in the Course Equivalency Guide?
Please list, if known, the institution and subject/catalog number of the course
18. Names of current faculty qualified to teach this course:
yes
yes
no
no
X
All CCS faculty
19. Justification for new course, including unique features if applicable. (Attach proposed
syllabus in the approved university format).
CCS 250 Cultural Perspectives is our department’s required introductory course to the CCS major.
The instruction rotates among the faculty and the emphases in CCS. Though the topics change
accordingly, each version of CCS 250 presents the students with the need and the methods to study
cultural themes, across cultures and time, from the multiple disciplinary perspectives represented in our
department. This process is enhanced at the outset and again at the end of the course when the primary
instructor is joined by at least two CCS colleagues, from other emphasis areas, to discuss in class the
approaches and methods employed in this course and in the department.
For Official AIO Use Only:
Component Type
Consent
Topics Course
35. Approvals
Department Chair (if appropriate)
Date
Chair of college curriculum committee
Date
Dean of college
Date
For Committees use only
For University Curriculum Committee
Date
Action taken:
Approved as submitted
revised 8/08
Approved as
modified
2
Northern Arizona University
College of Arts & Letters
Dept. of Comparative Cultural Studies
Fall, 2011
CCS 250: Cultural Perspectives
(Secondary Title) Asian Religions, Arts, & Literature
Prof. Bruce M. Sullivan
Office hours: TBA
Office: Riles 311
Phone: 523-0244
Email: bruce.sullivan@nau.edu
Class Meetings: TBA in room XX
3 credit hours
My website: http://oak.ucc.nau.edu/bms
Course Prerequisites: None.
Course Description
CCS 250: Cultural Perspectives, the introduction to the Department of Comparative Cultural Studies,
demonstrates methods of interdisciplinary inquiry into cultural practices and products in a global
framework. Through comparative analysis of artistic, literary and religious practices, the course provides
insight into how different peoples come to understand, organize, and shape their worlds, and confront the
fundamental challenges of human existence. Each iteration of CCS 250 presents subject matter that is
distinctively rooted in time and place but raises universal human questions. Every offering of this course
approaches its content from the diverse disciplinary perspectives represented in the Department of
Comparative Cultural Studies.
In this iteration of CCS 250, we will take an interdisciplinary approach to the study of Asian religious
traditions and the arts and literature in which they are expressed. The course focuses on Hindus and
Buddhists, who comprise about a quarter of humanity. This course addresses all three Global Learning
Outcomes, namely, Global Engagement, Environmental Sustainability, and Diversity.
Liberal Studies Information
CCS 250 is a Liberal Studies course in the Aesthetic & Humanistic Inquiry distribution block.
(1) This course supports the Mission of the Liberal Studies Program by preparing students to live
responsible, productive, and creative lives as citizens of a dramatically changing world, and helping
students develop their abilities in the following ways:
• To understand the world’s peoples and their diversity.
• To understand the traditions and legacies that have created the dynamics and tensions
that shape the world.
• To practice the habits of an examined or self-reflective life to facilitate ethical and
responsible living.
(2) CCS 250 is in the Aesthetic & Humanistic Inquiry distribution block and supports the intent of the
block by:
• involving students in the study of the human condition through philosophical inquiry
and analysis of the various forms of creative expression.
• helping students develop an understanding of the relationship between context and human
creative expression, in this case, sacred art and literature in Asian cultures.
• helping students develop an understanding of major conceptual frameworks utilized to make
sense of the creative arts, and how human experience and values are expressed through creative
endeavors, in this case, aesthetic theories and religious ideals.
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• helping students develop their capacities for analysis and ethical reasoning along with an
understanding of the multiple facets of the human condition.
(3) CCS 250 will help students develop essential skills as defined in the University’s Liberal Studies
Program. This course will emphasize Critical Thinking as its essential skill, and students will learn to
think analytically (both about their own writing and other works), demonstrated in the following ways:
• articulating the meaning of a statement;
• judging the truth of a statement, keeping in mind possible biases;
• determining whether a conclusion is warranted by the evidence provided.
Student Learning Expectations & Outcomes for this Course
This course will directly address all three Global Learning outcomes:
• Global Engagement: Students will learn how to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate the
interconnectedness and interdependence of the human experience on a global scale.
• Environmental Sustainability: Students will acquire an understanding of the range of ethical
perspectives concerning the uses of natural resources and the impact of these perspectives on creating a
sustainable relationship to the natural environment.
• Diversity: Students will learn about and critically reflect upon the nature and consequences of
diversity in both the social (e.g. ethnic, religious, cultural) world and the natural environment, and
develop an understanding of how this diversity both alters and is altered in a world characterized by
increasing global interaction.
Active engagement with the content of this course will enable the student
• to describe and analyze key ideas of Hindu and Buddhist religious traditions.
• to describe and analyze aesthetic theories developed in India’s cultures for evaluation of
artistic works, the major conceptual frameworks utilized to make sense of the creative arts.
• to convey the meanings of statements encountered in the study of course material, having
examined them from diverse perspectives.
• to assess the validity of a claim, taking into account different conceptual schemes,
contextual factors, and evidence.
• to evaluate an argument by determining whether the conclusion would be probable if
the premises were true.
Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes
Readings and discussions of those readings will enable the students to demonstrate a grasp of factual
information and various interpretations of the ideas expressed. Students will present their ideas in class
discussions and react to those of their fellow students, and will write short analytical papers based on
readings. Exams and the term paper assess factual knowledge of readings and various analytic and
interpretive frameworks for understanding the topic. The paper assesses the student’s ability to think
critically and write effectively about issues encountered in the course.
Methods of Assessment
This course entails examination of religious traditions in southern Asia, including Hinduism, Buddhism,
and Islam, and their interaction; students will develop facility in Global Engagement throughout the
course. In the visual arts segment of the course, the varying attitudes and practices of these traditions in
relation to icons will be explored; students will develop facility in Diversity as an outcome of this
exploration. In the literature segment of the course, students will explore varying attitudes toward nature
and the environmental sustainability of diverse ways of life, as expressed in literary works.
Some meetings of this course will begin with two or three questions on the day’s assigned readings.
These questions will encourage timely reading of assignments, thereby facilitating discussion of readings
and enhancing student learning during the semester.
The quizzes will assess the ability to articulate the key ideas of readings and lectures. The two exams will
include both objective questions (such as multiple-choice) and essay questions, and will assess the
student’s ability to express factual knowledge and think critically and analytically about the course
material.
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The paper will be an opportunity for students to demonstrate the development of their skill of critical
thinking in the form of academic writing, in which students will articulate the meanings in texts studied,
judge the truth of statements made (keeping in mind possible biases), and determine whether a conclusion
is warranted by the evidence provided.
Assessment will be based on a combination of the following means of evaluating student performance,
each having the value indicated:
1) Quiz on interdisciplinary approaches and the Hindu religious tradition (75 points).
2) Quiz on Darsan (75 points)
3) Midterm Exam (200 points)
4) Quiz on Love Song of the Dark Lord (100 points)
5) Quiz on the Buddhist religious tradition (50 points).
6) Paper on an aspect of Asian religion(s) and the arts (200 points)
7) Final exam (200 points)
8) Periodic written responses to questions on readings (100 points)
The grading scale for the course will be as follows:
90%+ = A; 80%+ = B; 70%+ = C; 60%+ = D; below 60% = F.
With 1000 points to be earned during the semester, 900 points would constitute an A, etc.
Extra credit beyond the course requirements, such as a relevant speaker or film showing, will be made
available to all students by public announcements.
Timeline for Assessment: Course Schedule
Please come to class having already read the assigned readings listed for that day.
ER = electronic reading available on Vista.nau.edu
Week 1
In the first week Professor Sullivan will be joined by instructors from Humanities and Art
History. Together they will introduce to the student the study of cultural practices and products
from their complementary disciplinary perspectives. Introduction to the course and to
interdisciplinary perspectives includes these readings: (1) ER, “In Comparison a Magic
Dwells,” by Jonathan Z. Smith, from Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown.
(2) ER: Clifford Geertz, “Art as a Cultural System,” from Local Knowledge.
Week 2
Overview of the Hindu religious tradition: ER, “Hinduism.”
Week 3
Quiz on interdisciplinary approaches and the Hindu religious tradition.
Religion & Visual Arts: Temple vs. Museum Aesthetics
Eck, Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India.
Week 4
Quiz on Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India.
Religion & Visual Arts: Davis, Lives, “Introduction” and chapter 1.
Icons and communities: Hindu or Buddhist, and who decides?
Week 5
Religion & Visual Arts: Davis, Lives, chapters 2and 3.
Icons as deities and as loot: Hindu devotion, Muslim iconoclasm.
Week 6
Religion & Visual Arts: Davis, Lives, chapters 4 and 5.
Icons in temples and in museums: the eye of the beholder.
Week 7
Religion & Visual Arts: Davis, Lives, chapters 6, 7, & “Conclusion.”
Icons and the rituals of community identity.
Week 8
Midterm exam.
Introduction to Indic theories of poetics: ER, “Poetics.”
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Week 9
Religion, Literature, & Poetry: Love in a Dead Language
Miller, Love Song of the Dark Lord, “Preface” & “Introduction” (pp. ix to 37).
Week 10
Love and/or Devotion: Miller, Love Song of the Dark Lord.
Week 11
Quiz on Love Song of the Dark Lord.
Overview of the Buddhist religious tradition: ER, “Buddhism.”
Modern Literature: Buddhism in a Murder Mystery?!? The Skull Mantra
Week 12
Modern Literature: The Skull Mantra; Quiz on the Buddhist religious tradition.
Week 13
Modern Literature: The Skull Mantra. Term paper is due.
Week 14
Modern Literature:
Buddhist Fiction:
ER, “The War Against the Lawns” by Easton Waller, from
Nixon Under the Bodhi Tree and Other Works of Buddhist Fiction.
Hindu Science Fiction?!?
ER, “The Little Goddess” by Ian McDonald, from Cyberabad Days;
and “Cull” by Manjula Padmanabhan, from Delhi Noir; and
Week 15
Perspectives on the course: (1) Religion, arts, and literature as a field of study;
(2) Exploration of cultural practices and products from CCS disciplinary perspectives.
During this week the instructors from Art History and Humanities will re-join the course
to discuss with the students and Professor Sullivan their experiences in interdisciplinary
learning during the semester.
Final exam: at the scheduled time for this course.
=========
Course Structure & Approach
Our method is academic inquiry concerning the topic of Hindu religious traditions and the arts. The
course will include lectures and discussions. Films and images will be shown to illustrate aspects of the
traditions studied. This is a course that requires the student to attend class regularly, pay attention, read,
listen, think, be open-minded, question assumptions (both one’s own and those of India’s cultures),
express one’s own views, and strive to understand and to be considerate of the views of others.
Texts & Required Readings
The following books contain the readings on which this course is based, and to succeed in this course one
must have regular access to these books. They are available in the NAU Bookstore in paperback.
Additional readings are posted on http://Vista.nau.edu and listed in the schedule as ER (electronic
reading). To succeed in this course, students must visit the course website regularly and have the ability to
view PDF documents, such as with Foxit or Adobe Reader.
(1) Diana Eck. Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India. 3rd edition.
New York: Columbia U. Press, 1998.
Brilliant introduction to the use and meaning of icons in India.
(2) Richard Davis. Lives of Indian Images. Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1997.
Winner of the Coomaraswamy Book Prize from the Assn. for Asian Studies.
(3) Barbara Stoler Miller. Love Song of the Dark Lord: Jayadeva's Gitagovinda.
2nd edition. New York: Columbia U. Press, 1997.
Eloquent translation of a poem on love, religious devotion, and the natural world.
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(4) Eliot Pattison. The Skull Mantra. New York: St. Martin’s, 1999.
Winner of the Edgar Award for the best mystery of the year.
Course Policies
Being registered for this course means that the student accepts the specified course policies and agrees to
abide by them, and that the student accepts the course requirements and agrees to fulfill them.
A makeup exam is available for an exam missed due to illness or approved and documented university
activities such as a fieldtrip (with paperwork submitted beforehand). Additional time will be allowed for
a documented illness that prevents a student from taking an exam or completing an assignment as
scheduled.
Class attendance is the responsibility of the student. Active engagement with the content of this course
requires regular attendance, and there is no substitute for your presence in the classroom. Consequently,
attendance is strongly encouraged, as those who attend will learn more and therefore be more successful
in this course. Please see the university’s statement regarding this matter in the NAU Undergraduate
Catalog under the heading “Classroom Attendance.” While the class is in session, you will have my full
attention, and I expect that you will have the courtesy to give me your full attention. This means that all
electronic equipment (cell phones, MP3 players, etc.) must be turned off during class to avoid
distractions. Also, it is expected that students will come to class on time, be attentive while present, and
stay for the full duration of the class. To do otherwise, or to talk to other students in the class while class
is in session, is distracting to fellow students and disruptive of the class. If on some occasion you will be
forced to come late or leave early, please inform your professor ahead of time.
Every student enrolled in this course is responsible for recognizing the distinction between the student’s
own ideas and those from another source, and for indicating that difference in the universally accepted
fashion through appropriate use of quotation marks and citation of sources. Use of the words and ideas of
others in a written assignment without giving them credit by citing the sources of that information is
called plagiarism. Plagiarism on a writing assignment for this course will result in a grade of zero for the
assignment, and constitutes grounds for further disciplinary proceedings by NAU. Cheating on an exam
will result in a grade of zero. Please see the university’s statement regarding this matter in the NAU
Undergraduate Catalog under the heading “Academic Integrity.”
Please see the additional page of policy statements from NAU appended to the syllabus.
Recommended Readings
A bibliography of recommended readings will be provided to students in the course website. Such works
may be useful for the papers as well as lifelong learning in this area.
Writing assignments
The paper should be 1700 to 2200 words (about 6 pages, double-spaced, in size 12 font). Additional
guidelines will be supplied in class.
ADDENDUM
SAMPLES OF ADDITIONAL TOPICS:
“Encountering the Other”: The story of human communities is a story of encounter. In the global
expression of cultures, we can see evidence of encounters with the “Other” in the quest to trade, advance,
progress, coexist, and dominate. In the quest to differentiate ourselves, the “Other” takes the form of
cultural or ethnic groups not our own, the natural world, the gods, and even the psyche. In this iteration of
CCS 250, we will study the literature, visual art, religious expression, and intellectual history of cultural
encounter. What happens when cultures encounter one another? What happens when cultures encounter
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the natural world? The gods? What is begged, borrowed, or stolen during these encounters? Together we
will examine the spread and proliferation of technologies and ideas, including print technology, religious
traditions, innovations and themes in visual arts, and more. To pursue this line of inquiry, we will look
across the centuries, across the globe, and across, genres; we will consider the history of colonialism,
imperialism, and sovereignty.
"Self: Constructing Identity across Cultures.": In this iteration of CCS 250 we examine the
contemporary memoir, both in written and visual form. We compare what diverse cultures think of as
"identity" and compare diverse cultural expressions of selfhood, both those that follow cultural norms and
those that defy them.
“Perspectives on the Art, Literature, Film and Politics of the Spanish Civil War”: In this iteration
of CCS 250, we explore from a variety of disciplinary perspectives the pivotal experience that was the
Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939. It was a moment when art and politics came together with exceptional
force with music, painting, photography, literature, reportage, political intrigue, and military planning
interacting and feeding off one another. CCS 250 provides us the opportunity to study and to interpret the
variety of expression emerging from and about this world resounding crisis, and challenges us to consider
the political volatility of meaning. These will be matters for our extended reflection during the course.
Course assignments will be in English, though students with skills in other relevant languages are
welcome to take up special projects that make use of their skills. The class will include group interpretive
projects such as one focused on SCW posters and photographs.
“Images of War in 20th-Century Film, Art, and Literature”: This iteration of CCS 250 examines the
sources of imagery of war (newspapers, film, individual authors, poets and artists, poster art), the political
language of war and propaganda, and the substance of such messages in their historical contexts. The
inquiry is framed by what seems to be a widening dichotomy between, on one hand, a growing revulsion
against the horrors of war, ending in visions of total extinction; and on the other hand, a celebration of
war (in video games, for instance) as not only necessary but noble. This divergence has been
accompanied by a search for expressive terms, resulting in increasingly extreme visual and verbal
imagery: inexpressibly negative visions balanced by older terms of sacrifice, courage and chivalry
updated for modern conditions of technological warfare. This inquiry charts the developments,
continuities and changes, and the contradictory images, in the course of the 20th century.
“Exploring New Worlds, Confronting Different Cultures: Narratives of Early Explorers”: This
iteration of CCS 250 examines personal narratives of explorers, including investigation of the cultures
from which they came, how they reacted to the cultures they visited, and the verbal and visual images
through which they announced their “discoveries” to the world. In the case of both Ancient Egypt and
South/Central America, differing perspectives of the new cultures are presented. Students are exposed to
how beliefs are shaped by culture as well as by individual personality; how select adventurers throughout
history have experienced other traditions; and how initial imagery of the unknown and exotic affects
awareness. The course addresses two of the three Global Learning Outcomes, namely, Global
Engagement and Diversity.
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