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Apr 20, 2024
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American University Catalog 2015-2016 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Foundational Area 3: The Global and Cross-Cultural Experience
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Global interdependence is a powerful fact of life. Through an exploration of societies of Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Europe, this Foundational Area opens the doors into varied cultures and issues that challenge a parochial understanding of the world.
Students may select courses that focus on the major issues of contemporary world politics, including management of conflict, economic competition, and environmental threats to the quality of life. Alternatively, there are courses that emphasize either a comparative or cross-cultural examination of cultures, societies, polities, and belief systems and acknowledge the importance of recognizing and overcoming cultural barriers. Finally, there are courses which focus on the dilemma of the global majority-the three-quarters of the world’s population who live in countries striving for national identity as well as economic and political development.
All courses in this area encourage a better understanding of the dimensions of experience and belief that distinguish cultures and countries from one another and, conversely, the commonalities that bind human experience together. The courses aim to stimulate awareness of the need for enhanced international and intercultural communication.
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The Global and Cross-Cultural Experience: Goals
- explore those habits of thought and feeling that distinguish regions, countries, and cultures from one another
- discuss, in comparative and cross-cultural perspective, the concepts, patterns, and trends that characterize contemporary global politics
- develop the student’s capacity to critically analyze major issues in international and intercultural relations, especially how categories of difference are organized within and across cultures and how they affect political systems
Wildcard Courses
Wildcards are original, timely courses, affording an opportunity to try out new ideas. New courses are often (but not always) offered as wildcards as a prelude to proposal for a permanent place in the General Education program. Subject to the approval of the General Education Curriculum Committee, wildcards can be offered by any teaching unit. Offerings vary each semester.
Sophomore Seminars
Sophomore Seminars are interdisciplinary or multi-disciplinary courses that integrate approaches and methods from two or more disciplines. Students are exposed to multiple modes of thinking about subjects, concepts, and problems, and engage in evaluating complementary and competing ways of knowing. Sophomore Seminars can be offered by any teaching unit at the 200-level under the GNED prefix, and are specifically designed to meet the learning goals of two or more Foundational Areas. Offerings vary each semester. Foundational Area 3 Courses
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