spring 2009 classes: freshman seminar course descriptions
Portuguese 24.1 (freshman seminar): Endangered Cultures and Languages (1 unit)
Prof. Ana Maria Martinho
In today's world a growing number of cultures is close to extinction or under different sorts of pressure. It is believed that approximately every two weeks a culture disappears with all its knowledge, traditional archives and language. Such loss is in many ways irrecoverable, but there are some groups that are struggling to keep their heritage alive and even to voice it at a global scale.Our course will focus on such positive approach to this reality. We will start by drawing a general picture of the situation at a world scale and will then evolve to a focused discussion of some success stories. Many institutions are working on supporting a sustainable development of indigenous cultures and of minorities namely through local filmmaking and indigenous storytelling. We will therefore take a close look at their work and discuss it in class. The students are asked to actively engage in class discussions and to forward their own experiences, research and knowledge on this subject, through oral or written testimonies, videos and pictures. A reader with texts and the planning of the classes will be provided. Other documents and information will be available online.
This is a P/NP seminar.
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