Comparative examination of contemporary women's writing in the Caribbean. Emphasis will be on their engagement with issues of history, cultural articulation, race, class, gender, and nationality, including exploration of their formal procedures, individual moods, regional particularity, and general impact as writers. Rosario Ferré, Ana Lydia Vega, Julia Alvarez, Edna Brodber, Maryse Condé, Simone Schwarz-Bart, Jean Rhys, Beryl Gilroy, and Rosa Guy are among those whose works we will review.

This course helps students attain a higher level of proficiency in modern Japanese through the extended use of the language in practical contexts. The class will be conducted mostly in Japanese.

This course will improve students' four communication skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) by studying contemporary Chinese films, including several prize winners/nominees by internationally acclaimed directors such as Zhang Yimou, Li An, and Chen Kaige. The class will watch the films and then use the synopses and selected dialogues from the scripts as reading materials to facilitate both linguistic and cultural learning. Social and cultural issues reflected in the films will be discussed. The class will be conducted mainly in Chinese.

Examines the confrontation, assimilation, and transformation of Amerindian, African, and European cultures in Latin America from the sixteenth century to the present. Focuses on the processes in which distinctive self-images emerged in the region and how these images have been challenged and changed over time. Uses films, literature, and folk traditions to complement scholarly analysis of the emergence of a New World mentality.

This course helps students build linguistic and communicative competence in Mandarin Chinese through reading, discussing, and writing about authentic texts. Newspapers, essays, and short stories will be the teaching materials for the course. An interactive approach will be incorporated into the curriculum to improve students' conversational skills. The class will be conducted mostly in Chinese, and class hours will be supplemented by individual work in the Language Resource Center.

This course emphasizes speaking, listening, reading, and writing modern Japanese. Includes approximately 250 kanji. Supplements class work with audio and video.

This course places equal emphasis on speaking, listening, reading, and writing modern Chinese. Class work is supplemented with audio and video and multimedia materials.