Academics
Students may enroll in only one of the three courses offered each May Term. Enrolled Clark students will receive normal day-college credit (1 full unit). Students from other schools must make arrangements to have credits transferred to their home institution (1 Clark unit is equivalent to 4 credits).
May Term 2010 Courses
Cultural Psychology of Urban Living
(Psychology 157) will be taught by Professor Jaan Valsiner of Clark University’s Psychology Department. Its focus is to provide students with skills of observational research and semiotic analyses of culturally structured open spaces in urban settings—streets, parks, functional activity centers, etc. Research tasks will be set up for students in four cultural contexts--German, French, Flemish and Dutch (based on field trips). During the Luxembourg stay in the Spring, the students will carry out their individual observational studies of public conduct in culturally structured activity settings, and will write a research paper based on their work.
This course carries Comparative Perspective credit at Clark University. At Holy Cross, the course fulfills the elective requirement for the psychology major.
Beyond Armageddon: Enmity to Amity in Europe
(History 006) will be taught by William Green, Professor Emeritus, Holy Cross College. The course concentrates on the international history of Europe, commencing with the unparalleled disaster of the Great War, 1914-1918, and the ensuing, even more costly Second World War, 1939-1945. Paramount attention will be given to the conduct of warfare in the territories of Northern France, Western Germany, Belgium, and Luxembourg (scene of the Battle of the Bulge). The class will visit sites of warfare undertaken in this region, some of them commemorative, some grisly, all of them important, including Verdun, the Maginot Line, and several military cemeteries--French, German, and American. The post war reconstruction of Europe, the onset and development of the Cold War, and the process of reconciliation among former wartime enemies, particularly France and Germany, will be treated. Consideration will be given to the creation of the European Community, and its remarkable expansion at the end of the 20th century. A visit will be made to Strasbourg, home of the European Parliament, crossroads of French and German culture, and principal city of Alsace.
This course carries History Perspective credit at Clark University. At Holy Cross, it is approved for the Historical Studies Common Area requirement and counts as a European History course toward the History major.
Imagining Europe: Space, Borders, And Cultural Identities
(English 004) will be taught by Stephen Levin, Assistant Professor of Clark University’s English Department. Questions raised in this course include: What is “Europe”? Is it defined primarily by its cultural values? Geographic boundaries? A shared history? A commitment to a set of political ideals? Who decides? This course examines competing ideas of Europe in the contemporary period through readings in journalism, literary fiction, poetry, philosophy, and political criticism. We will be especially interested in how Europe “remembers” the past in its public museums, monuments, and heritage sites; the inclusion or exclusion of Europe’s internal “others” (Jews and Muslims particularly); and the globalization of European languages by “migrant” writers. Field trips are planned to Belgium and Germany.
This course carries Language & Culture Perspective credit at Clark University. At Holy Cross, it is approved for the Literature Common requirement.