This course studies select novels, short stories, and other texts by the Nobel Prize-winning Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, and examines both his literary work and the work’s legacies in Colombia and Latin America. We will focus on stories set in Colombia and the way his fiction explores how modernity has transformed rural north-east Colombia. In novels like One Hundred Years of Solitude, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Love in the Time of Cholera, and The General in His Labyrinth, García Márquez wove together history and storytelling to narrate the encounter between rural towns and people with modern technology, conveniences, and modes of transportation. As he did so, he not only emerged as one of the most important figures of modern literature; he also helped define what for many – in Colombia and beyond – became the story of Latin America itself. The course will therefore help us understand not only the works of one of the great writers of the modern era but also his country and his region.

This course is a study of non-human animals and their place in human society. Together we will explore perceptions of and interactions with animals, as well as context shaping the relationship between humans and non-human animals. From the sociological perspective we will critically examine the relationship between humans and non-humans including how we perceive, engage with, and impact animals within our society from an array of contexts. From the psychological perspective we will consider the psychological needs of animals and how humans may or may not fulfill these needs when we keep animals in captivity or share space with them. The course visits Gibraltar, a British territory that is home to 200 Barbary monkeys. 

This course will introduce students to French culture from the lens of international business and accounting issues which affect or influence the success of the entire enterprise, challenges that are often far beyond the scope of the traditional “cultural” or “business” function, and the impact of the cultural issues that influence problems. Topics include theories regarding the nature and work as it impacts international and regional institutions in business and accounting, agreements that affect the conduct of business globally, the legal and political setting of businesses, and the influence of the cultural environment on not only these previously mentioned topics, but also tactical and strategic decision making.

This course will introduce students to Japanese cultural traditions, craft traditions, and sacred spaces as contextual and aesthetic references within contemporary anime. Students will explore traditional Japanese, craft-making processes–creating their own luminaries, images, animations, and video as a way to physically understand the materials and processes of production used to create both traditional objects and the moving images of anime. Travel in Japan will allow students to engage directly with sites that inform the illustrated spaces and stories of anime. This first-hand experience will educate students about the cultural, architectural, and physical details visually present in many anime, developing a more complete understanding of the stories by experiencing both contemporary and early historical sites that inform Japanese lives, artworks, and storytelling.