"American Made" is a film about a Sikh American family whose car breaks down en route to the Grand Canyon, and their only hope for escape is the remote desert highway and the occasional passing car. When car after car fails to stop, family members are forced to confront their notions of faith, conformity, tradition, and sacrifice-and question what it means to be "American" today. This lesson plan includes discussion activities about the definition of family, cultural research activities, and writing assignments related to students' personal histories.

Musician David Grisman combines bluegrass with elements of swing, jazz and gypsy music as he prepares for a performance at Berkeley's Freight and Salvage. This Educator Guide is about the history of bluegrass music.

This course will acquaint the student with some of the ancient Greek contributions to the Western philosophical and scientific tradition. We will examine a broad range of central philosophical themes concerning: nature, law, justice, knowledge, virtue, happiness, and death. There will be a strong emphasis on analyses of arguments found in the texts.

In an increasingly interconnected world, communicating across cultures is a crucial skill in the international networks of business, science, and technology. Subject examines a range of communication styles and techniques resulting from different cultural norms and traditions. It begins with a general theoretical framework and then moves into case studies. Topics include understanding the relationship between communication and culture, differences in verbal and non-verbal communication styles, barriers to intercultural communication, modes of specific cross-cultural communication activities (e.g. argumentation, negotiation, conflict resolution) and intercultural adjustment. Case studies explore specific ways of communicating in Asian and European cultures. Graduate students are expected to complete additional assignments. Taught in English.It has become commonplace knowledge that globalization is one of the major forces shaping our world. If we look at the spread of information, ideas, capital, media, cultural artifacts--or for that matter, people--we can see the boundaries and borders that have historically separated one country or one group from another are becoming more and more permeable. For proof of this close to home, you need only to look at the composition of the MIT student body: 8 percent of the undergraduates and 37 percent of the graduate students are from 109 different countries. "Communicating Across Cultures" is designed to help you meet the challenges of living in a world in which, increasingly, you will be asked to interact with people who may not be like you in fundamental ways. Its primary goals are to help you become more sensitive to intercultural communication differences, and to provide you with the knowledge and skills that will help you interact successfully with people from cultures other than your own. We hope the course will accomplish those goals by exposing you to some of the best writers and scholars on the subject of intercultural communication, and by giving you a variety of opportunities to practice intercultural communication yourself. As you read the syllabus for this course, we hope you get a sense of our commitment to making this course a rewarding experience for you.

Examines traditional forms of East Asian culture (including literature, art, performance, food, and religion) as well as contemporary forms of popular culture (film, pop music, karaoke, and manga). Covers China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, with an emphasis on China. Attention given to women's culture. The influence and presence of Asian cultural expressions in the US are also considered. Use made of resources in the Boston area, including the MFA, the Children's Museum, and the Sackler collection at Harvard. Taught in English.

Examines interactions across the Eurasian continent between Russians, Chinese, Mongolian nomads, and Turkic oasis dwellers during the last millennium and a half. As empires rose and fell, religions, trade, and war flowed back and forth continuously across this vast space. Britain and Russia competed for power over Eurasia in the "Great Game" of geopolitics in the nineteenth century, just as China, Russia, and others did in the twentieth century. Today, the fall of the Soviet Union and China's reforms have opened new opportunities for cultural interaction. Topics include: the religious traditions of Central Asian Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, and Confucianism; caravans and travelers like Marco Polo and Rabban Sauma, the first Chinese to travel to the West; and nomadic conquest and imperialist competition, past and present. Source materials include primary documents, travelogues, films, music, and museum visits.

SPARK follows Sensei Seiichi Tanaka and Taiko Dojo as they prepare for the 36th annual International Taiko Festival at Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall. This Educator Guide is about the history and traditions of the ancient art of Taiko drumming in Japan and the contemporary innovations of a global music culture.

Continued study of the language, literature, and culture of Spanish-speaking countries. Materials are from Spain and Latin America and include films, short stories, novels, plays, poetry, and journalistic reports in various media.

Introduction to some of the major genres of traditional Chinese poetry, fiction, and drama. Intended to give students a basic understanding of the central features of traditional Chinese literary genres, as well as to introduce students to the classic works of the Chinese literary tradition. Works to be read include: Journey to the West, Outlaws of the Margin, Dream of the Red Chamber, and the poetry of the major Tang dynasty poets. Literature to be read in translation. Taught in English.

recounts the history of aviation and the military: aviation's entry into the military during World War I, Germany's use of air power early in World War II, Pearl Harbor, the Berlin Airlift, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and President Eisenhower's declaration that our first line of defense would be an air atomic strike force. The site examines the design of the Air Force Academy, authorized in 1954 after 30 years of struggle.

Subject focused on the ways writers transform experience into finished and polished writing in the forms of memoir, autobiography, and essay. Frequent writing assignments, regular revisions, and short oral presentations are required. Readings and specific writing assignments vary by section. See subject's URL for enhanced section descriptions. Emphasis is on developing students' ability to write clear and effective prose. Students can expect to write frequently, to give and receive response to work in progress, to improve their writing by revising, to read the work of accomplished writers, and to participate actively in class discussions and workshops.

MIT students bring rich cultural backgrounds to their college experience. This course explores the splits, costs, confusions, insights, and opportunities of living in two traditions, perhaps without feeling completely at home in either. Course readings include accounts of growing up Asian-American, Hispanic, Native American, and South-East Asian-American, and of mixed race. The texts include selections from Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, Kesaya E. Noda’s “Growing Up Asian in America,” Sandra Cisneros’s Woman Hollering Creek, Gary Soto’s “Like Mexicans,” Sherman Alexie’s The Toughest Indian in the World, Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies, the movies Smoke Signals and Mississippi Masala, Danzy Senna’s Caucasia, and others. We will also use students’ writings as ways to investigate our multiple identities, exploring the constraints and contributions of cultural and ethnic traditions. Students need not carry two passports in order to enroll; an interest in reading and writing about being shaped by multiple influences suffices.