Courses Created by Melissa (no longer offered at UMD)
Ethiopian Immigrants in Israel: Children, Families, and Education
The State of Israel is home to immigrants from around the globe and since its founding in 1948, the country has implemented a variety of services to help its immigrants adjust to life in their new country. Students will read scholarly articles about the efforts of the Israeli government as well as NGOs to integrate its new citizens into modern society; subsequently, each reading will be followed with a visit to an associated program. Students will visit “Absorption Centers” which provide immediate services to new immigrants, including intensive Hebrew language instruction and explanations of everyday cultural practices; youth villages for immigrant children; community centers for new Israelis of all ages, which provide a variety of educational and social services; artists’ workshops for elderly, low-income immigrants; high-tech and executive job training programs; university initiatives to increase acceptance of Ethiopian-Israeli high school graduates; and a variety of public and private schools. Additionally, students will meet Ethiopian immigrants to Israel and will be invited to interview them about their individual experiences.
Exploring Music as a Form of Social Protest: A Gateway to Understanding Identity, Critical Literacy, and Cultural Competence
This course examines the role of music and song in the context of protest and social action. While the course focuses on music of the American Civil Rights Era and of the apartheid regime of South Africa, it raises fundamental questions about all forms of musical protests throughout the world. The primary question is, “Can music initiate, support and sustain social change?” Students will explore a variety of primary sources that address the sociocultural nature of music, including the voices of musicians who were active during struggles for human rights in South Africa and the United States. They will also analyze retrospective views of the role played by musicians during those social transformations and investigate musical legacies that remain in the wake of those historical events.
Exploring Children's Literature: A Gateway to Understanding Identity, Critical Literacy, and Cultural Competence
Students pursue knowledge of six non-dominant identity groups that they will likely encounter in their future classrooms. They explore each group’s literary and social contributions to American society as well as the ways in which they have been subjected to marginalization and exploitation. Students analyze the representation of each group in children’s literature and children’s media, learning to identify stereotypes, historical misinformation, and literary portrayals of lifestyles and power dynamics that subjugated or dismissed characters from those groups.
Exploring Film and the Media: A Gateway to Understanding Identity, Critical Literacy, and Cultural Competence
This course explores the ways that literature, film, and the media depict human identities based on race, religion, culture, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, language, nationality, and disability. Students analyze which groups are represented; which groups are excluded;how each group is depicted; and who makes those determinations. Students also learn about "Dominant" and "Non-Dominant" identities, and discuss the ways in which Dominant groups establish the rules and determine the parameters for acceptable behavior within each society.