Ethnicity in America

The purpose of Prof. Cindy Gueli’s course Ethnicity in America is to evaluate the role of ethnicity in American life from 1607 to the present. Students will look at specific issues that were relevant in the past and still are today such as scientific racism, or racism in stereotypes, sports and media. She believes that by examining the different aspects through which racism is present in our society, students will be able to look at racism in a bigger spectrum and be aware of the presence it has on society.

Prof. Gueli will bring guest speakers to her classroom but they are not the common scholars or experts. She invites speakers that have lived or experienced racism, therefore allowing the students to get a first person account for what it means to be a part of ethnic groups nowadays. She believes that these presentations have a bigger impact on the students, allowing them to learn in a more interesting and engaging manner.

Besides the use of guest speakers, Prof. Gueli will also introduce videos and documentaries to “bring the past visually alive.” This, as Prof. Gueli believes, helps the students understand ethnicity better, because it being an intangible concept it is easier to observe than to define in words.

To introduce contemporary events, the students will for example study the current lawsuit against the Washington Red Skins. A woman has taken legal action so that the team changes what she believe is a racist team name. This allows the students to immerse themselves in the concept and analyze racism in their own context because it involves a subject that they can relate with.

Prof. Gueli believes that her class gives her students a good base and reference point that allows them to be critical of their surroundings. This course delves deeper into different, rarely discussed aspects of ethnicity, giving the students a broader perspective on such an influential and significant concept.

Culture: The Human Mirror

This week I visited Prof. Vine who teaches the course Culture: The Human Mirror. When I asked him about his strategies as a Professor, I was once again shocked by the answer. He told me cutting edge technology didn’t play a big role in his classroom, he actually preferred older methods. This is why Prof. Vine uses the overhead projector to teach most of his classes. He believes it is better than PowerPoint and it is easier for him to use. Although he uses the overhead projector quite often, Prof. Vine says he uses “a mix of various teaching strategies”. He therefore also uses videos, but most importantly conversations and questioning strategies are the ones that take up a big part of the class time. When I asked about his class size he told me that even though they were 40 the class still managed to have engaging conversations where all the students participated.

After talking about his class we started discussing the general education here at American University and how he thought his class reached its goals. First of all, he defined three specific ways on how he tried to incorporate the goals. First, he includes contemporary issues in all his classes so that the students are aware of current events and the world they live in. Second, he makes his classes writing intensive which helps the students practice their writing and develop skills that help them express their ideas clearer through paper. Finally, he engages the students as active learners making them involved in class though their opinions, comments and beliefs. Prof. Vine further tries to convey an introduction to anthropological ways of thinking so that students gain a different perspective on daily events. He encourages his students to look at issues and topics through perspectives of race, gender, poverty etc.

Overall, Prof. Vine believes that general education works to create more informed human beings that can solve problems through many different angles. However, he thinks all students should have a liberal arts education where the program doesn’t require students to take certain courses but rather it encourages them to have exposure to a field outside of their own.

Our Dependence on Technology

After going home for spring break I realized just how much our society depends on technology. Although Ecuador does have the latest technological advances, they still don’t reach every corner of the country, so the few times I did use the internet, it was dial up connection that took hours to load. When I came back to the university and once again experienced the efficiency and convenience of wireless high-speed internet, I realized how dependent on the web I had become. Furthermore, most of my professors also relied on the internet for communication with their students. After recognizing American University’s dependence, I was surprised at Prof. Dolores Koenig’s responses to some of my questions.

Prof. Koenig teaches the course Living in Multicultural Societies. When I asked her about technology and how she includes this in her classes, she told me she was skeptical about this whole matter. She said she does not and will never use neither blogging nor podcasts because she believes that “it is important for people to continue to engage in face to face present basis.” Although she does not use them in her classroom, she still believes that those resources are very helpful to share information and to create study groups.

Prof. Koenig will therefore base her classes on discussion and interaction. She presents a series of films throughout the semester that as she believes, engage the students as well as teaches them. She will also refer to current events and even bring newspaper articles to the class, helping her students be aware of their surroundings and making them connect their learning to the events of the world. This demonstrates how important she believes it is to address the students through different formats of information.

Prof. Koenig believes we live in a fast pace multicultural world where her course helps her students learn more how to analyze the world rather than experiencing it. Through this perspective she teaches to create literate and well-rounded human beings.