Part 2 of 2: Mr. Carr (Laguna/Navajo) is an author and successful filmmaker. Short segments of his documentary Laguna Women are used in these two class sessions. A few weeks after this telecourse was made, Navajo Code Talkers, a National Geographic documentary produced by Lena and Aaron Carr, won an Emmy for best documentary. Other topics include a discussion on the issue of “identity”, a discourse on the impact of using a white protagonist in an Indian novel, and Carr’s point of view with respect to the writer’s “responsibility to build upon what other authors have done.”
Grade levels: Adult
-
Guest Author Gerald Vizenor, Part 1
Part 1 of 2: Gerald Vizenor is Professor of Native American Studies at the University of California (Berkley). He has been described by LaVonne Brown Ruoff as a “compassionate trickster”, a “formidable warrior in the word wars”, a superb storyteller, and a keen observer of our often hypocritical modern society. Topics covered include further discussion on the “Trickster”, the nature of violence, “shadow words”, Vizenor’s definition of what constitutes a meaningful question, and why an author’s response to a question often takes the form of a story.
-
Guest Author Gerald Vizenor, Part 2
Part 2 of 2: Gerald Vizenor is Professor of Native American Studies at the University of California (Berkley). He has been described by LaVonne Brown Ruoff as a “compassionate trickster”, a “formidable warrior in the word wars”, a superb storyteller, and a keen observer of our often hypocritical modern society. Topics covered include further discussion on the “Trickster”, the nature of violence, “shadow words”, Vizenor’s definition of what constitutes a meaningful question, and why an author’s response to a question often takes the form of a story.
-
Introduction and Overview: Who in the World is in Here?
Explore your peers’ and your own individual ethnic/racial, religious, and cultural backgrounds.
-
Social Interaction in Diverse Settings: The SIM’s Model
Discuss how to use the Social Interaction Model (SIM) as an analytical tool for understanding human behavior in social settings.
-
Negotiating Cultural Communication
Explore some of the varieties of communication styles in the U.S. as well as in other cultures around the world. Studio Guests: Isabel Lamptey, Western Illinois University, and Michel Nguessan, Governors State University. Video Insert: Asma Abdullah and Peter Shepherd, an Islamic couple from Malaysia.
-
The Changing Face of America and The World
Profile the rapidly changing demographic trends affecting the U.S. and other countries around the world. Studio Guest: Michel Nguessan. Video Inserts: Plaza De Los Angeles; Professor Alexander Astin, UCLA; and Wave Theory.
-
Immigration and the New Immigrants
Learn the history of Immigration laws and social policies in the U.S. Studio Guest: Fred Tsao, Policy Director at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. Video Inserts: Marian Smith of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS); White Racialist David Duke; and Marcelo Suarez, former director of Harvard University’s Immigration Study.
-
Race: The World’s Most Dangerous Myth
Explore one of our nation’s most complex and difficult problems, the concept of race. Video Inserts: Dr. Michael Omi, Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California at Berkeley.
-
Social Class Issues
The impact of social economics on the lives of families and individuals in the U.S. Studio Guest: Linzey Jones, Mayor of Olympia Fields, and Don DeGraff, Mayor of South Holland, Illinois. Video Inserts: White Flight in South Suburbia.