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Fall 2002
This information effective
for Fall 2002.
Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.
Instructor: Per Gjerde
The main purpose of this seminar to discuss how we should think about "culture and ethnicity" in psychology.
Many psychologists continue
to see the world as a mosaic of non-overlapping "cultures" and census-defined
"ethnic" groups. But to bestow cultural communities and ethnic groups
with internally homogeneous and externally distinguishing qualities is problematic
in a world increasingly characterized by migration, globalization, and new transnational
links. Recent cultural forms are developing linking previously isolated "traditions."
Knowledge of globalizing influences should be familiar even to those who have
not frequented Tibet's animated karaoke bars or participated in Oslo's white
middle class youth cliques emulating African-American culture.
Accordingly, the usefulness of the term "culture" itself is being
challenged. For example, what is the "culture" of a Mexican migrant
spending six months in the U.S. and six months in Mexico? What is the cultural
identity of Turks living in Germany versus Turks living in Turkey or Denmark?
Or individuals inhabiting the "borderlands?"
These globalizing processes are occurring with accelerating speed, partly as
a consequence of the rapid spread of global capitalism and transnational media,
developments that permit individuals, even in the most "remote" corners
of the world, to explore very different ways of being—if only through imagination.
For some individuals, this exploration leads to migration; for others, it changes
their "hometurf" behavior.
The first part critically
examines relations between culture and space, connections between culture and
ethnicity, how images of "cultural selves" and "cultural others"
are formed and "naturalized," and the impact of globalization on children's
lives—in particular, how children are increasingly becoming the focus of
political struggles over "cultural identity."
The second part examines how children and youth develop in various "cultures,"
including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mexican, Norwegian, and Islamic "cultures."
Psychological as well as anthropological readings are included.
We will examine these topics by focusing on the following six core questions:
1. What constitutes culture
and ethnicity?
2. What does it mean to belong to a culture?
3. How do people learn to become members of a culture?
4. What is cultural identity? How do people "know" they belong to
a culture?
5. How do psychological development and culture shape each other?
6. Can individuals belong to more than one culture?
The topic of the paper will
be an analysis of your own cultural identity.
Grading Criteria: Class participation: 60%; Final Paper 40%.
Please note that 60% of
the evaluation will depend on your active class participation. If you are not
comfortable speaking up in class, this is not a class for you.