Courses in Cultural Agents identify and reflect on the arts as social resources. Stubborn problems can sometimes yield to artful interventions, even when conventional means fail. Art's signature activity is to interrupt deadening habit and to innovate despite constraints and limitations. Therefore, investigation and critique are first stages of Cultural Agents research; but effective responses through performative, literary, and interpretive arts are the focus. Among the philosophical anchors for Cultural Agents courses are Friedrich Schiller and Antonio Gramsci. Many of our courses feature activities based learning with mentors throughout the Boston area and beyond.
CURRENT COURSES
LINGUISTICS 200
Second Language Acquisition: Theory and Practice
Lecture: M 3-5 pm; Sever 203 Section: Th 5-6 pm; Lamont Library 203 In Spring 2009, Cultural Agents hosted a training workshop on the Paper Picker Press to be implemented as part of the curriculum for the Linguistics 200, Second Language Acquisition: Theory and Practice. This course provides an introduction to current theories about how second languages are acquired, particularly in contrast to first languages, and seeks to develop from that an understanding of the limits and possibilities of teaching second language in the classroom.
STAR E-130. YOUTH ARTS FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
Harvard Extension School Youth Arts for Social Change is a course for K-12 teachers, piloted by Cultural Agents and now included by the Harvard Extension School. Local artists (musician, actor, muralist, photographer, poet) train teachers during day-long workshops to incorporate creative practices in their classrooms and after-school programs. Teachers locate their own creative talents and gain confidence in their students’ ability to develop concentration and stamina by learning academic material through creative arts.
AESTHETIC AND INTERPRETIVE UNDERSTANDING 13 (formerly Spanish 180)
Catalog Number: 0460
Doris Sommer Explore the arts as social resources! Starting with a "Cultural Agents Fair" to meet local change artists as possible partners for collaborative projects (on mayors, music, murals, mimes, etc.), students will consider how defamiliarization and the counterfactual make change thinkable. Then we will track how aesthetic effects and side-effects can promote social change. Theoretical readings (Schiller, Kant, Dewey, Freire, Gramsci, Rancière, Mockus, Boal, García-Canclini, inter alia) are grounded in concrete cases of agency. Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the Core area requirement for Literature and Arts C.
ROMANCE STUDIES 202. Ethics and Aesthetics (Graduate Seminar in General Education)
Catalog Number: 2167
Francesco Erspamer and Doris Sommer Readings alternate between theory and literature/other arts to explore mutual relationships between the social conditions for art-making and art’s effects. How do creative practices play into ethics? Does philosophy depend on counter-factual [fictional] imaginings? The seminar will design and develop a General Education course on these themes for undergraduates. Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in English.
SPANISH 65. Bilingual Arts
Catalog Number: 9315
Doris Sommer For heritage speakers and advanced language students, Latino literature, in the forms of poetry, narrative, theater, and film, will be the focus of an in-depth review of grammar and style in Spanish, as well as the uses of Spanish alongside English language arts. A range of artists from Latin American origins will be featured, including those with ties to the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America. Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in Spanish. This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the Core area requirement for Literature and Arts A. Prerequisite: 700 on the SAT II test or on the Harvard Placement Test, Spanish 40 or permission of course head.
Catalog Number: 3129
Doris Sommer Through novels that helped to consolidate nation-states in Latin America, explores modernity as personal and public lessons in laissez-faire. Sequels in film, telenovelas, performances show tenacity of genre. Links between creativity and citizenship. Theorists include Anderson, Foucault, Arendt, Lukacs, Flaubert. Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in Spanish.
