Course Reflection
Wow! That was fast. The course went by rapidly but I have taken so much from these couple of months. For one, I admire that we can speak about current global issues. It's interesting when you can tie it back to what is happening and place yourself in perspective as to how it will effect or impact you and the world around you. I have learned about the significance and perception of ethnicity, nationalism and of race as concepts and modes of establishing or of manipulating identity and of organizing social life in non-Western societies. The most simple yet satisfying is learning about how everyday symbols such as flags and coins can date back to so much politics and history that continue to shape the world we live in today. I appreciate that the professor made it possible to gain participation marks through doing what was expected of us; our reading. It's the cherry on top for those who were already reading and a motivation for others.
Speaking of participation, I also like that the professor walked around for answers and opinions during lecture. I am shy and tend to hold back but that gave me the opportunity to shout out answers, comment and ask questions. From this, I learned about other classmates opinions and received a more in-depth perspective from the professor about the topics being discussed.
The power points were very visual and I can appreciate that as a visual learner. I took so much information from the photos which depicted nationalism; such as national symbols in flags, stamps e.t.c. The different photos that illustrated the history of race; such as black face. Tourism ads and commercial which use monument and historical figures to attract using captive words and nomadic groups from that part of the world.
The guest speaker we had come in the class taught a lot about my own country of birth in terms of its history; how they were impacted and continue to be by colonialism; how Indians and Arabia influenced east Africa. The relationship between the different people including the titles, and treatments from their own people and outsiders.
The movies we watched in class were very interesting often leading me to search more about the topics and concepts in further details. The movie refuges and neighbors who practice 2 different faiths are very apparent in today’s society as we see them in the news thus I have learned political history tends to repeat its self and never fully vanishes.
The blog was one of my absolute favorite aspects about this course because it allowed me to express personal contents in relation to the course. Again, I am shy and the class is only a couple hours making it difficult for all of us to state about opinion but the blogs gave us a platform to do just that; show/ comment on what we have taken from each lecture and continue the class outside.
I highly recommend this course to everyone; I'm not an anthropology major myself but, I enjoyed it every bit.
