Wine and cheese, baguettes and croissants, multiple courses and fresh ingredients straight from the market—these are the internationally recognized hallmarks of French food. Yet, even as the practices surrounding the mythical French table have been deemed worthy of a place on UNESCO’s World Heritage List since 2010, culinary traditions in France remain persistently rooted in legacies of colonialism that are invisible to many. In order to “decolonize” French food, this seminar turns to art, literature, and film, as well as archival documents such as advertisements, maps, and cookbooks. In what ways do writers and filmmakers use food to interrogate the human, environmental, and cultural toll that French colonialism has taken on the world? How do their references to food demonstrate the complex cultural creations, exchanges, and asymmetries that have arisen from legacies of colonialism?
We will interpret artworks, read literature (in English or in translation), and watch films (subtitled in English) that span the twentieth and twenty-first centuries by authors and directors from across the Francosphere—from Haiti, Guadeloupe, and Martinique in the Caribbean; to Mauritius in the Indian Ocean; from the Vietnamese diaspora in France, Canada, and the United States; to North, Central, and West Africa. Just as food can be examined from many angles, our discussions will focus on art, literature, and film, but also take into account perspectives from the fields of history, anthropology, and environmental studies. Moreover, we will employ the theoretical tools supplied by food studies, feminist and gender studies, critical race studies, and postcolonial studies.

This first year seminar presents African Americans who have created religious and spiritual lives amid the variety of possibilities for religious belonging in the second half of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first century. By engaging an emerging canon of memoirs, we will take seriously the writings of Black spiritual gurus, theologians, hip hop philosophers, religious laity, activists, LGBTQ clergy, religious minorities, and scholars of religion as foundational for considering contemporary religious authority through popular and/or institutional forms of African American religious leadership. Themes of spiritual formation and religious belonging as a process—healing, self-making, writing, growing up, renouncing, dreaming, and liberating—characterize the religious journeys of the African American writers, thinkers, and leaders whose works we will examine. Each weekly session will also incorporate relevant audiovisual religious media, including online exhibits, documentary films, recorded sermons, tv series, performance art, and music.

This first-year seminar examines the homelessness problem from a variety of scientific and policy perspectives. Contemporary homelessness differs significantly from related conditions of destitute poverty during other eras of our nation's history. Advocates, researchers and policymakers have all played key roles in defining the current problem, measuring its prevalence, and designing interventions to reduce it. The first section of this course examines the definitional and measurement issues, and how they affect our understanding of the scale and composition of the problem. Explanations for homelessness have also been varied, and the second part of the course focuses on examining the merits of some of those explanations, and in particular, the role of the affordable housing crisis. The third section of the course focuses on the dynamics of homelessness, combining evidence from ethnographic studies of how people become homeless and experience homelessness, with quantitative research on the patterns of entry and exit from the condition. The final section of the course turns to the approaches taken by policymakers and advocates to address the problem, and considers the efficacy and quandaries associated with various policy strategies. The course concludes by contemplating the future of homelessness research and public policy.

Consult the Africana Studies Department for instructions. Suite 331A, 3401 Walnut or visit the department's website at https://africana.sas.upenn.edu to submit an application.

Consult the Africana Studies Department for instructions. Suite 331A, 3401 Walnut or visit the department's website at https://africana.sas.upenn.edu to submit an application.

The objective of this course is to develop the proficiency level of the students in all the four skills by using different genres of Bengali literature (West Bengal and Bangladesh) s its course content. Reading comprehension will be enhanced as students learn to understand authentic texts at the linguistic and cultural level while discussion (description, narration, supporting opinion) on issues related to these texts aim to hone the oral and written skills. Studentswill be allowed to work on individual texts & topics(with the instructors permission)for their final project. This is a one semester course. Spring: Bengali Popular Culture- This course aims to use as its content, different aspects of popular Bengali culture as they are represented in media (film, television, magazines, newspapers) and arts (fashion, local and regional art, music). Students will be expected to develop their linguistic skills (description, narration, supporting opinion) and socio-cultural awareness while interacting with these varied types of texts. Students will be allowed to work on individual texts & topics (with the instructors permission) for their final project. This is a one semester course.

The objective of this course is to develop the proficiency level of the students in all the four skills by using different genres of Bengali literature (West Bengal and Bangladesh) s its course content. Reading comprehension will be enhanced as students learn to understand authentic texts at the linguistic and cultural level while discussion (description, narration, supporting opinion) on issues related to these texts aim to hone the oral and written skills. Studentswill be allowed to work on individual texts & topics(with the instructors permission)for their final project. This is a one semester course. Spring: Bengali Popular Culture- This course aims to use as its content, different aspects of popular Bengali culture as they are represented in media (film, television, magazines, newspapers) and arts (fashion, local and regional art, music). Students will be expected to develop their linguistic skills (description, narration, supporting opinion) and socio-cultural awareness while interacting with these varied types of texts. Students will be allowed to work on individual texts & topics (with the instructors permission) for their final project. This is a one semester course.

A study of the major literary works of modern and contemporary Spain. Course content may vary. Please see the department website for current course offerings: https://www.sas.upenn.edu/hispanic-portuguese-studies/undergraduate/hispanic-studies

The purpose of this course is twofold: (a) to develop students' communicative abilities in Spanish, that is, speaking, listening, reading and writing, and (b) to increase their awareness and understanding of Hispanic cultures and societies. Homework and classroom activities are designed to help students build their oral proficiency, expand and perfect their knowledge of vocabulary and grammatical structures, improve their reading and writing skills, and develop their critical thinking abilities. The material for this class includes short stories, newspaper articles, poems, songs, cartoons, video clips and a novel, such as Cesar Aira's La villa. At the completion of this course, students will feel confident discussing and debating a variety of contemporary issues (cultural and religious practices, family relationships, gender stereotypes, political events, immigration to the USA, etc.). Any questions about placement should be addressed to the Director of the Spanish Language Program.

This course is a fourth-semester language course that both reinforces and enhances the communicative skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) previously acquired while exploring the rich cultural mosaic of the Spanish-speaking world. Class activities are designed so that students can build up these four skills in order to function at an intermediate language level. Readings focused on contemporary social and political issues of the Hispanic world will advance your knowledge of Hispanic and cultural practices while increasing your intercultural competence. Unique to this course is the preparation of an oral presentation on a topic related to the Hispanic world throughout the semester and presented during the last days of classes. The purpose of this task is to help students develop their presentational competence in Spanish. Conducted entirely in Spanish, this class will provide students with ample opportunities to work in small groups and in pairs while gaining confidence communicating in Spanish. This course satisfies the language requirement at Penn. Goals: By the end of this course, students can expect to handle a variety of situations in a Spanish-speaking setting, such as: 1) Express their opinions on a variety of contemporary events and issues 2) Defend their position when presented with a hypothetical situation 3) Deliver short presentations on a chosen subject after thorough preparation 4) Demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of Hispanic cultural practices and products.