THE CONSTRUCTED SELF: ME, US, AND THEMThis interdisciplinary year-long course is designed to examine the ways in which we as individuals, as human beings and as social/cultural groups, create and communicate a sense of identity. Each quarter we will examine a different aspect of “The Constructed Self.” The first quarter we will interrogate the various factors that go into the development of individual identity in this American culture such as gender, race, and class. During the winter quarter we will explore what it means to be human, particularly the scientific narratives that have been posited to account for our humanness. In the spring we will examine the interface between “us” and “them” as it is played out in national identity, and in national and international conflicts. Through reading fiction, viewing films and television programs, reading case studies, and doing field research we will explore the many complex “faces” of identity. Drawing on artwork, books, media and original projects you will have a wide range of outlets through which to experience and articulate your own questions and ideas, as well as those of others, as we examine individual and collective identities.
Faculty Becky Boesch has taught in University Studies since its inception in 1993 and has a wide range of experience teaching in Freshman Inquiry, Sophomore Inquiry and Transfer Transition. Her disciplinary background encompasses American and English literature, applied linguistics, and postsecondary education with a specific focus on immigrant literature and issues surrounding immigration and immigrants in higher education. Becky grew up in South Dakota and is herself a child of an immigrant. She also has a strong environmental ethic and during her free time, she can be found hiking, camping, wildlife viewing and gardening. Dr. Marion “Paul” Latiolais is Professor of Mathematics at Portland State University. He was one of the creators of Portland State's ground-breaking University Studies program. Part of his teaching has continued to include courses in that program. His current research includes: faculty attitudes toward teaching, mathematical literacy at the undergraduate level at PSU and identifying strategies to help undergraduate students overcome mathematical anxiety. His “faculty attitudes” research, in collaboration with Barbara Holland and John Braxton, is focused on how faculty are affected by innovation. This research is a continuation of seven years of published work on Dr. Latiolais’ experiences in change in higher education. Ma-Ji (Christine) Rhee received her Ed.D. in education focusing on a comparison of knowledge formation in Japan, Korea, and the United States from Rutgers University. Prof. Rhee's writing and research specialty are divided into three areas: the languages of the two Koreas, romantic condition in contemporary Japanese literature, and gender and knowledge in Japan and Korea. She teaches courses in Korean and Japanese languages, and participates in courses taught in the International Studies Program. Professor Rhee's recent publications include The Doomed Empire: Japan in Colonial Korea (Ashgate, 1997) and Gender and the Law (Asian Cultural Studies, v.25, 1999). She has served as a director of the Oregon-Japan Study Program at Waseda University located in Tokyo, Japan. She is currently serving as a research member of the Korean Unification Council where she regularly contributes her writing on Japan, South Korea and North Korea. Lindsay Wilkinson |
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