Now we’ve just finished the fifth week of classes and are quickly heading into midterms. As such, I think it’s a good time to reflect on how the course is going up to now. So far, I really enjoy this class and the discussion-based approach. As I’ve discussed with Olivia, our cohort has a very broad range of interests, backgrounds, and approaches regarding politics, international relations, history, and culture. Thus when we all come together for class we have a wealth of knowledge to pull from, resulting in unique and lively discussions. I’m always so impressed with how passionate my classmates are, and listening to them talk about subjects that they’re particularly interested in or knowledgeable about motivates me to read more and become a more informed person.
My own interests and background is strongly rooted in East Asian culture, history, and politics, and this semester I’m taking two other classes about international studies: 21st Century Silk Road and Chinese Politics. As a result, a lot of my contributions to class are centered around Chinese examples. While I do really enjoy discussing China, moving forward, I want to do more personal reading about other parts of the world such as Europe and Africa. This would allow me to compare and contrast (and thus more fully understand) China and the U.S.’s political systems and philosophies within a more holistic world context. I want to learn more about past political systems and philosophies and how they interact to create the various ideologies and understandings we have today. I also want to learn more about economics and better understand how wealth affects power and political systems. Sometimes in class I feel behind because I lack the same in-depth understanding on certain topics as other classmates, and this makes me nervous to speak because I feel like I can’t contribute at the same level. I hope that as I read and listen more I’ll be able to really form my own independent and educated opinions. I’ve also taken a couple classes on racism and income inequality in America, and this, as well as my status as an immigrant woman of color, definitely colors the way that I analyze texts and situations for this class. In our recent readings of Machiavelli and Locke especially we’ve specifically explored “societal ideas” about what the purpose of society and government is, who has power and who doesn’t, who benefits in society and who is sacrificed, and defining what is acceptable in society and what is not. From my experiences living with several marginalized identities and through previous courses taken, I think it’s incredibly important to always be critical. Who is really included when politicians or philosophers use the words “we”, “the people”, “society”, etc.? Who is not included? How does this further promote existing inequalities? How do these historic philosophical inequalities affect lived-in inequality now? What is “truth” (especially regarding morality), how do we define it, and how do we decide how to define it? In class I really like to take advantage of the diversity and pose these questions and maybe get people to think about things that are normally taken for granted. I also think that the first discussion we had about Awiti when we spent over half the class period discussing how we should discuss Awiti, set a really great tone for promoting constant question and discussion of things that seem obvious. All in all, I’m really enjoying this class and I look forward to continued growth throughout the rest of the semester!
0 Comments
|
KateHi, I'm Kate! I'm from Madison, WI and am planning on majoring in SIS focusing on East-Asia China. I like practicing kung fu, listening to music, and drinking bubble tea. Archives
December 2018
Categories
All
|