AC2305 (SL) The Art of Hebrew Cantillation (Spring) (3 undergraduate credits)

This course introduces students to the Hebrew trope marks used to identify accented syllables, pauses and phrasing, punctuation, and the application of cantillation melodies for public reading of the Torah.

AC3305 (SL) Foundations of Torah (Spring) (3 undergraduate credits)

This course relates study of the first five books of the Bible to the traditional Jewish lectionary cycle. Weekly portion names serve to organize the narrative storyline of Genesis-Deuteronomy so that today’s readers may join the ancient conversation of the wider global community.

AC4311-OL Communication and Service in Muslim Contexts (Online) (Spring) (3 undergraduate credits)

In light of scriptural and anthropological principles, this course explores the nature, dynamics, scope, challenges, and approaches in appropriate and effective service in Muslim contexts.

AL4304-OL Introduction to Language Structure (Spring/Fall) (3 undergraduate credits)

This course provides a basic introduction to language sounds and structures. It will enhance students’ ability to learn another language as they use natural language data to discover and analyze word and sentence formation in a variety of different languages. Students will also have the opportunity to identify, pronounce, and transcribe the most common sounds found in the world’s languages.

Note: This course serves as a prerequisite for AA4505 in lieu of AL4302 and AL4410, but not as a prerequisite for any AL course.

AL4498-SL Intermediate ASL Conversation (May) (4 undergraduate credits)

An intensive program of study dedicated to preparing individuals to interact in a positive and supportive manner with members of the American and international Deaf Community.
Strengthening expressive and receptive skills in American Sign Language (ASL) through Deaf culturally-appropriate signed conversations, stories, and interactive activities. Special focus on using classifier constructions, facial grammar, motion modifications, fingerspelling, turn-taking, and narrations. Exposure to sign languages from other countries and international signing. Intended especially for students planning to take courses offered by DIU that use ASL as the classroom language of instruction, and for those planning to work professionally alongside Deaf people in the USA and other countries.

Note: This is an intensive course requiring full-time participation for 4+ weeks; students should not plan to work or have other commitments during the term.

IS1321 (SL) Introduction to Ethnopsychology (Fall) (3 undergraduate credits)

At our core, do all individuals think, feel, and behave in the same ways? How do psychology and culture interact? In this course, we will look at several major concepts in traditional psychology and consider the extent to which they may apply across cultures.

IS1341 (SL) Introduction to Writing (Fall) (3 undergraduate credits)

This course introduces students to the mechanics of writing clear and coherent essays and presenting them orally. Special attention is given to the process of planning, writing, and revising. Students read a variety of texts from different genres in order to expose them to the rich possibilities of English prose.

IS1363 Introduction to Health & First Aid Practices (TBA) (3 undergraduate credits)

Every person needs basic knowledge on factors affecting their personal health. This course teaches students to evaluate significant topics in their own health paradigm. Students are introduced to key principles of First Aid, the sequence of steps to respond to emergencies, and the steps for patient assessment. Key aspects of CPR are learned along with wound care, musculoskeletal injuries, and first aid for poisoning, bites, and stings. Attention is given to first aid for injuries in remote locations.

IS2322 (SL) Psychology of Suffering and Resilience (Spring) (3 undergraduate credits)

Grief and trauma are part of the human condition.  In this course, students will study the psychological impact of suffering and begin to develop their own personal theology of suffering.  They will also discuss the importance of resilience as a building block of successful cross-cultural service.

IS2331 (SL) Introduction to Political and Economic Systems (Fall) (3 undergraduate credits)

Throughout history, societies have organized themselves into a variety of political and economic systems. Those who work cross-culturally may live and interact within a political or economic system different than one to which they are accustomed. This course introduces the student to basic political and economic ideas and systems, with the goal of equipping the student to understand them better and to operate more effectively within them.

IS2341 (SL) Logic, Critical Thinking and Rhetoric (Fall) (3 undergraduate credits)

Learning valid forms of arguments, standard fallacies, how to draw inferences, and how to arrange arguments are crucial skills for thinking critically and communicating effectively about any issue. This course will teach students how to think well, how to understand and critique arguments using the basic elements of logic, and how to arrange ideas effectively.

IS3356 (SL) Introduction to Orality and Storying (Spring) (3 undergraduate credits)

Craft and tell culturally appropriate stories!

IS4646 (SL) Chinese 2 & 3 (Spring) (6 undergraduate credits)

Building on the foundations laid in Chinese 1 and 2, students will achieve a basic level of competence in conversation and reading and be able to write short compositions.

WA3350-IN Conference Course on World Arts (Summer/TBA) (3 undergraduate credits)

Global gatherings with a focus on world arts and cross-cultural work provide an outstanding opportunity for connecting with new resources, new practitioners and scholars in the field, and new ideas to invigorate service. In this course, students will leverage their attendance at a conference into a learning experience, interacting with a community of fellow students as they begin to develop their abilities and plans for working with communities.

AA5115 Tropical Crops in Small-Scale Agriculture (Year-term) (1 graduate credit)

This course introduces students to horticultural and agronomic crops they should be familiar with in serving small-scale farmers in the tropics and subtropics. It exposes students to categories of crops including annual and perennial vegetables, fruits, multipurpose trees, and green manure/cover crops. Information is taught in sufficient detail to help students match crops to tropical climates and equip them with practical skills in growing important tropical food plants.

AA5130 Tropical Agriculture Systems (Year-term) (1 graduate credit)

This course investigates sustainable tropical agricultural systems utilized around the world. The course will cover the biophysical and social-economic attributes of these systems, which are practiced by small-scale farmers. The course examines the crops and animals that are part of farming systems but also introduces students to a systems analysis where problems, causes of problems, interventions to resolve these problems, and the consequences of the interventions are investigated. The students will learn about specific systems through lecture and visiting systems both on ECHO’s Global Demonstration Farm and through field trips. Each student will prepare a presentation on a specific tropical agricultural system designated by the instructor and gain hands-on experience with the system that is assigned on the ECHO Global Demonstration and Research Farm during lab time.

AA5145 Community Development (Year-term) (1 graduate credit)

This course is an overview of community development. Students will learn principles and practices for holistic development. The focus will primarily be on international community development and for those working in agriculture development. Theories of knowledge transfer and communication will be emphasized alongside respect for community participants. Students will be exposed to various tools that may be useful when interacting with agricultural communities and will come away equipped to address opportunities and challenges of working in agricultural communities.

AA5150-OL Special Topics in Tropical Agricultural Development (Spring) (1 graduate credit)

TBA

AA5160 Small-Scale Agricultural Experimentation (Year-term) (1 graduate credit)

This course will provide students an overview and the basic skills of agricultural experimentation. Students will learn examples of how experimentation has benefited smallholder farmers around the world. The course will specifically focus on the context of applied experiments for small-scale farmers. The students will be able to implement small-scale experimental designs and research common questions that face agricultural practitioners in the tropics.

AA5201 Fundamentals of Tropical Agriculture (Year-term) (2 graduate credits)

This course covers principles and practices that are fundamental to small-scale tropical agriculture.
Course content focuses mainly on crop production within systems. It covers basic requirements of
successful cropping including quality seed, adequate water, healthy soil, and productive plants.
Students will gain hands-on experience in meeting these requirements. Woven throughout the
course will be instruction on factors such as climate, cost, resource availability, and level of risk that
guide farmers’ management decisions and adoption of practices. Thus, students will be equipped
with foundational knowledge and skills to grow food in ways that are appropriate to farmers’
growing conditions and needs.

Note: This course is taught in Florida at the ECHO Global Demonstration and Research Farm.

AA5370 (SL) Advanced Anthropology (Fall) (3 graduate credits)

This course provides students with both a breadth of instruction and focus of specific data analysis applicable to research and applied work across all subdisciplines in anthropology. Students will learn organize, classify, analyze and interpret anthropological data.

AC5398 (SL) Culture & Community (Summer) (3 graduate credits)

This course is designed to enable each participant to reflect on their own faith and its expression as well as reflect on what it means to interact in transformational ways with members of other faiths. Drawing from the fields of philosophy, history, communication, anthropology, and religious studies, course participants will explore how to be internally life-giving to those within their own communities of faith and outwardly be ongoing, multidimensional, dynamic, divine-image bearers.

AC5398-SL Seminar in Abrahamic Studies - Culture and Community: Global and Local Visions for Communities of Faith (Summer) (3 graduate credits)

Note: This course will only be offered in the 2021 Summer Term.

This course is designed to enable each participant to reflect on their own faith and its expression as well as reflect on what it means to interact in transformational ways with members of other faiths. Drawing from the fields of philosophy, history, communication, anthropology, and religious studies, course participants will explore how to be internally life-giving to those within their own communities of faith and outwardly be ongoing, multidimensional, dynamic, divine-image bearers.

View or download the PDF advertisement for this course.

This course is listed as AC5398-SL Culture and Community in the 2021 Summer Term course schedule and on Campus Café. 

AL5106 (SL) Digital Technology for Sign Language Research (Summer) (1 graduate credit)

This course introduces specialized hardware and software tools for researching sign languages, including recording, documenting, analyzing, and presenting textual, grammatical and lexical data. This course is taught in American Sign Language and written English.

AL5301 (SL) Morphosyntax (Spring/Fall) (3 graduate credits)

This course (in development) introduces students to techniques for analyzing and describing
morphological and syntactic issues in natural languages. By working through numerous practical
exercises from a large variety of languages, students gain confidence in their ability to determine
word classes and allomorphy and to deal with inflectional and derivational morphology. Students
also learn to analyze different types of phrases, clauses, and sentences. This course serves as
foundational for several graduate linguistics courses.

AL5303 (SL) Foundations of Translation (Spring/Fall/TBA) (3 graduate credits)

Students develop an understanding of translation through history, including changing perspectives about translation through different epochs. Students compare and contrast translation theories and practices by exploring key theorists.

AL5305 (SL) Principles of Sign Language Phonology (Summer) (3 graduate credits)

This course introduces universal trends in sign language phonology and how the basic phonetic elements in a natural sign language function together in the language’s phonological system. It provides practice in applying various theoretical frameworks to analysis of specific sign languages. It considers the interaction between phonology and morphology. This course is taught in American Sign Language and written English.

AL5310 (SL) Advanced Sign Language Grammatical Analysis (Summer) (3 graduate credits)

This course focuses on morphological and syntactic properties that are characteristic of sign languages and which distinguish them from spoken languages. These include: glossing conventions, grammaticalization of space (including deixis and agreement), verb classes, borrowing (particularly fingerspelling and mouthing), nonlinear morphology, classifiers, and nonmanual markers. Students will be taught the principles of analysis of such features, including glossing conventions, theoretical frameworks, analytical procedures, and appropriate means for presenting grammatical analysis. This course is taught in American Sign Language and written English.

AL5331 (SL) Translation Advising (Spring) (3 graduate credits)

Students apply linguistic and translation knowledge to translation tasks in a non-western language. They will increase their abilities to identify and solve translation problems, and to evaluate translations in light of the linguistic norms of the target language. Students will also gain experience training and mentoring a native speaker of the target language by doing translation alongside them. This course provides students with interpersonal and intercultural training that will help them develop facilitation skills.

WA5350-IN Conference Course on World Arts (Summer/TBA) (3 graduate credits)

Global gatherings with a focus on world arts and cross-cultural work provide an outstanding opportunity for connecting with new resources, new practitioners and scholars in the field, and new ideas to invigorate service. In this course, students will leverage their attendance at a conference into a focused learning experience, interacting with a community of fellow students as they hone their abilities and plans for working with communities.

WA6370-IN Multidisciplinary Perspectives on World Arts (Fall) (3 graduate credits)

This course looks at World Arts through five lenses: scriptural foundations guiding arts engagement; cultural analysis for valuing the complexity of artistic expression in multi-cultural and diaspora settings; historical perspectives demonstrating how artistic traditions have responded to power, politics, resources, and agency; missiological reflection on communication models employed by faith communities exhibiting creative embrace of the arts; and liturgical implications of this study for integrating arts in the church’s worship.

WA6380-IN Advanced Theory of Ethnodoxology (MayExt) (3 graduate credits)

This course explores the biblical, historical, theological, and cultural principles of ethnodoxology for cross-cultural workers, community leaders, worship facilitators, and academic leaders. Students are prepared to analyze current ethnodoxological trends and perform original research, thereby expanding the boundaries of this emerging discipline.

This course requires a 2-week INTENSIVE on campus during the May-Extended period.

WA6381-IN Cross-cultural Education Methods (Intensive) (MayExt) (3 graduate credits)

Training people in the principles of world arts, whether in primarily monocultural or cross-cultural contexts, requires an understanding of effective teaching methods. In this course, students will explore the theories, methodologies, and philosophies of effective community arts engagement models. They will learn how to apply ethnographic research methods to demonstrate how teaching and learning can be adapted for particular social contexts.

This course requires a 2-week INTENSIVE on campus during the May-Extended period.

WA6385-OL World Arts & Religious Expression (Fall) (3 graduate credits)

Religious faith is expressed through language and artistic communication. In this course, students will investigate some of the major themes in the interaction between religion and the arts. They will then look at a selection of case studies of religious traditions and their use of artistic communication genres. Having looked at the use of music, visual art, drama, dance, oral verbal arts, and other arts domains as applied by practitioners of various religious traditions, students will then investigate the use of the arts in the religious life of their chosen research communities.

Note: This course requires access to an internet connection capable of supporting Zoom class meetings that will be scheduled around students’ availability.

WA6387-OL Area Studies for World Arts (Fall) (3 graduate credits)

The focus of this class is the artistic genres in evidence within the student’s chosen research communities. Students will be mentored through a process of discovery, organization, and analysis, emerging with a more comprehensive picture of the artistic activities and their formal characteristics within a community or region. This process will result in the formulation or refining of a dissertation research question.

Note: This course requires access to an internet connection capable of supporting Zoom class meetings that will be scheduled around students’ availability.

WA6389-OL Advanced Artistic Form Analysis (Spring) (3 graduate credits)

This course will guide the student through rigorous investigation of an artistic tradition, exploring the distinctive features of the tradition through ethnographic and form analysis. By engaging in analytical methods appropriate to the chosen art form, students will produce an ethnographically grounded analysis of a corpus of works from that artistic tradition, expanding the currently available knowledge about that tradition.

Note: This course requires access to an internet connection capable of supporting Zoom class meetings that will be scheduled around students’ availability.

WA6390-OL Research & Communication for World Arts (Spring) (3 graduate credits)

Scholarship demands clear planning and structure for research projects, along with effective writing and communication skills. Students in this class will hone their abilities in designing good research topics, questions, and data-gathering strategies. They will also learn to write with greater precision and clarity, making an in-depth study of style and usage in English through selected readings and rigorous practice and coaching. Through this study, students will gain skills in communicating with a wide range of audiences, furthering the contribution their research makes.

Note: This course requires access to an internet connection capable of supporting Zoom class meetings that will be scheduled around students’ availability.