Undergraduate Seminars
All Undergraduate Seminars are taught in English. No prerequisites are required.
Browse and search our Fall 2022 Undergraduate Seminars.
For more information on sections and schedules, view the Schedule of Classes.
82-250 Digital Realities: Introducing Immersive Technologies for Arts and Culture
As immersive and spatial media increasingly feature in our cultural life, innovators are needed who can blend technological skills with creative imagination and critical humanistic practice. This introductory course aims to enable hybrid technologists, media-makers, and…
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82-281 Pandemic Pop Cultures
Fulfills "Contextual Thinking" Gen Ed requirement.
Living through a global pandemic is new, challenging, and downright difficult. And yet, pandemics have existed for centuries. What might we gain from viewing our current reality through cultural and historical lenses that…
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82-282 Interpreting Global Texts & Cultures
Fulfills "Humanities" Gen Ed requirement.
Literature, film, music, art, theater, and other forms of humanistic artistic expressions, play an important role in society. Few moments in life are as moving as listening to the right song at the right time, and many of us can…
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82-283 Language Diversity & Cultural Identity
Fulfills "Intercultural & Global Inquiry" Gen Ed requirement.
Culture, language, and identity are intimately tied together. Individuals, families, communities, and nations identify themselves in relation to the language or languages they speak. Local, national, and…
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82-285 Podcasting: Language and Culture Through Storytelling
Do you love stories? Stories told on the radio have always had significant power. For example, the 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast by Orson Welles was so effective that it panicked the entire United States. Today, podcasts such as Serial, This American Life, and The Moth…
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82-286A Multiculturalism, Ethnic Diversity, and Debates about Them in Contemporary Europe
Section A of 82-286
Fulfills "Intercultural & Global Inquiry" Gen Ed requirement.
The heart of this course will explore ethnic and cultural diversity in contemporary Europe, especially Germany, but also France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Greece, the Scandinavian…
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82-286C 'Crazy' Linguistically Rich Asian Languages
Section C of 82-286
Fulfills "Intercultural & Global Inquiry" Gen Ed requirement.
In this course, students will gain an understanding of the linguistics of various East Asian languages. Students will learn how one’s own experiences, worldviews, society, and…
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82-286D Multicultural Japan
Section D of 82-286
Fulfills "Intercultural & Global Inquiry" Gen Ed requirement.
Students will examine multicultural situations in Japan, where foreign migrants, indigenous peoples, and hafu live and work with Japanese people, from historical, political, economic,…
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82-286E Perceptions of Culture and Identity
Section E of 82-286
Fulfills "Intercultural & Global Inquiry" Gen Ed requirement.
In the days when threats were constant, human beings needed to assess possible danger quickly. Today, before even speaking, our brain assesses and categorizes others. Needless to say,…
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82-383 Second Language Acquisition: Theories and Research
This course provides an introduction to research and theories in Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Processes that underlie the learning and use of second languages are examined from four perspectives: 1) as linguistic knowledge, 2) as a cognitive skill, 3) as a…
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82-388 Topics in Second Language Acquisition: Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Social Class in Second Language Learning
Second language learning (SLL) has been viewed primarily from a cognitive perspective to understand language acquisition. The course goes beyond those perspectives and investigates the ongoing collaborative construction and negotiation of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual,…
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82-480 Translation Technologies
This course is designed to give students conceptual and practical knowledge of language translation technologies, as well as applied skills for use with common Computer Assisted Translation (CAT) tools. Students will have the opportunity to work directly with CAT tools and…
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82-481 Translation Workshop I
This course examines the practice of applied translation in a variety of linguistic and cultural domains. We will explore key concepts such as relevance, equivalence, back-translation, and translation as a social transaction, and engage in the practical application of…
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82-482 Introduction to Translation
We will survey a number of different translation theories in order to understand the various approaches that are at our disposal when translating a text. All theory taught in class will be accompanied by hands-on translation projects that will give students the opportunity…
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82-483 Translation as a Profession I
We will learn from professionals in the field of translation. Every class will feature a guest speaker from the Pittsburgh area and beyond who will present his or her own educational background, experience in the field and current relation to the translation industry.…
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