Courses & Syllabus - Vietnam
Encountering Vietnam ~ 2010
Course and Syllabus
A five-week, intensive program, Encountering Vietnam involves four kinds of activities: (1) travel to sites around Hue as well as to Hanoi, the DMZ and the Hoi-An Danang Area; (2) morning lectures Mon-Thurs on Vietnamese history and travel writing; (3) language tutorials from beginner to advanced levels; and (4) a local internship. These activities are then grouped into two class-oriented goals. For HIST 189 "Encountering Vietnam," the primary emphasis will be on lectures and a careful reading of texts. Instead of a final or midterm, students will take exams at the end of each week based on the lectures and readings. They will also be expected to write brief in-class assignments and participate in the language tutorials (no prior Vietnamese is required). For HIST 190, the primary emphasis is on active research and presentation. Each participant in the program is paired up with a senior student at Hue University specializing in English language and interpretation. As locals from the region, the Hue students act as guides and interpreters as well as co-researchers. You will spend two afternoons per week during the program working either (1) as a research assistant conducting oral history surveys in a study area near downtown Hue on the effects of the Vietnam War or (2) pursue an individual study project that may involve volunteering at community organizations or studying a traditional art such as cooking or martial arts. Past internships have included studies of youth sports, volunteering at orphanages, shadowing physicians in medical facilities, learning to cook Hue's famous regional cuisine, studying local art and artisanal traditions, and interning at historic museums and foundations in the city. Internships will be pre-arranged in consultation with each participating student on the Program. The goal of HIST 190 is to get students outside the classroom and into active learning environments. For those who participate in the oral history project, you will gain firsthand experience in an ongoing, multi-partner historical research project with an eventual goal of publishing results in books and articles. For those who follow the second option, you will explore some aspect of life in Vietnam far off the beaten tourist paths.
While Encountering Vietnam is an intensive summer program, it is also intensely fun! Classroom activities are limited to Monday through Thursday from 8-11am. On the weekends, we take two trips, one to the Hoi An area and another to Hanoi. There are several city tours worked into the Mon-Thurs schedule, a day trip to the former de-militarized zone (DMZ) in week four, and periodic evening events. Students also live within the historic imperial city, just a short walk away from the Imperial Palace and many World Heritage sites.
"Encountering Vietnam" consists of two courses: History 189 (Cross-listed with VNM 189) or 290, which is worth five units, and History 190/299, worth three units.
Encountering Vietnam (5 units) HIST 189/VNM 189 or HIST 290 for graduate students: Course Syllabus
Lecture, 3 hours per week (group activity) Tutorial, 3 hours per week (individual activity) Clinic, 3 hours per week (individual activity) Prerequisite(s): upper-division standing OR faculty approval. Freshmen and sophomores with good academic records are encouraged to apply. Course offered only in Vietnam. Lectures and readings focus on the literary and historical imagination as transmitted through historic travel accounts, ship's logs, journals and travel fiction. Students attend regular lectures, read historic texts (in English), and take exams on this material. On-location, students each participate in a travel-writing project involving scheduled language tutorials and participation in a service learning project with a local institution. No prior knowledge of Vietnamese required. Grading in this course is based on performance on exams as well as a final written project and oral presentation. Students must attend all scheduled lectures and tutorials, and they will be expected to spend at least two visits per week at the site of their service learning project.
Special Studies Travel-Writing Project (3 units) HIST 190/299:
This course is meant to complement HIST 189/VNM 189, this course covers additional time spent on internships and/or language study. Students will be graded for this course primarily on a travel narrative that besides relating a "travel experience" considers such issues as translation, cultural interpretation, and how history influences cross-cultural perceptions. Each student will work in collaboration with a Vietnamese student volunteer in developing a project that involves twice-weekly visits to a service-learning internship, twice weekly language tutorials, and write-up and presentation of the travel narrative. The use of images, film, or performance is strongly encouraged to augment or enhance (but not replace) the written work. References to literature covered in VNM 189 are strongly encouraged as well as references to materials found locally. Students may also opt for more intensive language study with intensive study of Vietnamese texts and additional hours of language tutorial in lieu of intensive internships.
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