No civilization is superior to others. Diversity is the beauty of this multicivilizational world. Confucius says all the people are brothers. All civilizations should coexist peacefully and learn from each other. The history of the west is full of glories but there are dark pages too. Let's start from ancient Greece. It will be a long journey of WOWs.
In the ancient times, all civilizations thought they are the center of the world, their race and culture are superior to others and all others are barbarians. This attitude is natural and understandable during that time. However, as the contacts and communication between civilizations have become more extensive and deeper this attitude became foolish. If one civilization uses this attitude of superiority as an excuse to conquer and convert others that will be disastrous, western colonization in the past is a horrible example.
1. PROFESSOR
Professor Liu, Junyang
Vice dean of the Department of Culture & Communication
University of International Relations, Beijing, China
Visiting scholar at Marietta College, U.S. and Aalborg University, Denmark
Teaching 3 other courses in English: Chinese Traditional Culture and Philosophy, Soft Power and Clash of Civilizations, and American Culture.
Teaching Assistant：Zhang, Lingzhi, graduate student, classs of 2022
Department of Culture & Communication, University of International Relations.
3. COURSE INTRODUCTION
It is an introduction of the History of Western Civilization before the 19th century. Students are required to apply Critical Thinking to explore the development, characteristics, achievements and dark sides of the Western Civilization.
It is a massive open online course taught in English, open to all university students and anyone interested in it across the world. It can be a general course for all majors or a specialized course for liberal arts majors.
3. REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING
(1) Lenth of study: 16 weeks. It requires 10 hours of study per week. The video is 638 minutes long, consists of 8 chapters and each chapter has 5 sections.
(2) Required Exercises: 2 single choice questions and 3 right/wrong questions in each section. Each week has 2 discussion topics. Please finish them on time.
(3) Optional Exercises: 5 keywords in each section and 3 questions in each chapter. It doesn't count as a grade and doesn't require to be done online.
(4) The Final Exam has 50 questions, 2 points for each and 100 points in total, including 20 single choice questions, 20 right/wrong questions and 10 fill-in-the-blank questions. The repetition rate of the final exam questions and section exercises is 30%.
4. TEACHING IN ENGLISH
If you're not a native English speaker, this class maybe a little bit challenging. But what we are doing in the university? It is to face and overcome all the challenges. I suggest before watching the video you should read the text which is the transcription.
I am not teaching English, I am teaching in English. I used to work as an English interpreter and an English speaking tour guide. I used to live in Europe and U.S. as visiting scholar. English has been my working language for 30 years. From my learning, teaching and working experiences, I found many students have the same problem I called it Walking Stick Dependency Syndrome. Learning English, most students can reach the intermediate level, but going further seems very difficult. Selinker’s Interlanguage theory called this phenomenon fossilization which means the progress of learning stopped and fossilized like dinosaurs. Interlanguage means your English is not pure English but a mixture of your native language and English. Our brain has enough room for two languages stored and operate separately. Computer and cell phone can work in your native language or English but never bilingually. By the way, maybe you can try to change the working language of your phone and computer into English. Believe me that will be fun. You can’t always rely on your native language to help your English. Walking Stick is your native language. If you are strong enough you don’t need a stick to walk. Get rid of it. Don’t say your English isn’t good enough to take this class. No, I don’t think so. Your English is good enough because you have been learning English for so many years and you are university students now. Your English is good enough.
The purpose to learn a second language is to use it to broaden our horizon. If you have been learning English for more than 10 years, it is shameful to read English books in the translation of your native language. You should have the ability to read, to think, to search online, and to find sources in English.
5. TEACHING SCHEDULE
Altogether 8 chapter, each chapter needs two weeks.
Week 1-2. Chapter One: Early Greece
1.0. Introduction
1.1. Greek Bronze Age and Dark Age
1.2. Greek Gods
1.3. Archaic Greece
1.4. Athens and the Persian Wars
Week 3-4. Chapter 2: Classical and Hellenistic Greece
2.1. War and Politics in the Fifth Century BC
2.2. Greece in the Fourth Century BC
2.3. Classical Greek Philosophy
2.4. Athenian Drama
2.5. Alexander the Great and Hellenistic World
Week 5-6. Chapter 3: Ancient Roman Civilization 1
3.1. Roman Kingdom
3.2. Early Republic
3.3. Mid-Republic
3.4. Late-Republic
3.5. End of the Republic
Week 7-8. Chapter 4: Ancient Roman Civilization 2
4.1. Pax Romana 1
4.2. Pax Romana 2
4.3. Crisis of the Third Century and Constantine
4.4. The Victory of Christianity
4.5. The Fall of the Roman Empire
Week 9-10. Chapter 5: Middle Ages
5.1. Early Middle Ages
5.2. Carolingian Dynasty
5.3. High Middle Ages
5.4. Late Middle Ages1
5.5. Late Middle Ages2
Week 11-12. Chapter 6: Renaissance and Reformation
6.1. The Renaissance
6.2. Protestant Reformation
6.3. Italian Wars and Rise of Russia
6.4. Age of Discovery
6.5. French War of Religion and Russia’s Time of Trouble
Week 13-14. Chapter 7: West in the Seventeenth Century
7.1. The Thirty Years War
7.2. English Revolution
7.3. Three Absolute Monarchs
7.4. Dutch Golden Age
7.5. Science and Culture in the 17th Century
Week 15-16. Chapter 8: West in the Eighteenth Century
8.1. The United Kingdom
8.2. The American Revolution
8.3. The French Revolution
8.4. Age of Enlightenment
8.5. West in the 19th and 20th Century
