Persian 405 course will enable you to cultivate critical reading skills for accessing, understanding, and analyzing Persian-language media. I use the term “media” broadly to include content produced in the mainstream press, broadcast media, periodicals, commercial advertisement, political propaganda, and also social media. We will engage the Persian-language media not only from Iran, but also from Afghanistan and their global growing diasporas. You will be assessed based on your comprehension and production of language, and not your analysis of media.
Why Is This Course Good for Your Life?
Gaining media literacy in another language is an exercise in decentering the self, seeing the other in light of different modes of representation, and placing our own national debates in a comparative and more global context. It is much easier to demand unquestioned devotion to nativist ideas from a society that is monolingual, and more importantly, a society that is media illiterate. It is vital for any healthy democracy to be regularly nourished by linguistically and politically diverse points of view. Persian 405 will help you develop the linguistic tools and cultural proficiency necessary to better understand one of the more active media languages in the world today.