Cultures of Indonesia
setas available!

The integrating seminar of this FIG is LCA 300, "Indonesian Cultures," a course that takes an interdisciplinary perspective exploring the diversity of social, cultural, religious, and literary traditions in contemporary Indonesia. The seminar will use stories, plays, films, and essays to introduce the cultural diversity of the fourth most populous nation of the world and the most populous Islamic nation. The second course, History 244, "An Introduction to Southeast Asia," expands on a number of themes introduced in LCA 300 setting Indonesia into a Southeast Asian historical context. Some of the themes connecting these two courses are the roles of ethnicity, language, and gender in contemporary society; the significance of religious communities; the impact of, and responses to, colonial rule; and the nature of post-colonial societies. The third course LCA 309, "First Semester Indonesian," offers an introduction to Indonesian language using the communicative approach that integrates class activities and cultural knowledge in a student-centered classroom. Students will be given opportunities to meet the Indonesian community in Madison learning first-hand about the language and culture of Indonesia. The Indonesian language is written in Roman script and has no tones; it is in the Malayo-Polynesian language family that stretches from Hawaii to Madagascar and includes most of the Pacific island languages.