Welcome
As usual, we’ll start by checking in!
Mid-term discussion
There’s time to talk about the mid-term essays, if we need to! I’ve had a chance to look through some of the papers that you have discovered, and there are some good materials there. Do read through the discussion board yourself for
Make notes for 5 minutes on the following:
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How confident are you in the essay (from 1 to 5, where 5 is very confident)
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What questions do you have, or what are you not sure about?
On Nations and Nationalism
Our next section of this course is on nations and nationalism. So in the next session, we will be exploring Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities. It’s an extraordinary work that explores the growth of the idea of the nation state, the omnipresence of nationalism, and the sheer weirdness of this idea.
The reading for next time will be the preface and introduction to the book (on Perlego: https://ereader.perlego.com/1/book/731064). But today, we’ll do some groundwork.
What is a Nation?
We think that a nation is a natural entity, but it is anything but. And yet, it seems that people in different places are different, in all kinds of ways. So I’m going to give you a task to start off with. I’m going to share an image of a map. What I want you to do is make a copy of the map on paper, or download the map if you can annotate it digitally.
Then I want you to annotate the map according to the following question: where are the natural divisions between different peoples?
Building a Nation
What does a nation need to be a nation? Passports, perhaps. A government. A flag? A national song? A constitution? A motto? A national dish? A national dance? Particular gender roles or family design? A language policy? A school system? A national myth or founding story? A form of government?
In the second half of this class, you are going to build a nation in breakout groups. Think about the kind of nation that you want to live in. What would its national song be? Its flat? Its constitution? Its form of government. You’ll have quite a long time to do this, and then we’ll share to finish the class./
Homework
For your homework, read Benedict Anderson, and share your thoughts on the discussion board.