q1
Natadecha-Sponsel talks about, in “Individualism as an American Cultural Value,” the role of communalism (e.g. focus on the group/community) as opposed to individualism. What do you see as the role of these two values in East Asia? And how do they compare to at least one of the other societies that we’ve talked about?
q2
Black Panther is about a futuristic society that avoided the calamities of European colonialism and thus, through control of their own resources and technological innovation, its people were able to thrive and far exceed the progress of other global societies. While this is fictional (a brand of storytelling called Afrofuturism), it reflects a way of considering the role of contingency in the past (e.g. how could things have been different).
Embracing this approach (but with a more historically-based approach), how might things have been different in Haiti if foreign countries had not insisted on intervening on a near-constant basis. You can use traditional narrative or tell a fictional story about the place that would exist.
q3
Assess the role of multi-culturalism in Europe. To what degree is European identity about ancestry and to what degree is it about belonging? Can people from e.g. former European colonies “be” European? Why or why not?
