This is the on-line documentation Ithaca College's Sociology 312 class. In June of 2009 we will travel as a group together to the Dominican Republic to learn about contemporary and historical political and economic processes. We will combine our semester of class instruction with field study in a three week program in which both Ithaca College and Cornell University students may take part in.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Spring 2009 Welcome!
Hello and welcome to the 2009 class, Sociology 312: Culture and Society, at Ithaca College.
We’ve talked a lot about the enduring impacts that colonialism has had on Dominican culture, political dialogue, and economy. For example, we’ve mentioned that anti-Haitian sentiments could have roots in colonial definitions of race and in the historical socioeconomic divide of the island and its peoples. My first topic, then, is about Christianity in the Dominican Republic and whether this sociological lens of post-colonial interrelations applies to a religion that was so intrinsic in the colonial process. The topic of religion in a colonized country interests me because it may reveal a cultural perspective to what I see as a prominently economic relationship. How, if at all, does a society assimilate to the inevitable influence and flow of new ideas, methods of understanding, and dogmas associated with the opening of one’s markets and national economy? Do Dominicans feel any connection between their faith and their often brutal and oppressive history of colonization? My second topic is the western “development project” and its affects on the Dominican Republic, specifically in regards to the impacts of U.S. foreign aid and the relatively nonpartisan, cross-party alignment with the U.S and its economic policies. What has been the role of U.S. aid and the possible policy “guidelines” that are inherited upon receiving such aid? How has U.S. aid affected the historically omniscient military presence in the Dominican Republic? What relationship could U.S. and other western financial institutions like the World Bank and IMF have with the labor divide among Haitians and Dominicans?
Malcolm Sanborn-Hum Sociological Quesitons
ReplyDeleteWe’ve talked a lot about the enduring impacts that colonialism has had on Dominican culture, political dialogue, and economy. For example, we’ve mentioned that anti-Haitian sentiments could have roots in colonial definitions of race and in the historical socioeconomic divide of the island and its peoples. My first topic, then, is about Christianity in the Dominican Republic and whether this sociological lens of post-colonial interrelations applies to a religion that was so intrinsic in the colonial process. The topic of religion in a colonized country interests me because it may reveal a cultural perspective to what I see as a prominently economic relationship. How, if at all, does a society assimilate to the inevitable influence and flow of new ideas, methods of understanding, and dogmas associated with the opening of one’s markets and national economy? Do Dominicans feel any connection between their faith and their often brutal and oppressive history of colonization?
My second topic is the western “development project” and its affects on the Dominican Republic, specifically in regards to the impacts of U.S. foreign aid and the relatively nonpartisan, cross-party alignment with the U.S and its economic policies. What has been the role of U.S. aid and the possible policy “guidelines” that are inherited upon receiving such aid? How has U.S. aid affected the historically omniscient military presence in the Dominican Republic? What relationship could U.S. and other western financial institutions like the World Bank and IMF have with the labor divide among Haitians and Dominicans?