Maya K’iche' Spring 2022

Maya K’iché (KICH) Courses

KICH 1020 – Introduction to Maya K’iché II on TuTh 4:00-5:15PM Allison Bigelow

The second part of a year-long sequence that introduces students to Maya K’iche’, this course focuses on three main areas: K’iche’ language, Maya linguistics, and Maya culture. The language and linguistics elements of the course will allow students to learn and understand complex relationships – the relationship of sound to syntax, of language to literature – in an entirely new cultural context and content area, building from their knowledge of K’iche’ I to expand and enrich their studies. Students will thus learn how to apply their work in other classes, especially linguistics, anthropology, Spanish, and Latin American studies, to a new body of content, recognizing how their study of other languages, literary forms, and issues in global development can enhance their study of K’iche’, and how to communicate those insights through the target language.

KICH 2020 – Intermediate Maya K’iché II on TuTh 2:00-3:15PM with Allison Bigelow

As the Maya K'iche' capstone course in the Duke-UVa-Vanderbilt consortium for the teaching of less commonly taught languages, this class asks students to apply their introductory study of grammar to original research with primary and secondary sources, print and oral alike. Having studied the difference between colonial-era and contemporary orthographies in KICH 2010, students will now work with primary sources and different translations of K’iche’ texts; for example, they might compare Dennis Tedlock’s translation of the Popol Vuh with and Allen Christenson’s more recent work, or they might choose to write their final essay on the work of contemporary poet Sam Colop. By collaborating with the Vanderbilt-based instructor of K’iche’, students will identify a research topic that reflects their larger academic and professional interests, learning how to integrate their work in other classes, especially linguistics, anthropology, comparative literature, Spanish, and Latin American studies, to their study of K’iche’. This capstone course will also ask that they recognize how their study of other languages, literary forms, and issues in global development can enhance their study of K’iche’, and how to communicate those insights through the target language.

Spring
2021
Undergraduate Courses
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