ETHM 611 Arts in Global Engagement

Students will learn how to become artistic catalysts and so facilitate local community engagement and effective outreach through music and the arts, including: 1) strategies for development of professional and intercultural relationships; 2) systems of pre-engagement and assessment of current issues; 3) contextualization of music in local worldwide contexts; 4) promoting the creation of indigenous songs; 5) promoting the distribution of such songs through appropriate media.

For information regarding prerequisites for this course, please refer to the Academic Course Catalog.

This course presents, on a graduate level, multicultural issues that the student will encounter when doing internships, fieldwork, or participatory action research, equipping him/her with tools that he/she will need to engage with music in global contexts. It would also be appropriate for any person who plans to work in any cross-cultural environment where he/she will encounter local arts. The student needs to be aware of these issues and have strategies in place for engaging and encouraging expressive culture in relevant ways.

Textbook readings and lecture presentations

No details available.

Course Requirements Checklist

After reading the Course Syllabus and Student Expectations, the student will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview.

Discussions (7)

Discussions are collaborative learning experiences. Therefore, the student will complete 7 Discussions in this course. The student will post one thread of at least 200 words. For each thread, the student must support his/her assertions with at least 1 scholarly citation in Turabian format. The student must then post 2 replies of at least 150 words.

The student will choose a cultural group other than his/her own with which he/she is familiar, which will be examined using the CLAT-method for the duration of this 8-week course. For some, this project may serve as foundational work for a future Capstone project.

In this paper, the student will identify the cultural group that they have chosen for this 8-week project and create a preliminary sketch of how he/she imagines the steps unfolding, using his/her present knowledge of the people group, and understanding of the processes as defined in the course materials. The paper should be 600-700 words and be in current Turabian format.

The student will examine the cultural group he/she has chosen in the previous assignment and produce an extensive list of at least 30 artistic/expressive genres and, as best as he/she can, identify local and broader meanings.

In this assignment, the student will employ the various tools and cultural lenses presented in the readings to make a preliminary determination of which artistic genres he/she believes hold the most promise for innovative Christian messaging. The paper must be a minimum of 3 pages.

As the student digs deeper into genre research, he/she will discover that some genres may seem too problematic to use innovatively for Christian messaging because the sedimentary levels of cultural meaning are too specific and strong, and will overpower any other messaging attached to it. This assignment includes 2 parts. First, the student will identify 3 genres which could be categorized as “problematic” and use them to write a 3-page paper. Second, the student will identify risks present even in the “promising” genres he/she identified in a previous assignment and add a one paragraph explanation to each.

Christian Message Through Indigenous Art Project Assignment

In 900-1500 words, the student will write how the message of Christ can be expressed or illustrated in indigenous music to facilitate worship, discipleship, and evangelism in a selected musical culture of a traditional or indigenous community, tribe, or ethnicity. This assignment must be in current Turabian format. 

Effective communication requires that understanding is created consistently across multiple domains of meaning. In this paper, the student will argue for the importance of a holistic approach to Christian outreach which incorporates various artistic and non-verbal domains. At least 3 authors from the Learn section must be cited. The assignment should be 750-1000 words in current Turabian format.

Final Project: Outline Assignment

This assignment will assist the student in completing the seven steps of the CLAT method for cross-cultural engagement. The student will develop a plan for engagement with a unique cultural group. The student will complete an outline in anticipation of the final paper. The outline will consist of multiple parts that help you form the cohesive arguments that will run through the Final Project: Paper Assignment. All citations must be in current Turabian format. 

Final Project: Paper Assignment

The student will prepare a plan for engagement and communication in service to the gospel (pre-evangelism, evangelism, discipleship, Christian worship) or other important messages (community health, healing, unity, cultural reconciliation, cultural understanding, etc.) to a culture different from the student’s own. The assignment will be 15-20 pages excluding front and back matter (title page, table of contents, bibliography and appendices). The revised table created for the Cultural Genres, Their Contexts, and Their Meanings Assignment will be added as the appendix for this assignment. Turabian format is required. 

Peer Review Discussion: Final Project: AI-Assisted PowerPoint for Fundraising and Engagement

The student will utilize Microsoft Copilot to help create a PowerPoint presentation designed to cast vision for and raise funds for the cultural engagement project. The PowerPoint should contain a minimum of 15 clear, uncrowded slides with just enough information in the notes section at the bottom to give academic credibility to the student’s work and explain any terms/visuals if needed. In addition to the presentation, the student will write a 150-200 statement explaining the role AI played in developing the PowerPoint. The students will reply to one of their peers, by downloading their presentations and adding comments using the Review feature in PowerPoint. The student will reload the student’s PowerPoint (with comments) as their reply along with a brief summative comment of 150-200 words.