ASIAN 3360 - [Community Engagement and Climate Change in the Mekong Delta: Insights into Vietnam]

(GB) (CA-AS) (CU-CEL, CU-ITL, CU-SBY)

Spring (weeks 1-7). Next offered 2018-2019. 3 credits. Letter grades only.

Permission of instructor required. Students must take VIET 1100 in the Fall. This course includes a January in-country three-week service-learning experience and seven weeks during the first half of the spring semester.

T. Tranviet.

This service-based, interdisciplinary course aims to introduce students to contemporary Vietnam through a lens of climate change with a special emphasis on community engagement to enrich their international learning experience. In the fall, students will take VIET 1100 as a pre-requisite course to receive background in Vietnamese language, culture and history. A three-week field trip to Vietnam takes place during the winter session. While in the country, students will engage in service learning activities in local communities in the Mekong River Delta in Southern Vietnam, one of the areas most affected by climate change in the world, to learn firsthand the dire situation in the region. Students will have lectures from scientists and climate change experts to gain a broad knowledge on impacts due to climate change. There will be opportunities to meet with local government officials, residents, and farmers to learn about their adaption measures concerning these issues. The service learning component is essential in providing students meaningful interactions with the local people in the Mekong Delta to understand and have empathy for their plights, and gain insights into their everyday life. This course may also provide the basis for the possibility of collaborative research and study exchange between Cornell University and Vietnam in the future. (SC)