This is my second week in the faculty of world studies and I'm mixed up with the heavy body of tasks. These days "globalization", "analytic approach to history" and "vital issue of difference in American ethnicities are discussed.
Globalization, for example, is the controversial issue which has faced extremist approaches. There we discussed that its causes are far-fetched as it is a multi-disciplinary phenomenon which needs deep and analytic knowledges of many sorts. It's results as though more observable, are more readily prone to discussion. The three waves of globalization, its discourses, from equalizing it with Americanization to a new colonization were taught and finally Iranians point of view about it was argued.

History, actually is a narrative, expressed Dr. Hoseini in the history course. Narratives are subjective, that's why the history books have different approaches according to the conditions of th their own time. For example, American histories of the 17th cent. are religious, 18th cent. are secular and 19th cent. are in a metropolitan atmosphere. History is not the knowledge of the past but for the present and future. people learn from it but what they take depends on how they look to it. In fact, there are several theories on the case. One is linear, a process starting from one point and coming to an end in another particular one. The other is cyclical, in that there's a paradigm shift after acertain period of time. The third is the Pendulum. The base, in this case, is fixed but the pendulum moves to the down left, then to the balanced point and then the down right, or vice versa and this continues.According to the third theory, from Ronessance to the 20th cent., there's a paradigm shift. Accordingly, people move from the old world to the new world(America), but interestingly this shift has changed its way and the 21th cent. is the time when the new world moves to the far east of the old world, meaning east Asia.
"Identity", a word that people needed not to hezitate, in the past, to define. However, it has turned to be one of the most controversial issues of the world, especially for America. America for its diverse ethnicities, cultures and religions needs to define a new identity different from what was common in the past to save its unity.
These were the gists of what we were taught and a lot of papers and research are left on our shoulders to be done as soon as possible.