这是一门全英文教学课程，已经在学堂在线国内版国际版、学习强国、智慧树、英华学堂、中国高校外语慕课平台和国家高等教育智慧平台上线（国家级慕课），入选第一批中国国际慕课，16万人在线学习，包括美、英、法、巴西、马来西亚、刚果和印尼等20个国家8千外国学生。被评为北京市教改创新项目、北京市优质课程、优质教材课件和课程思政示范课。本课教材The Light and the Darkness：A Brief History of Western Civilization《光明与黑暗：西方文明史》北大出版社即将出版，将成为国内第一部英文版西方文明通史。
主讲教师刘俊阳教授，昆明城市学院语言文学学院院长，曾任国际关系学院文化与传播系主任。美国玛瑞埃塔大学、丹麦奥尔堡大学访问学者。国际关系学院公共外交与文化传播专业硕士导师、丹麦奥尔堡大学国际关系专业硕士导师。国际关系学院中丹合作中国与国际关系研究中心研究员、国际关系学院《国际安全研究》英文版翻译团队成员。教育部中外语言交流合作中心（原汉办）项目评审专家。昆明城市学院的线上线下混合式教学团队有5位老师，课程组长祝海燕，授课老师刘俊阳、蒋鎶吏、唐磊和王丽。
本课程系统介绍西方文明发展史，要求学生系统掌握西方文明史基本知识、全面客观理解其成就、特征、发展脉络及其负面影响，培养胸怀祖国、放眼世界的人文情怀。通过全英文教学培养学生在全英文环境下学习与思考、阅读文献资料和网络搜索的能力。主要内容为：希腊罗马文明、中世纪、文艺复兴与宗教改革、17与18世纪西方文明。
本课线上成绩由三部分构成：视频学习30分、章测试30分、期末考试40分。问答题和讨论题线下课堂进行，不计入线上成绩。
No civilization is superior to others. Diversity is the beauty of thismulticivilizational world. Confucius says all the people are brothers. Allcivilizations should coexist peacefully and learn from each other. The historyof the west is full of glories but there are dark pages too. Let's start fromancient Greece. It will be a long journey of WOWs.
In the ancient times, all civilizations thought they are the center of theworld, their race and culture are superior to others and all others arebarbarians. This attitude is natural and understandable during that time.However, as the contacts and communication between civilizations have becomemore extensive and deeper this attitude became foolish. If one civilizationuses this attitude of superiority as an excuse to conquer and convert othersthat will be disastrous, western colonization in the past is a horribleexample.
1. PROFESSOR
Professor Liu Junyang is Dean of the School of Language and Literature atKunming City College, and the former Dean of the Department of Culture andCommunication at University of International Relations, Master of Art inChinese Ancient Literature, graduate of Beijing Normal University, and visitingscholar at Marietta University in the U.S. and Aalborg University in Denmark.He has 20 years of working experience as an English-speaking interpreter andtour guide. He is teaching four courses in English: "History of WesternCivilization," "American Culture," "A Study into the Clashof Civilizations and Soft Power," and "Traditional Chinese Cultureand Philosophy" for Chinese and European graduate students majoring inChina and International Relations. He has participated in the CopenhagenSINO-NORDIC Think Tanks Roundtable, the International Think Tank Forum on"Mutual Learning among Asian Civilizations and Building a Community with aShared Future for Mankind" of the Beijing Conference on Dialogue of AsianCivilizations, and the Paris International Seminar on "Myths andHumanism." He has published more than 20 English articles telling Chinesestories in the People's Daily, China Daily, and Shanghai Daily, and he is aguest panelist on China Radio International's program TODAY discussinginternational affairs.
2. COURSEINTRODUCTION
It is an introduction of the History of Western Civilization before the19th century. Students are required to apply Critical Thinking to explore thedevelopment, characteristics, achievements and dark sides of the WesternCivilization.
It is a massive open online course taught in English, open to alluniversity students and anyone interested in it across the world. It can be ageneral course for all majors or a specialized course for liberal arts majors.
3. REQUIREMENTS ANDGRADING
(1) Length of study: 16 weeks. It requires 10 hours of study per week. Thevideo is 638 minutes long, consists of 8 chapters and each chapter has 5sections.
(2) Required Exercises: each chapter has 5 single choice questions or right/wrongquestions.
(3) Optional Exercises: 5 keywords in each section; 3 questions and 2discussion topics in each chapter, which They should be done in the classroomteaching.
(4) The Final Exam has 50 questions, 2 points for each and 100 points intotal, including 25 single choice questions, 25 right/wrong questions.
(5) Final Grade = watch video 30% + exercises 30% + final exam 40%.
4. TEACHING IN ENGLISH
If you're not a native English speaker, this class maybe a little bitchallenging. But what we are doing in the university? It is to face andovercome all the challenges. I suggest before watching the video you shouldread the text which is the transcription.
I am not teaching English, I am teaching in English. I used to work as anEnglish interpreter and an English speaking tour guide. I used to live inEurope and U.S. as visiting scholar. English has been my working language for30 years. From my learning, teaching and working experiences, I found manystudents have the same problem I called it Walking Stick Dependency Syndrome.Learning English, most students can reach the intermediate level, but goingfurther seems very difficult. Selinker’s Interlanguage theory called thisphenomenon fossilization which means the progress of learning stopped andfossilized like dinosaurs. Interlanguage means your English is not pure Englishbut a mixture of your native language and English. Our brain has enough roomfor two languages stored and operate separately. Computer and cell phone canwork in your native language or English but never bilingually. By the way,maybe you can try to change the working language of your phone and computerinto English. Believe me that will be fun. You can’t always rely on your nativelanguage to help your English. Walking Stick is your native language. If youare strong enough you don’t need a stick to walk. Get rid of it. Don’t say yourEnglish isn’t good enough to take this class. No, I don’t think so. YourEnglish is good enough because you have been learning English for so many yearsand you are university students now. Your English is good enough.
The purpose to learn a second language is to use it to broaden our horizon.If you have been learning English for more than 10 years, it is shameful toread English books in the translation of your native language. You should havethe ability to read, to think, to search online, and to find sources inEnglish.
5. TEACHINGSCHEDULE
Altogether 8 chapter, each chapter needs two weeks.
Week 1-2. Chapter One: Early Greece
1.0. Introduction
1.1. Greek Bronze Age and Dark Age
1.2. Greek Gods
1.3. Archaic Greece
1.4. Athens and the Persian Wars
Week 3-4. Chapter 2: Classical and Hellenistic Greece
2.1. War and Politics in the Fifth Century BC
2.2. Greece in the Fourth Century BC
2.3. Classical Greek Philosophy
2.4. Athenian Drama
2.5. Alexander the Great and Hellenistic World
Week 5-6. Chapter 3: Ancient Roman Civilization 1
3.1. Roman Kingdom
3.2. Early Republic
3.3. Mid-Republic
3.4. Late-Republic
3.5. End of the Republic
Week 7-8. Chapter 4: Ancient Roman Civilization 2
4.1. Pax Romana 1
4.2. Pax Romana 2
4.3. Crisis of the Third Century and Constantine
4.4. The Victory of Christianity
4.5. The Fall of the Roman Empire
Week 9-10. Chapter 5: Middle Ages
5.1. Early Middle Ages
5.2. Carolingian Dynasty
5.3. High Middle Ages
5.4. Late Middle Ages1
5.5. Late Middle Ages2
Week 11-12. Chapter 6: Renaissance and Reformation
6.1. The Renaissance
6.2. Protestant Reformation
6.3. Italian Wars and Rise of Russia
6.4. Age of Discovery
6.5. French War of Religion and Russia’s Time of Trouble
Week 13-14. Chapter 7: West in the Seventeenth Century
7.1. The Thirty Years War
7.2. English Revolution
7.3. Three Absolute Monarchs
7.4. Dutch Golden Age
7.5. Science and Culture in the 17th Century
Week 15-16. Chapter 8: West in the Eighteenth Century
8.1. The United Kingdom
8.2. The American Revolution
8.3. The French Revolution
8.4. Age of Enlightenment
8.5. West in the 19th and 20th Century
