麻省理工的学生替大学生活带来丰富的文化背景。这个课程探索了生活在两个传统中的分裂、代价、困惑、想法以及新机会，或许缺少任一传统都会感觉失落不足。课程阅读书单的内容包含在此地成长的亚裔美国人、西裔美国人、美国原住民(印地安人)、东南亚裔美国人以及混合种族。教科书包含选录自 汤亭亭 的《女斗士》、Kesaya E. Noda《在美国长大的亚洲人》、Sandra Cisneros的《无计可施的女人》、Gary Soto的《犹如墨西哥人》、Sherman Alexie的《世上最强悍的印度人》、 Jhumpa Lahiri的《马莱蒂的翻译员》、电影《烟信》、《密西西比马萨拉》、Danzy Senna的《白种人》以及其他作品。我们也将靠写作来检视我们多元性的认同来源，探索来自于文化及种族传统之局限以及贡献。学生不需具双重国籍身份，只需对于多方影响如何形塑个体之阅读及写作有兴趣即可。

MIT students bring rich cultural backgrounds to their college experience. This course explores the splits, costs, confusions, insights, and opportunities of living in two traditions, perhaps without feeling completely at home in either. Course readings include accounts of growing up Asian-American, Hispanic, Native American, and South-East Asian-American, and of mixed race. The texts include selections from Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior, Kesaya E. Noda's “Growing Up Asian in America,” Sandra Cisneros's Woman Hollering Creek, Gary Soto's “Like Mexicans,” Sherman Alexie's The Toughest Indian in the World, Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies, the movies Smoke Signals and Mississippi Masala, Danzy Senna's Caucasia, and others. We will also use students' writings as ways to investigate our multiple identities, exploring the constraints and contributions of cultural and ethnic traditions. Students need not carry two passports in order to enroll; an interest in reading and writing about being shaped by multiple influences suffices.