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A total of 23 courses have been found.
Language minorities and linguistic human rights in the United States and worldwide; language and identity, culture, power; case studies of language rights deprivation.

Imagine any of the following:

  • You start school as a child and are not taught in your home language, the only one you speak well.
  • You are arrested by the police, but you don’t understand the language they speak.
  • You go to the Department of Motor Vehicles or another government office, and the people speak to you in an unfamiliar language.
  • You talk to your friends in public but can’t use the language you use with them in private.
  • Your parents give you one name, but the government insists you be called something else.

All around the world these very things happen. How would your life be affected? How do you think you would react?

 

In this course we examine issues of linguistic human rights: the fundamental right to use one's language and the efforts made to secure those rights and deny them. We explore how language rights are integral to human rights in general and an individual's definition of personal and cultural identity through studying a variety of case studies of the abrogation of language rights locally, nationally, and internationally. Course requirements include one midterm exam, four 1-2 page written assignments, a group project and presentation focusing on a particular case of language rights, and regular discussion posts.

International and Global Issues

The original tree huggers were rural Indian women who in the 1970s wrapped themselves around tree trunks to keep loggers at bay. It is this class of women who today trek long distances in search of firewood to cook dinner on wood stoves now deemed harmful to their own health, local forests, and the earth’s climate. From policy to individual livelihoods and aspirations, this course introduces you to the politics of environment in India from the colonial period (19th century) to today. Gender, class, caste, and indigeneity are key to understanding ‘environmentalism from below’ in India, where tiger protection, forest conservation, mega dams, industrial agriculture, the global patent regime and family planning initiatives have sparked public protest, everyday resistance, and social change. While the course will focus primarily on India, occasional comparative case studies offer insight into the Indian situation. We will reflect on these questions: How is your life connected to environmental and social processes unfolding on the other side of the planet? How do the questions we ask shape the knowledge we produce?  How can we bring together knowledge from different fields to address complex human problems?  Assignments include quizzes, exams, essays, and a final research project. This course assumes no prior knowledge of India or South Asia and meets a General Education requirement in the area of International and Global Issues. It is also an approved course for the Sustainability Certificate. For GWSS majors, it will fill the Global/Comparative Focus distribution requirement. For SJUS majors, it qualifies for two Social Justice Emphasis Areas: The Environment and Ecological Justice and Gender, Women's & Sexuality Studies.

International and Global Issues

Global health as a study of the dynamic relationship between human health and social, biological, and environmental factors that drive the spread of disease; core areas of global health research that may include health inequalities, maternal and child health, infectious diseases, nutrition, environmental health, and health interventions.

This class offers a comprehensive introduction to the field of Global Health Studies.

Within global health, it is imperative to situate health and disease within historical and geographical contexts. We will do this by exploring how sociocultural, economic, environmental, and political systems impact medicine, disease, and health in profound ways. As we become more interconnected, global health fundamentally asks us to consider why health inequities continue to persist (and even worsen) both between countries and within countries, and what we can do about it.  Global health scholars are also invested in understanding the tensions within practicing clinical medicine across cultures and the many systems of healing and medicine beyond Western biomedical approaches.

Course subthemes include the interplay between health and race, gender, ethnicity, class, sexuality, as well the political and economic forces that shape global health policies and practices. Course topics include, but are not limited to health inequalities, maternal and child health, infectious diseases, nutrition, environmental health, and health interventions.

Major course assignments include attendance & participation; weekly reading questions; weekly quizzes; critical reflection paper; short research analysis.

 

 

International and Global Issues
Selected world problems from an anthropological perspective; current dilemmas and those faced by diverse human groups in recent times and distant past.

In the world we live today, what kind of role can anthropology play? We have violence, climate change, economic inequalities, racism and other forms of discrimination. Taking examples from around the world, the class will discuss how everyday people navigate their lives and attempt to address societal challenges amidst constraint. This course offers a venue to think about the problems in relation to anthropology as a scholarly discipline.

International and Global Issues Social Sciences
Arts, artists, and cultures of Africa; sculpture, paintings, pottery, textiles, architecture, human adornment.

This is an undergraduate introduction to the visual arts of Africa. No prior study of art history is necessary. This is a one-semester study of the sculpture, pottery, weaving, architecture, and other art forms of Africa from the Sahara to the Cape of Good Hope. The focus is on arts in cultural context. That means you will learn a great deal about the lives and history of many African peoples. You will see many, many slides of objects being made and used by African peoples to understand what the objects meant to the people who created them, and how the objects mirrored their social, educational, political, and economic systems.

Requirements for the online class include written participation in discussion sections, a midterm exam,  a final exam, several short quizzes and a short paper.  All readings will be available on ICON. Please note: There is a lot of writing in the discussion sections, and it will be very difficult for late enrollments to catch up after the first week of classes.

International and Global Issues Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts
Introductory survey of Chinese history from the 17th century to present; exploration of political, social, economics, and culture. Historical Perspectives International and Global Issues
Introduction to Korean history and culture; how meanings of "Korea" and "Koreans" changed from ancient times to present; relevant issues of politics, society, and culture; events that shaped ancient Korean states—Koryo state (918-1392), the Choson dynasty (1392-1910), Japanese colonization (1910-1945), and the two Koreas (1945-present); how present perspectives on Korea have influenced understandings of its past. Historical Perspectives International and Global Issues
Overview of the relationship between sports and national cultures in countries around the world; focus on how athletic competitions play a role in the formation of collective identities; includes the Olympic Games in ancient Greece, hockey in Canada, cycling in France, traditional wrestling in Senegal, cricket in England and India, and soccer in Europe, Africa, and Latin America.

Have you ever wondered how the Olympic Games started? Why cricket matches can last for days? Why millions of Parisians poured into the streets when France won the World Cup in 2018? How athletes become national heroes? Why a hockey match is displayed on the Canadian 5-dollar bill? How Lance Armstrong hid his doping for so long?

In this class, we will study sports from all over the world, focusing on what they tell us about national cultures. We will begin by asking ourselves, “What is sport?” and learning about the rise of mass sporting culture at the end of the 19th-Century with the Industrial Revolution. We will then examine the history of the Olympic Games; soccer in Europe, Africa and Latin America; cricket in England, Australia, India and the Caribbean; traditional wrestling in Senegal; the Tour de France; hockey in Canada. We will end our study by examining other sports in a global context, including tennis, golf, track and field, and baseball.

This course is designed to provide students with a global perspective on sport. At the end of the semester, students will be able to:

1. Examine the world from the global perspective of other cultures and peoples through the study of the role of sport in different societies.
2. Explain the histories of various sports, including their origins in Western Europe and spread throughout the world, often via colonialism.
3. Describe specific sporting cultures such as game rules, fan bases, players, location, rituals and protocol, and important sites.
4. Explain the role of sport in the formation of national identities.
5. Analyze contemporary sports events and link them to past occurrences.

International and Global Issues
Key moments in the history of relations between the United States and France, from similarities underlying democratic principles to recent divergent worldviews. Taught in English.

 

This course explores the long and complex relationship between the United States and France, particularly as revealed through cultural encounters and experiences.  We will focus on differing customs, lifestyles, ways of thinking, attitudes towards art, architecture, food, wine, travel, tourism, mass media, language differences and stereotypes.

International and Global Issues
Global environmental challenges; ecological, economical, cultural, and geographical causes and effects; underlying science and potential solutions to global issues of sustainability. GE: Sustainability.

The demands on earth’s resources have never been greater, leading to a wide array of environmental impacts on a grand scale. This introductory course profiles the leading global environmental issues of our time, particularly those associated with land use, population change, pollution, energy, and climate change.  The class adopts an interdisciplinary perspective that emphasizes their causes, consequences, and solutions. The major goals of the course are to: 1) explore the most urgent global environmental issues and their relationships with physical, social, biological, and economic processes; and 2) introduce you to basic geographic concepts in the context of current environmental challenges.

International and Global Issues Social Sciences
World regions including their physical environment, culture, economy, politics, and relationships with other regions; students learn about conflicts within and between regions.

Examination of contemporary global society, focusing on world regions, including physical environment, culture, economy, and politics of each region and relationships between regions; analysis of current conflicts within and between regions, including social, religious, political, and economic issues.

International and Global Issues Social Sciences

Examination of contemporary economic geography; types of national economies, uneven development, role of government in shaping economy, multinational corporations; foundation for understanding national economies and economic statistics; contemporary issues including economic globalization, commodification of nature, de-industrialization.

Why are various economic activities located in different places? How are these locations changing? What is globalization and how does it affect local economies? This course, designed for students in all majors, examines the economic geography of the world. During the first 12 weeks, we focus on important factors that affect the location and distribution of economic activities across the globe. Major topics include population distributions, variation in regional economies, natural resource distribution, industrial location, foreign investment, and international trade. The remaining weeks are devoted to examining the position of selected nations and groups of nations in the international economy. Here, the key topics are world economic development, regional economic structures, and regional growth and decline. Class meetings include lectures and discussions. Final grades are based on four assignments, two midterms, the final exam, and participation. One or more sections may be assigned to a TILE classroom.

International and Global Issues Social Sciences
Women in the Islamic community and in non-Muslim Middle Eastern cultures; early rise of Islam to modern times; references to women in the Qur'an and Sunnah, stories from Islamic history; women and gender issues.

More information on Prof. Souaiaia's website.

Women in Islam and the Middle East is a course about women within and without the Muslim community. It focuses on women from the early time periods of the rise of Islam until modern times. We will consider the textual references to women in the primary religious texts (Qur’ân and the Sunnah) and references and stories of prominent women as told in the Islamic history books. In order to provide a comprehensive exploration of the status of women and gender issues, the course will also rely on interviews, guest lectures, images, documentaries, and films produced from a variety of perspectives and through the lenses of a number of disciplines.In this course, we aim to explore the role and status of women in the modern and pre-modern Middle East with respect to institutions such as the law, religious practices, work, politics, family, and education. Additionally, we will examine themes of social protocols, sexuality, gender roles, and authenticity as contested norms.The course will also discuss contemporary Muslim women, the factors informing constructions of gender in Islam and the Middle East. We will focus on contemporary Muslim women in a number of different cultural contexts in order to highlight a variety of significant issues including, veiling and seclusion, kinship structures, violence, health, feminist activism, literary expression, body and mind, and other themes.

International and Global Issues Values and Culture Values, Society, and Diversity
How does history help to explain our interconnected world? Introduction to international and global thinking through a variety of topics.

How does history help to explain our interconnected world? Introduction to international and global thinking through a variety of topics.

Historical Perspectives International and Global Issues
Introduction to the interdisciplinary field of international studies; globalization, migration, and inequality.

This course is designed to help you improve your international literacy. The first part of the course is structured around an International Studies framework with four themes: global interactions, global tensions, global forces, and inside-out and outside-in interactions. The second part of the course focuses on eight complex global challenges, each of which requires multifaceted solutions which transcend international boundaries and reach multiple populations across the globe all at once. By applying an International Studies approach to these eight global challenges, you will begin to appreciate how taking an interdisciplinary approach is becoming not only increasingly relevant, but indispensable. This class consists of two weekly lectures and a discussion session; you are expected to have read the required readings before each session. You are expected to attend all lecture and discussion sessions; This class fulfils the CLAS International and Global Issues general education (GE) requirements.

International and Global Issues
Exploration of social forces, legal regimes, and cultural norms that have shaped discourse on human rights in a global context with reliance on a systems thinking framework; examination of intersections of rights, culture, society, and law in the last 2,000 years; consideration of interplay between institutional (formal) and societal (informal) powers that shape human rights norms; origins and evolution of discourse on rights across cultures and throughout history.

More information on Prof. Souaiaia's website (link: https://ahmed.souaiaia.com/teaching/ ). 

In this course, we will explore the origins and evolution of human rights in the context of Western and Islamic civilizations. First, students will be introduced to a list of rights derived from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Second, students will examine religious texts since the formative period of the Islamic Civilization (7th century) to see the presence or lack thereof of human rights regimes therein. Third, students will survey the evolution of human rights since Enlightenment. Fourth, students will learn about human rights regimes, institutions, and mechanisms. Lastly, we will consider current events and recent human rights cases in order to highlight the interplay between theory and practice.

This section is offered through Distance and Online Education . Visit our Courses  page to learn more about Distance and Online Education courses at the UI. Contact 319-335-2575 or doe-reg@uiowa.edu  for assistance. 

International and Global Issues
Exploration of the myth of the Mafia and mobsters and examination of its function through a selection of Italian films; students investigate the multifaceted nature of Italian organized crime, and consider its historical, geographical, social, and economical dimensions. Taught in English.

Men of honor, loyalty, and respect: Hollywood has an enduring fascination with mobsters. Over the last fifty years, successful movies by Francis Ford Coppola, Brian De Palma, and Martin Scorsese have contributed to shape the myth of the Mafia and keep it alive in the American imaginary. This course will explore this myth and re-discuss its function through a selection of American and Italian films. It will investigate the multifaceted nature of Italian organized crime considering its social and economic impact and its local, national, and international dimensions. It will analyze how 21st century Italian cinema portrays the Mafia and pays tribute to the anti-mafia resistance. This journey from commonplace images to a more complex picture of the Mafia phenomenon will help students examine the role of media in shaping the collective imaginary and acquire a deeper, broader, and more critical understanding of global issues. Requirements include class attendance and participation, writing exercises, a group project, a midterm and a final exam.

International and Global Issues
Governmental institutions, major interest groups; focus on area as a whole.

This course is an introduction to the study of modern Latin American politics, with a specific focus on roadblocks to economic and political development within the region. In particular we will explore Latin America?s cycles of democratic and authoritarian rule, and its political institutions.

International and Global Issues Social Sciences

Politics worldwide, including all regions and levels of development; wide-ranging themes, including regime types, political change, political culture, public opinion, government structures, state-society relationship, electoral systems, public policy issues.

Comparative politics is the field that uses evidence to answer questions about the workings of domestic politics by comparing the experiences of different countries. Our study of the topic begins with countries relatively similar to the one most of you know best, the United States. We will investigate why the advanced industrial democracies have pursued such different social and economic policies, the policies that have the most direct impact on the wellbeing of their citizens. In doing so, we will also learn how political institutions differ across democracies and the effects that these differences have on politics. During the second half of the course, we will turn to recently democratizing countries to study how authoritarian regimes maintain power, the circumstances in which they give way to democracy, and the problems often faced by new democratic governments in the developing world. Throughout the course, we will consider how comparison allows us to draw conclusions about political processes. Grades will be based on quizzes, short writing assignments, eight low-stakes exams, and class participation.

International and Global Issues Social Sciences

Survey of key issues in international relations, including causes of wars, different types of theories of international relations, international organizations, and global environmental problems.

International and Global Issues Social Sciences
Foreign policies: goals, basic themes and general patterns, problems encountered by policy makers, means employed in dealing with other nations and international organizations, processes by which policies are formulated, factors that influence structure of policies. International and Global Issues Social Sciences

Russia Today 3 s.h.

Contemporary Russia, with focus on prevailing social, political, economic, ethnic, environmental conditions; attention to historical evolution of problems, current factors; what these factors might portend for the future. Taught in English.

In this course, you will learn about all facets of the modern Russia: politics, business, family, traditions, everyday life, social problems and much more. We will also look into Russian culture and mindset to help you understand the life in modern Russia more deeply. The course will feature documentaries and invited guest speakers. The course materials and readings will be available on ICON. This course is taught in English.

International and Global Issues Values and Culture Values, Society, and Diversity
Exploration of past and current issues related to the Caucasus—a mountainous region located where Europe, the Middle East, and Asia meet—forming a geographical and cultural crossroad; topics include those related to women's rights, causes of poverty and ethnic conflicts, and foreign policy including terrorism in the region, the fight for freedom, and the struggle over natural resources. Taught in English.

The course is designed to show the past and current global issue in women rights violations in North Caucasus. The North Caucasus is a mountainous region situated between the Black and Caspian Sea and Iran, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. Till today Caucasian women experience till today many difficulties: abductions for marriage, early and arranged marriages, polygamy, domestic violence, and honor killing. They very often become the instrument of war, blood feuds and suicide terrorists.

International and Global Issues