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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

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 and civilization from its origins to 1800; exploration of traditions in politics, social organization, thought, religion, and culture.

This course is an introductory survey of Chinese history and civilization from its origins to 1800, which covers four thousand years. Chinese, who form the most populous country and now the second largest economy in the world, also have the longest continuous civilization. It is a rich and complex civilization, much changed over the centuries. We will explore traditions in politics, social organization, thought, religion, and culture, and the implications of these traditions for our world today. We read history and primary sources translated from Chinese; we also watch movies. No previous knowledge of China or of Chinese is expected.

HIST 1601

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; and tennis.
   
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 Sustainability
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
The Federal Republic of Germany's increasing prominence in post-Cold War international affairs against backdrop of 20th-century history; Germany's role in the European Union and the changing relationship between Europe and the United States. Taught in English.

This course explores the increasingly prominent position of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) in post-Cold-War international affairs against the backdrop of twentieth-century history. A substantial focus will be on Germany's role in the EU and the changing relationship between Europe and the United States, but lectures will also address German art and business.  Grading will be based on a combination of discussion postings, papers, and exams. Taught in English.

Course readings will be posted on ICON. No textbook is required.

International and Global Issues
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
Survey of texts, ideas, events, institutions, geography, communities, literature, arts, sciences, and cultures in Islamic communities and societies since the 7th century.

 
More information on Prof. Souaiaia's website.

This course is for students with an interest in learning about the Islamic civilization, the religious practices and beliefs, and/or the history or the regions where Muslims are in the majority.  We will examine the traditions and main social and legal institutions of Islam. Arguably, Islam, as a major system of beliefs and practices in the world, affects both Muslims and non-Muslims. Consequently, besides examining the basic tenets, texts, and ideas of the Islamic civilization, this course focuses on the variety of ways in which Muslims and non-Muslims have understood and interpreted Islam. We will review the discussions surrounding the life of the Prophet of Islam, Islamic pre-modern and modern history, the place and role of individuals and society, the legal and economic status of women, and Islamic governments and movements. As a survey course, we will examine these topics through an interdisciplinary approach: we will apply textual, legal/normative, anthropological, geographical, sociological, analytical, linguistic, and historical methodologies.

International and Global Issues Values and Culture Values, Society, and Diversity
Why are debates about Western Civilization so heated? What is the relationship between the West and other world regions? Exploration of the idea of "the West" as it evolved from interactions between modern Europe, its colonies, and other regions; overview of topics including politics, slavery, global economy, colonialism, migration, and cultural norms over the last 300 years.

Why are debates about Western Civilization so heated? And what's the relationship between the West and other world regions? In this course, we’ll explore the idea of "The West" as it evolved from interactions between modern Europe, its colonies, and other regions. Along the way, we'll gain an overview of topics like politics, slavery, the global economy, colonialism, migration, and cultural norms over the last 300 years.

HIST 1403

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 the foundations of an International Studies approach to understanding the complicated world in which we live. The second part focuses on complex case studies of current global challenges, each of which requires multifaceted solutions that transcend international boundaries and reach multiple populations across the globe all at once. In the third part of the course, you will begin to appreciate how taking an interdisciplinary approach is becoming not only increasingly relevant, but indispensable, by working on a group project. 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 lectures and discussion sessions. This class fulfills the CLAS International and Global Issues general education (GE) requirements.

International and Global Issues
Understanding how food influences and is influenced by social, political, and cultural factors.

Focusing on Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, and migrant communities in the United States, this course will consider how food is related to ethnic and national identity, race, class and gender. Among the questions we ask are: how do people use food to define themselves and the individuals and groups around them? How is culture transmitted through food? How does migration impact foodways – both for immigrant communities and for others in receiving countries? Why are some foods described as ‘ethnic’ while others are not? Is eating ever an act of cultural appropriation? Students will leave the course with an understanding of how food influences, and is influenced by, social, political and cultural factors. Grades will be based on a food related video project, a group presentation, an individual essay, and other shorter assignments.

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
Sport as both a global and local phenomenon; influence of global economic, political, and cultural forces on local sporting expressions, experiences, and identities; global sporting cultures from cricket to capoeira; global sporting spectacles from the Olympics and Paralympics to the FIFA World Cup; global sporting celebrities and athlete migrants from Maria Sharapova and Christiano Rinaldo to Yao Ming and Dominican Republic baseball; global sporting production, consumption, and development from global labor and environmental concerns to sport for development and peace. GE: Sustainability.

Sport is everywhere in the truest sense of the word; a nearly cultural universal. However, while sport involvement (both in terms of participation and spectating) could be said to be a globally ubiquitous practice, sport continues to act as a vehicle for the expression of local (in most cases, national or regional) cultural difference. From Argentina to Zimbabwe, sport plays an important role in forming the experiences and identities of people living in varying differing cultural, political, and economic conditions. Thus, sport could be said to be both a global and local phenomenon. 

The specific aim of the course is to encourage students to consider how various sport practices, bodies, products, and spectacles operate and are experienced as manifestations of the global-local nexus. By examining sport within differing cultural settings, it becomes evident how contemporary sport cultures are influenced by the workings of global cultural, political, and economic forces, while simultaneously seeking to express local conditions and identities. 

The course is organized around 4 primary modules - global sport practices (origins of global sport and its circulation), bodies (sporting migrants and celebrities), products (global labor forces and transnational corporations), and spectacles (global sport mega-events, tourism and activism) - with topics in each explored through a variety of case studies and related discussions, debates, and presentations.

International and Global Issues Sustainability