Language Rights 3 s.h.
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 IssuesGlobal 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
This course will shed light on the ways that anthropological research analyzes the roots of social problems and efforts to address pressing social, economic, political and environmental issues. Taking examples from around the world, the class will highlight how everyday people navigate their lives and attempt to address societal challenges amidst constraint. A core learning objective is for students is to demonstrate the ability to apply anthropological concepts in the analysis of social problems and current events. The class will emphasize the ways that race, class, gender, sexuality and inequality contribute to world problems and influence interventions to address social issues.
International and Global Issues Social SciencesFrom the favelas of Brazil to the townships of South Africa, the social dynamics of urban places has served as a long-standing area of interest in the discipline of anthropology. Today more than half of the world’s population lives in cities, with this number projected to grow further. In order to address the growth and importance of urban social formations, the course will take different approaches to understanding the culture of cities. Class readings will derive from anthropology, history, geography and urban studies in order to offer a multidisciplinary perspective on urban space and society. Further, case studies will be drawn from the United States, Africa, Latin America and elsewhere in order to offer a cross-cultural perspective.
As we move into the twenty-first century, it has become common to think of social life as increasingly connected across formerly separate domains of existence. In keeping with this shift, this course will take an approach to understanding culture and society that takes seriously the interconnected social, political, economic and cultural dynamics associated with the contemporary phase of globalization. For the analysis of urban space and society, much work has focused on the rise of neoliberal models of socio-economic organization and their effects on everyday people. This point of focus will serve as a common thread in the course, which will give students the requisite knowledge to answer the following questions over the course of the semester:
- How do urban environments and the experience of urban space influence the behavior of people?
- What social and institutional mechanisms do groups of people develop in order to meet their material and cultural needs in urban spaces?
- How does social inequality manifest in urban settings?
- How have groups of people gone about changing challenging social conditions they face in their everyday lives? This course will take a cross-cultural approach in introducing students to the ways that anthropologists and social scientists have understood the cultural complexity of urban areas around the world. Within this broad focus, the emphasis will be on how people living in urban areas navigate their lives within a set of historically particular political, economic, institutional and cultural conditions.
Arts of Africa 3 s.h.
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 ArtsThis course is an introductory survey of Chinese history from the seventeenth century to the present. The first part of the survey, covering China’s imperial origins to the seventeenth century, will be a separate semester-long course. For most of the past two millennia, China has contained about one quarter of the world in terms of both population and economy. This course explores continuities and changes over the past four hundred years in the political, social, economic, and cultural features of this massive conglomerate known as China. The goal of this course is to demonstrate how China’s past experiences can help us better understand both China and the world today. Course content consists of weekly readings, lectures, and discussion sections. The readings provide basic facts, lectures provide ways to understand those facts, and discussions provide ways to express and build your own understandings. Participation in the form of contribution is required in all three areas.
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.
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 IssuesThe 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 SustainabilityExamination 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 SciencesThe Global Economy 3 s.h.
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 SciencesGermany in the World 3, 4 s.h.
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 IssuesHow does history help to explain our interconnected world? Introduction to international and global thinking through a variety of topics.
Historical Perspectives International and Global IssuesThis 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 DiversityWhy 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.
Introduction to the interdisciplinary field of international studies; globalization, colonialism, inequality, and global challenges.
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 IssuesThe Mafia and the Movies 3 s.h.
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.
Films are a fundamental component of the syllabus for ITAL:2770:0001 – The Mafia and the Movies. Since this course involves screenings, the instructor needs extra time to fully cover course materials.
International and Global Issues
Latin American Politics 3 s.h.
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 SciencesPolitics 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 SciencesWe first examine the Soviet Union: its founding, political evolution, and what life was like for its citizens. The Soviet period continues to exert a strong influence on politics in the 15 countries that were once part of the Soviet Union as well as on the Soviet satellite countries. Knowing the Soviet legacy is vital for understanding the current issues in all these countries, stretching from the Baltic republics to Central Asia and Mongolia. The course then turns to the politics of the largest Soviet successor country, Russia. Students will examine Russia’s formal political institutions and its informal political processes, the country’s political economy, how Russian citizens interact with the political system, and how Russia deals with other countries. Russia’s political system is a leading example of one type of authoritarianism, making Russia a valuable point of comparison with other countries. Russia is also a regional great power and a significant emerging economy. It represents a major world culture, with contributions to literature, science, music and athletics rivaled by few other countries. Knowledge of Russian politics can therefore benefit all future citizens and should be particularly valuable for those who will go into government service, the non-profit sector, journalism, the military, or international business. This course fulfills a general education requirement in International and Global Issues. It also fulfills a requirement for the following degrees or programs: Political Science International Relations (Regional Politics and Relations), International Studies (Development; or Russian, East European and Eurasian), and the International Business Certificate.
Textbook and materials:
All reading material, including the two assigned books, are available digitally without charge, but you may wish to purchase these two books for convenience:
- Sakwa, Hale and White, Developments in Russian Politics 9 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2019); ISBN: 978-1478004806.
- Garrels, Putin Country: A Journey into the Real Russia (New York: Farrah, Straus & Giroux, 2016); ISBN: 978-1250118110.
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 SciencesRussia Today 3 s.h.
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 DiversitySport and Globalization 3 s.h.
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