Language Rights 3 s.h.
Imagine any of the following:
- A six-year-old child has eagerly been waiting to start school. On the first day of the semester, he excitedly enters the room he has been told to go to and sits at the desk he has been assigned. The teacher claps to get the children’s attention, but when she speaks, she uses some strange language rather than the boy’s mother tongue, the only language he knows.
- A man is stopped by the police, who ask him several questions in an unfamiliar language. When he fails to answer, he is detained. He is later taken into a courtroom, where all of the proceedings are conducted in the language he does not speak.
- A group of friends gather at the home of one of the group, where they converse in their mother tongue; however, if they decide to go to a local pub or coffeehouse, they must use a different language, even when they are only speaking to other members of the group.
- New parents give their daughter a name from their native language that has great significance to them, but when they register their child for school, they are told that she cannot use her given name and must take a name from a list of approved options.
All around the world these very things actually happen. How do you think you would react? How would your life be different?
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 IssuesThe 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 SustainabilityGlobal 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
How are social problems understood and experienced differently around the world? How can seeing beyond our own assumptions help us better understand the lives and challenges of diverse people? In this course, we develop an anthropological toolkit for understanding major world problems including violence, disaster, and food systems. Taking examples from around the world, we discuss how everyday people navigate their lives and attempt to address societal changes amid constraint. Course assignments include weekly open book content quizzes, weekly discussion participation, three pre-writing exercises and three short papers applying course concepts to recent world events.
International and Global IssuesArts 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 ArtsClimate change is likely the most significant public health challenge facing the world. In this course, you will learn about the science and impact of climate change and environmental policy on the world’s health. You will understand linkages between the climate crisis and global energy policy, population, poverty, and disease. The course will help you understand strategies for addressing, adapting, and mitigating problems relating to our changing planet and will prepare you to listen to all voices, advocates and skeptics, with a critical ear. You will discover actions big and small that you can take to make a difference. Grades are decided based on attendance (10%), 5 quizzes (50%), team presentations (20%), and a final exam (20%). This course meets a requirement for the Sustainability Certificate.
International and Global Issues SustainabilityHave 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 IssuesMore 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 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 IssuesIntroduction 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 IssuesLanguage and Globalization 3 s.h.
The effects of globalization on language use and structure; the future of linguistic diversity; applying concepts of sustainability to language endangerment and language revival.
The contemporary world has become more fully integrated. Barriers that once isolated us from each other have become less significant. Geographical distance no longer acts as an impediment to interaction, and economic linkages and technological advances have promoted interconnectedness and created new networks for communication. These developments have significant implications for the status, the function and the structure of languages. In this course, we will look at the role of language in the processes of globalization and the impact that globalization has on language. The theme of globalization will provide us with an opportunity to investigate a number of relevant issues, including the future of language diversity, the impact of contemporary technology on language and approaching language loss as a sustainability issue. Course requirements include four on-line quizzes, four short written assignments (1-2 pages), a PowerPoint profile of a language community that is dealing with language decline, a final exam and regular discussion posts.
International and Global IssuesCities Across the World 3 s.h.
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 IssuesSurvey 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 IssuesThe 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 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 IssuesThe 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 IssuesSport 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