Course descriptions for Global Studies

Studies a particular topic in Global Studies. May be repeated for credit when topics vary.

Individualizes student placement for field study as related to global studies. Offered as interest warrants.

Student and faculty member select topic of study and number of credits. Offered as interest warrants.

Looks at contemporary political life by recognizing the public, historical, and political dimensions of daily life. Examines American government and politics by analyzing historical and political events that affect people's daily lives. Focuses on power, control, alienation, decision making, and obedience to the laws and structures that govern people's lives. (Offered fall and spring semesters.)

Seeks to place the historical experience of the United States in a comparative and global framework. Compares selected themes in US history (colonial experience, revolution, slavery, racial conflict, industrialization) with similar experiences elsewhere in the world. Focuses attention on US interaction with other regions of the world through immigration, imperialism, and the emergence of the United States as a global superpower. (Offered spring semester.)

Explores the history of humankind from the Paleolithic Era of gathering and hunting societies to the early modern era of the centuries following 1500. Focuses on the great agricultural civilizations of the pre-modern world, on comparisons between them, and on connections among them. (Offered fall and spring semesters.)

This course aims to introduce students to some of the primary issues and topics of globalization through fiction, music, memoir, and film. Many of the films and readings present the perspectives of those who are caught in the challenging world of "global flows and disjunctures", where people, ideas, money, and technologies move quickly around the world, but in unequal and random ways that cause poverty, violence, and social dysfunction/breakdown. Somewhere in between are stories of those who have learned how to negotiate globalization, appropriating its forces in modes of resistance that force a rethinking of its structures and ethics. In reacting to and analyzing various expressions of their global peers, and the decisions that confront them, students will address Ethics ULR requirements by examining the ethics of globalization and "global citizenship." Students will also engage in a robust writing and oral presentation experience as they fulfill the Engcom B ULR requirements.

Reviews salient periods of U.S. territorial expansion from the Mexican-American war to the declared and undeclared interventions to the present. Analyzes domestic and international charges of neo-colonialism and economic imperialism versus recurrent open calls for a civilizing American Empire, benign conquest, humanitarian interventions, and regime change. (Offered only as interest warrants.)

Introduces students to the global studies major, its requirements, outcomes, activities, and how these are achieved and assessed. Helps students acquire and develop the knowledge, skills, and understanding needed to fulfill Major Learning Outcomes. Assesses students' prior learning, special skills, learning styles, career, and goals to create a global studies faculty approved learning plan. Also introduces students to research methods for Global Studies. Required for GS majors. (Offered fall semester.)

Offered as interest warrants.

Examines contemporary and historical processes of globalization from a variety of perspectives: conceptual, historical, geographic, economic, political, cultural, and sociological. Covers how capitalism, Western imperialism, colonialism, nationalism, racism, sexual exploitation, religion, environmental destruction, war, trade, technological development, international agreements, social movements, democratization, human rights, and popular struggles for social justice and equity have shaped the global order. (Offered fall and spring semesters.)

Focuses on U.S. foreign policy in the Asia Pacific region, the Caribbean, Central America, and selected developing countries. Pays particular attention to U.S. diplomatic, economic, and military relations with Korea, China, Japan, Viet Nam, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Island countries, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Panama, El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Liberia, and Iraq. (Offered fall semester.)

Explores the "modern" era of World History since roughly 1500. Highlights the mounting "globalization" of the world's diverse societies, the emergence of a new and distinctly "modern" way of life, the growing prominence of Europeans on the world stage, and the various forms of resistance to Western dominance. (Offered fall semester.)

Identifies and critiques various important global issues that have particularly adverse effects on the Global South countries. Students comprehend, analyze, and evaluate the role played in the Third World or Global South by the more powerful states, corporations and civil society of the First World or Global North. (Offered spring semester.)

Reviews salient periods of U.S. territorial expansion from the Mexican-American war to the declared and undeclared interventions to the present. Analyzes domestic and international charges of neo-colonialism and economic imperialism versus recurrent open calls for a civilizing American Empire, benign conquest, humanitarian interventions, and regime change. (Offered only as interest warrants.)

Introduces diverse philosophical, ideological, religious, spiritual, scientific, technological, and gender views or perspectives. Focuses on the similarities and differences between worldviews and how those people interact with the world. Students study the adverse effects of ethnocentrism, reflect on their own worldview, and empathize with people with differing worldviews. (Offered fall semester.)

Compares the dominant forms of government that have endured into the 21st century and the political ideologies and economic institutions that have created them. Addresses the contest over emerging forms of global governance embodied in the two poles of neo-liberal corporate commercial/financial institutions (WTO/IMF/World Bank) on one side, and a growing global network of civil society alliances that have arisen to challenge them on the other. Examines issues of national sovereignty. Covers the K-12 History/Social Science Content Standards. (Offered only as interest warrants.)

Examines on a global scale how contemporary media of mass communications influence human values, events, issues, ideas, identities, opinions, government policies, consumer behavior, social relations, and ultimately the destiny of humanity. Students develop their media literacy and ability to critically evaluate the importance and effects of technologies and the communications media on contemporary economic, political, and cultural life at the global, national, and local levels. (Offered only as interest warrants.)

Introduces students to selected political theories and philosophies and discusses how, where, and when they have influenced intellectual thought and cultural practices in the past and the present. Explores political philosophies from different parts of the world and connects them to relative climates of social diversity, political dissent, and religious tolerance. Examines the relationship between political thought and the problem of identification-individual, cultural, and national. Covers the K-12 History/Social Science Content Standards. (Offered only as interest warrants.)

Students learn how to analyze, and evaluate the role of women and gender violence in global life. Examines gender, race, class, and culture in relation to issues of security, power, production, reproduction, and activism in global life and related forms of violence. (Offered fall semester.)

Studies the history and recent proliferation of politically motivated religious violence and interreligious conflicts-Muslim-Christian, Christian-Jewish, Jewish-Muslim, Hindu-Muslim, Buddhist-Hindu. Investigates religious violence, particularly Christian, Jewish, and Muslim contexts: What are the theories of religious violence? How is it different than other forms of political violence? What is the relationship between religious conflict and nationalism, terrorism? What is a holy war, just war, jihad? Considers religious sources for reconciliation: What are the theological arguments for nonviolence across religion? How have religious actors assisted in peace building in protracted conflicts? (Offered spring semester.)

Examines intercultural communications through a global/historical lens that encompasses encounters in colonial, post-colonial, and global contexts. A series of novels, essays, and short stories from the postcolonial world are read in which the authors project their sense of individual and collective identities formed through the colonial interface and its aftermath. Examines relationships between author/audience and student/text in a cross-cultural dialog. (Offered every semester.)

Students engage in an individual community service learning experience involving some aspect of global/international affairs and/or global/international issues. Prepares students for effective global citizenship in the 21st century and for responsible and effective civic participation in multicultural communities. (Offered only as interest warrants.)

Examines origins of global economy. Analyzes and evaluates the interrelationship among global, political, and economic conditions. Studies global economy through 1) historical development, 2) current patterns of changes, 3) effects of globalization on the quality of life, 4) solutions and alternatives to inequity, and 5) the students' place in the global economy. Examines major structures, processes, and effects of evolving global economy. (Offered every semester.)

Introduces students to core concepts of ecological political economy that focus on the interrelationships between humans and nature in a non-hierarchial manner. Takes an ecological political economy approach to study issues of planetary resources, their distribution, allocation, and concentration. Engages perspectives on conservation of planetary resources referred to as global commons that are beyond the jurisdiction of nation-states, international agreements, and institutions. Engages issues of consumption and the use of resources to analyze alternative accounts of Northern ecological debt and Southern ecological credit. (Offered every spring semester.)

Introduces the workings of the U.S. economy in political and global context. Examines recent changes in income and wealth distribution, as well as economic policies and shifts in power fueling the growing divide between rich and poor. Examines the decline of organized labor, conditions of work, and the current climate of outsourcing jobs, executive excess, defective corporations, and indefinite war. Includes health, education, environment, and consumption and a growing national debt. Shows how ordinary citizens have been reclaiming polluted, bankrupt communities, resources, and human dignity by taking actions to create a Fair Economy. (Offered every other spring semester.)

This learning experience provides a critical examination of the structure, workings, and politics of global governance and global civil society. Students explore interactions between inter-governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, and grassroots organizations working locally and across borders on current issues of local and global import. As they complete their upper division service learning requirement at local organizations, students map their activities in and through networks while engaging network analysis methods.

Integrates study of earth systems with social systems by examining global natural and social systems. Combines perspectives, concepts, and methods of physical, biological, and social sciences in a holistic analysis and evaluation of issues related to resource access, use, pollution, and conservation by human communities locally and globally. Used to denote equivalent courses fulfilled through study abroad, field studies, approved upper-division ESSP courses, and approved graduate courses at MIIS to fulfill GS MLO 9. (Offered every semester.)

Introduces students to the main political concepts and ideologies that constitute the discourse of global politics. Explores the global realm of: 1) interstate and transnational political relations; 2) Western and non-Western schools of thought about international politics; 3) gendered discourses of international relations including contributions from women, especially Global South; 4) environmental politics; and 5) the structure and role of intergovernmental organizations and 6) global security discourses. (Offered spring semester)

Studies a particular topic in Global Studies. May be repeated for credit when topics vary. (Offered as interest warrants.)

Individualizes student placement for field study as related to Global Studies. (Offered as interest warrants.)

Student and faculty member select topic of study and number of credits. (Offered as interest warrants.)

Students synthesize, research, and write a Capstone project that integrates: 1) course-based and experiential learning completed for the major; 2) a major research paper that demonstrates knowledge of theoretical, methodological, and philosophical undercurrent of intellectual production in Global Studies. (Offered spring semester.)

Student and faculty member in consultation select topic of study, reading list, and number of credits. (Offered fall semester.)

Student and faculty member in consultation select topic of study, reading list, and number of credits. (Offered spring semester.)

Offered as interest warrants.

Studies a particular topic in global studies. May be repeated for credit when topics vary. (Offered as interest warrants.)

Individualizes student placement for field study as related to global studies. (Offered as interest warrants.)

Student and faculty member select topic of study and number of credits. (Offered as interest warrants.)