COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Global Studies 101. Introduction to Global Studies I: Political Economy
This course introduces students to the reasons for the emergence of a global political economy. Students will examine the basic concepts and vocabulary in the political-economic analysis of globalization such as free trade, international division of labor, neo-liberalism, privatization, structural adjustment, and sustainable development. The course will explore the consequences of changing patterns of transnational economic and governance structures for nation-states, ecosystems, and people's lives. The repercussions of economic globalization on the international and intranational distribution of power will also be examined. Finally, the course will introduce students to the opposition movements that have formed to contest globalization such as those emerging from labor movements, environmentalism, and feminism. (Professors Collins, Thornton)

Global Studies 102. Introduction to Global Studies II: Intercultural Studies

This course will lead students from an examination of their own identities and social locations to an understanding of how those identities exist in a global matrix of cultural, economic, and political relationships. They will be introduced to various theoretical and political positions on identity, including essentialism, social construction, strategic essentialism, hybridity, multiplicity. This will be done through film and fiction as well as theory with a focus on such differentiating categories of identity as gender, race, ethnicity, class, spirituality, and sexuality. While much of the material will be drawn from the contemporary era, the historical context of European conquest and expansion and the Middle Passage will be used to frame a critical examination of the evolving ideas of “America” and the “West”. (Professors Cornwell, Poethig, Stoddard)

Global Studies 230. Topics in Comparative Nationalism

In this course, students will critically explore some of the most pressing global issues in the study of nationalism, both contemporary and in historical perspective. The course will strike a balance between "classical" theories of nationalism and emerging work from a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives. Students will consider a range of specific cases, and will also use comparative methods to draw out the common issues that unite these cases. Specific topics for the course will vary from one year to the next, but will includes areas such as gender and nationalism; generation and nationalism; anticolonialism; and nationalism, violence, and memory. (Professor Collins)

Global Studies 245. The Making and Unmaking of the Third World
The "third world" is a political construct posing as a geographical one (like North/South, West/non-West) that represents uneven global relations of power. This course will address the metageographical, political, economic and discursive strategies that have maintained global and social ordering from colonialism forward. It will address theories of power and resistance that propose to unmake it. The course is primarily focused on the Asia Pacific. (Professor Poethig)

Global Studies 280. Culture and Ecology
This course introduces the student to the study of human ecology from a global and intercultural perspective. The texts, lectures and films are designed to provide an overview and appreciation of the origins, development and variation of human ecological knowledge and practices around the world, including foraging, subsistence agriculture, pastoralism and intensive and industrial agriculture systems; an introduction to the major concepts and theories of human ecology; an understanding of the concept of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and its relationship to western science especially in the areas of ecosystem conceptualization and modeling, adaptation and resource use and management; a means of evaluating the sustainability and potential applications of indigenous ecological knowledge and practices in contemporary society. Also offered through Native American Studies and Anthropology. (Professor Thornton)

Global Studies 301. Theories of Global Political Economy
The course focuses on political economy at the global level. It will explore such questions as: How did the present global economy emerge? What are its central dynamics and who benefits and loses from its operations? What can we say about its future direction? The course will employ a case study approach to illustrate the ways in which transnational political-economic forces affect local political-economies. It will examine the most significant socioeconomic processes affecting states and markets in a globalized world, especially the processes of trade liberalization and trade blocs, democratization and the erosion of state powers, geopolitical security and insecurity, technological change, and environmental change. Finally, in order for students to grasp the relationship between these global processes and their effects on individuals, communities, and places, the course will examine the primary social institutions that manifest, promote, and resist these political-economic changes. Students will learn of the origins, functions, and impacts of transnational corporations, international financial institutions, transnational trade organizations, and non-governmental social movement organizations.

Global Studies 302. Theories of Cultural Studies

This course will introduce the growing field of cultural studies through an examination of its major theoretical paradigms, particularly as these bear on the question of unequal global power relations. Areas of theory to be explored may include Marxism, critical theory, post-structuralism, feminist theory and emerging work in postmodernism and post-colonial studies. Students will explore a range of strategies for "reading" cultural practices and texts not simply as reflections of reality, but as political interventions, expressions of desire, attempts to persuade and producers of power. Through a combination of theoretical criticism and analysis of specific materials, students will prepare to undertake independent research in global studies with an informed understanding of how cultural studies challenge and enrich traditional social science and humanities approaches. (Professor Collins)

Global Studies 330. Studies in National Identities

This course is devoted to the critical analysis of particular nationalist movements and national identities throughout the world. In addition to relevant theoretical and conceptual work, students will read intensively in the history and contemporary dynamics of nationalism either in a given geographical context (e.g., Algeria, Israel/Palestine) or in a comparative context (e.g., the United States and South Africa). Key themes may include the construction of national histories; the role of anti-colonial

movements and other forms of collective struggle in producing national identities; the relationship between cultural production and national consciousness; and the relationship between "official" and "popular" forms of nationalism. (Professor Collins)

Global Studies 331. The Sense of Place

This course is an interdisciplinary study of place through the social sciences and humanities. Cultural studies of landscape and place incorporate methods, concepts, and perspectives from a number of academic fields. In this course, we will explore a number of these fruitful lines of research in order to achieve an appreciation of place as cultural construction and place-making as an individual and collective process; a

grasp of the basic concepts, literature, and methodological and theoretical approaches relevant to the study of place; the skills and support necessary to carry out ethnographic and cultural studies on sense of place. Also offered as Anthropology 331. (Professor Thornton)

Global Studies 335. Global Gender Violence

Violence is a form of social control that relies on relations of domination. Violence against women has raised particular issues regarding the social, biological/sexual and psychic nature of sexual assault. Feminists offer differing analysis of the forms of violent and violating discipline that impinge on their political, work, sexual/reproductive and spiritual lives. Because this violating social control permeates private and public life, it has become a primary target for women’s advocacy worldwide. This does not mean there is universal agreement on what constitutes a violation or that feminists agree on priorities for advocacy. This course will offer students various positions on violence and sexuality in their particular contexts. Also offered through Gender Studies. (Professor Poethig)

Global Studies 340. Global News Analysis

The United States currently wields a tremendous amount of cultural and political power on the international scene-yet Americans are notoriously uninterested in "foreign affairs." Furthermore, the understanding we have of the historical and cultural contexts in which these "affairs" take place is often quite shallow, particularly in the case of so-called "Third World" contexts. In many cases the knowledge we do have is gained largely through the consumption of television, newspaper, and (increasingly) Internet reports. It is essential, then, that we develop the tools necessary to be critical readers and viewers of the news. In this course, we examine the production and reception of mainstream foreign news reporting in the U.S. Through this specific topic, we explore more general issues concerning ideology, the representation of "other" cultures, and the role of institutions in defining the bounds of legitimate knowledge. Extensive previous knowledge of the actual cases discussed is not required for the course; what is required is an interest is learning more about them, and, more generally, a desire to be an active and critical consumer of "the news." (Professor Collins)