Global Studies Courses

Semester specific course descriptions

101. Introduction to Global Studies I: Political Economy.
This course introduces students to the reasons for the emergence of a global political economy. Using case studies, students will examine the basic concepts and vocabulary in the political-economic analysis of globalization such as free trade, capital accumulation, 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.

102. Introduction to Global Studies II: Race,Culture, Identity.
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. Students will be introduced to various theoretical and political positions on identity, including essentialism, social construction, strategic essentialism, hybridity and 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.” Also offered through Caribbean and Latin American Studies.

221. Global Ecology and Global Political Economy.
This seminar will address how processes of contemporary globalization shape and reshape the nature of ecological questions. What is entailed in the construction of an ecological perspective that is sensitive not only to the pressures on the Earth imposed by global capital accumulation, but also to the tradition of the oppressed in their everyday struggles for social justice? The course will examine why social movements concerning women’s issues, the environment, poor people and civil rights are increasingly seeing social and political ecology as fundamental to their long-term strategies. It will compare the ways environmental questions have been raised in different geographical spaces of the world economy.

222. Asian Political Economy in the Global Age.
The seminar will cover the geographical and historical rise of East Asian economies in the context of “quasi-states” in the world economy, the spectacular economic growth of China and the social and economic crisis gripping South Asia in the context of contemporary debates about neo-liberalism, gender, identity, community and communalism. What are the prospects for East and South Asia in the new global millennium? Topics covered will include regional perspectives on global capital accumulation, global inequalities, human rights discourse, fundamentalism and social movements. Also offered through Asian Studies.

225. Marx's Critique of Political Economy
This is an introductory reading-intensive seminar on Karl Marx’s hugely influential critique of political economy. The object of the course is to try to work through the path of argument in volume 1 of Capital.  How does Marx elaborate upon the concept of critique? How is Capital a work of critique? How do contemporary transformations in global political economy relate to Marx’s critique of political economy? Other works by Marx may be used insofar as they help us obtain a deeper purchase into Capital.

230. Secrets and Lies: Nationalism, Violence and Memory.
This course explores the complex, power-laden, often painful processes through which nations come to grips — or fail to come to grips — with their violent pasts. All national communities are, on some level, established and maintained through violence; consequently, the complex question of how to remember (or forget) especially intense periods of violence is as widespread as the phenomenon of nationalism itself. The question becomes even more complex when we recognize that every national community contains within it multiple sub- and transnational communities, each of which contains a multitude of experiences of violence. The fact that all of these experiences are intertwined makes the question of memory all the more pressing and difficult. Truth commissions, war crimes trials, museums, memorials, debates about reparations, new outbreaks of violence, local efforts to overcome the legacies of violence — all of these testify to the central role that nationalism, violence and memory continue to play across the globe.

245. Japanese Culture and the West.
This course explores the dynamics of Japanese culture, old and new, high and low, within itself and in relation to other cultures, particularly the West. Its approach is broadly comparative: “interdisciplinary” to examine the interrelationships among different arts and cultural phenomena in the Japanese society, and “intercultural” to study the mutual relationships and influences between Japan and western countries. Each topic will be put in wide historical, religious, social and artistic contexts, in search of its contemporary meanings and expression.

250. La Frontera: Cultural Identities on the Mexican— U.S. Borderland.
This course investigates the cultural expressions derived from the interactions among people on both sides of the Mexico-U.S. border. The goal of the course is to understand the different ways in which immigration, drug smuggling and transnational industries affect the everyday lives of borderlanders. This course will take both historical and critical approaches to the cultural expressions, whether music, images or other forms of discourse, that have served as mechanisms to mediate the contradictions arising out of the border. Also offered through Native American Studies.

255. Popular Culture.
This introductory course is designed to introduce students to key themes in the study of popular media and to debates about the role of media in contemporary societies. Students will be introduced to methodologies used to study culture and asked to apply them to case studies from music, sports, comics, fashion, television, cyberculture, film or advertising. Emphasis will be placed on various cultural expressions of ethnic subcultures in the United States and their complex negotiations with the dominant culture and their co-resisters in a global/local struggle over meaning.

260. Transnational Migration.
This course focuses on international migration in the context of restructuring in the contemporary global system. Students will gain a global perspective on the nature of migration movements, why they take place and how they affect migrating peoples, as well as the societies receiving them. Themes include a) transnationalism and new approaches to national identity and citizenship; b) migration as a social network-driven process; c) gendered migration; d) migration and the formation of ethnic minorities. This course analyzes some of the ways in which transnational movements of people, goods and services between particular cities affect and transform the relationships between cities and nations. This course will also explore the political meaning of contemporary nationalism, including the politics of identity, embodiment and community, and the possibilities of new forms of citizenship, such as aboriginal citizenship, sexual citizenship, cultural citizenship. The orientation of the course is to approach citizenship from its constituted others, strangers, outsiders and aliens, and how space enables the formation of these identities. Particular emphasis will be placed on the (trans)formations of Latino identities in the U.S. due to the processes of colonialisms, nationalisms, and postcoloniality.

290. Global Studies Research Methods.
This course introduces students to approaches that take into account the economic and political context of the production of culture, textual analysis and people’s perceptions. The objectives of this course are to examine the philosophy and epistemology of qualitative methods, to understand various approaches to qualitative research, to develop the skills to design a qualitative research project, to gather and analyze qualitative data, and to present the preliminary findings. For the final course project, students will produce a research design for their SYE independent projects and apply research strategies covered in the course to their own particular research questions. This course emphasizes the importance of critical awareness of the practical, social and ethical issues that arise in doing cultural and social analysis and research in everyday settings.

301. Theories of Global Political Economy.
This course explores the complex relationship between states and economies at the global level. Its primary purpose is to provide a critical understanding of the major theoretical and analytical issues that constitute the crucial challenge to the study of global political economy today. The course will address such questions as, How did the present global order emerge? What are its central features, and who benefits and loses from its operations? How have the global systems of production and finance affected individuals and communities across the world? The course will illustrate theories about the ways 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. This course will move beyond the traditional agenda of international political economy, namely trade and investment, to address a wide range of alternative theories, concepts and themes, including the origins, functions and impacts of transnational corporations, international financial institutions, regional and global trade organizations and non-governmental organizations involved in social movements. Prerequisite: Global Studies 101.

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. Prerequisite: Global Studies 101 or 102.

330. Palestinian 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.

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 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; and the skills and support necessary to carry out ethnographic and cultural studies on sense of place. Also offered as Anthropology 331.

333. Ethics of Global Citizenship.
This research seminar is designed to address, from a philosophical perspective, some of the difficult ethical questions arising from the global organization of the world in which we live. Readings will include classical, non-western and alternative theories of justice and peace. The course will interrogate the discourses surrounding patriotism and cosmopolitanism, peace and violence, terrorism and war, justice and retribution, and the debates surrounding relativism versus universalism, especially with regard to the claims for human rights. The course will ask students to integrate their previous coursework and their experiences studying abroad with the large philosophical questions of global citizenship. Thus students will undertake research projects dealing with the ways these issues are being negotiated in the countries where they studied abroad, and they will develop ethical positions on their own responsibilities toward global citizenship.

336. Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity.
This research seminar will draw on students’ experiences in off-campus programs to undertake comparative analysis of a series of regional case studies, initially drawn from the Caribbean and North American region, then moving outward to include the areas class members have studied and lived in. Students will produce a series of research projects on the country in which they have lived or studied abroad and they will use their research for class presentations. A significant portion of the readings will critically examine dominant U.S. assumptions about race, ethnicity, and culture, including “whiteness.” The course will pay particular attention to the interrelations between gender and race in different regions, especially as this is revealed through attitudes toward miscegenation and mixed-race identities.

340. Global News Analysis.
In a world increasingly linked by electronic media, the consumption of news reports remains a primary vehicle for learning about current events in faraway places. Given the cultural power held by the mass media in general, it is essential that we develop the tools necessary to be critical readers and viewers of the news. In this course we pursue this goal by examining the production and reception of mainstream U.S. coverage of global news events, paying special attention to coverage of political violence. We also compare U.S. coverage with English-language news coverage produced elsewhere. In the process, we explore deeper issues concerning discourse, ideology and the representation of “other” cultures; the relationship between media power, corporate power, and state power; and the role of institutions in defining the bounds of “legitimate” knowledge.

346. China in the Modern World-System.
This seminar will situate contemporary transformations in “Greater China” — Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan — in a world historical perspective as well as within East Asian regional perspectives. It will engage with theses on the geographical centrality of China as a “Middle Kingdom” in a “maritime Asia” connected by networks of tribute and long-distance trading relations. The seminar will review developments in modern China since 1949, and critically examine the period of post-modern reforms that have spilt over into 21st-century political economy. What is China’s contemporary trajectory? The seminar will seek a comprehensive purchase on contemporary and historical East Asian developmental paths, in the context of alternative possible futures for some of the most urgent problems confronting global political economy.

357. Postcolonial Theory and Literature.
This course deals with the predominantly English-language literary texts produced outside the center of the British Empire, center being understood as both a place and a cultural tradition. It also deals with the socio-historical context of colonialism, anti-colonialism, post-colonialism, globalization and neo-colonialism, and the considerable body of theoretical writing that analyzes the condition of post-colonial subjectivity. Also offered as English 357 and Philosophy 357.

367. Feminist Postcolonial Theory.
Postcolonial theory addresses issues of identity, culture, literature and history arising from the social context of colonization, resistance to colonization, liberation from colonization, and the formation of new nations. It crosses the boundaries of the social sciences and humanities in its approach to theory and analysis of the discourses used to constitute colonial and postcolonial subjects. Because nation formation tends to mandate a united sense of identity, the contributions and identities of women and minority peoples are often erased in the evolution of postcolonial nationalisms. In this course we begin with some classic texts of postcolonial theory before moving to a focus on specifically feminist debates and texts within postcolonial studies. Literature and film are used in dialog with theoretical texts to examine questions about gender and women’s issues in various societies. Also offered as English 367 and Philosophy 367.

390. Independent Study.

489,490. SYE: Senior Project

498,499. SYE: Honors Project