International and Global Studies
Website: igs.sewanee.edu
The major in international and global studies involves the interdisciplinary study of global processes as they play out in various parts of the world. Students learn that cultural borrowing, border crossing, and interdependence are not new, but that these processes operate today at a heightened pace and degree of complexity. The combination of coursework, abroad experience, and language learning fosters students’ successful navigation of this complex globalized world.
Assistant Professors Asiedu-Acquah, Dragojevic, Minkin, Nimis
Associate Professors Beinek, N. Roberts, Rung
Professors Murdock (Chair), Sanchez-Imizcoz
Instructor Wairungu
Planning a Program of Study
The minimal degree requirements for students majoring in IGS consist of ten full courses, an abroad experience, language training, and a comprehensive exercise to be completed in the senior seminar. All students must take INGS 200 (typically taken in the spring of the sophomore year), and INGS 400 (always taken in the fall of the senior year). The remaining eight courses are electives distributed as described below under “options.” No independent study courses will be counted toward the major.
Options
The eight elective courses must be distributed evenly between thematic and geographic subcategories with no fewer than two courses in any single subcategory, and no more than four in any single subcategory. Students may not split both thematic and geographic subcategories. IGS is intentionally interdisciplinary and therefore no more than four of the eight elective courses may be taken from any one department with the exception of courses with the INGS prefix. The chart below illustrates the range of three elective distribution options available to students:
| Options | Thematic Sub-category | Geographic Sub-category |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 4 |
| 2 | 4 | 2/2 |
| 3 | 2/2 | 4 |
Study Abroad Requirement
The ideal abroad experience is one that allows students to experience a semester-long immersion in a cultural, social, and linguistic milieu different from their own. However, IGS majors also spend summers abroad studying, doing research or an internship, or work. Many have more than one abroad experience, combining a semester of study abroad with summer internships or other kinds of work. Whatever abroad experience is chosen, the location must take place in the geographic area of focus in the major, and the abroad experience must be completed by the fall of the senior year. IGS will accept a total of three elective courses from a semester abroad, and four elective courses from a year abroad, as well as any language courses taken. Exceptions to the abroad experience for reasons of financial hardship are granted through the mechanism of a written petition addressed to the IGS Program Committee.
Language Requirement
The language training requirement is as follows: 1) for students having completed a 300-level language course for general education, one additional language course must be taken in any language at any level; or 2) for students having taken the “culture” option for general education, TWO additional foreign language courses in any language at any level must be completed for IGS. No course with the “G6 Culture” attribution will meet any part of the language requirement for IGS. If any of the eight distributed electives are taken in a foreign language, then these count toward the language course(s) required for the major. If none of the eight distributed electives is taken in a foreign language, then additional language courses must be taken.
Requirements for the Major in International and Global Studies
The major requires successful completion of one of the following options:
Option 1
| Code | Title | Semester Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Course Requirements | ||
| INGS 200 | Introduction to International and Global Studies 1 | 4 |
| INGS 400 | Senior Seminar 2 | 4 |
| Select four courses in a single thematic sub-category (such as Global Culture and Society) 3 | 16 | |
| Select four courses in a single geographic sub-category (such as Asia) 3 | 16 | |
| Total Semester Hours | 40 | |
| Code | Title | Semester Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Additional Requirements | ||
| A comprehensive examination 4 | ||
| Foreign language | ||
| Study abroad | ||
Option 2
| Code | Title | Semester Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Course Requirements | ||
| INGS 200 | Introduction to International and Global Studies 1 | 4 |
| INGS 400 | Senior Seminar 2 | 4 |
| Select four courses in a single thematic sub-category (such as Global Culture and Society) 3 | 16 | |
| Select four courses split between two geographic sub-categories (such as Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe) 3 | 16 | |
| Total Semester Hours | 40 | |
| Code | Title | Semester Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Additional Requirements | ||
| A comprehensive examination 4 | ||
| Foreign language | ||
| Study abroad | ||
Option 3
| Code | Title | Semester Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Course Requirements | ||
| INGS 200 | Introduction to International and Global Studies 1 | 4 |
| INGS 400 | Senior Seminar 2 | 4 |
| Select four courses split between two thematic sub-categories (such as Global Culture and Society and Global Politics) 3 | 16 | |
| Select four courses in a single geographic sub-category (such as Russia and Eurasia) 3 | 16 | |
| Total Semester Hours | 40 | |
| Code | Title | Semester Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Additional Requirements | ||
| A comprehensive examination 4 | ||
| Foreign language | ||
| Study abroad | ||
| 1 | INGS 200 should be taken in the sophomore year. |
| 2 | INGS 400 should be taken in the fall of the senior year. |
| 3 | No more than four of the eight elective courses may be taken from any one department. |
| 4 | Each student completes a comprehensive exercise in the first semester of their senior year in INGS 400. The comprehensive consists of a thesis written in INGS 400 that integrates students’ thematic and geographic areas of focus, and a public presentation of the thesis. |
Honors
In October of their senior year, students may apply for honors if they have a 3.50 grade point average in the major. To apply, students submit a project proposal to the department chair for a 35-page paper to be written in consultation with and evaluated for honors by two members of the IGS faculty. If the proposal is approved, students will register for a full course (INGS 405) taken in the second semester of the senior year. Honors theses must be completed and presented in a public forum in April of the senior year.
Requirements for the Minor in International and Global Studies
The minor requires successful completion of the following:
| Code | Title | Semester Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Course Requirements | ||
| INGS 200 | Introduction to International and Global Studies | 4 |
| Select two courses from a single thematic sub-category (such as Global Politics) | 8 | |
| Select two courses from a single geographic sub-category (such as Europe) | 8 | |
| Total Semester Hours | 20 | |
International and Global Studies Courses
INGS 100 Media and Globalization (4)
This course introduces students to some of the most significant sources contributing to shared cultural patterns in our globalizing world. It uses a variety of contemporary media, including documentary and narrative film, digital media, hip hop music, and other cultural expressions to examine and explore local/global dynamics, cross-border flows, and changing identities and values. Students learn to analyze the relationship between media forms and cultural contexts in many different parts of the world. The preparation of multi-media projects enables students to understand the construction of such cultural expressions.
INGS 101 Geopolitics of Everyday Life (4)
In this course, students examine ways that their day-to-day lives, including their activities, their relationships, and the spaces around them, are informed by international politics and territorial conflict. A variety of case studies supplement the course readings and help students analyze experiences of war, citizenship, migration, nationalism, security, and globalization in local contexts around the world, including their own.
INGS 102 …†‡ˆ and the World was Round: Sixteenth-Century Roots of Globalization (4)
This course examines the first circumnavigation of the globe during the 16th century and considers how the two maritime empires of the time, Spain and Portugal, spawned not only the opening of new routes of commerce and the development of cartography but also the very idea of globalization.
INGS 103 The Global Detective (4)
This course examines the globalization of terrorism, environmental problems, and immigration through fiction. Readings include Olivier Truc's Forty Days without Shadow, Maj Sjowall's and Per Wahlöö's The Terrorists, and Eva Dolan's Long Way Home.
INGS 200 Introduction to International and Global Studies (4)
A course concerned with analyzing how international and global integration shape local development. After reflecting on this integration during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and its impact on nation-state formation and economic development, students analyze the construction of the post-World War II international system around the Bretton-Woods institutions. Attention is also given to how international norms pertaining to human rights and democracy apply to diverse countries during the current period of globalization, and to how transnational linkages shape economic and cultural transformations. The course concludes with discussion of living abroadincluding topics such as language acquisition and personal transformation. Required core course for IGS majors. Open only to sophomores.
INGS 201 African Youth Cultures in Post-Colonial Urban Africa (4)
This course focuses on how African urban youth confront the challenges of postcolonial life and the forces of globalization, through examination of local and global cultural and linguistic patterns in major African cities. It interrogates the social practices that characterize African urban youth culture, questioning how these practices and youth identities contrast with those socially-ascribed within local cultural frameworks. The course draws reading material from contemporary literature on youth culture, globalization, and social change in Africa. It also uses African films to showcase the opportunities and challenges brought about by the globalization of youth culture in Africa.
INGS 203 Sociolinguistics of Africa (4)
This course introduces learners to key concepts and topics in sociolinguistics with a regional focus of Africa. The concept of globalization is at the core of this course, specifically looking at how African languages and cultures have been impacted by socio-political and economic forces of globalization such as colonialism, urbanization, mass and social media, formal education and market-economy. The course also focuses on the role of language in the formation of nation-states in Africa, the structural effects that African languages have on "foreign" languages like English and French, and what speakers of African languages think of their utility in the context of globalization. Reading materials focus on language communities living in Africa, in the diaspora and in the technology-mediated "virtual" world. No prior knowledge of sociolinguistics is required in order to enroll in this course, but some knowledge about African languages and cultures is an added advantage.
INGS 204 Representing Egypt (4)
This course studies the role of representation in the negotiation of identity and power by mapping efforts across a variety of media to express and evaluate the dramatic developments in Egypt leading up to, and since, the "revolution" of 2011. The course introduces students to some of the most salient symbols, language, and narratives of the Arab Spring and their relationship to broader global discourses. Through the development of technical skills in photographic, video and audio acquisition, editing, and presentation, students deepen their understanding of how the structuring of content can shift the impact of a given piece.
INGS 207 Globalization, Popular Culture, and Politics in West Africa (4)
This course explores the relationship between popular culture and politics in the context of globalization in West African societies. It focuses on how popular sport, music, dance, film and other forms of popular culture and recreation inform and shape political action and participation. Long a meeting point of global and local currents, West Africa allows for examining how the creative mixing of local and foreign ideas and practices facilitates nationalism and democratic citizenship, enables hitherto marginal political players such as youth, and offers the possibility of transformation in the social politics of gender and generational relations.
INGS 208 West and Central Africa in the Atlantic World (4)
This course examines the implications of West and Central Africa's relations with and influences on the wider Atlantic world from the late 15th century, focusing on political formation, trade and socioeconomic change, and cultural interactions in Atlantic Africa. The course also considers topics such as diaspora, colonialism, decolonization, transnational social movements, democratization, development, migration, popular culture, tourism, and the global ramifications of West and Central Africa's integration into the Atlantic world.
INGS 301 The Global Financial Crisis: Causes and Effects (4)
This course introduces students to some prominent ways of theorizing the contemporary global financial architecture. It foregrounds global financial crisis in order to chart the historical role of finance, or investment capital, in shaping the economic forces of globalization. Exploring the theoretical and practical role that financial investment plays in capitalism and economic growth, the course investigates whether this role has changed with the greater economic integration and capital mobility associated with "neoliberal globalization." This course has a strong theoretical and political economy orientation, while remaining in conversation with approaches represented in cultural studies, human geography, gender and postcolonial studies. Students can thus understand "capital investment" not merely as a financial bet on the future, but as an emotional and psychological one as well.
INGS 302 Global Cities (4)
This course reviews recent literature regarding the emergence of "global cities" as central nodes in the global network economy. Whether conceptualized as hubs for information technology circuits or as points of financial and cultural exchange and mediation, cities are being increasingly understood and analyzed in their own right, in a framework that foregrounds "the urban" as the primary unit of analysis (as opposed to the "national" or "international."). The city, as a central site of socio-spatial transformation, is thus envisioned to be a central feature of globalization. This course considers the literature on "global cities" as well as writings that use "the urban" as a lens for analyzing global processes.
INGS 303 Transition to Democracy: The Case of East Germany, 1989 (4)
This course provides a complex picture of the stability and instability of political regimes, using the case of Germany in 1989 to illustrate larger issues raised by the Eastern European transition. Students are introduced to theories regarding the emergence of political protest and social movements, as well as the structural framework behind the rapid change. This course also examines the perspectives of actors such as the refugee movement, churches, the civil rights movement, the political elite, and reformers. Finally, students learn about contemporary views of the transition, especially levels of satisfaction with the achievements of Western society (in comparison to the past Eastern one) and future expectations.
INGS 304 Politics and Society in Modern India (4)
This course introduces and contextualizes some major issues pertinent to understanding how politics and society function in contemporary India. Beginning with the historical encounter between the British and various groups on the Indian subcontinent, the course explores the development of anti-colonial nationalism and subsequent independence. Most attention, however, is focused on the postcolonial period, and particularly on problems of economic development, caste and religious identities, democratic politics in a pluralist society, secularism, rural and urban society, the advent of economic liberalization over the past quarter century, and the impact on India of globalization.
INGS 305 Narrating Place/Space in Contemporary World Film (4)
This course examines some of the most acclaimed international feature films of the past decade, with focus on how geographical places and spaces are constructed, narrated, and visualized in cinema. Class films represent many cultures and languages from around the world, thus inviting students to ponder broader issues of multiculturalism, globalization, and otherness. Among topics discussed are the possibilities and limits of cinematic representation of places/spaces, cultures, nations, historical events, memory, gender, ethnicity, race, and private/public realms. Students also learn about basic film theory terms, chief critical approaches to film criticism, and ways of writing about film.
INGS 306 Spain in the European Union (4)
A study of contemporary Spain and its participation in the European Community. Topics include sovereignty, national identity, and supranational governance; international organization theory; EU political organization, the role of the Parliament, Council, and commission; parties and elections; political economy, regional economic blocs, and the EU currency union with special attention given to the ongoing debt crisis; and immigration, and immigration policy. Attention is also given to Spain's role as bridge between the European Union and Latin America. Prerequisite: Approval of the Sewanee in Spain program director required..
INGS 307 Polish Film (4)
An introduction to the history of Polish cinema, in historical and cultural context, from the 1950s to present day. In addition to discussing major schools such as the Cinema of Moral Anxiety, as well as influential directors such as Wajda, Pola?ski, and Kie?lowski, the course focuses on important issues of Polish culture: its location at the crossroads of East and West; its complex narratives of history, memory, and trauma; and its transformations in the aftermath of Communism's fall in 1989. Polish cinema also serves as starting point for a broader discussion of the possibilities and limits of artistic representation of nations, cultures, historical events, and gender/class/ethnic relation. Finally, the course reviews basic film theory terms, main critical approaches to film criticism, and ways of writing about film.
INGS 308 Body Film: Representing the Body in Contemporary World Cinema (4)
An exploration of diverse ways of representing and conceptualizing the human body in contemporary world cinema. Starting with the premise that the body is both the material reality experienced each day as well as an enigma impossible to capture through the intellectual discourses of philosophy/science or the creative endeavors of literature/arts, the course invites students to analyze the myriad of body images supplied by twenty-first-century films from around the globe. Main topics of interest are the body and mind/soul dichotomy, gendered bodies, body and the discourse of desire, body as text, body and cognition, body and trauma, politics of the body, metamorphoses of the body, persons and things, and bodies in the cybernetic age. The course's theoretical component includes reading by Bakhtin, Baudrillard, Butler, Bourdieu, Foucault, Goffman, Grosz, and Haraway.
INGS 309 Society and Culture in Zambia (4)
The course examines the major cultural traditions and historical trajectory of Zambia, a southern African country. Through lectures by Zambian professors and joint class sessions with Zambian students, the course covers Zambian history, cultural norms and gender relations. It also explores how ethnicity, class, and religion shape society and development. Students interact directly with social and cultural institutions through homestays with Zambian families, community engagement in rural and urban settings, and attendance at religious services. Visits to historical sites, cultural events, museums, and festivals in Zambia's Central, Copperbelt, and Southern regions are included.
INGS 310 Brazilian Tropicália: The Myth and Reality of an Emerging Power (4)
A comprehensive study of perhaps the most democratic and developed of the so-called BRIC nations. Readings and topics include Brazilian history; political institutions and parties; the economy; social movements; ethnic diversity (including indigenous, Portuguese and African influences on Brazilian culture and society); sustainability and the environment; the planned city of Brasilia; literature; music; art; salient political and cultural figures. Conducted as an on-site, study abroad summer offering.
INGS 311 Islam and Ecology (4)
Based on a study of classical and contemporary Islamic texts, this course considers how narrative and language contribute to shaping distinct ecological world views. The course raises questions of how sacred narratives and concepts shape the way that Muslims experience the natural world and value different elements of their environment. The course also considers the efforts of contemporary Muslim environmental activists to change the relationship of humanity to natural resources and surroundings with reference to the Islamic faith.
INGS 312 Africa and the West Since 1800 (4)
This course surveys the historical relationship between Africa and the West from the age of Abolition in the early 19th century through the colonial and post-colonial periods. Several broad questions are addressed including: What were the political, economic, social, cultural, and intellectual implications of this relationship? To what extent and in what ways is this historical relationship implicated in Africa's postcolonial, but some would argue, neocolonial present? Has Africa played any role in the evolution of the cultural and geo-political phenomenon called the West? This course emphasizes the agency of Africans in their interactions with the West even as it delves into how Africans have been shaped by this relationship.
INGS 313 "Foreigners" of the Middle East (4)
With a focus on the Arab Middle East, Turkey, and Iran during the late Ottoman and colonial eras, this course asks questions about belonging. In particular, it looks at the relationships between national, ethnic, religious, racial, gender and/or socio-economic affiliations in creating and concretizing "foreignness" and minorities. This course considers what categorized a community or persons as "foreign", when and how these categories changed, and how "foreign" communities and individuals influenced the changing political, economic, and cultural landscape of the Middle East.
INGS 314 The History of Current Events in the Middle East (4)
This course uses current events in the Middle East as a framework through which to think about global history and its impact on the present day. This course focuses on the news through both an international and an American lens alongside historical questions and scholarship that illuminate present-day events. Course goals include a mastery of key global issues in the Middle East as well as the tools to interact with newsmakers and policy makers through interrogation and discussion of the interconnected world around us.
INGS 316 Global Migration and Border Crises (4)
An examination of the ways in which global migrations are represented as crises and of the spatial significance of borders. Focusing on three representative spaces—˜the United States-Mexico border, the Mediterranean-European Union border, and the Balkans-European Union border—˜the course considers theories of and journalistic discourse on migration as well as aesthetic representations of migration in literature, art, and film.
INGS 400 Senior Seminar (4)
An interdisciplinary seminar required of all seniors in international and global studies. Shared readings on key topics and concepts in globalization are discussed in relation to students' geographic concentration and abroad experiences. Additionally, each student produces and presents a major research paper related to the student's course work as well as abroad experience and language study. This seminar is normally offered in the fall, in part to reintegrate majors who were abroad in the spring or summer as well as to draw best on the abroad experience while still fresh. This course also serves as the writing intensive credit within the major. Open only to seniors pursuing majors in international and global studies.
INGS 405 Honors Thesis (4)
An independently-configured course that students undertake for the purpose of writing an Honors Thesis with direction from an honors advisor and further advice from a second reader. Requires also a public presentation of the thesis. Prerequisite: Professor consent and prerequisite override required.
INGS 406 From Berlin to Addis Ababa: Africa and International Summitry (4)
This course explores the significance of international summitry for Africa, from the Berlin Conference of 1884/85 to the 1963 founding conference of the Organization of African Unity in Addis Ababa. The course brings into conversation different traditions and moments in this long history of summitry. The course examines the origins, activities, key actors, and afterlives of these summits. The summits will also be focal points for examining how their attendant international movements and themes have shaped the evolution of international society and global politics.
INGS 444 Independent Study (2 or 4)
An independent study offered in the international and global studies program may not be counted toward the major. May be repeated for credit. Open only to students pursuing majors in international and global studies. Prerequisite: Professor consent and prerequisite override required.