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     … 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)

Through the reading of selected detective novels from around the world, this course examines the globalization of terrorism, environmental problems, and immigration, among other topics. The novels selected will reflect not only the above-mentioned problems, but also how society reacts to them, and how these problems affect us in our lives.

INGS 104     Oil: The Fuel of Globalization  (4)

Using the tangible implications of globalization around the world as a uniting theme, this class will serve as an introductory course for the INGS major, and, as such, explores oil as a primary player in global politics, global capitalism, and global culture and society. It will also serve as an introductory course to GIS mapping techniques, allowing students to unite scientific and humanistic forms of knowledge production.

INGS 105     Globalization and Culture in the Americas  (4)

The course introduces students to the concepts of “culture” and “globalization” with an emphasis on exploring how cultural practices are shaped by border-crossing and other forms of cross-cultural exchange. Specifically, the context of the Americas allows the examination of shared characteristics of early globalization through colonization. The majority of the course then explores the cultural hybridity that results from this process and continues to inform cultural practice in the contemporary period. The size of the “Americas” as a geographic region provides insight into the complexity of “globalization” outcomes that depend upon the diverse economic, social, cultural, and historical contexts in which cross-cultural exchange occurs.

INGS 106     Globalization and Migration in Asia  (4)

This course focuses on migration as a primary means of expansion and intensification of worldwide connections or globalization. Throughout its extended history, Asia has been a vibrant site of international and interregional movement. The proliferation of human, technological, and cultural exports throughout Asia represents the prominence of this trend into the present. Given these ongoing developments, how might we understand globalizing Asia in the early twenty-first century? Drawing on case studies throughout Asia, students will explore this question and learn more about related themes like capitalism, labor migration, citizenship, and nationalism from a global perspective.

INGS 107     Sports in Global Perspective  (4)

From the Olympic games, to American Crossfitters preparing for the “zombie apocalypse,” to female bodybuilders in Iraq, this course examines athletic and symbolic possibilities of the human body in global perspective. The course offers an interdisciplinary approach to analyzing identities, rituals, and power. Case studies from around the world demonstrate how sports intersect with many facets of human experience such as gender, politics, and religion. Theories of power illuminate how the sporting body can be a site of critical resistance to ongoing violence within patriarchy, capitalism, and colonialism.

INGS 108     Globalization and Culture in Africa  (4)

The course introduces students to the concepts of “culture” and “globalization” with an emphasis on exploring how cultural practices are shaped by border-crossing and other forms of cross-cultural exchange. Specifically, the context of Africa allows the examination of shared characteristics of globalization through colonization and other historical developments. The majority of the course then explores the cultural hybridity and heterogeneity that result from this process and continue to inform cultural practice in the contemporary period. Africa as a geographic region provides insight into the complexity of “globalization” outcomes that depend upon the diverse economic, social, cultural, and historical contexts in which cross-cultural exchange occurs.

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     Youth Cultures in Urban Africa  (4)

This course focuses on how African urban youth have confronted the challenges of life and the forces of globalization, through examination of local and global socio-political, 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 210     Cultures of the Middle East  (4)

This course is an anthropological introduction to the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region, which is often labeled as the “Arab” or “Muslim World.” Course content is attentive to diverse experiences of everyday life and to the perspectives of minorities living in the MENA region and in diaspora. Course topics include religion and secularism, collective identities, gender, and political life examined in a variety of contexts, primarily through the experiences of youth as documented in ethnography.

INGS 211     Special Topics in Ghana: Intercultural Communication and Competency  (4)

This course examines how global perspectives influence the way we communicate and collaborate across cultures. Applying a community-based framework, students observe another culture from the inside, exploring how to become an effective communicator across cultures and analyzing how global competency promotes a more diverse and inclusive community. The course is required for every student enrolled in the Ghana on the World Stage program. Prerequisite: Open only to students admitted to the Ghana on the World Stage program..

INGS 212     The End of the World as We Know It: Global Climate Change, Crisis, and Catastrophe  (4)

This course examines how different cultures construct narratives about global catastrophe and climate change. It deconstructs common concepts related to natural and anthropogenic disaster to understand how conceptual affordances and constraints affect mitigation efforts, shape preparation, and guide response to disaster across global contexts. This course emphasizes a comparative approach including perspectives on both past and present societies. It interrogates how contemporary society incorporates tropes of archaeological “collapse” into catastrophic imaginaries. This course aims to foster a more critical, nuanced understanding of the courses of action available to global society in the face of a changing climate.

INGS 250     Topics in International and Global Studies  (2 or 4)

This lecture course analyzes global processes as they play out in various parts of the world. Students will study some of the political, economic, environmental, and/or cultural forces that shape the world today through the study of a particular region or regions. This course may be repeated for credit when the topic differs.

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 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 and the roles of Parliament, Council, and Commission; political organization, economy, parties, and elections; the EU currency union and regional economic blocs; immigration and immigration policy. The course will also contain a component focused on climate and environmental change and the use of alternative energy sources.

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, Polanski, and Kieslowski, 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 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 317     The Body and the Body Politic in the Middle East  (4)

This course explores various meanings and roles of the human body in the Middle East North Africa region, as well as the connections between individual experiences of the body and the collective political "body" of the nation, society, and state. Course themes include health and medicine, sports, environment, war, gender and sexuality, religion, and politics. Drawing upon contemporary ethnographies from the region, students will examine the body's embeddedness in structures of power, such as kinship networks, political and religious movements, and government and non-government organizations. Students will apply anthropological thinking to understand how embodied experiences in these structures shapes people's sense of who they are and how they are in the world.

INGS 318     Middle Eastern Diasporas  (4)

This course uses the diasporic communities of the Middle East as a starting point to study how people, knowledge, and memory shift when crossing geographic borders. Students will learn key historical events and present day trends in study of the Middle East as well as how to put these into a global story of migration, power, and social, political, and economic change and possibilities.

INGS 319     Ecologies of the Middle East and North Africa  (4)

Through the interdisciplinary approach of political ecology, this seminar introduces students to key environmental challenges facing the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The course draws upon scholarship in environmental studies, political economy, international relations, history, geography, and anthropology, as well as literary works, to understand human-environment interactions in the region. Students will learn how power and inequality, such as through colonialism and conflict, shape how people experience environmental issues in their everyday lives. The course expands beyond the study of strategic resources like oil and water to consider the complex web of social imaginaries and political interests impacting MENA ecologies.

INGS 321     Peace and Conflict/Memory Studies  (4)

A comparative study of the origins and patterns of political violence and nonviolent resistance in contemporary Europe. When and how do cultural traits, such as ethnicity, religion, or language, become politicized? Under what conditions is violence more likely to take place in some regions and during particular historical periods? Why are civilians targeted on the basis of their cultural identities? When is political violence gendered? How are peace and war officially and unofficially commemorated across the European states? How do states achieve both peace and justice in the aftermath of wars? These questions are addressed by critically assessing existing theories and explanations in political violence literature across social science and humanities disciplines. In addition to analyzing conditions conducive to political violence, students also examine processes and practices of violence prevention and conflict management. This course is only available through the European Studies Program. This course is only available through the European Studies Program. Prerequisite: Only open to students admitted to the European Studies program.

INGS 323     Race and Asia  (4)

Through and beyond “local” understandings of social difference (i.e., primarily ethnicity or nationality), this course examines race and racism across borders. The class asks the central question: how are racial identities produced, perceived, and experienced against the backdrop of colonialism, nationalism, and globalization in modern Asia? In addition, the course analyzes how race interacts with related social identities like gender, sexuality, class, and religion.

INGS 324     Africa and International Summitry  (4)

This course explores the significance of international summitry for Africa, from the Berlin Conference of 1884/85 to more recent regular summits involving African countries and global and regional powers such as the United States, China, Russia, and India among others. 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 325     Globalization and the Challenges of Development in Ghana  (4)

Globalization and the Challenges of Development in Ghana explores the multifaceted ways in which globalization manifests itself around the world and examines globalization's complex impacts on Ghanaian citizens and on society as a whole. Prerequisite: Open only to students admitted to the Ghana on the World Stage program..

INGS 326     Baltics and Caucasus: Empires, Revolutions and Future Innovations  (4)

This course examines the tentacles of empire reaching into the Baltic and Caucasus regions from Europe, focusing on the flow of trade and religious belief. It covers topics like the Hanseatic League, the Crusades, the Teutonic Knights, and the Silk Road, and the way they facilitate commerce and economic and intellectual exchange, as well as their intersection with violence and empire. The course is held on site in Riga and Tbilisi.

INGS 327     African Cities  (4)

This course examines urban Africa as sites of culture, politics and economics from the pre-colonial period to recent times. It interrogates African urbanism as a product of local, transnational and global processes. The themes of the course include social formation, ethnicity, urban politics, citizenship, social movements, popular culture, religion, informal and illicit economy, technological adaptation and social change. The course draws on the interdisciplinary literature in African and global urban studies.

INGS 350     Advanced Topics in International and Global Studies  (2 or 4)

This seminar course offers an advanced study of global processes as they play out in various parts of the world. Students will analyze, discuss, and conduct research on some of the political, economic, environmental, and/or cultural forces that shape the world today through the study of a particular region or regions. This course may be repeated for credit when the topic differs.

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: Instructor prerequisite override required.

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. This course may be repeated for credit when the topic differs. Open only to students pursuing majors in international and global studies. Prerequisite: Approval of INGS chair and instructor prerequisite override required.