Sophomore Seminars

Approaches

Approaches seminars are discussion-based courses that acquaint students with the most influential theories and methods that inform the study of global issues and questions in their concentration. Approaches equips students with the means of analysis used in the specific areas of Global Studies that they will pursue in their advanced courses and independent work. Emphasis falls on current thinkers, practitioners, and methods, with some reference to their immediate antecedents. When students choose an Approaches seminar, they are making a commitment to pursuing the concentration in which the course is offered (similar to choosing a major, but less restrictive), since Approaches courses in different concentrations prepare students for different kinds of advanced analysis.

Sample Course Offerings (with concentration)

  • Technology, Self, and Other: Modern Literary Theory and Science Fiction (Art, Text and Media)
  • Introduction to Theory: Methods of Research in the Global Humanities (Art, Text and Media)
  • The Artist-Critic: Imaginative Approaches to Theory (Critical Creative Production)
  • Sex and Gender: The Third Wave (Cultural and Social Identities)
  • Ethnography and Representation (Cultural and Social Identities)
  • Global Corporate Citizenship: Historic, Philosophic, and Legal Approaches (Law, Ethics and Religion)
  • Confession, Torture and the Creation of Identity (Law, Ethics and Religion)
  • Nation-Building, Democracy and Justice (Politics, Rights and Development)
  • Global Justice & the Global Citizen (Politics, Rights and Development)

Global Topics

Global Topics seminars are small discussion courses that put topics of contemporary or historical interest into a global framework. They normally draw examples from several of the regions in which the junior year sites available for study are located, but their main purpose is to study the global networks that allow one to understand a specific topic across disparate places; they are not area studies courses, but courses in thinking globally. Emphasis is placed on students encountering the global in the University’s urban setting, as well as in the classroom. The concentration designation provided for Global Topics courses is informational; it is meant to assist students in formulating a coherent program, not to limit their choices. In consultation with their advisors, students may freely choose Global Topics courses outside the concentration they plan to pursue.

Sample Course offerings (with concentration)

  • The Politics of Mourning: Bereavement Theory and Grief Management in Global Contexts (Art, Text and Media)
  • What is a Renaissance? The Cultural Rebirths of Florence, India and Harlem (Art, Text and Media)
  • The Journey: From Mythic to Mundane (and Back Again) (Critical Creative Production)
  • International Migration: Globalization’s Last Frontier (Cultural and Social Identities)
  • More Than Just a Game: Sport, Representation, and Cultural Identity (Cultural and Social Identities)
  • A World at War (Law, Ethics and Religion)
  • Globalism and You: A Contemporary History of the Present (Law, Ethics and Religion)
  • International Human Rights (Politics, Rights and Development)
  • Politics of Mass Hate and Genocide and Challenges of Humanitarianism (Politics, Rights and Development)