Course Catalog for INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
INTS 115
Postcolonial Futures: The Philippines in Southeast Asia
Focusing on the Philippines, the former US colony which provides a window on the postcolonial world and shifting US policy in Asia, this course provides an introduction to the intersectionality of area studies from an anthropological point of view. It explores the contributions of Philippine ethnography to theories of gender and development, tourism, domestic work and migrant economies, political (and religious) mobilization, and indigenous cultural studies. (GLB5)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 131
Modern Iran
This course provides an introduction to 20th-century Iranian society, culture, and politics, examining secular and religious debates over gender roles, modernity, Islamism, democracy, and the West. (GLB)
1.00 units, Lecture
INTS 201
Gender and Sexuality in a Transnational World
This broadly interdisciplinary course provides students with an introduction to the field of gender and sexuality studies. It pays particular attention to transnational approaches. Materials are drawn from a variety of disciplines and may include films, novels, ethnographies, oral histories, and legal cases. (GLB5)
1.00 units, Lecture
INTS 207
Global South
In 1985, the South Commission reported that two-thirds of the world's people lived in distress. To rectify this, the Commission proposed a laundry list of reforms. At the same time, political and social movements in what had been the Third World grew apace. These movements and this report inaugurate the creation of the "Global South", which is both a place and a project. This course will investigate the contours of the Global South, the conferences held to alleviate its many problems (Beijing/Women, Johannesburg/Environment, Durban/Race), and the people who live in the "South". (GLB)
1.00 units, Lecture
INTS 208
Performing Afro/Asia Diaspora
What can texts and performances by Afro/Asian subjects reveal about intertwined histories of enslavement and colonialism? And how do these historical forces intersect with nationality, race, gender and sexuality? This course attempts to answer these questions by examining works by Afro/Asian subjects from East Africa, the U.S South and the Caribbean, including Shailja Patel, Mira Nair, Gauitra Bahadur, M.I.A, Nitasha Sharma and others. Through close reading texts and performances, we will analyze the departures and convergences in Afro and Asian diasporic experiences as felt and lived by queer/feminine folks, as well as consider the impacts of nationalism, anti Blackness, xenophobia and gendered violence on Afro/Asian lives. (GLB1)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 209
War and the Asian Diaspora
How has war shaped and reshaped the Asian diasporic experience in the mid to late 20th century? This course examines texts by Sri Lankan, Korean, Vietnamese and other anglophone Asian voices to examine how militarized conflict intersects with gender and sexuality to shape the politics and experiences of Asians in diaspora. We will read novels, poetry, academic articles and essays on the experiences of Asian subjects who have witnessed/survived/ been impacted by war in their homelands in order to understand the systemic and as well as everyday effects of militarization, ethnic violence and imperialism. (SOC)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 211
Global Intimacies
What is globalization? A process of homogenization and Americanization? Where does globalization happen? In the economic realm that we usually associate with the public? In contrast to these conceptualizations, this course explores diverse and contingent processes of globalization in the domestic and private spheres. Specifically, we will look at how global mobilities trouble and complicate intimate relations such as marriage, love, sex, reproduction, family making, and self-identity across culture. (GLB)
1.00 units, Lecture
INTS 216
Understanding the History, Culture and Politics of Latin America & the Caribbean
This interdisciplinary course explores major historical themes and contemporary cultural and political topics related to Latin American and Caribbean societies and cultures. The goal is to give students a panoramic view of Latin America and the Caribbean and to introduce them to various issues that are explored more deeply in upper-division courses. We will address questions of demography and geography, basic historical periods and processes, particular anthropological and cultural debates, fundamental political and gender issues, sociological approaches to daily life, aesthetic and literary movements, and the regions' positions within the historical and contemporary world economy. Open to all students, this course is required of INTS majors with a Caribbean and Latin American Studies concentration. (GLB2)
1.00 units, Lecture
INTS 218
Chinese Global Cities
This course exposes students to a broad treatment of China's large number and diverse type of cities with established or emerging global city status and influence. China not only has the most, fastest growing, and regionally most varied cities in the world but also steers them to be global in connectivity and capacity through top-down and decentralized policy and planning. In sequential sections, the course examines a set of general and China-specific conditions that favor or hamper global city building: scale and location, path dependency, state power vs. market dynamics, in-migration and incorporation, culture, and regional linkages and integration. The course guides students to investigate the global attributes, connections, and functions of such diverse cities as Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Xian, Yiwu, Ruili, and Horgos. Students who have taken FYSM 196 Chinese Global Cities may not enroll in this course. (GLB5)
1.00 units, Lecture
INTS 218
Women, Gender, and Family in the Middle East
As an introduction to the lives of women in what was previously characterized as the ‘men’s world’ of the Middle East, this course examines the impact of global sociopolitical and economic transformations on gender relations, sexuality, adolescence, family structure, local culture, and feminist movements across the Middle East and North Africa. Case studies survey gendered perspectives in a variety of ethnic/religious communities (Muslim, Jewish, Christian) and types of societies (Bedouin, agricultural, urban). (GLB5)
1.00 units, Lecture
INTS 219
Islam in the Caribbean and Latin America
Islam in the Caribbean and Latin America. This course provides an introduction to studying Islam, Muslim social and political life, gender/minority rights, and diaspora Islam through the lens of Muslim-minority societies in the Caribbean and Latin America, a microcosm of Islam in the world. (GLB5)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 223
Race and Urban Inequality in the Americas
Given that racial capitalism and racial liberalism as co-dependent global ordering systems structure who matters within nations, scholars have taken interest in how these systems map onto space and are reproduced by space. Drawing on this research, we will turn to segregated urban spaces in the Americas-in the form of ghettos/slums/garrisons/barrios/favelas-to understand the divisions and material conditions produced by social abandonment. Using scholarly texts, fiction, and popular media we will look at 1) how histories of colonialism and imperialism have shaped contemporary political-economic processes which produce these marginal spaces 2) how entangled supra-state violence, state violence, and intra-community violence affect people's everyday lives and 3) the various methods communities use to cope with/ contest spatial domination and exclusion to make life despite hardship. (SOC)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 232
South Africa and the Anti-Apartheid Movement
The creation of the apartheid state in South Africa gave birth to a litany of sociopolitical movements aimed at dismantling a system of white minority rule. In what ways can a digital archive open up a window onto this rich and dynamic history of the anti-antiapartheid movement in South Africa between 1948 and 1994? This course will seek to answer this question by primarily utilizing Aluka's "Struggles for Freedom in Southern Africa", a collection of over 190,000 primary and secondary sources that shed considerable light on how marginalized peoples and communities sought to realize a democratic alternative to settler colonialism during the era of decolonization in Africa. Topics such as political leadership, nonviolent civil disobedience, coalition building, state repression, armed guerilla resistance, nationalism, international solidarity and truth and reconciliation will inform the ways in which we search for sources of historical evidence contained in Aluka's digital archive. (GLB2)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 234
Gender and Education
What is gender equity in schooling and what impact does this have on gender equity more broadly? Different disciplinary perspectives on the impact of gender in learning, school experience, performance and achievement will be explored in elementary, secondary, post-secondary, and informal educational settings. The legal and public policy implications of these findings (such as gender-segregated schooling, men’s and women’s studies programs, curriculum reform, Title IX, affirmative action and other proposed remedies) will be explored. Findings on socialization and schooling in the U.S. will be contrasted with those from other cultures. (GLB)
1.00 units, Lecture
INTS 236
Japanese Crime Literature and Film
This course examines major works of Japanese crime literature and film from the works of Edogawa Rampo, known as the father of crime fiction in Japan, to those of contemporary writers to explore social and moral issues reflected in them. While Japanese writers and filmmakers of this genre readily acknowledge Western influences, the literary and cinematic explorations of crime in Japan have also developed ona trajectory of their own, producing works that are easily distinguishable from those of other cultures. The course will also consider the mixing of the crime genre with others, such as ghost and science fiction genres. Works studied in this course include those of Edogawa Rampo, Akira Kurosawa, Miyuki Miyabe, Seicho Matsumoto, and Kobo Abe, as well as yakuza movies. Readings and discussion in English. (GLB2)
1.00 units, Lecture
INTS 237
20th-Century Chinese Literature
This course is a survey of twentieth-century Chinese literature and films. It focuses on the literature, cinema, and essays of three periods in the Chinese 20th century: 1918 ~ 1949; 1949 ~ 1976; since 1976. We read works of Chinese writers such as Lu Xun, Yu Dafu, Zhang Ailing, Mao Dun, ShenCongwen, Yu Hua, Su Tong, etc., and watch selected films of significant cultural and historical meanings. Students are introduced to various essential issues of twentieth-century Chinese cultural modernity and are encouraged to explore in the Chinese context the key tensions between tradition and modernity, native and foreign, and nationalism and cosmopolitanism. (GLB)
1.00 units, Lecture
INTS 243
Global African Diasporas
This course attempts to guide students to think about how the existence of people of African descent is determined by the particularities involved in the process of enslavement, immigration, and in the construction of racial thought globally, which directly affects the formation of black identity and the black population’s tools of resistance. It additionally promotes a series of debates that will approach themes such as the participation of people of African descent in the construction of societies, demythologizing racist theories, and understanding aspects of these dynamics that make contemporary discussions around race peculiar. Also, the course intends to prepare students to denude the concepts they have about the diasporic process in the United States and understand processes that differ from it in several ways. (GLB1)
1.00 units, Lecture
INTS 247
Global Inequalities
This course studies inequality in the contemporary world, its different types (wealth, income, gender, racial), its causes and consequences. We will look at inequality both in developing and developed countries as well as inequality in the world system. We will systematically analyze the economic, social and political transformations that have led to an increase in income inequality in the developed world in the last two decades, as well as the processes that have made possible a reduction of inequality in some regions of the developing world. (GLB5)
1.00 units, Lecture
INTS 250
Global Migration
This course explores population mobility as an outcome of global processes and investigates its role in reconfiguring personal, cultural, social, political, and economic life. Specifically considers the impact of migration on gender relations and identities, cultural and educational practices, integration policies, individual and group rights and questions of citizenship and governance. (GLB5)
1.00 units, Lecture
INTS 256
Human Rights in Latin America and the Caribbean: A History
In the 1970s and 1980s, thousands of people were “disappeared,” tortured and murdered in Latin America and the Caribbean, mostly by military regimes and by para-military death-squads. The period is often characterized as perhaps the lowest point in the modern abuse of “Human Rights” in the region. This course explores how these central notions, the human and rights, have evolved in theory and in practice in the history of the Americas. The course begins with the 16th-century debates among the Spaniards over the “humanity” of Indians and enslaved Africans; it then covers distinguishing elements of the human and rights within the legal structures of the nations created after independence from Spain in the 1820s and before the more contemporary conceptions of human rights in the aftermath of the Holocaust and the crimes against humanity during WWII. Finally, the modern conception and practice of human rights defense and legal monitoring are explored in case studies in the region from the late 1940s to the 1980s. (GLB2)
1.00 units, Lecture
INTS 257
Global Crime Fiction
This course explores works of Francophone, Sinophone, American, and Japanese crime literature and films in relation to the spatial dissemination of global capitalism since late twentieth century. Students will develop skills of close reading and discourse analysis, and reach a deeper understanding of how people narrate reality in three different kinds of space: the urban, the postcolonial, and the bodily. Focused issues include migrant workers, sex slaves, drug trade, financial fraud, and environmental hazards. All instructional materials in English. (GLB1)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 258
The Islamic City: Places, Pasts and Problems
This course explores the great variety of cities founded, claimed, and inhabited by Muslims from the beginnings of Islam to the present day. While there is no such thing as a prototypical "Islamic city," this course grapples with questions of change and continuity in the organization of urban life among Muslims globally. Through a combination of lectures and discussions, we will situate cities in their historical contexts, examine their built environments, and consider the ways in which exchange, mobility, empire, revolution, and globalization have shaped urban space. (GLB2)
1.00 units, Lecture
INTS 260
The City in African Studies: Past, Present, and Potential
Africa is a rapidly urbanizing region of the world; the most rapidly urbanizing by World Bank standards. Contemporary urbanization in Africa has stimulated new scholarship on the history of African cities, African urban economies, urban politics and urban identities, among other topics. African urban studies has produced some of the most thoughtful and engaged work on Africa to date. In this course we will be exploring major themes in the field of African urban studies to gain deeper appreciation of the history of African cities, their contemporary iterations, and their future possibilities. (GLB)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 263
Global Environmental Politics
This course tackles the most important challenge of our time: how societies may continue to develop without destroying the planet. We will focus on the causes and consequences of differences in environmental policy design and implementation at the subnational, national and international level. Looking primarily at developing countries, we will analyze how different economic, societal and state actors strive to influence policy outcomes and how these political struggles result in more or less successful initiatives to mitigate environmental depletion and climate change. Topics include, but are not limited to: water pollution, deforestation, energy policy, air pollution, overfishing, and ozone layer depletion. (GLB5)
1.00 units, Lecture
INTS 264
Slavery in Middle East History
This discussion-based course will examine the history of slavery in the Middle East from the rise of Islam in the seventh century to the intensification of global capitalism and European colonialism in the nineteenth century. Reading and writing assignments will consider the varieties of slavery, the geographies of slaving, and the experiences of enslaved people. Major themes will be gender, sexuality, and race. (GLB2)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 265
Understanding Conflict in Africa
Many Americans claim to know certain truths about Africa when, in reality, such understandings rely heavily upon ahistorical representations of the continent. In recent decades, the portrayal of Africa as conflict-prone and violent has become the predominant way of "knowing" Africa . This course disarms such limited understandings by engaging, historicizing, and contextualizing political violence in Africa. The course starts with recent conflicts, including wars in Somalia, Rwanda, Congo, Sudan, and Libya. We then situate these conflicts within the legacy of colonialism, the Cold War, and the contemporary reorganization of the world economy. The class concludes by debating possible solutions, including foreign intervention (peacekeeping, AFRICOM, the International Criminal Court) as well as responses crafted by African-led organizations and movements (ECOWAS, African Union, and Arab Spring). (GLB5)
1.00 units, Lecture
INTS 266
Global Playgrounds: Tourism in Perspective
People have always traveled for many reasons. Over the last century, however, tourism has exploded into a multibillion-dollar global industry and has become a key component of international development strategies. In this course, we will use case studies from around the world to examine tourism from multiple perspectives. We will investigate questions such as: how is tourism connected to previous human movements (colonialism, scientific expeditions, diasporas, etc.)? Why do people engage in tourism today? How does identity impact travel destination choices and what are the power relations implied in these decisions? What are the economic, social, and ecological impacts of tourism in host communities? And, how do host communities respond to the influx of tourists? (GLB5)
1.00 units, Lecture
INTS 267
Identity and Performativity
What is your understanding of passing? What is the relationship between passing and identity? Under what circumstances do people pass out of what considerations? This course explores these questions through reading and contextualizing feminist writer Susan Faludi's biography In the Darkroom (2016), following Faludi's inquiry into her father's life, from her sex reassignment surgery in Thailand at her seventies to his youth as a Jew in Hungary during WWII; from his sojourn in Brazil to his married life in the U.S during the Cold War era. We will be engaging with materials that include documentary films, podcasts, autobiographies, and academic texts across disciplines, to examine the diverse ways in which gender, sexuality, race, class, religion, and geopolitics intersect. (GLB2)
1.00 units, Lecture
INTS 268
Gender and Sexuality in the African Diaspora
This course will introduce students to the ways in which diasporic Black subjects understand, interpret, and navigate gender and sexuality in what Saidiya Hartman calls the "afterlife of slavery." A core component of this course is arriving at a definition of Blackness that is diasporic, transnational, and always already inflected by gendered and sexual markers. Taking the transnationalism of Black feminist thinkers like M.Jacqui Alexander, Dora Santana, Matt Richardson, and Audre Lorde as a starting point, we will examine how Blackness reconfigures western liberal ideas of masculinity, femininity, and sexuality and, in so doing, shapes diasporic Black subjects' relationships to empire and citizenship. (GLB)
1.00 units, Lecture
INTS 302
Global Cities
This seminar examines the contemporary map of interactions between cities in the world. There is now a considerable array of research analyzing what are variously termed global or world cities in the hierarchy of the world economy, and a counter-critique has emerged which seeks to analyze all cities as ordinary, moving beyond old binaries of 'developed' and 'developing' worlds of cities. We will interrogate this debate in both its theoretical and its empirical dimensions, with case studies from Africa and assessment of cultural, political, economic and environmental globalization. (GLB)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 308
Architecture and Urban Planning on the Swahili Coast
This course uses the city and polity of Zanzibar as a model and laboratory for understanding the architectural history, geography and planning of Swahili Coast urbanism in East Africa. For more than a thousand years, cities along the East African coastal strip have been major entrepôts linking the African interior with trade networks across the Indian Ocean and beyond. Zanzibar was at the center of this urban region economically and politically especially in the 18thand 19th centuries. After gaining independence in 1963, Zanzibar experienced a socialist revolution and union with Tanganyika during a brief stretch in early 1964, after which it became a partner state in the United Republic of Tanzania. After a period of stasis and even decline, the city's population exploded after 1964. From a town of less than 50,000 people, it has grown to a metropolitan area of more than a half million in just over 55 years. Zanzibar's society and culture are heavily cosmopolitan. Over 90% of the population is Muslim and African-Swahili in ethnic terms, yet the influences (and minority cultures) of Christians, Hindus, Arabs, South Asians, and others abound. This is especially the case in the city's architecture and built environment. All of this makes Zanzibar a spectacular context in which to explore the challenges of balancing historic preservation and urban development in architecture and urban planning. This online course will enable students to investigate Zanzibar's historic importance, architectural significance, and contemporary urban planning and urban environmental challenges. Students will have readings, lectures and virtual visits and case analyses to/for specific important sites and urban planning projects. (SOC)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 310
Queer China
This course offers an interdisciplinary perspective on non-normative gendered and sexual practices in urban(izing) China and how they have been represented, embodied, and regulated across time and space. The course will introduce students to materials-textual, visual, and audio-that span more than a hundred years from late imperial China to the present against the backdrop of modernization, urbanization, and globalization. Students will explore the different methodological, thematic, and analytic approaches to genders and sexualities in literature, cultural studies, history, and ethnographies. (GLB)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 312
Contesting Globalization
This new course aims to help students develop a critical, in-depth understanding of the complex and contested academic and public discourses and debates about both historical and contemporary globalization. The course challenges the prevailing and accepted association between the era of globalization and western dominance by examining the rise of China as a powerful force pushing current globalization along a different track. Aided by a historical perspective, we compare the mode of entries, duration of stages, dominance of drivers, and revealed outcomes of West- vs. an emerging China-led globalization, via the Belt and Road Initiative that spreads China's global footprints. The course steers students toward understanding globalization as an always contested, sometimes cyclical process and as increasingly pluralistic and contradictory in national and local consequences. (GLB5)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 314
Black Internationalism
This course introduces students to the history of people of African descent and their struggles for universal emancipation during the 20th century. We will begin by drawing on theoretical readings about race/blackness and the African Diaspora. The second part of the class will probe the relationship between nationalism and pan-Africanism through comparative assessments of Marcus Garvey and his UNIA organization; Rastafarianism and music; and the U.S. Black Power Movement. Over the entire course, we will also seek to locate and critically evaluate Africa’s importance to these political and cultural projects. The ultimate purpose of this course is to impress upon students how struggles for self-determination were simultaneously local, national and global. (GLB2)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 315
Urban South Asia
This seminar introduces students to South Asia and the Indian ocean as vast urbanizing world regions, encompassing more than a third of the global population. Students will study contemporary urban challenges through histories of colonialism and economic expansion. They will learn about important concepts in the development of urban planning as a form of colonial experimentation, and the role of cities such as Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, and Lahore in 20th century nation-building. Themes will include how South Asia challenges the conceptual divide between urban and rural, the role of small cities, diaspora labor and capital in shaping urban development beyond the Indian subcontinent, gender, ethnic conflict, and climate change. (GLB5)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 316
Global Policing: (In) Security, Criminality, and Justice Around the World
In this course, we will take a critical look at policing around the globe with an emphasis on the Global South. Together we will build our understanding of the philosophical and material underpinnings of the police as an institution as well as explore the multiple ways policing happens beyond the official work of "the police." Using theory, and ethnographic data we will ask how do past and present geopolitics shape how policing is enacted? How are "criminals" produced? How does policing structure people's lived experiences? How does policing shape urban space? We will conclude by examining the multiple ways people resist surveillance and punishment and reimagine what security and justice look like beyond the current dominant systems for maintaining social order. (GLB5)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 317
Queer South Asian Identities
"Home" in the hegemonic, heterosexual sense of the word carries deep-rooted power in South Asian diasporas. Enshrined as a source of ethnic pride and commonality, "home" is also an idea premised on policing the feminine and erasing the queer. This class looks at the ways queer South Asians (re)member, build, and experience home, with special attention to the experiences of queer South Asian women. In so doing we trouble insular understandings of queerness to centralize the constitutive power of race, caste, class, ability and nationality and trace the lingering impact of these systems in diasporic formations. (GLB2)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 318
Reshaping Global Urbanization
This course aims to provide an extensive and in-depth understanding of China's prominent and powerful role in shaping a new and significant era of global urbanization. Having urbanized at the fastest pace, on the largest scale, and in the shortest time period in human history, China has been "building out" by constructing transport infrastructure, industrial zones, and municipal facilities in many countries. The course first assesses the Chinese mode of urban development focused on its beneficial and problematic social and spatial consequences. In the following segments, the course examines China's varied approach to and experience in city-building and infrastructure construction in Southeast Asia, Africa, and parts of Europe. The course concludes on the theoretical and policy implications of "China-fueled" global urbanization, especially for developing countries. (GLB5)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 320
Global 1001 Nights
This seminar explores the history and global dissemination of the fantasy story collection known as the 1001 Nights. The recent success of movie adaptations of Aladdin is just one of the many waves of popularity that these stories have enjoyed over the centuries. We will begin with medieval story-telling and the circulation of the Nights in Arabic. We will then discuss its transformation into an international best-seller in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the context of British and French colonialism. Finally we will map its more recent reinventions in literature, film, and art across the globe. Key topics will include magic, gender, sexuality, race, empire, and orientalism. Students will undertake a final research project. (GLB2)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 321
Gender and Sexuality in Middle Eastern History
Through theoretical readings, historical monographs, ethnographies, novels, and films, this course explores changing discourses of gender and sexuality among Muslims in the Middle East from the foundational period of Islam to the present. Major topics include attitudes toward the body, beauty, and desire; social and legal norms for marriage, divorce, and reproduction; intersections between gender, sexuality, imperialism, and nationalism; and contemporary debates about homosexuality and women's rights. (GLB2)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 327
Chinese Literati Art
In this course, we trace the development of visual and conceptual underpinnings of Chinese art and aestheticism from the 11th to 16th century by examining seminal works of painting and calligraphy with critical theories in Chinese literati art. Important issues for this seminar include iconology and form, concepts of political protest and self-cultivation, the allegorization of nature and antiquity, and the historiography of art history. (GLB1)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 328
Gender, Race and Global Popular Culture
This course intends to debate the reproduction of sexist and patriarchist content by the cultural industry on a global scale, as well as mediatic representation of Women of Color in the U.S. and the Global South. Approaching television productions such as reality shows, soap operas and telenovelas, students will participate in conversations around themes such as race, nationality, gender, and sexuality. It additionally opens space to explore commonalities presented by feminist resistance globally and to explore the importance of non-linear communication systems when facilitating the dialogue between minority groups in different parts of the world. (GLB)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 331
Ngugi's Kenya: Narrative of African Decolonization
What can fiction teach us about modern African history? We will tackle this question by focusing on the history of Kenya in the 20th century captured in the literary works of Ngugi wa Thiong'o. Topics and themes that will be addressed include the nature of colonial conquest and the rise the white minority settler dominance, colonial and postcolonial education, nationalism and pan-Africanism, political economy, religion, gender, and ethnic identity formation, and armed resistance. Our goal is to not only critically examine Ngugi's cultural and political contributions to the making of Kenya, but also to better understand the possibilities and limits of African fiction as a mode of historiographical storytelling. (HUM)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 335
U.S. Colonialism Past & Present
What does it mean to study the United States in the world, and the world in the United States? This course considers the role of the United States within global relations of empire, capitalism, migration, and war. It also examines how U.S. domestic politics of race, gender, national identity, and social justice have evolved in relation to these transnational histories. We will explore how the existence of the U.S. nation-state is premised upon the global histories of European colonialism, indigenous displacement, and transatlantic slavery. We will analyze the cultures and consequences of U.S. empire, as well as the multiracial and transnational social movements that have contested U.S expansion. This interdisciplinary course combines historical, literary, visual, and theoretical texts. (GLB2)
1.00 units, Lecture
INTS 340
Climate and History
This seminar explores how natural and anthropogenic climate change has shaped human history. We will look at how climate changes, how scholars are reconstructing past climate through interdisciplinary methods, and how changes in climate play a role in effecting political, social, cultural, and technological changes. Students will have the opportunity to undertake a project in historical climate reconstruction and determine its possible implications for how we understand history. (GLB2)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 342
Global Histories of Sexuality
This course examines how notions of the body, gender, erotic desire, and sexuality have been organized over space and time. Beginning with the Mediterranean, Asia, and Latin America in the ancient and medieval periods, the course seeks to de-center discourses of Western sexual modernity. From the eighteenth century on, it considers how colonialism, racism, nationalism, and globalization have shaped modern sexualities, with particular attention to Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Writing assignments focus on how scholars use theory and evidence to explore the sexual past. (GLB2)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 344
Global Hip Hop Cultures
Hip-Hop is both music and culture with a global imprint that dates back to the 1980s. This course is a reading and writing intensive course that critically examines hip-hop cultural and political formations in Africa and the African Diaspora. We begin with canonical texts that contributed to the growth of an emergent interdisciplinary field called, 'Hip-Hop Studies' in order to familiarize ourselves with a set of core concepts, discourses and frameworks that will help us assess hip-hop's global emergence. What does the globalization of African-American music and culture tell us about the power and impact of neoliberalism on post-colonial identities, culture and nation-states in the non-Western world? It is a question that will shape our discussions on race, youth, masculinity, and nationalism in contemporary urban societies. (GLB2)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 348
Islamic Feminism in Global Perspective
This course surveys Muslim women’s activism and theoretical contributions to feminist debates on gender and sexuality, across cultures from Asia, to the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, using ethnography, documentary, auto/biography, and other feminist methodologies and forms of self-expression. Particular attention will be given to gender activism organized within what participants consider to be an Islamic framework. (GLB5)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 349
Global Migration/Refugee Resettlement Lab
Provides an experiential-based introduction to the practical challenges of refugee and immigrant resettlement and integration and to the development of effective policies and implementation strategies to address them. Students will be placed with a community-based organization working with immigrants and refugees 10-12 hours a week and attend (weekly or biweekly) seminar class meetings to integrate their onsite learning experience and responsibilities with discussions of assigned readings and relevant concepts in participatory action research and diaspora studies. Seminar meetings will be organized around enrolled students' existing class schedules. (GLB5)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 351
Black Islam: Race, Religion, and Revolution in Africa and the Americas
This class considers how Islam and Islamic theology have shaped African and African diasporic communities' resistance to slavery and colonialism, and how, in turn, these communities have brought their experiences of anti-colonial resistance to bear on interpretations of Islamic thought and the practice of Islamic doctrine. We begin by studying the history of what Cedric Robinson called "the Black radical tradition" to draw connections between slave revolts in the Americas and anti-colonial uprisings on the African continent. As we parse these connections, we pay attention to how African and African diasporic peoples have engaged Islamic messianism, Sufist teachings, and other modes of Islamic theology to consistently repudiate European racial ideology and imagine freedom. (GLB2)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 352
Comparative Political Economy
This course provides a survey of the field of comparative political economy broadly defined as the comparative study of the interrelationships between politics and economics. We will review the main classic and contemporary debates in the discipline. Topics include: the relationship between political institutions and economic development, inequality and political stability, interest groups, welfare states, varieties of capitalism, the politics of taxation and international trade, and market reforms. We will look at both developed and developing countries, with an emphasis on understanding why they choose (or end up with) the policies and institutions that they have, even when in some cases these policies and institutions might hamper development. (SOC)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 353
Global Indigeneity
Indigenous Peoples around the world face similar threats, including cultural and linguistic discrimination, territorial dispossession, and environmental injustice. After introducing the concept of Indigeneity and its multiple dimensions, this class will focus on global issues affecting Indigenous Peoples and how they manifest locally. Students will work together to solve real world case studies. They will apply a comparative perspective to become familiar with Indigenous lifeworlds, understand the threats and difficulties Indigenous Peoples face, and craft possible solutions, while not losing sight of Indigenous Peoples' diversity. (GLB)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 358
Seminar on Malcolm X
In this interdisciplinary seminar, we will seek to understand the making of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, most popularly known as Malcolm X, one of Black America's most important political leaders of the 20th century. How did Malcolm X define 'world revolution'? To answer this overarching question, we will critically assess autobiographical and biographical texts and academic literature as well as speeches, travel diaries, music, film, and poetry. Our goal is to situate Malcolm X within a Black radical protest tradition by taking into consideration themes and ideas that are pertinent to the study of the worldwide African Diaspora. (GLB2)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 359
Cannibalia: the cannibal in Latin America
"Cannibal" was one of the first words added to the European vocabulary after Christopher Columbus visited the "West Indies." Since then, the cannibal has been at the center of Latin American cultural and political projects, from early (and not so early) colonial anxieties about a continent populated by godless human-eating savages, to more recent poetic manifestos celebrating Latin America's cultural cannibalism as its main strength and path of resistance against colonial domination. After a brief introduction to the topic of cannibalism, this course explores the place of cannibalism in European fantasies about Amerindians, the role of cannibalism in Indigenous socialities and philosophies, and the ways in which recent artistic and political vanguard movements have reclaimed cannibalism as a cultural project. (GLB)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 376
Latin American Politics
The course examines the processes of political, economic and social change that took place in Latin America in the XX and XIX Century. Topics include: the rise of populism and import-substituting industrialization, revolutions and revolutionary movements, the causes and consequences of military rule, the politics of economic reform, democratic transitions, the commodity boom, and the left turn. For each topic we will review classic political science theories and critically evaluate their applicability to Latin American countries. We will also discuss the lessons that can be drawn from Latin American cases for the study of these topics in the rest of the world. (SOC)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 377
Amazonia on Fire
Amazonia is critical for human survival and its conservation occupies a preeminent role in global development and environmental agendas. However, the region remains a contested space where conflicting views of development and the good life frequently clash. This class will introduce students to Amazonia and the successive waves of extractive industries that have targeted and reconfigured the region, ranging from rubber and timber to agribusiness and environmental conservation. We will explore how Indigenous resistance movements have responded to these settler interventions and imagine together a future in which Amazonia does not burn down. (GLB)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 379
Feminist and Queer Theory for a Postcolonial World
Feminist and queer theory has influenced contemporary understandings of gender and sexuality globally. This course explores this body of theory specifically in relation to the processes and problematics of colonialism, postcolonialism, nationalism, and transnationalism. Readings will reflect a variety of critical perspectives and consider the intersection of gender and sexuality with race and class. (GLB5)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 380
Caribbean Sovereignty
The Caribbean, "a complex product of a long and continuous exercise in colonialism and Neo-colonialism" to quote Michael-Rolph Trouillot, is a region in which countries remain tied to imperial centers through varying forms of non-sovereignty ranging from predatory trade and military agreements to incorporated territory status. How has Caribbean political freedom been imagined, fought for, and thwarted at different historical moments? We take up this question in this seminar through case studies from the Anglophone, Francophone, Spanish-speaking, and Dutch Caribbean. As we look at the precarious social, political, economic, and physical environments that have developed over time in these territories we will explore how people imagine and forge alternative liberated futures. (GLB5)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 385
Global Economic Issues
The course will discuss the various issues of global importance, such as climate change, poverty, health, the impact of trade, and foreign aid. We will focus on the current scenario, public policies, and the debate surrounding the above issues. The course will also explore the role of market and state and compare different social systems, such as capitalism and socialism. On completion of the course, a student is expected to have an increased understanding of topics that have engaged policymakers from around the world and be equipped to participate in the policy debate (GLB5)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 395
Issues in Contemporary China
Using materials from literature, public discourses, film, and the Internet, this course helps students become familiar with and reflect upon important cultural, political, and economic issues of the Chinese speaking world(China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Chinese communities in the West). NO prior knowledge of Chinese language is required. This course is required for students who elect Chinese as the primary language in their LACS-administered Chinese major(Plan B). It also counts toward the International Studies major(as an Asian Studies area course), the LACS-administered Chinese minor, as well as the interdisciplinary Asian Studies minor. (WEB)
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 396
Senior Seminar: Race, Gender, and Global Security
Recent events have focused attention on questions of race, gender, social justice, and the militarization of police. This course will consider how notions of race and security that evolved in the late 20th and early 21st century U.S., have shaped political discourse, and how in turn, those ideas have circulated around the world. Through analyses of American Studies texts, documentaries, and popular culture, we will consider both emerging and prevailing definitions of security. By examining case studies in major global cities, including Los Angeles, we will explore how space has been organized around the logics of racialized threats and gendered notions of safety. For a cumulative paper, students will select a global city and offer history, context, and analysis of the production of insecure spaces. (GLB2)
This course is open only to International Studies majors or by instructor consent.
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 399
Independent Study
Submission of the special registration form, available in the Registrar's Office, and the approval of the instructor and director are required for enrollment. (SOC)
1.00 units min / 2.00 units max, Independent Study
INTS 401
Senior Seminar in International Studies
This writing intensive course functions as the capstone experience for all INTS majors. The instructor will guide INTS seniors through the process of completing a substantial research paper that engages critically with dominant disciplinary approaches to and public discourses about the “global” or “international” sphere. The instruction of this course will rotate among INTS faculty, each of whom will organize the course around a particular theme. (WEB)
This course is open only to seniors majoring in International Studies; other students may enroll only with permission of instructor.
1.00 units, Seminar
INTS 466
Teaching Assistantship
Submission of the special registration form, available online, and the approval of the instructor are required for enrollment. Guidelines are available in the College Bulletin. (0.5 - 1 course credit)
0.50 units min / 1.00 units max, Independent Study
INTS 490
Research Assistantship
This course is designed to provide students with the opportunity to undertake substantial research work with a faculty member. Students need to complete a special registration form, available online, and have it signed by the supervising instructor.
1.00 units, Independent Study
INTS 497
Senior Thesis
Submission of the special registration form and the approval of the instructor and director are required for enrollment in this single semester thesis. This course will be graded as Pass/Fail. (SOC)
1.00 units, Independent Study
INTS 498
Senior Exercise Part 1
This course is the first part of a two semester, two credit thesis. Submission of the special registration form and the approval of the thesis adviser and the director are required for enrollment. The registration form is required for each semester of this year-long thesis. (SOC)
1.00 units, Independent Study
INTS 499
Senior Exercise Part 2
This course is the second part of a two semester, two credit thesis. Submission of the special registration form and the approval of the thesis adviser and the director are required for enrollment. The registration form is required for each semester of this year-long thesis. (SOC)
1.00 units, Independent Study