Due to COVID-19, International Studies faculty will be working remotely. The best way to reach us is by email (our addresses are listed after our faculty profiles). For information about the department, graduate program, and undergraduate programs, please contact respectively: Prof. Purnima Bose, chairperson, pbose@indiana.edu; Prof. Stephen Macekura, director of graduate studies, smacekur@indiana.edu; and Prof. Jessica Steinberg, director of undergraduate studies, steinbjf@indiana.edu.
Welcome!
The Department of International Studies prepares you for the increasingly complex and interconnected world of the 21st century. Whether you are passionate about human rights, media, education, the environment, or public health, when you pursue an International Studies degree at IU you will learn how to analyze these global issues through a multidisciplinary context and acquire the skills required of tomorrow’s global leaders. Additionally, you will develop deep knowledge of at least one region outside the US, and fluency in another language. An integral part of the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, the department offers Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees as well as graduate degrees. Our students go on to meaningful careers in government, NGOs, corporations, foundations, media outlets, and policy institutes; but most importantly, emerge from our department as ethical citizens of the world.
Upcoming Events
There are no events at this time. See more eventsPre-Session August 2020 Courses
COLL-X 101: Nonviolent Protest
1 credit with Professor Padraic Kenney. How are people mobilized to become participants rather than observers of protest on behalf of causes they support? We'll study modern ideas of non-violence and consider why this strategy has developed in the last century. We'll then explore some of the tactics used in non-violent protest, and discuss what makes them effective, or not. Examples will come from worldwide protest movements of the last few decades, as well as protest in the United States today.
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INTL-I 212: Black Lives Matter as a Global Movement
1 credit with Professor Hamid Ekbia. Analyze Black Lives Matter as a global human rights movement focused on race and the intersections of gender, class, and colonialism. Students will look at BLM, its US roots, and history through a global lens and perspective, while exploring how countries around the world are viewing and joining this movement. The course will also touch on the immigrant/refugee/revolutionary perspective and feature a number of guest lecturers from Indiana University and of national renown.
Learn moreFeatured Courses - Fall 2020
The Family and Global Health
This course will introduce you to connections between the family and health with an international perspective. We will explore how family behaviors, such as marriage, childbearing, and son preference, vary across regions, including both Western and non-Western contexts. We will also examine how these family behaviors influence health outcomes and, conversely, how health shapes family experiences. Our exploration will focus on understanding the pathways and mechanisms linking family to health. We will also pay special attention to the roles of gender and generation in shaping differences in the health of individual family members. Through this course you will gain an understanding of how and why connections between family and health differ across geographic regions, as well as how they are similar.
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Global Fake News
What makes news real or fake? Who creates fake news, why, and how does it spread? And how do answers to those questions vary over time and around the world? This course will take a global perspective to understanding truth and falsehood in the media and their effects on societies and on international relations. From the philosophy of bullshit to the history of the yellow press to analyses of online networks, we will bring together a wide range of sources and disciplines to consider fake news as a political tool, as a side-effect of the social organization of news making, as a product being sold to consumers, and as either a threat to or an inescapable aspect of democracy.
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Global Business
What does it mean to be a global corporation in the 21st Century? What kinds of dilemmas do business leaders face when operating in different counties with varying political, cultural, technological, and environmental landscapes? How can communities harness the positive aspects of global business while managing the social, environmental, and security risks they generate? Should consumers and voters hold global businesses to high social and environmental standards, and if so, how? In this course, you will learn how to analyze the opportunities and challenges multinational companies generate using real cases from global companies including: Exxon Mobile, Nike, Patagonia, Toms Shoes, Starbucks, Apple, Facebook, and even Grindr (who knew a dating app would generate national security concerns?!).
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Women and War
This course introduces students to the topic of women and war, spanning across different time periods and regions. It equips students to look critically at women's assigned roles and at gendered identities in peace and in wartime, from a solid historical and comparative perspective. By the end of this course, students will understand women's experiences in war, and look critically at concepts such as "motherhood," "combat" or "sexual violence." The course covers five main topics in the study of women and war: an introduction to the concepts of gender, militarization and images of women; women's place in the war economy and as victims (along with men) of sexual/gender-based violence war; women's agency and their multiple roles in armies and other armed groups; women as perpetrators of violence and extremism; and women’s roles in the making of gendered ethnic identities and national histories in the aftermath of war.
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Challenges of Modern Conflict
How will global security challenges shape international politics in the 21st century? This course seeks to provide a framework for thinking about the key issues of security and conflict in the modern era. In this course, we will examine issues such as civil war, counterinsurgency, terrorism, humanitarian intervention, peacekeeping, drones, and technology in warfare. We will approach these issues from empirical, theoretical, and policy perspectives to understand how such issues will influence international politics today and in the decades to come. By the end of this course, students will be able to apply this knowledge in order to assess global policies to promote international stability and human security. Students pursuing careers in human rights, security, diplomacy, intelligence, law, or international policy will find this course useful.
Learn moreRecent Faculty Achievements
David Bosco was recently quoted on Vox
Hamid Ekbia published a short essay, "Solace in Solitude," in the Los Angeles Review of Books.
Huss Banai recently made a number of media appearances discussing important current events. He appeared on NPR's On Point show, Public Seminar("On the meaning of Soleimani's death), Background Briefing podcast, BackStory Podcast("On the history of US-Iran relations), Deutsche Welle (airs on PBS before NewsHour), CBC("On what de-escalation means"), and on Vox("On possible implications").
In August, Amali Ibrahim published The Law and Religious Intolerance in Indonesia on the Baker Institute Blog.
Feisal Istrabadi's op-ed, "To Foster Trust, Genuine Federal Structures Must be Constructed," was published by the Iraq Energy Institute.
Sarah Bauerle Danzman published an article in The Monkey Cage titled "Why is the U.S. forcing a Chinese company to sell the gay dating app Grindr?".
Huss Banai participated in a roundtable discussion on Boston radio station WBUR. You can listen to the conversation at radioopensource.org.
Emma Gilligan is participating in an ongoing podcast series, My Smart Roomates. Episodes are available on iTunes, Pippa, and Podcast Republic.
Recent Publications by Faculty
Purnima Bose’s book
Intervention Narratives: Afghanistan, the United States, and the Global War on Terror, was published by Rutgers University Press. Her book is also featured on the Page 99 Test.
Bill Scheuerman’s book
The second, revised and expanded edition of Bill Scheuerman’s The End of Law: Carl Schmitt in The Twenty-First Century has been released by Rowman & Littlefield International (London).
Sarah Bauerle Danzman's book.
Merging Interests by Sarah Bauerle Danzman is now available through Cambridge University Press.
Nur Amali Ibrahim's book
Improvisational Islam: Indonesian Youth in a Time of Possibility, is now available through Cornell University Press.
Stephen Macekura’s book
The Development Century: A Global History (co-edited with Erez Manela of Harvard University), has just been published.
Jess Steinberg's book
Mines, Communities, and States: The Local Politics of Natural Resource Extraction in Africa, is now available through Cambridge University Press.
Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies