International Studies

INTL-I 408 Sustainable Development Goals: Challenges and Opportunities

In this intensive writing course, students will learn about the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of 17 global goals designed to push the international community towards sustainability and justice by 2030. In this course, students will learn about the SDGs and explore the challenges and opportunities they present for international development. Students will consider questions, including: What is sustainable development? How are global and local institutions, agencies and individuals seeking to create sustainable development? How do we know if we’ve achieved sustainable development? Through in-depth research and community-engaged writing, students will explore a global issue of interest and build professional writing skills while taking meaningful action.

INTL-I 305 Media and the Middle East

This course will explore media representations of Middle Eastern societies, as well as the role of media in Middle Eastern countries with an emphasis on Iran, Turkey, Egypt, and the Levant. Beginning with foundational media theory, we will then consider the history of mass media in the region, including print, radio, and television. The course will go on to treat the roles of old, new and social media in political and cultural revolutions of recent decades, along with the complexities of globalized media production involving transnational collaboration and diaspora populations.

INTL-I 203 Global Development

Why are some countries rich while other countries remain poor? Why are some societies characterized by relative equality of wealth among its members (i.e. Sweden, China before 1978), while others are vastly unequal (i.e. Brazil)? How do current challenges such as globalization, democratic backsliding, and civil conflict affect global, national, and local efforts at facilitating development? Students will learn about the post-WWII global architecture surrounding international development projects, study both institutional and behavioral factors that influence development outcomes, and use theory and empirical observation to generate insight into the enduring challenges of development as well as the most promising pathways toward development at local, national, and global levels. I-203 is the core course for the International Studies thematic concentration in Global Development.

INTL-I 103 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?!). Individually and with teams you will use political, economic, historical, and cultural knowledge to critically analyze, debate, and solve real-world problems that business, political, and community leaders face. Through studying and debating these cases, you will develop a set of valuable risk analysis, ethical reasoning skills, and cultural competencies necessary to becoming a leader in corporate, community, and political environments as well as learn the basics of writing a policy memo.

INTL-I 303 Politics of the Developing World

What is a "developing" country? Often also referred to as "non-western" or part of the "third-world," this course will explore definitions of these terms and the politics of countries that are typically categorized as developing, including the broader power dynamics that influence these politics. Central to our discussions will be definitions of democracy and autocracy and what these look like in the developing world, globalization and colonization, human rights, and the media. Although the course is about the politics of the developing world, it is inevitable that we should discuss the politics of the developed world, as well, given the historical and contemporary relationships between the developing and developed world.

INTL-I 325 Politics of the Developing World - in Spanish

What is a "developing" country? Often also referred to as "non-western" or part of the "third-world," this course will explore definitions of these terms and the politics of countries that are typically categorized as developing, including the broader power dynamics that influence these politics. Central to our discussions will be definitions of democracy and autocracy and what these look like in the developing world, globalization and colonization, human rights, and the media. Although the course is about the politics of the developing world, it is inevitable that we should discuss the politics of the developed world, as well, given the historical and contemporary relationships between the developing and developed world.

Students will discuss -- in Spanish -- politics of the developing world. (See optional companion class INTL-I 303, which is taught in English.)

Course taught in Spanish