International and Global Studies Bachelor of Science Degree

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International and Global Studies
Bachelor of Science Degree

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RIT's International and Global Studies BS degree transforms students into global experts who can assess and analyze the salient issues of worldwide transformation. 

Overview for International and Global Studies BS

Why Study International and Global Studies at RIT?

  • Interdisciplinary Approach: A cross-disciplinary curriculum of global studies courses combines various fields to prepare you with a diverse skill set crucial for navigating today's interconnected world.
  • Hands-On Experience: Recommender co-op, study abroad opportunities, and research projects help you foster a deeper understanding of global dynamics and enhance career readiness.
  • Customizable Focus Areas: The flexibility to tailor studies to specific facets of international studies allows you to gain expertise in areas that resonate with your career aspirations.
  • Teaching Partnership Program Available: 4+1 or 3+2 programs enable you to earn your bachelor’s degree at RIT and a master’s degree in education at one of our partner universities.
  • Accelerated Bachelor’s/Master’s Available: Earn both your bachelor’s and your master’s in less time and with a cost savings, giving you a competitive advantage in your field.

 

The impact of global change is dramatic and far-reaching, altering the dynamics of everyday life. RIT’s international studies major aims to transform you into a global expert who can assess and analyze important issues of worldwide transformation, including consumer capitalism, media culture, economic development and migration, gender and health, political conflict, sustainable futures, and the predicaments of democracy and civil society.

RIT’s International and Global Studies Program

The international and global studies major includes a broad and fascinating range of perspectives, including those drawn from anthropology, economics, performing arts and visual culture, history, international business, linguistics, global works of literature, modern languages and culture studies, philosophy, political science, public policy, and sociology. 

The international and global studies curriculum equips you with the tools to analyze globalization in a holistic, humanistic, and systematic way and to understand the consequences of global issues such as human rights and ethnic conflict, global health, the environment, economic justice, violence and terrorism, and the predicaments of democracy and civil society.

The major offers the flexibility to focus your studies on areas of special interest to you and your career goals. You will complete the required core concentration in globalization, and you’ll choose one of the following field specializations: 

  • African studies 
  • Asian studies 
  • European studies 
  • Gender studies 
  • Global justice, peace, and conflict studies
  • Indigenous studies 
  • International business 
  • Latina American studies 
  • Middle Eastern studies
  • Sustainable futures

International Experience or Study Abroad

Study abroad or other international experiences are integrated into the international and global studies curriculum as well. With the support of your advisor, you will be encouraged to study abroad or pursue an internship or a co-op in the selected world region. Students in the major have lived and studied in Japan, Australia, Senegal, France, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil, and Costa Rica, and at RIT's global campuses in China, Croatia, Dubai, and Kosovo. 

Your advisors can also help you seek a domestic co-op position with a government agency or with a U.S. corporation that has international operations. Internships are available with organizations that are engaged with global issues, human rights, or international populations, including refugees and immigrants. A number of students have worked as interns under the supervision of human rights lawyers for the New York State Division of Human Rights in Rochester and for the United Nations Association of Rochester. These experiences enhance employment prospects after graduation.

What Can You Do with an International and Global Studies Degree? 

Because RIT’s degree in international studies provides you with a unique combination of language training, communication skills, education abroad, and a disciplinary focus, you will be prepared to enter the workforce or continue your studies with a graduate degree. Business, global development, human rights, international relations, and public policy are just a handful of the many possible paths you will be prepared to take. 

Career options in government or public service remain strong, and numerous agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Departments of Defense, State, Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security, offer promising career opportunities for graduates who hold bachelor’s degrees in international and global studies. 

Working within the U.S. government can lead to meaningful contributions to policy debates on issues like poverty, homelessness, social justice, education, foreign policy, and security issues. As a professional in this industry, you can participate in positively shaping our nation's future.

RIT’s Pre-Law Program

Law schools welcome applications from students majoring in a wide range of academic programs. RIT’s pre-law program will help you navigate the admission process for law school, explore Syracuse University’s College of legal careers, and guide you through course selection to ensure you build the skills and competencies required of competitive law school applicants. The program is open to students in all majors who are interested in pursuing a career in law.

Furthering Your Career in International and Global Studies

Combined Accelerated Bachelor’s/Master’s Degrees

Today’s careers require advanced degrees grounded in real-world experience. RIT’s Combined Accelerated Bachelor’s/Master’s Degrees enable you to earn both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in as little as five years of study, all while gaining the valuable hands-on experience that comes from co-ops, internships, research, study abroad, and more.

  • International and Global Studies BS/Science, Technology, and Public Policy MS: An accelerated dual degree that develops a foundational understanding of international political, social, and economic forces at play to equip the policymakers of tomorrow for making informed and intelligent decisions regarding science, technology, and the public good.
  • +1 MBA: Students who enroll in a qualifying undergraduate degree have the opportunity to add an MBA to their bachelor’s degree after their first year of study, depending on their program. Learn how the +1 MBA can accelerate your learning and position you for success.

3+3 Accelerated BS/JD Programs

RIT has partnered with Syracuse University’s College of Law and University at Buffalo School of Law to offer accelerated 3+3 BS/JD options for highly capable students. These programs provide a fast track to law school where you can earn a bachelor’s degree at RIT and a Juris Doctorate degree at Syracuse University or University at Buffalo in six years. Interested students may apply to the option directly, with successful applicants offered admission to RIT and conditional acceptance into either Syracuse University’s College of Law or University at Buffalo School of Law.

RIT's international and global studies degree is one of the approved majors for the 3+3 option.

Learn more about Accelerated Law 3+3 Programs.

RIT’s Teaching Partnership Programs

Whether your goal is to go into early childhood or elementary education, become a secondary education teacher with a content area specialty at the middle or high school level, or work in the higher education or counseling fields, RIT’s partnership programs with local universities provide a guided pathway to a career in teaching. 

These 4+1 or 3+2 programs enable you to earn your bachelor’s degree at RIT and a master’s degree in education at one of our partner universities. As you progress, you’ll benefit from focused academic advising, career exploration opportunities, and resources for research, learning, and skill development.  

RIT’s international and global studies degree is eligible for RIT’s Teaching Partnership Program. 

Learn more about RIT’s Teaching Partnership Programs.

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Careers and Experiential Learning

Typical Job Titles

Congressional Aide Civil Service Professional Foreign Service Officer
Government Official Immigration Officer International Human Resources
International Relations Representative Interpreter Legal Assistant
Non-Profit Program Director Policy Analyst Teacher

Post-Graduation Salary and Career Info for International and Global Studies BS

Cooperative Education and Internships

What’s different about an RIT education? It’s the career experience you gain by completing cooperative education and internships with top companies in every single industry. You’ll earn more than a degree. You’ll gain real-world career experience that sets you apart. It’s exposure–early and often–to a variety of professional work environments, career paths, and industries. 

Co-ops and internships take your knowledge and turn it into know-how. A liberal arts co-op provides hands-on experience that enables you to apply your knowledge in professional settings while you make valuable connections between course work and real-world applications.

The major encourages students to participate in a study abroad opportunity, an internship, or a cooperative educational experience in the selected world region of study.

Internships may also be available with organizations that are engaged with global issues, human rights, or international populations, including refugees and immigrants. A number of students have worked as interns under the supervision of human rights lawyers for the New York State Division of Human Rights in Rochester, NY, and for the United Nations Association of Rochester. These international experiences enhance employment prospects after graduation.

Integrated International Experience

Students have lived and studied in diverse locations such as Japan, Australia, Senegal, France, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil, and Costa Rica, or at one of RIT's global campuses: RIT China, RIT Croatia, RIT Dubai, or RIT Kosovo.

Co-op and Experiential Learning Options for International and Global Studies BS

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Curriculum for 2024-2025 for International and Global Studies BS

Current Students: See Curriculum Requirements

View Printable Curriculum

International and Global Studies, BS degree, typical course sequence

Course Sem. Cr. Hrs.
First Year
INGS-101
Global Studies
Within the past three decades, planetary computerization, burgeoning media industries, and other global processes have significantly altered the ways in which we experience our local and global worlds. Global reconfigurations of time and space change our consciousness, sense of self and others, and the material realities in which we live and work. This course provides the conceptual tools to assess emerging global processes, interactions and flows of people, ideas and things that challenge historical patterns of international studies and relations. The course will introduce you to international and global processes in areas such as global cultural economies, global cities, new forms of democracy and civil society, global religions, sexualities, health, and environments, increased competition for resources, political conflict, war and terrorism. Beyond understanding the causes and consequences of global change, this course will introduce you to ethical dilemmas in global justice movements, and in transferring ideas and technologies in new global contexts. Lecture 3 (Fall).
 3
UWRT-150
First-Year Writing: FYW: Writing Seminar (WI) (General Education)
Writing Seminar is a three-credit course limited to 19 students per section. The course is designed to develop first-year students’ proficiency in analytical and rhetorical reading and writing, and critical thinking. Students will read, understand, and interpret a variety of non-fiction texts representing different cultural perspectives and/or academic disciplines. These texts are designed to challenge students intellectually and to stimulate their writing for a variety of contexts and purposes. Through inquiry-based assignment sequences, students will develop academic research and literacy practices that will be further strengthened throughout their academic careers. Particular attention will be given to the writing process, including an emphasis on teacher-student conferencing, critical self-assessment, class discussion, peer review, formal and informal writing, research, and revision. Small class size promotes frequent student-instructor and student-student interaction. The course also emphasizes the principles of intellectual property and academic integrity for both current academic and future professional writing. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring, Summer).
 3
 
General Education – Electives
 6
 
Globalization Concentration Elective
 3
 
Open Elective
 3
YOPS-10
RIT 365: RIT Connections
RIT 365 students participate in experiential learning opportunities designed to launch them into their career at RIT, support them in making multiple and varied connections across the university, and immerse them in processes of competency development. Students will plan for and reflect on their first-year experiences, receive feedback, and develop a personal plan for future action in order to develop foundational self-awareness and recognize broad-based professional competencies. (This class is restricted to incoming 1st year or global campus students.) Lecture 1 (Fall, Spring).
 0
 
General Education – Artistic Perspective
 3
 
General Education – Ethical Perspective
 3
 
General Education – Global Perspective
 3
 
General Education - Mathematical Perspective A
 3
Second Year§
 
General Education – Mathematical Perspective B
 3
 
General Education – Immersion 1
 3
 
General Education – Social Perspective
 3
 
General Education Elective
 3
 
Modern Language Courses (intermediate level)‡
 6
 
Field Specialization Elective
 3
 
Globalization Concentration Electives
 9
Third Year§
 
Advanced Study Course
 3
 
General Education – Immersion 2, 3
 6
 
General Education – Natural Science Inquiry Perspective†
 3
 
Globalization Concentration Elective
 3
 
Field Specialization Electives
 6
 
General Education – Elective
 3
 
INTLSTU Methods Elective 1, 2
 6
Fourth Year§
INGS-501
Capstone Seminar (WI-PR)
This upper division seminar constitutes the final core requirement in the international and global studies degree program. Students will enroll in this course in their final year of study. The capstone seminar will further develop and sharpen the student's understanding of globalization and international processes. The course uses a problem-solving focus to provide a detailed analysis of one or more contemporary issues in the field of international and global studies, culminating in a written senior thesis and project presentation. (Prerequisites: INGS-101 or equivalent course and 4th year status.) Research (Fall, Spring, Summer).
 3
 
General Education – Scientific Principles Perspective
 3
 
General Education – Electives
 12
 
Field Specialization Elective
 3
 
Open Electives
 9
Total Semester Credit Hours
120

Please see General Education Curriculum (GE) for more information.

(WI-PR) Refers to a writing intensive course within the major.

* Please see Wellness Education Requirement for more information. Students completing bachelor's degrees are required to complete two different Wellness courses.

† Students will satisfy this requirement by taking either a 3 or 4 credit hour lab science course. If a science course consists of separate lecture and laboratory sections, the student must take both the lecture and lab portions to satisfy the requirement.

‡ Modern language courses: Students without prior proficiency in a foreign language should take the beginning level language sequence as prerequisite(s) for the intermediate level in the LAS electives.

§ After the first year students are highly encouraged to complete an international experience by choosing a study abroad experience or an internship or co-op. The experience may be completed during the summer or during the academic year.

Methods Electives

Choose two of the following:
ANTH-302/SOCI-302
Qualitative Research
Learning about social and cultural groups is a complex and ethically sensitive process. We explore common qualitative research methods for social and cultural research. We evaluate the utility of such methods for different purposes and contexts, including cross-cultural contexts. We consider common ethical dilemmas in research with human subjects, the ethical responsibilities of researchers, and common techniques for minimizing risks to subjects. (Prerequisites: Successful completion of one course in Anthropology (ANTH), Sociology (SOCI) or International and Global Studies (INGS) is required.) Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
ANTH-361
Sociology of Numbers
Much of the knowledge of our social worlds has been digitized. This course explores how social technologies shape our relationships, personal lives, and sense of self. The metric manufacture of diversity has produced new forms of population management and inequality. Our biographic histories as citizens, consumers, workers/professionals, parents, lovers, and social media users are collected as data-bites and assessed in metric terms, thereby forging new sets of identities. The transformation of people into numerical entities is an act of statistical objectification. This process frames the creation of social and racial typologies, and is well demonstrated by the US census. Students will investigate the formation of racial, ethnic, and gender identities in the context of the accelerated desire to digitize humanity. Lecture 3 (Annual).
ECON-403
Econometrics I
Econometrics I provides students with the opportunity to develop their skills in applied regression analysis. It covers various regression estimation techniques, data preparation and transformation, and the interpretation of regression results. There is particular emphasis on the dangers of misuse of regression techniques. The course covers regression analysis for both cross-sectional and time series data. (Prerequisites: (ECON-101 or ECON-101H) and (MATH-161 or MATH-171 or 1016-171T or MATH-181 or MATH-181A) and (STAT-145 or CQAS-251 or MATH-251 or STAT-205 or STAT-251) or equivalent courses.) Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).
ISCH-110
Principles of Computing
This course is designed to introduce students to the central ideas of computing. Students will engage in activities that show how computing changes the world and impacts daily lives. Students will develop step-by-step written solutions to basic problems and implement their solutions using a programming language. Assignments will be completed both individually and in small teams. Students will be required to demonstrate oral and written communication skills through such assignments as short papers, homework, group discussions and debates, and development of a term paper. Computer Science majors may take this course only with department approval, and may not apply these credits toward their degree requirements. Lec/Lab 3 (Fall, Spring).
ISTE-140
Web and Mobile I
This course provides students with an introduction to internet and web technologies, and to development on Macintosh/UNIX computer platforms. Topics include HTML and CSS, CSS3 features, digital images, web page design and website publishing. Emphasis is placed on fundamentals, concepts and standards. Additional topics include the user experience, mobile design issues, and copyright/intellectual property considerations. Exercises and projects are required. Lec/Lab 3 (Fall, Spring).
SOCI-303
Statistics in the Social Sciences
The research conducted by sociologists and anthropologists generates large, complex data sets that are difficult to interpret subjectively. We will explore the basic quantitative tools that sociologists and anthropologists can use to understand these data sets and learn how to craft a research question and research design that utilize quantitative data, how to select appropriate quantitative techniques and apply them, how to present results, and how to critically evaluate quantitatively based knowledge claims. Lab 2, Lecture 2 .
SOCI-361
Sociology of Numbers
Much of the knowledge of our social worlds has been digitized. This course explores how social technologies shape our relationships, personal lives, and sense of self. The metric manufacture of diversity has produced new forms of population management and inequality. Our biographic histories as citizens, consumers, workers/professionals, parents, lovers, and social media users are collected as data-bites and assessed in metric terms, thereby forging new sets of identities. The transformation of people into numerical entities is an act of statistical objectification. This process frames the creation of social and racial typologies, and is well demonstrated by the US census. Students will investigate the formation of racial, ethnic, and gender identities in the context of the accelerated desire to digitize humanity. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
STAT-145
Introduction to Statistics I
This course introduces statistical methods of extracting meaning from data, and basic inferential statistics. Topics covered include data and data integrity, exploratory data analysis, data visualization, numeric summary measures, the normal distribution, sampling distributions, confidence intervals, and hypothesis testing. The emphasis of the course is on statistical thinking rather than computation. Statistical software is used. (Prerequisites: Any 100 level MATH course, or NMTH-260 or NMTH-272 or NMTH-275 or (NMTH-250 with a C- or better) or a Math Placement Exam score of at least 35.) Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring, Summer).

Concentrations

Students in the major will select five electives in the Core Concentration in Globalization.

Globalization
ANTH-210
Culture and Globalization
By exploring critical issues of globalizing culture, we examine how ideas, attitudes, and values are exchanged or transmitted across conventional borders. How has the production, articulation, and dissemination of cultural forms (images, languages, practices, beliefs) been shaped by global capitalism, media industries, communication technologies, migration, and tourist travels? How are cultural imaginaries forged, exchanged, and circulated among a global consumer public? How has the internationalizing of news, computer technologies, video-sharing websites, blogging sites, and other permutations of instant messaging served to accelerate cultural globalization? Students will be introduced to anthropological perspectives on cultural globalization, the transmission of culture globally, and the subsequent effects on social worlds, peoples, communities, and nations. Lecture 3 (Fa/sp/su).
ANTH-235
Immigration to the U.S.
This course examines immigration to the U.S. within the context of globalization. We examine the push- and pull-factors that generate immigration, and changing immigration policies and debates. We consider how changes in the American workplace have stimulated the demand for foreign workers in a wide range of occupations, from software engineer to migrant farmworker and nanny. We review the cultural and emotional challenges of adapting within the American cultural landscape, transnationalism and connections with the homeland, the experiences of refugees, and how immigration has changed since 9/11. Special attention is given to immigration from Latin America, the largest sending region. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
ANTH-270
Cuisine, Culture, and Power
Physically, culturally, and socially, humans live through food and drink. Spanning the globe, as nearly limitless omnivores, humans have developed myriad ways of collecting and cultivating food and taking advantage of local environments. We also put food to work for us socially by creating cuisine. Through cuisine, we forge and nourish relationships, commune with deities, and through luxury choices, demonstrate our "taste" and lay claim to elite status. Through the cultural practices of production and consumption of food and drink, we wield power. Food and drink consumption patterns have sustained slavery, poverty, malnutrition, and illegal immigration, and have laid waste to the environment. In this class, we explore physical, cultural, social, political, and economic dimensions of food and become more aware of how the private, intimate act of a bite connects us to the rest of humanity. Lecture 3 (Fa/sp/su).
ANTH-295
Global Public Health
Global health is a term that reflects a complex series of problems, policies, institutions and aspirations that have only recently made their way to the global stage. From its earliest days, global health was guided by principles in public health that situate the nation-state as responsible for the health of its population. While international health and tropical medicine, the precursors to global health, was driven by the distinction between wealthy and poor nations, global health today, as this course explores, is oriented to the unequal burden of disease around the world. The course will consider major global health challenges, programs, and policies through an integrated social science lens. After placing global health in historical context, we will focus on how the science of disease cannot be dissociated from the social context and policies that both drive the emergence of disease(s) and respond to the unequal burden of disease around the world. We will analyze current and emerging global health priorities, including emerging infectious diseases, poverty, conflicts and emergencies, health inequity, health systems reforms, and major global initiatives for disease prevention and health promotion. Lecture 3 (Annual).
ANTH-341
Global Addictions
This course evaluates global forms of “addiction” in medical, cultural, national, and transnational situations of encounter. Though primarily a EuroAmerican concept of illness, addiction is now discursively and experientially widespread, assuming the status of a “global form.” Addiction narratives and experiences shape people and social life everywhere, as scientific and cultural or national knowledge intersect to form subjectivities, identities of addicts, and communities of addicted bodies. Concepts of will, morality, the addicted self and other, and living and dying also impact the cultural, national and international infrastructures we build—whether and how, for instance, we put resources into medical or criminal justice systems and networks. A closer look at the intimate lives of addicts thus enables us to consider identity boundaries and crossings; addiction languages; family relations and parenting; self-made communities and social bonds; work at the economic fringes of society; personal and institutional violence; policing and navigating enforcement or incarceration; homelessness and legal, medical and social service bureaucracies; as well as transnational production, trafficking, forms of addiction, and policing. By the end of the course, students will comprehend concepts and theories of addiction, and global perspectives on people living with addiction. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).
ANTH-345
Genocide and Transitional Justice
The destruction and survival of societies hinges on collective ideas of identity. In times of social stress, identities—whether racial, ethnic, religious or national—become critical “sites” of conflict over the sovereignty of nation-states, and the legitimacy of social, cultural practices. When ideas fail to incorporate people, essentialist categories of identity, historical grievances, and accounts of extreme violence become interrelated, potent sources of destruction. Slavery and exclusive ownership of resources leave people starving or living in perilously polluted environments. Global cultural economies threaten local systems and self-representation. In this course, we will take critical, anthropological approaches to studies of ethnocide, genocide and transitional justice. Students will assess the destruction and survival of societies, from the 19th century slaughter of Native Americans and Amazonian Indians to more recent genocides in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, the Sudan, Iraq, Myanmar, Bangladesh and China. Students will consider similarities and differences in the social experiences of mass violence, and the ethics of protecting particular identity-based groups, and not others, in international, national and local laws. Students will become familiar with multiple inter-related justice systems, for instance, the International Criminal Court, national and United Nations-backed tribunals, and local justice systems such as the Rwandan Gacaca courts. Recent developments in legal ethics and international law will enable students to see how public sentiments, legal advocacy and other social, political processes facilitate enhanced protections for the world’s most vulnerable people. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
ANTH-360
Humans and their Environment
Humans and their societies have always been shaped by their environment, but as human societies became more complex, their relationship with their environment changed from one of simple adaptation to one in which they had the power to change their environment. Often, the changes they have wrought have had unintended consequences, forcing societies to adapt to the changes that they themselves have brought about. Although we tend to think that this is a relatively recent phenomenon, humans have been altering their environment since the first human societies made the transition to agriculture over ten thousand years ago, if not longer. In this class, we will use the tools of environmental archaeology to explore the history of human interactions with their environments and to draw lessons on how we could manage that interaction today. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
ANTH-410
Global Cities
This course examines the impact of global dynamics on cities from the early 20th century to the present. By tracing urban formations from metropolis to global city, emphasis will be placed on the making of identities, communities, and citizens in the architectural spaces, cultural places, ethnic zones, and media traces of urban life in the context of globalization. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
ANTH-425
Global Sexualities
By exploring issues of gender and sexuality in a global context, students will be introduced to anthropological perspectives on the experience of men and women, as gendered subjects, in different societies and historical contexts, including colonialism, nationalism, and global capitalism. In turn, we will explore how cultural constructions of masculinity and femininity are configured by race, class, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Course materials are drawn from an array of sources, reflecting various theoretical perspectives and ethnographic views from different parts of the world. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
ANTH-430
Visual Anthropology
We see others as we imagine them to be, in terms of our values, not as they see themselves. This course examines ways in which we understand and represent the reality of others through visual media, across the boundaries of culture, gender, and race. It considers how and why visual media can be used to represent or to distort the world around us. Pictorial media, in particular ethnographic film and photography, are analyzed to document the ways in which indigenous and native peoples in different parts of the world have been represented and imagined by anthropologists and western popular culture. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).
COMM-346
Global Media
An introduction to media technologies from a global perspective. Major theories about the media, current trends in media, journalism practices, and governmental challenges and restrictions are reviewed. Students will use various media technologies both locally and abroad through site visits, readings, and online resources resulting in a media production (mini-documentary, movie trailer, and/or international film review). Special focus on the growing importance of the internet and digital media on news flow, advertising, and entertainment. Lec/Lab 3 (Fall or Spring).
ECON-201
Principles of Macroeconomics
Macroeconomics studies aggregate economic behavior. The course begins by presenting the production possibilities model. This is followed by a discussion of basic macroeconomic concepts including inflation, unemployment, and economic growth and fluctuations. The next topic is national income accounting, which is the measurement of macroeconomic variables. The latter part of the course focuses on the development of one or more macroeconomic models, a discussion of the role of money in the macroeconomy, the aggregate supply-aggregate demand framework, and other topics the individual instructor may choose. (Prerequisites: ECON-101 or completion of one (1) 400 or 500 level ECON course.) Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring, Summer).
ECON-405
International Trade and Finance
This course first surveys the sources of comparative advantage. It then analyzes commercial policy and analyzes the welfare economics of trade between countries. Some attention is paid to the institutional aspects of the world trading system. Finally, the course introduces the student to some salient notions in international finance such as national income accounting, the balance of payments, and exchange rates. (Prerequisites: ECON-101 or completion of one (1) 400 or 500 level ECON course and ECON-201 or equivalent course.) Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
ECON-406
Global Economic Issues
This course is focused on understanding economic problems in a global perspective. The students will study the impact of globalization on economic growth and income disparity among countries. Global economic issues such as poverty, hunger, refugees, and transnational terrorism will be studied. We will also discuss global efforts to attain progress such as the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The course work will emphasize the analysis of international economic data. (Prerequisites: ECON-101 or completion of one (1) 400 or 500 level ECON course.) Lecture 3 (Spring).
ECON-448
Development Economics
This course provides an introduction to development economics, which focuses on the problems and challenges faced typically but not exclusively by the developing countries. In this course we will study the economic transformation of developing countries by focusing on the characteristics of land, labor and credit markets in rural areas of developing countries. We will survey the large literature on modeling economic growth and discuss relevant case studies from developing countries. (Prerequisites: ECON-101 or completion of one (1) 400 or 500 level ECON course.) Lecture 3 (Fall).
HIST-201
Histories of Globalization
Globalization is a human process, influenced by contemporary and historical issues that are routinely conceived of as affecting or pertaining to the world’s population in its entirety, such as human rights, humanitarianism, environmental degradation, trade, and military power. We use the world and its population as the unit of analysis with an emphasis is placed on issues that appear to be in tension with the role of the nation-state and nationality, and highlight world and global citizenship. We explore critiques of the conceptualization of globality and worldliness as a factor in determining social, cultural, and historical change. Lecture 3 (Biannual).
HIST-281
Global History of Technology
Modern technologies make our daily lives pleasant and convenient; yet, many people around the globe lack access to these technologies. In this course, we will examine the origins and implications of technical developments throughout human history and across the globe—from digging sticks and pyramids, cathedrals and steam engines to atom bombs and electronic computers. We will consider the circumstances in which innovations emerge and move from one location to another, discuss how technologies influence the ways humans understand themselves, and examine how they affected the relations between different societies throughout history. In this course, you will gain a better understanding how societies around the world have shaped their technologies, and how technologies in turn have shaped them. Lecture 3 (Fall).
HIST-383
Technology and Global Relations in the American Century
This class explores the role of technology in US foreign relations during the twentieth century, when the United States rose to global power. American engineers, scientists, missionaries, executives, and diplomats used technologies to gain strategic advantages, uplift other peoples around the globe, or open new market opportunities. We will look at how Americans employed a wide range of military, development, and consumer technologies, from torpedoes and airplanes to dams, schools, automobiles, and computers. Technologies projected superiority and serve in civilizing missions; they also often reflected on relations of power, gender, and race. Sometimes, technologies moved freely from one place to another, and at other times their circulation was impeded. Based on historical sources and assigned readings, the class discussions will investigate how technologies shaped US foreign relations and were in turn shaped by them. Seminar 3 (Fall).
HIST-480
Global Information Age
The internet and cell phones seem to have turned us into world citizens of cyberspace. Programmers in Bangalore or Chennai now write software for U.S. companies, and doctors in India or Australia interpret the Cat-Scan or MRI images of US patients overnight. As bestselling author Thomas Friedman argues, the world is flat, that is competition for intellectual work is now global. Others have suggested that information technologies have led to global homogenization, with people around the world reading the same news, listening to the same music, and purchasing the same products. In this class, we will investigate the history of information and communication technologies to cast new light on these claims about our present-day technologies. This class is a small seminar which includes a research project. Lecture 3 (Spring).
INGS-489
Topics in Global Studies
This course focuses on specific themes or issues in global studies, chosen by the instructor, vetted by the department chair, announced in the course subtitle on SIS, and developed in the syllabus. The topics of this course will vary, but the course number will remain the same. Students may repeat the course for credit, but may not repeat the same topic. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring, Summer).
POLS-210
Comparative Politics
The course provides a mode of analysis for the study of political systems. Basic concepts of political science are utilized to present a descriptive and analytical examination of various political systems that can be classified as liberal democracies, post-communist, newly industrializing countries, and Third World. Particular attention is paid to the governmental structure, current leadership and major issues of public policy of those selected political systems under review. Lecture 3 (Spring).
POLS-220
Global Political Economy
The world’s economic environments are changing rapidly with globalization. New patterns in the international economy or fresh fields of a global economy require a reexamination of the basic concepts to remember, like power and efficiency, and the traditional roles played by leading actors in the world market: private businesses, individual governments, and international organizations. This course provides insights into understanding the relationship among the key players in the globalizing economy, most importantly interactions between the state and market. Classic viewpoints to explain international economy, like Mercantilism, Liberalism, and Marxism, will be critically reviewed and applied to various current cross-state economic affairs. Each perspective contains ethical and pragmatic concerns about human life and their interactions, conflicting or cooperative. What is right and what is good calls for a perpetual struggle to find the best combination in the practical field of trade or finance. So, critical evaluations of the perspectives are essential in this class to developing creative ideas appropriate for the transforming realities of globalization. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
POLS-325
International Law and Organizations
International Law and Organizations is the study of justice and government among nations. The course covers a range of theoretical and substantive topics, including theories of international law, the ethical foundations that underlie these theories, the historical development of international law, and the historical development and effectiveness of international organizations. There is a focus on the historical development of international law, examining the ethical dilemmas it presents, and exploring how these dilemmas manifest themselves in the United Nations and other international organizations. The course addresses various substantive issues such as war, sovereignty, natural law, humanitarianism, the ethical implications of existing international organizations and proposed reforms, and the influence of hegemonic power. (Prerequisites: POLS-120 or equivalent course.) Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
POLS-330
Human Rights in Global Perspectives
This course explores the ethical aspects, both domestically and internationally, and the institutional and political aspects of human rights. Issues covered include the ethics of human rights; the relationship between civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights; the meaning and impact of humanitarian and international human rights law; the impact of cultural relativism in the definition and assessment of the promotion and protection of human rights; the significance of different religious perspectives; the question of the legitimacy of humanitarian interventions and the effects of globalization on the perception and practice of the ethics of human rights. Lecture 3 (Fall).
POLS-335
Politics in Developing Countries
This course explores the ways in which the historical, cultural, economic and political contexts of societies of Africa, Asia and Latin America determines the patterns of their political processes. Focus is directed to such factors as history, religion, economic underdevelopment, and culture and their impact on the efforts to promote liberalization and democratization, economic and social modernization, and political and social stability. Lecture 3 (Fall).
POLS-360
International Political Thought
The course provides a general overview of international themes, ethical principles, and issues that are taken into consideration in international political thought. Possible topics may include theoretical analyses of the ideas of sovereignty, nationalism, hegemony, imperialism, global civil society, political theology, balance of power, collective security, just war, perpetual peace, and human rights. Guiding themes of the course will be a reflection upon the nature of political legitimacy in the international context and the tension between political justifications based upon necessity and those based upon justice. In reading the major political thinkers students will be encouraged to reflect upon the challenge of reconciling ethical obligations to one’s own community with those of humanity in general. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).
SOCI-295
Global Public Health
Global health is a term that reflects a complex series of problems, policies, institutions and aspirations that have only recently made their way to the global stage. From its earliest days, global health was guided by principles in public health that situate the nation-state as responsible for the health of its population. While international health and tropical medicine, the precursors to global health, was driven by the distinction between wealthy and poor nations, global health today, as this course explores, is oriented to the unequal burden of disease around the world. The course will consider major global health challenges, programs, and policies through an integrated social science lens. After placing global health in historical context, we will focus on how the science of disease cannot be dissociated from the social context and policies that both drive the emergence of disease(s) and respond to the unequal burden of disease around the world. We will analyze current and emerging global health priorities, including emerging infectious diseases, poverty, conflicts and emergencies, health inequity, health systems reforms, and major global initiatives for disease prevention and health promotion. Lecture 3 (Annual).
SOCI-355
CyberActivism: Diversity, Sex, and the Internet
Sociologists look to cyberspace to test theories of technology diffusion and media effects on society. This course explores the Internet’s impact on communities, political participation, cultural democracy, and diversity. How have digital technologies and electronic information flows shaped or diminished inequalities of gender, sex, and race? For instance: new electronic technologies have pushed the cultural and physical boundaries of how we have sex; with whom we have sex; and with what we have sex and/or have observed having sex, such as sex toys and avatars. The sociological implications of this new technology depend on economic, legal, and policy decisions that are shaping the Internet as it becomes institutionalized. The course analyzes such new forms of cyber-democracy with a focus on issues of gender, sex, and race. Lecture 3 (Spring, Summer).
SOCI-395
Borders: Humans, Boundaries, and Empires
Borders are more than walls; they are social constructions with real consequences. This course examines the creation and consequences of borders. It discusses how borders developed historically, how borders function as tools of population management in places and systems far from the borderlands, and the politics and experiences of border crossing. We will look for borders both between and within nation states when addressing these issues. The course will utilize a variety of materials including but not limited to scholarly sources, policy transcripts, popular cultural products (e.g. films and TV shows), and art (e.g. poetry, paintings). Students will play an active role in determining specific course topics, though they can expect to discuss a range of relevant issues including contemporary immigration politics, Indigenous rights, the war on terror, border disputes and armed conflicts, privatization of immigration management, displacement and segregation of domestic populations, and border activism. This course provides students with tools that ground and expand their understanding of borders, preparing them for participation in one of the most important public debates of our time. The purview of this course is relevant for those who aspire toward professions in public policy, law enforcement, public service, law, and community-organizing, among others. Seminar 3 (Fall, Spring).

Field Specializations

Students in the major will choose one of the following ten tracks or “field specializations” and select four courses from the track electives.

African studies
ANTH-310
African Film
This course considers the diversity, contours and synergies of African films and filmmaking, traversing the continent to view films from Senegal, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia, Kenya, Egypt and Mali. Though much scholarship has focused on influential African filmmakers and nationally located cinemas, the straight-to-video systems of the 1980s and 1990s had a profound impact on African films and filmmaking. Nollywood and other video film industries began to dominate film production and transnational mobility, influencing new film technologies and industries, accessibility and addressability across the globe. Topics in this course include the influence of African film directors on filmmaking, and critical developments in major industries; Nollywood and beyond, and the cultural aesthetics, politics and economics that affect their global mobility and popular appeal; postcolonial identities and power; music and oral traditions of storytelling; didactic, post-colonial cinema with moral, political missions vs. ‘arthouse’ approaches; Afrofuturist and speculative cinema; channels such as African Magic that are shown in more than 50 African countries; and the effects of video streaming on global stardom and popularity. Students will learn about diverse African films and approaches to filmmaking, and the vibrant people and creative cultures that make up these film industries. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
ANTH-345
Genocide and Transitional Justice
The destruction and survival of societies hinges on collective ideas of identity. In times of social stress, identities—whether racial, ethnic, religious or national—become critical “sites” of conflict over the sovereignty of nation-states, and the legitimacy of social, cultural practices. When ideas fail to incorporate people, essentialist categories of identity, historical grievances, and accounts of extreme violence become interrelated, potent sources of destruction. Slavery and exclusive ownership of resources leave people starving or living in perilously polluted environments. Global cultural economies threaten local systems and self-representation. In this course, we will take critical, anthropological approaches to studies of ethnocide, genocide and transitional justice. Students will assess the destruction and survival of societies, from the 19th century slaughter of Native Americans and Amazonian Indians to more recent genocides in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, the Sudan, Iraq, Myanmar, Bangladesh and China. Students will consider similarities and differences in the social experiences of mass violence, and the ethics of protecting particular identity-based groups, and not others, in international, national and local laws. Students will become familiar with multiple inter-related justice systems, for instance, the International Criminal Court, national and United Nations-backed tribunals, and local justice systems such as the Rwandan Gacaca courts. Recent developments in legal ethics and international law will enable students to see how public sentiments, legal advocacy and other social, political processes facilitate enhanced protections for the world’s most vulnerable people. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
FNRT-323
Survey of African American Music
HIST-245
American Slavery and Freedom
This class will survey the history of slavery and freedom in the United States from the establishment of global slave systems in the colonial period through emancipation movements during the Civil War era. Students will examine key economic, political, and social issues (from the development of slave labor systems to strategies of resistance among enslaved peoples) as well as the meaning of black freedom struggles during key eras (such as the American Revolutionary era and Civil War). Lecture 3 (Fall).
INGS-489
Topics in Global Studies*
This course focuses on specific themes or issues in global studies, chosen by the instructor, vetted by the department chair, announced in the course subtitle on SIS, and developed in the syllabus. The topics of this course will vary, but the course number will remain the same. Students may repeat the course for credit, but may not repeat the same topic. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring, Summer).
SOCI-210
Black America-Culture & HipHop
This course examines the historical and contemporary conditions of Blacks in the U.S. We will explore African American culture as it is perceived by many African-Americans, and consider theoretical concepts related to immigration and the segmented assimilation of Black immigrant groups coming into the U.S. We will also address identity politics as it relates to race, class, and gender, oppression, as well as the art products that originate in Black communities. A particular emphasis will be placed on Hip Hop music, dance, and style as an expression of Black culture, identity, activism, and social influence (both nationally and globally). Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).
 
Modern Language Elective† (beyond intermediate)

* INGS-489 may be used when the topic is pertinent to African studies.

† Modern Language Elective may be used when the language is pertinent to the region.

Asian Studies
HIST-160
History of Modern East Asia
Understanding the history of East Asia is integral to understanding the complex world that we live in, and will help us to understand that no single nation can live in isolation. One cannot endeavor to understand limited national entities alone; rather one must understand the interactions between cultures and across borders that help to define the world. Japan, for example, cannot be adequately understood without reference to China, Korea, and one might argue, the wider world. Therefore, we will undertake in this course to examine the region of East Asia historically from about 1600 to the present, paying special attention to interactions between the cultures and people of the region. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
HIST-252
The United States and Japan
This class examines the U.S.-Japanese relationship from the perspectives of diplomacy, economics, and culture. Fluctuating sharply during its 150 years, this relationship has featured gunboat diplomacy, racial conflict, war, and alliance. The course investigates U.S.-Japanese relations in the contexts of modernization, imperialism, World War II, the cold war, and the 21st century. Lecture 3 (Fall).
HIST-260
History of Premodern China
This course will examine critically the early history of China: the origins of China, the early mytho-historical dynasties, early imperial China, and finally the late imperial era, ending at roughly 1850. Students will be able to trace the relationship to the Chinese to various non-Chinese peoples, particularly the semi-nomadic peoples on the northern frontier. Students will also examine the way that China's long and complicated past has shaped its present, and how its relations to other peoples has shaped its modern relations to both its neighbors and the west. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).
HIST-261
History of Modern China
China occupies a rather large place in the consciousness of most Americas. It is the most populous country in the world, it has one of the biggest economies in the world and, in many ways, China has been seen to be in direct competition with America. Whatever the truth of these ideas, it is clear that China will play a major role on the world stage for the foreseeable future. This class will seek to analyze the historical circumstances surrounding the rise of modern China. What were the conditions that led to the establishment of, first, Nationalist China, followed by the People's Republic; why did the communist government enjoy such popular support; what were China's relations with the outside world; and finally, what is the state of China today? These are all questions that we will seek to answer in this course. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).
HIST-265
History of Modern Japan
This course will seek to examine critically the history and culture of Japan and will address many of the stereotypes and misunderstandings that are an inevitable part of Japanese studies. We will do this by examining a number of materials such as primary documents in translation, Japanese films, and art such as woodblock prints. In doing so, I will try to present as complete and balanced a picture of Japan's history and culture as possible. This will not only be useful in understanding Japan and its past, but will also help in understanding many of the important regional issues that are confronting us here in the modern world. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).
HIST-266
History of Premodern Japan
This class will introduce students to the history of Japan from the earliest times to the opening of the country in the mid nineteenth century. Through a variety of readings, discussions, and lectures, we'll tackle issues such as the origin of the Japanese people, early state formation, Japan in the larger East Asian context, and the rise of the warriors. We'll also examine the unique dual form of government that existed in Japan from the twelfth century, consisting of rule by the imperial court as well as by the warrior class in Japan, the well-known samurai. And finally, we'll look at several of the modern myths of Japanese history and try to address them in a balanced, historical manner. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).
HIST-351
The Vietnam War
The Vietnam War continues to loom over American history. In the service of vastly different causes, politicians repeatedly invoke it: some define it as a tragic mistake, others as a noble cause. Many search for the lessons of Vietnam, a war that cost more than 58,000 American lives and as many as three million Vietnamese. In this course, we consider the war experiences of both the United States and Vietnam. We begin by highlighting Vietnamese history, culture, nationalism, communism, and independence. After analyzing Vietnam as a colony under the French, we turn our attention to American involvement beginning in the early years of the Cold War and ending with the fall of Saigon. Although we examine military and political history, the course also emphasizes social and cultural perspectives on a war that tore at the fabric of American society and led ultimately to the downfall of two presidents. Last, we look at the war’s enduring legacies in the United States and Vietnam today. Readings and assignments for the course include government documents, memoirs, fiction, film, and secondary literature from both nations. Lecture 3 (Fall).
HIST-365
Conflict in Modern East Asia
The 20th century has sometimes been called the Pacific Century, which is ironic since this period of time has been anything but pacific! The twentieth century saw the rise of four great pacific powers; the U.S., Japan, China, and the Soviet Union, and saw the eclipse of several others, including the British and French Empires. Furthermore a major front of the Cold War was played out on the Asian continent, namely the Korean and Vietnam wars, as well as the U.S. standoff with Communist China. And of course the Second World War, the greatest concentrated period of human destruction, played out at the midpoint of the twentieth century. This class will analyze these conflicts both as conflicts in and of themselves, but will also look at the backdrop against which these conflicts were played out. Beginning with the subjugation of China in the 19th century, our class will examine the many conflicts that defined this region through the end of the twentieth century. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
HIST-450
Japan in History, Fiction, and Film
An introduction to Japanese history, highlighting social and aesthetic traditions that have formed the foundations for Japanese literature and cinema. Explores how writers and directors have drawn on this heritage to depict historical experiences. Lecture 3 (Spring).
HIST-462
East-West Encounters
The Age of Discovery, beginning in the 15th century and culminating with the advent of European imperialism, is one of the most fascinating, as well as problematic, periods in the history of both Asia and Europe. Too often historians frame the interaction between Asia and Europe in uniquely European terms and present Asia as a passive partner in this process of discovery. In fact, this period presents us with a number of complex issues such as national identity, the nature of European expansion, and the Asian response to European journeys to the East. This course will undertake to re-examine the age of discovery not only from a European point of view, but also from an Asian standpoint. In the process, we will see how many of the issues that we are facing in the region are products of a long and complex relationship between Europe and Asia. Students will also examine the issues that have arisen between the east and the west in the twentieth century and that continue into our own time. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).
HIST-465
Samurai in Word and Image
One of the most enduring images of premodern Japan in the samurai, replete with sword and armor. This course will seek to examine the role of the samurai in Japanese history, examining popular perceptions in Japanese film, woodblock prints, and texts. We will also use a variety of secondary sources to critically examine some of the portrayals of the samurai and how they stand up to historical reality. Students will be encouraged to participate in extensive discussions as we deal with a great variety of media and try to arrive at an image of the samurai that is historically accurate. And finally, we will examine issues such as feudalism and the warrior code and how those historical concepts relate to the west at about the same time period. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).
INGS-489
Topics in Global Studies*
This course focuses on specific themes or issues in global studies, chosen by the instructor, vetted by the department chair, announced in the course subtitle on SIS, and developed in the syllabus. The topics of this course will vary, but the course number will remain the same. Students may repeat the course for credit, but may not repeat the same topic. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring, Summer).
MLCH-151
Food, Art & Thought in Chinese Culture
This course introduces Chinese culture and society through the lens of food, art, and thought. China is one of the oldest civilizations in the world, and ancient Chinese culture is the root of many cultural practices and traditions in East Asia. The course surveys Chinese civilization from the beginning to the modern time, highlighting fundamental ideas and practices that shape the Chinese culture and way of life. It addresses a broad range of topics including but not limited to systems of thought (Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism), Chinese art forms (poetry, ink painting, calligraphy, and martial arts), tea, and Chinese cuisine. Students will also explore how Chinese thought, art, and cultural practices connect China with the world as cultural encounters and exchanges take place. Lecture 3 (Annual).
MLCH-352
Globalization and Gender Through Chinese Cinema: From Kungfu to World Factoy
This course surveys Chinese cinema from its beginning to the present with special attention to its transnational connections and gender representation. Films from the mainland, Taiwan, and Hong Kong will be examined in-depth for their aesthetic quality and techniques, and equally important, against their socio-historical, political, economic, and cultural contexts. Topics include Kungfu films, women's cinema, documentation of globalization, independent filmmaking and social activism, and more. The class is conducted in English. Assigned films will be in Chinese with English subtitles. Lecture 3 (Biannual).
MLJP-351
Languages in Japanese Society
This course aims to introduce students to modern Japanese society, its rich cultural heritage, and the use of Japanese language that reflects the societal norms. It provides students with a fundamental yet diverse knowledge of Japanese culture and Japanese language use. Course work will include lectures, readings, discussions, and working with multi-media resources. Knowledge of Japanese helpful but not necessary. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).
PHIL-311
East Asian Philosophy
This course is an introduction to the origin and development of the philosophical traditions of primarily China and Japan through a consideration of selected thinkers, schools, and classic texts of Daoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Zen. Questions of metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics are emphasized with reference to the nature of reality and the person, social harmony and self-realization, causality, right action, and enlightenment. Comparisons may also be made with Western philosophers, both contemporary and classical. Lecture 3 (Spring).
POLS-350
Politics of East Asia
This course examines the East-Asian countries using the following comparative criteria as the organizing guidelines: modern political history of the country, political economy and development, governance and policy making, representation and participation, as well as major domestic and foreign policy issues. The political prospects of the countries for the 21st century will be analyzed and discussed. Lecture 3 (Fall).
POLS-351
Politics of China
This course examines the politics of China through a comparative historical analysis of key political and economic developments. It discusses the Communist Revolution, governance and policy making under the communist regime, and the reforms following the introduction of capitalism. The goal of the course is to assess China’s comparative advantages and grand strategy in international politics. Lecture 3 (Spring, Summer).
 
Modern Language Elective† (beyond intermediate)

* INGS-489 may be used when the topic is pertinent to Asian studies

† Modern Language Elective may be used when the language is pertinent to the region.

European Studies
ENGL-316
Global Literature
This course presents a study of global literature by engaging in critically informed analysis of texts from different geographical regions or cultural perspectives. Students will discover new modes for thinking about what global literature is, and how globalizing impulses have changed and shaped our world. One of the goals of the class is to analyze and discuss the works in their respective socio-historical contexts, with a special focus on the theme of encounter or contact zones. The impact of various factors such as migration, nationality, class, race, gender, generation, and religion will also be taken into consideration. The course can be repeated up to two times, for 6 semester credit hours, as long as the topics are different. Lecture 3 (Spring).
HIST-170
Twentieth-Century Europe
This course examines major themes and controversies in European history from 1900 to the present, placing particular emphasis on the early 20th century crisis of liberal democracy and the political alternatives proposed to parliamentary government: right-wing nationalism, communism, and fascism. Topics will include: the impact of World War I on European societies and politics; Popular Front movements in France and Spain; eugenics and the Nazi racial state; the Holocaust; occupation and resistance during World War II; decolonization; student rebellions in 1968; Cold War domestic politics; and the reshaping of post-communist and post-colonial Europe. Special attention will be placed racial politics and immigration, state surveillance regimes, and European debates over the Americanization and globalization of European cultures. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).
HIST-270
History of Modern France
This course explores pivotal themes in French history from the French Revolution of 1789 to the present. Topics will include the French Revolution, Napoleon III's Second Empire, French imperialism, World War I and nationalism, World War II and the Vichy regime, collaboration and resistance, and the 1968 student rebellions. Special emphasis will be placed on the recurring tension between secularism and Catholicism in French society, the role of French republicanism in shaping historic and contemporary debates about citizenship, race, and immigration, and France's relationship with its former colonial possessions and the United States. Lecture 3 (Fall).
HIST-280
History of Modern Germany
This course covers major themes in German history from the formation of the German Empire in 1870 to the present. Topics include nation building and nationalism, industrialization and urbanization, imperialism at home and abroad, the first world war, the Weimar Republic, Nazi racism and the second world war, the divided Germany and the Cold War, and reunification and the fall of the Berlin Wall. The course may focus on specific questions such as gender, class, religion or race and ethnicity. This course leads you to explore how German history shaped the role of Germans and Germany in the world today as well as how it informs problems facing other regions and eras. Lecture 3 (Fall).
HIST-369
Histories of Christianity
The history of Christianity is not simply the history of the religion of the west. Rather, Christian history is a long and complex movement that has profoundly affected Asia, Africa, Europe, and the New World. At various times there were several competing ideologies of Christianity, of which the west's was only a single example. Christianity also has a long history of interacting with other religions, from Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism to Judaism and Islam. This course will trace the development of Christianity paying special attention to how the Christian tradition developed in places such as Africa and Asia. We will, of course, also study Christianity in its western forms, but we will make an effort to dive into the rich tradition of this religion in all its many forms. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
INGS-489
Topics in Global Studies*
This course focuses on specific themes or issues in global studies, chosen by the instructor, vetted by the department chair, announced in the course subtitle on SIS, and developed in the syllabus. The topics of this course will vary, but the course number will remain the same. Students may repeat the course for credit, but may not repeat the same topic. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring, Summer).
MLFR-151
Film, Comics, and French Culture
The course focuses on French culture through feature films, animated films, and comic books. France is the strongest film industry in Europe and is one of the world’s major movie export powers after the U.S. Franco-Belgian comics are one of the main groups of comics, together with American and British comic books and the Japanese manga. France is Europe’s largest producer and the world’s third largest exporter of animated film. What do French films and comics tell us about French culture? The course explores aspects of contemporary French society. It addresses a broad range of topics including multiculturalism in France, French cuisine and the French paradox, fashion in France, the impact of the two world wars on French society, the legacy of the French colonial experience, and ethnic and sexual minorities in France. The course examines the interconnectedness of French culture with other cultures in the world, particularly American culture and the cultures of former French colonies. Students will also have to interpret and evaluate French films and comic books considering the cultural context in which they were created. They will learn about the specificity of French cinema as opposed to Hollywood productions, of French animated films versus American animated films and Japanese anime, and of Franco-Belgian comics as opposed to American and British comics and the Japanese manga. The course also offers a brief introduction to spoken French. Lecture 3 (Spring).
MLFR-351
French Film and Hollywood
A comparative study of French films and their American remakes from the 1930s to the 21st century to determine what these films reveal about the cultural and cinematic contexts from which they emerge. The course examines differences as well as similarities in the construction of identities in France and the United States. Devotes particular attention to the (re)construction of race, space, gender, and national histories. Conducted in English. Lecture 3 (Spring).
MLFR-352
The French Heritage in Films
Heritage films are central to the French cinematographic production. They enable the transmission and the reevaluation of a tradition that lies at the core of French cultural identity. This course examines a selection of French films adapted from both canonical and non-canonical texts representative of major events, trends, social issues, and artistic movements that contributed to shaping modern France. Students will become familiar with world-renowned French novels, short stories, comic books, and films. The course deals with topics such as aristocratic culture, racial identity in France, the myth of the resistance and the legacy of the Second World War, France’s rural past, the French colonial experience, women and bourgeois culture, the long-standing tradition of comic books and comedy in France, the Tradition of Quality, the French New Wave, and heritage films. The course also examines the interconnectedness of French culture and the cultures of the United States, England, and former French colonies. It notably explores how the French colonial experience informed the development of French cinema, and how French heritage films were both inspired and reinterpreted by British and American cinematographic industries to reflect the cultures and values of those societies. Conducted in English. Lecture 3 (Spring).
MLGR-351
Modern German Culture through Film
This course is organized around the notion of what Germany is today and the historical, social, cultural and literary determinants of that concept. Through a series of texts, films and videos designed to introduce the students to contemporary German society, thought and cultural practices, the course seeks to explore the following questions: What is Germany today? What is it to be German today? How do the Germans see themselves, and how are they seen by others? In what ways do cultural practices, globalization, and ethnicity influence the formation of modern German identity (and is there one?)? Where do these notions come from? How does that compare to notions of identity and society in the US? Discussions will include analysis of cultural stereotypes, family life, sports, language, media, politics, immigration, etc. The focus of this course is cultural analysis, exploration, and comparison. In order to critically examine these questions, this course focuses on various aspects of modern German culture from the 1950’s to the present. Since the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, German society has undergone numerous changes, which manifest themselves politically, socially, culturally and economically. Through films, readings in history and social science, magazine articles, literature and books, this course will scrutinize these changes and their meaning within the context of present-day German society. Lecture 3 (Spring).
MLIT-351
Italian Cinema from Neorealism to the New Millennium
Comparative study of Italian New Cinema and its predecessors from 1945 to the 21st century. Devotes particular attention to the perspectives that shaped race, space, gender, and national histories revealed though the cultural and cinematic contexts. Students will view and compare cinema from the Neorealist canon and the New Italian Cinema to explore the possible common thread in film language and the issues discussed. A special attention is given to gender construction in Italian cinema and cinema from United States. The students will write a comparative research paper on more than two films from the different periods, or create a project such as a short film. The course also contrasts the Italian culture and the cultures of the United States, Europe, Asia, and Africa. It explores how Italian cinema was seminal in the development of cinematographic industries and production of other countries. Specific attention will be given to the comparison of Italian culture and colonial experience and the Global South. Conducted in English. Lecture 3 (Fall).
MLSP-315
Hispanic Culture & Civilization
Hispanic Culture and Civilization, taught completely in Spanish, examines the history and cultures of the Spanish-speaking countries of the world. Detailed history, regional identities, regional characteristics, connections, similarities and differences, important historical events, cultural expressions, and contemporary issues are discussed, based on readings, documentary films, and research. (Prerequisites: Minimum score of 3 on RIT Language Placement Exam or MLSP-301 or equivalent course.) Seminar 3 (Spring).
PHIL-201
Ancient Philosophy
This course examines the origin and development of Western philosophy in ancient Greece from Thales in the 6th century down to at least the 4th century B.C.E., concentrating on the central ideas of the pre-Socratics, the Sophists, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Some attention might also be given to the Hellenistic philosophers (Epicureans, Stoics, and Sceptics). This was a period of remarkable intellectual creativity in philosophy, mathematics, medicine, rhetorical theory, ethics, aesthetics and cosmology. Questions to be considered in this course will include: What are the nature and limits of knowledge? Is knowledge even possible? What is the nature of language? How reliable is perception? What is the true nature of reality? What is the origin and nature of the material world? Is moral knowledge possible? What is the nature of happiness, and what sort of life would make people happy? Lecture 3 (Fall).
PHIL-203
Modern Philosophy
This course examines the history of modern philosophy, from Descartes through Kant. It concentrates on the development of modern thought, examining the concepts of mind, body, and causation among others. This period marked the beginning of modern science, with a rich ferment of ideas, and the philosophy of the period is essential to understanding modern science as well as contemporary problems about consciousness, mind/body interaction, causation, and so on. Questions to be considered in this course include the following: What can we know? How do we come to know what we can know? What is the scope and what are the limits of our knowledge? What is the nature of reality? Do we have access to reality? How is causal interaction possible, if at all? Does God exist, and if so, how do we know and what relation does God have to the world? Lecture 3 (Spring).
PHIL-317
Renaissance Philosophy
This course provides an overview of the Renaissance (c. 1350-1650), one of the most important cultural revolutions of Western civilization affecting nearly all aspects of European life—the arts, the relation with the natural world, and the attitude toward religion, the past, and politics. The “Renaissance person” came to denote a universal individual whose knowledge spaces over the entire realm of experience. The overarching theme of the Renaissance – humanism – prefigures contemporary theories of posthumanism, transhumanism, and the critique of anthropocentrism in general. Thinkers considered in this course include Petrarca, Valla, Pompanazzi, Cusanus, Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, Machiavelli, Erasmus, Luther, Suárez, More, Bruno, Telesio, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Montaigne, and Bacon. Lecture 3 (Biannual).
PHIL-408
Critical Social Theory
Introduces students to models of cultural critique that arose in pre-war Germany and that have burgeoned in our contemporary aesthetic and philosophical practices. These models combine philosophical, aesthetic, economic and psychoanalytic methods of analysis. Among the topics considered are alienation and reification, hegemony or false consciousness, trauma, fetishism, the authoritarian personality and state, advertising and modern technology, and the relative autonomy of art. (Prerequisites: Completion of one course in philosophy is required.) Lecture 3 (Spring).
PHIL-409
Existentialism
Existentialism is distinguished by its emphasis on human existence and the way its meaning is created through actions and choices. Existentialism focuses on the concept of individual freedom in an effort to respond authentically to the possibilities which life presents, emphasizing the importance of certain psychological states (e.g., anxiety, anticipation of death, fear, care, responsibility, and hope) and extreme situations in bringing us to an awareness of our radical freedom. This course will consider such philosophers and writers as Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Berdyaev, Heidegger, Jaspers, Camus, Sartre, Kafka, Beauvoir, Marcel, Buber, Ortega, and Unamuno. (Prerequisites: Completion of one course in philosophy is required.) Lecture 3 (Fall).
PHIL-410
Medieval Philosophy
This course is an introduction to the philosophical thought during the medieval period (approximately 300 C.E. to 1500 C.E.). It will consider the thought of various major figures from the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic traditions, and will take up this period's two principal areas of concern: the philosophy of religion and theology, on the one hand, and metaphysics and epistemology, on the other. (Prerequisites: Must have completed at least one PHIL course - 200 level or higher.) Lecture 3 (Spring).
PHIL-412
Nineteenth-Century Philosophy
The nineteenth century marks a radical shift in the history of philosophy and culture and stands in its own right as a distinct period of thought between the modern era and the contemporary era. This course will consider such philosophical positions as idealism, empiricism, existentialistic romanticism, Marxism, evolution, nihilism, positivism, pragmatism, and the role of the arts and aesthetics. Philosophers considered include Schelling, Fichte, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Mill, Marx, Darwin, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Comte, Bradley, Green, Peirce, and James. (Prerequisites: Must have completed at least one PHIL course - 200 level or higher.) Lecture 3 (Fall).
PHIL-417
Continental Philosophy
This course will provide an overview of some of the major currents in Continental philosophy, the distinctive philosophical approach and style of thinking that emerges in the early 20th century largely as a critical response to German Idealism, Marxism, and the antecedent existentialism of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. Continental philosophy is rooted in the history of philosophy, attentive to the world of experience, and develops in constant conversation with various other areas of human activities such as literature, politics, psychoanalysis, and religion. Among the major currents to be examined in the course are phenomenology, hermeneutics, deconstruction, structuralism, poststructuralism, French feminist theory, posthumanism, and speculative realism. Traditional philosophical topics such as ontology, metaphysics, epistemology, language analysis, feminist theory, ethics, and politics will be considered in the light of their reassessment by Continental philosophy. Figures covered may include Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Gadamer, Foucault, Levinas, Deleuze, Nancy, Derrida, Agamben, Irigaray, and Žižek, among others. (Prerequisites: Must have completed at least one PHIL course - 200 level or higher.) Lecture 3 (Spring).
 
Modern Language Elective† (beyond intermediate)

* INGS-489 may be used when the topic is pertinent to European studies.

† Modern Language Elective may be used when the language is pertinent to the region.

Gender Studies
ANTH-246
Gender and Health
This course examines connections between gender and health that are both conceptual and empirical. Students will explore the causes of gender-based differences in health outcomes through case studies of sexual and reproductive rights, HIV/AIDS epidemics and violence. Students will also examine global gender and health trends. The course concludes with an examination of gender inequity in health care and policy implications of these inequities. Lecture 3 (Annual).
ANTH-325
Bodies and Culture
Our bodies are more than mere physical entities; they are conditioned by culture, society, and history. We will take a comparative approach to the cultural construction of bodies and the impact of ethnic, gender, and racial ideologies on body practices (i.e. surgical alteration, mutilation, beautification, surrogacy, erotica). We will critically investigate the global formation of normative discourses of the body (regarding sexuality, AIDS/illness, reproduction, fat/food) in medical science, consumer culture, and the mass media. The course features discussion, writing, and project-oriented research, encouraging students to acquire a range of analytic skills through a combination of text interpretation and research. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
ANTH-425
Global Sexualities
By exploring issues of gender and sexuality in a global context, students will be introduced to anthropological perspectives on the experience of men and women, as gendered subjects, in different societies and historical contexts, including colonialism, nationalism, and global capitalism. In turn, we will explore how cultural constructions of masculinity and femininity are configured by race, class, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Course materials are drawn from an array of sources, reflecting various theoretical perspectives and ethnographic views from different parts of the world. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
ECON-451
Economics of Women and the Family
ENGL-414
Women and Gender in Literature and Media
This variable topic course examines one or more themes, figures, movements, or issues associated with the representation of women and gender in literature and media, and/or associated with the historical, cultural, and theoretical questions provoked by women as producers and consumers of media and texts. The topic for the course is chosen by the instructor, announced in the course subtitle, and developed in the syllabus. The course can be taken multiple times provided that the topic being studied has changed. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).
INGS-489
Topics in Global Studies*
This course focuses on specific themes or issues in global studies, chosen by the instructor, vetted by the department chair, announced in the course subtitle on SIS, and developed in the syllabus. The topics of this course will vary, but the course number will remain the same. Students may repeat the course for credit, but may not repeat the same topic. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring, Summer).
PHIL-309
Feminist Theory
This course examines the main currents in contemporary feminist thought. Feminist theory explores the nature and effects of categories of sex and gender upon our ways of living, thinking and doing, while also challenging how gendered assumptions might shape our conceptions of identity and inquiry more generally. Different conceptions of sex and gender will be discussed, and the course will investigate how these concepts affect our lives in both concrete and symbolic ways. Special attention will be paid to how gendered assumptions color our understanding of knowledge production, experiences of embodiment and emotion, public and private activities, and the nature of ethical decision making. Lecture 3 (Fall).
SOCI-235
Women, Work, and Culture
In this course, we analyze historical and contemporary patterns of gender, race/ethnicity, sexuality, and the organization of work. Using the theoretical perspectives we analyze the work historically undertaken by women in societies and its relationship to broader political and economic structures. While our primary focus is on the U.S., we will also conduct a cross-cultural analysis of gender and work in developing and industrializing societies. Specific issues include gender discrimination (e.g., wage discrimination, sexual harassment), sexuality, reproduction, and women organizing to control their work and working conditions. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring, Summer).
SOCI-246
Gender and Health
This course examines connections between gender and health that are both conceptual and empirical. Students will explore the causes of gender-based differences in health outcomes through case studies of sexual and reproductive rights, HIV/AIDS epidemics and violence. Students will also examine global gender and health trends. The course concludes with an examination of gender inequity in health care and policy implications of these inequities. Lecture 3 (Annual).
SOCI-355
CyberActivism: Diversity, Sex, and the Internet
Sociologists look to cyberspace to test theories of technology diffusion and media effects on society. This course explores the Internet’s impact on communities, political participation, cultural democracy, and diversity. How have digital technologies and electronic information flows shaped or diminished inequalities of gender, sex, and race? For instance: new electronic technologies have pushed the cultural and physical boundaries of how we have sex; with whom we have sex; and with what we have sex and/or have observed having sex, such as sex toys and avatars. The sociological implications of this new technology depend on economic, legal, and policy decisions that are shaping the Internet as it becomes institutionalized. The course analyzes such new forms of cyber-democracy with a focus on issues of gender, sex, and race. Lecture 3 (Spring, Summer).
STSO-342
Gender, Science, and Technology
This course explores the importance of gender within Western science and technology. It considers how masculine and feminine identities are socially and culturally shaped, how sex and gender are being significantly transformed, and how rethinking gendered practices may help make science and technology fairer and more responsive. Cross-listed with women's and gender studies. Lecture 3 (Fall).
VISL-206
Queer Looks
In this course we examine representations of queer sexuality in art, film and popular culture beginning in the repressive 1950s, followed by the Stonewall Riots of 1969. We situate the birth of gay liberation in the U.S. in the context of the civil rights struggles, feminism and the anti-war movement. We turn to the work of Andy Warhol that looms over the post-war period, challenged subsequently by the onset of AIDS and the work of General Idea and Act-Up, on the one hand, and the more graphically provocative work of Robert Mapplethorpe, on the other. We examine the diversification of the queer community as transgendered identity asserts itself and the opening of popular culture to issues of diverse sexual identities. We explore expressions of queer sensibility outside of North America and Europe. We turn finally to the issue of gay marriage, both in the U.S. and abroad. Lecture 3 (Spring).

* INGS-489 may be used when the topic is pertinent to gender studies.

Global Justice, Peace, and Conflict Studies
ANTH-345
Genocide & Transitional Justice
The destruction and survival of societies hinges on collective ideas of identity. In times of social stress, identities—whether racial, ethnic, religious or national—become critical “sites” of conflict over the sovereignty of nation-states, and the legitimacy of social, cultural practices. When ideas fail to incorporate people, essentialist categories of identity, historical grievances, and accounts of extreme violence become interrelated, potent sources of destruction. Slavery and exclusive ownership of resources leave people starving or living in perilously polluted environments. Global cultural economies threaten local systems and self-representation. In this course, we will take critical, anthropological approaches to studies of ethnocide, genocide and transitional justice. Students will assess the destruction and survival of societies, from the 19th century slaughter of Native Americans and Amazonian Indians to more recent genocides in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, the Sudan, Iraq, Myanmar, Bangladesh and China. Students will consider similarities and differences in the social experiences of mass violence, and the ethics of protecting particular identity-based groups, and not others, in international, national and local laws. Students will become familiar with multiple inter-related justice systems, for instance, the International Criminal Court, national and United Nations-backed tribunals, and local justice systems such as the Rwandan Gacaca courts. Recent developments in legal ethics and international law will enable students to see how public sentiments, legal advocacy and other social, political processes facilitate enhanced protections for the world’s most vulnerable people. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
COMM-304
Intercultural Communication
Intercultural communication provides an examination of the role of culture in face-to-face interaction. Students may find a basic background in communication, anthropology, or psychology useful. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
HIST-251
Modern U.S. Foreign Relations
This course examines the late 19th century emergence of the United States as an imperial power and its development into a 20th century superpower. Topics include U.S. politics and foreign policy, the influence of racial and cultural ideologies on policy, isolation, and intervention, the cold war, and the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Lecture 3 (Spring).
HIST-350
Terrorism, Intelligence, and War
This course investigates the historical, political, moral, and legal dimensions of terrorism, intelligence, and war. It uses a case-study approach with themes that include just war theory, terrorism in the colonial and post-colonial worlds, domestic terrorism, and mechanisms of intelligence and covert operations. Lecture 3 (Spring).
HIST-351
The Vietnam War
The Vietnam War continues to loom over American history. In the service of vastly different causes, politicians repeatedly invoke it: some define it as a tragic mistake, others as a noble cause. Many search for the lessons of Vietnam, a war that cost more than 58,000 American lives and as many as three million Vietnamese. In this course, we consider the war experiences of both the United States and Vietnam. We begin by highlighting Vietnamese history, culture, nationalism, communism, and independence. After analyzing Vietnam as a colony under the French, we turn our attention to American involvement beginning in the early years of the Cold War and ending with the fall of Saigon. Although we examine military and political history, the course also emphasizes social and cultural perspectives on a war that tore at the fabric of American society and led ultimately to the downfall of two presidents. Last, we look at the war’s enduring legacies in the United States and Vietnam today. Readings and assignments for the course include government documents, memoirs, fiction, film, and secondary literature from both nations. Lecture 3 (Fall).
HIST-470
Science, Tech, & European Imperialism: 1800-1965
Between 1800 and 1945, Western nations dominated approximately three-quarters of the earth’s surface through imperialism. This course examines how industrialization, technological developments, and the emergence of the modern sciences facilitated Europe’s conquest and colonization of vast territories overseas. The course opens with a brief overview of the role of biology and science in shaping early imperial encounters (the Columbian Exchange). Students will then consider how 19th-century botany, zoology, acclimatization, cartography, geography, and anthropology became imperial sciences that facilitated formal conquest by producing knowledge about distant cultures, races, and environments. The Industrial Revolution produced new technological tools--steamboats, railroads, and weapons--that facilitated the Scramble for territory in the late 19th century. The course will consider how these inventions shaped patterns of conquest and colonial rule in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Throughout the course, students will interrogate how Europeans’ faith in the superiority of Western technology, scientific knowledge, and medicine shaped the evolution of the European civilizing mission-- the cultural and political logic that defined interactions between Europeans and non-Western populations. At the same time, they will evaluate how Africans and Asians experienced living under colonial rule, and in some cases, how they deployed Western technology as weapons of resistance to imperialism. Lecture 3 (Spring).
INGS-489
Topics in Global Studies*
This course focuses on specific themes or issues in global studies, chosen by the instructor, vetted by the department chair, announced in the course subtitle on SIS, and developed in the syllabus. The topics of this course will vary, but the course number will remain the same. Students may repeat the course for credit, but may not repeat the same topic. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring, Summer).
MLSP-353
Trauma and Survival in First Person Narrative
This course introduces students to first-person narratives about trauma and survival from Latin America, the Hispanic Caribbean, U.S. Latina/o communities, and Spain. Students will learn about Hispanic literature, culture, and history while exploring the themes of memory, community, and survival in autobiography, testimonial narrative, chronicle, memoir, epistolary narrative, essay, and the historical novel. Through in-class discussion, presentations, reading, and writing exercises, this course refines students’ skills in oral expression, reading, writing, and critical thinking. Students will also develop research skills as they complete a project on a topic chosen in consultation with the instructor. Lecture 3 (Spring).
PHIL-304
Philosophy of Law
An introduction to philosophical analysis centering on the nature, extent and justification of law, the nature of legal thought, and the problems and theories of justice and the relationship between law, ethics and morality. Lecture 3 (Spring).
PHIL-305
Philosophy of Peace
An introduction to some of the philosophical dimensions of the search for world peace, including the elements that would constitute a just and lasting peace, nations as moral entities, justice and national self-interest, force and violence, the morality of the use of force, peace-making and peace-keeping groups. Lecture 3 (Spring).
PHIL-403
Social and Political Philosophy
An examination of some of the main problems of social and political philosophy through an analysis, comparison and critical examination of various views concerning the natures of individuality and society and the relations between them. (Prerequisites: Completion of one (1) course in any of the following disciplines: PHIL, POLS, SOCI, or CRIM.) Lecture 3 (Fall).
POLS-210
Comparative Politics
The course provides a mode of analysis for the study of political systems. Basic concepts of political science are utilized to present a descriptive and analytical examination of various political systems that can be classified as liberal democracies, post-communist, newly industrializing countries, and Third World. Particular attention is paid to the governmental structure, current leadership and major issues of public policy of those selected political systems under review. Lecture 3 (Spring).
POLS-325
International Law and Organizations
International Law and Organizations is the study of justice and government among nations. The course covers a range of theoretical and substantive topics, including theories of international law, the ethical foundations that underlie these theories, the historical development of international law, and the historical development and effectiveness of international organizations. There is a focus on the historical development of international law, examining the ethical dilemmas it presents, and exploring how these dilemmas manifest themselves in the United Nations and other international organizations. The course addresses various substantive issues such as war, sovereignty, natural law, humanitarianism, the ethical implications of existing international organizations and proposed reforms, and the influence of hegemonic power. (Prerequisites: POLS-120 or equivalent course.) Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
POLS-440
War and the State
The ways that political communities have sought to protect themselves from others and / or expand their territory and power have had enormous effects on the development of particular ideologies, institutions, and governmental forms. Conversely, these political developments have altered the character of war. This course explores the enduring centrality of war in the generation of the modern international system. It offers a deep analysis of the nature and evolving character of war, and the way this has intersected with the evolving character of states. Lecture 3 (Fall).
POLS-445
Terrorism and Political Violence
This course examines the causes, methods, and responses of non-state groups attempting to establish new political orders. The combined use of violence with the tactic of terror distinguishes these groups from others seeking political change. Special attention will be given to national and international efforts attempting to resolve such conflicts. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
SOCI-305
Crime and Human Rights: Sociology of Atrocities
How is the murder of one person different from that of one million? Why is one act a crime while the other simply history? While mass atrocities have occurred, and continue to occur, throughout human history, it is only until recently that international laws started to name and criminalize these atrocities as human rights violations. This course revolves around the worst mass atrocities in recent human history and the responses they receive, focusing on violent crimes perpetrated by the state and the emerging human rights regime in response to such crimes after WWII. As a class, we will seek answers to questions such as: Why do ordinary people participate in extreme violence against their neighbors? How is violence sanctioned and organized by the state different from interpersonal violence? Who is responsible for state-sanctioned violence? What is the role of those who do not participate in or stop the violence? What is the role of human rights and human rights laws in preventing state-sanctioned violence? What are the possible responses to state-sanctioned violence under human rights laws? What are the consequences of such responses? Whether/how does social context matter in the way mass atrocities unfold and the responses they receive? To answer these questions, we will examine historical documents, watch movies, read literature, and study scholarly work. This course will be useful for students who seek careers in areas such as international law, diplomacy, human rights advocacy/prosecution, and criminal justice in general. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).
SOCI-395
Borders: Humans, Boundaries, and Empires
Borders are more than walls; they are social constructions with real consequences. This course examines the creation and consequences of borders. It discusses how borders developed historically, how borders function as tools of population management in places and systems far from the borderlands, and the politics and experiences of border crossing. We will look for borders both between and within nation states when addressing these issues. The course will utilize a variety of materials including but not limited to scholarly sources, policy transcripts, popular cultural products (e.g. films and TV shows), and art (e.g. poetry, paintings). Students will play an active role in determining specific course topics, though they can expect to discuss a range of relevant issues including contemporary immigration politics, Indigenous rights, the war on terror, border disputes and armed conflicts, privatization of immigration management, displacement and segregation of domestic populations, and border activism. This course provides students with tools that ground and expand their understanding of borders, preparing them for participation in one of the most important public debates of our time. The purview of this course is relevant for those who aspire toward professions in public policy, law enforcement, public service, law, and community-organizing, among others. Seminar 3 (Fall, Spring).

* INGS-489 may be used when the topic is pertinent to global justice, peace, and conflict studies.

Indigenous Studies
ANTH-220
Language and Culture: Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology
Language is a core element of culture, both as a repository of meaning, and also because it is the primary means through which humans carry out social relationships, share ideas, and contest received understandings. Linguistic anthropology investigates this interplay between language and culture. Topics will vary by semester, and may include metaphor and narrative; language acquisition in relationship to childhood socialization; language, thought, and worldview; language and identity; multilingualism; the social contexts of language change; literacy; and the politics of language use and language ideologies. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
ANTH-255
Regional Archaeology*
Since the first humans set out from Africa nearly two million years ago, our ancestors and relatives managed to settle in almost every continent. Wherever they went, they left traces of their lives that are tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years deep. We call these traces the archaeological record. Almost everywhere our ancestors settled, they did many of the same things, such as inventing agriculture, cities, writing, and state-level societies. However, they did this in ways unique to each region and time. This course examines the archaeology of a specific region, such as the Middle East, Mesoamerica, North America, or East Asia, in detail. We examine the geography, culture, archaeological record, and significance of the region to various key themes in archaeological research with respect to other world regions. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).
ANTH-260
Native North Americans
This course examines the persistence and change in Native American cultures using archaeological, ethnohistorical, socioeconomic, ethnographic, linguistic, and autobiographical sources among others. In addition to broad regional and historical coverage, we will read about and discuss culture change, colonialism, federal law, gender, race, and places in Native American contexts. Our goal is to understand the lived experiences of Indian people and the many forces that shape Native American lives. Lecture 3 (Fa/sp/su).
ANTH-265
Native Americans in Film
This course will examine the parallels of anthropological works and resulting government policies in the late-19th and 20th centuries as they relate to the genre of Native Americans film, both popular and ethnographic works. In addition, an extensive regional and historical literature review will complement the possible films. Lecture 3 (Fa/sp/su).
ANTH-312
People before Cities
More than half the global population today lives in densely populated urban areas, which are further surrounded by complex networks of smaller communities. Yet, the earliest cities appeared less than 6,000 years ago, a small fraction of time since our species’ first appearance. The characteristics that define us as human were forged in radically different social universes from those of today. We lived our lives among not much more than 20-30 other people at any one time, hunting and gathering our food, and occasionally moving from place to place. This lifestyle was so successful and adaptable it endured pressures from more complex societies well into the 20th century. Understanding what life was like in such these small-scale societies is important because the material and social world in which they lived is the foundation for societies where food production, social hierarchy, and occupational specialization are the norm. This course will examine both the ethnographic and archaeological record of hunter/foragers from around the globe in an attempt to understand how it proved to be such a versatile and resilient way of life and how its successes, in fact, laid the foundation for social inequality, complexity, and food production. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
ANTH-335
Culture and Politics in Latin America
What does it mean to be a region forged and defined by conquest? “Latin America” is a construct—a term referring to a vast region of the western hemisphere colonized by speakers of Latin-derived languages (including Spanish, Portuguese, and French). In this context, culture is political and politics are cultural. Throughout what is now called Latin America and the Caribbean, the cultural practices of Indigenous and African peoples became the justification for the imposition of European rule, territorial expansion, enslavement, the extraction of labor and natural resources, Christian evangelization, and the racialized legal frameworks that facilitated it all. This course traces these historical processes and examines present-day legacies of colonialism, including ethnic inequalities, colorism, economic vulnerability, patriarchal relations, and social unrest. We consider, as well, the agency of people of Indigenous and African descent as they pursued survival with tactics ranging from acquiescence and strategic passing to creative blending to outright defiance, resistance, and rebellion. Throughout, we look at how art, music, dance, literature, and religion have engaged critically with the forces of fascism, revolution, socialism, dictatorship, neo-imperialism, and globalization. Lecture 3 (Spring).
ANTH-345
Genocide and Transitional Justice
The destruction and survival of societies hinges on collective ideas of identity. In times of social stress, identities—whether racial, ethnic, religious or national—become critical “sites” of conflict over the sovereignty of nation-states, and the legitimacy of social, cultural practices. When ideas fail to incorporate people, essentialist categories of identity, historical grievances, and accounts of extreme violence become interrelated, potent sources of destruction. Slavery and exclusive ownership of resources leave people starving or living in perilously polluted environments. Global cultural economies threaten local systems and self-representation. In this course, we will take critical, anthropological approaches to studies of ethnocide, genocide and transitional justice. Students will assess the destruction and survival of societies, from the 19th century slaughter of Native Americans and Amazonian Indians to more recent genocides in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, the Sudan, Iraq, Myanmar, Bangladesh and China. Students will consider similarities and differences in the social experiences of mass violence, and the ethics of protecting particular identity-based groups, and not others, in international, national and local laws. Students will become familiar with multiple inter-related justice systems, for instance, the International Criminal Court, national and United Nations-backed tribunals, and local justice systems such as the Rwandan Gacaca courts. Recent developments in legal ethics and international law will enable students to see how public sentiments, legal advocacy and other social, political processes facilitate enhanced protections for the world’s most vulnerable people. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
ANTH-361
Sociology of Numbers
Much of the knowledge of our social worlds has been digitized. This course explores how social technologies shape our relationships, personal lives, and sense of self. The metric manufacture of diversity has produced new forms of population management and inequality. Our biographic histories as citizens, consumers, workers/professionals, parents, lovers, and social media users are collected as data-bites and assessed in metric terms, thereby forging new sets of identities. The transformation of people into numerical entities is an act of statistical objectification. This process frames the creation of social and racial typologies, and is well demonstrated by the US census. Students will investigate the formation of racial, ethnic, and gender identities in the context of the accelerated desire to digitize humanity. Lecture 3 (Annual).
ANTH-375
Native American Cultural Resources and Rights
There is a great cultural, and linguistic diversity among Native American Indigenous Nations and their approach to managing cultural and natural resources. This course will explore this diversity in addition to the various ways Indigenous nations have maintained and exerted their sovereignty. This will be done in one of three distinct topics: 1). American Indian Sovereignty - an examination of the historical and political foundations of Indigenous sovereignty and its current expressions; 2). Indigenous Economics and Economies - a contrasting of Indigenous approaches for building and maintaining sustainable economies with non-Indigenous ones combined with the use of economic methods to understand the impact of settler colonialism and capitalism on Indigenous economies; or 3). Native American Languages - an examination of: the structure and origin of Indigenous languages; the events that have led many Indigenous languages to be endangered; and the efforts to revitalize Indigenous languages. For clarification purposes: American Indian is used to refer to Indigenous people residing within the boundaries of the continental United States; Native American broadens this definition to include all Indigenous people residing in either North or South America; while Indigenous is the most broadly defined. Indigenous includes all people who identify with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies who consider themselves distinct from the societies now prevailing on those territories both within and outside the Americas. Lecture 3 (Spring).
ANTH-430
Visual Anthropology
We see others as we imagine them to be, in terms of our values, not as they see themselves. This course examines ways in which we understand and represent the reality of others through visual media, across the boundaries of culture, gender, and race. It considers how and why visual media can be used to represent or to distort the world around us. Pictorial media, in particular ethnographic film and photography, are analyzed to document the ways in which indigenous and native peoples in different parts of the world have been represented and imagined by anthropologists and western popular culture. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).
INGS-489
Topics in Global Studies†
This course focuses on specific themes or issues in global studies, chosen by the instructor, vetted by the department chair, announced in the course subtitle on SIS, and developed in the syllabus. The topics of this course will vary, but the course number will remain the same. Students may repeat the course for credit, but may not repeat the same topic. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring, Summer).
SOCI-361
Sociology of Numbers
Much of the knowledge of our social worlds has been digitized. This course explores how social technologies shape our relationships, personal lives, and sense of self. The metric manufacture of diversity has produced new forms of population management and inequality. Our biographic histories as citizens, consumers, workers/professionals, parents, lovers, and social media users are collected as data-bites and assessed in metric terms, thereby forging new sets of identities. The transformation of people into numerical entities is an act of statistical objectification. This process frames the creation of social and racial typologies, and is well demonstrated by the US census. Students will investigate the formation of racial, ethnic, and gender identities in the context of the accelerated desire to digitize humanity. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).

* ANTH-255 may be used when the topic is North America or Mesoamerica.

† INGS-489 may be used when the topic is pertinent to Indigenous studies.

International Business
ECON-405
International Trade and Finance
This course first surveys the sources of comparative advantage. It then analyzes commercial policy and analyzes the welfare economics of trade between countries. Some attention is paid to the institutional aspects of the world trading system. Finally, the course introduces the student to some salient notions in international finance such as national income accounting, the balance of payments, and exchange rates. (Prerequisites: ECON-101 or completion of one (1) 400 or 500 level ECON course and ECON-201 or equivalent course.) Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
ECON-406
Global Economic Issues
This course is focused on understanding economic problems in a global perspective. The students will study the impact of globalization on economic growth and income disparity among countries. Global economic issues such as poverty, hunger, refugees, and transnational terrorism will be studied. We will also discuss global efforts to attain progress such as the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The course work will emphasize the analysis of international economic data. (Prerequisites: ECON-101 or completion of one (1) 400 or 500 level ECON course.) Lecture 3 (Spring).
HIST-380
International Business History
This course provides an overview on the history of international business since the late 19th century. We will examine social change over time in how corporations have handled expansion into foreign markets, why corporations decided to – or not to – expand abroad, how they managed their foreign operations, and what contributed to their success or failure abroad. To do so, we will look at a variety of factors including how corporations dealt with corporate communication, local regulations, transfers of knowledge and technology, and how corporate decisions affect communities. We will apply these historical insights to case studies of multinational corporations. Lecture 3 (Spring).
INTB-225
Global Business Environment
Being an informed global citizen requires an understanding of the global business environment. Organizations critical to the development of the global business environment include for-profit businesses, non-profits, governmental, non-governmental, and supranational agencies. This course introduces students to the interdependent relationships between organizations and the global business environment. A holistic approach is used to examine the diverse economic, political, legal, cultural, and financial systems that influence both organizations and the global business environment. (This course is available to RIT degree-seeking undergraduate students.) Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).
INTB-300
Cross-Cultural Management
This course explores the key implementation issues facing global businesses and those firms wishing to expand into the global arena. An emphasis is placed on issues related to the topic of culture. The course examines its impact on management, individuals, groups, and how it affects organizational performance. Leadership styles, in the cross-cultural context, will be deconstructed as will communication, decision-making, negotiation, and motivation. (Prerequisites: INTB-225 or equivalent course.) Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).
INTB-310
Regional Business Studies
An introduction to the most important and the fast growing economic entities to the students such as the European Union, China, India, and Brazil. The course introduces the idiosyncratic competitive environment in these major economies, the unique business models of the local ventures, and the business opportunities and the hidden risks in these markets. The course will also develop students with the necessary knowledge base and skills to compete with and in these major economies. (Prerequisites: INTB-225 or equivalent course.) Lecture 3 (Biannual).
INTB-489
Seminar in International Business
Current issues in IB are the focus of the course. Topics include but not are limited to current international business trends, development, and other topics at the instructor's discretion. (Prerequisites: INTB-225 or equivalent course and 3rd year standing.) Lecture 3 (Fall).
INTB-550
Competing Global
This course explores the opportunities and challenges businesses encounter creating and capturing value in the global environment. Areas of emphasis include: forecasting markets; why firms globalize; analyzing global competitors; the degree of globalization or regionalization; creating value for the firm globally which includes entry mode management, location decisions and timing, role of technology; and how to operate. (Prerequisites: INTB-225 or equivalent course and 4th year standing.) Lecture 3 (Spring).
MKTG-330
Global Marketing
A hands-on course focusing on developing marketing strategies for entering and competing in foreign countries. Topics include foreign market opportunity assessment, developing commercialization and entry strategies, understanding foreign customers and distribution channels, and communicating value through advertising and promotion in different markets. (Prerequisites: MKTG-230 or equivalent course.) Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).
POLS-220
Global Political Economy
The world’s economic environments are changing rapidly with globalization. New patterns in the international economy or fresh fields of a global economy require a reexamination of the basic concepts to remember, like power and efficiency, and the traditional roles played by leading actors in the world market: private businesses, individual governments, and international organizations. This course provides insights into understanding the relationship among the key players in the globalizing economy, most importantly interactions between the state and market. Classic viewpoints to explain international economy, like Mercantilism, Liberalism, and Marxism, will be critically reviewed and applied to various current cross-state economic affairs. Each perspective contains ethical and pragmatic concerns about human life and their interactions, conflicting or cooperative. What is right and what is good calls for a perpetual struggle to find the best combination in the practical field of trade or finance. So, critical evaluations of the perspectives are essential in this class to developing creative ideas appropriate for the transforming realities of globalization. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
Latin American Studies
ANTH-235
Immigration to the U.S.
This course examines immigration to the U.S. within the context of globalization. We examine the push- and pull-factors that generate immigration, and changing immigration policies and debates. We consider how changes in the American workplace have stimulated the demand for foreign workers in a wide range of occupations, from software engineer to migrant farmworker and nanny. We review the cultural and emotional challenges of adapting within the American cultural landscape, transnationalism and connections with the homeland, the experiences of refugees, and how immigration has changed since 9/11. Special attention is given to immigration from Latin America, the largest sending region. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
ANTH-255
Regional Archaeology: Mesoamerica
Since the first humans set out from Africa nearly two million years ago, our ancestors and relatives managed to settle in almost every continent. Wherever they went, they left traces of their lives that are tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years deep. We call these traces the archaeological record. Almost everywhere our ancestors settled, they did many of the same things, such as inventing agriculture, cities, writing, and state-level societies. However, they did this in ways unique to each region and time. This course examines the archaeology of a specific region, such as the Middle East, Mesoamerica, North America, or East Asia, in detail. We examine the geography, culture, archaeological record, and significance of the region to various key themes in archaeological research with respect to other world regions. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).
ANTH-335
Culture and Politics in Latin America
What does it mean to be a region forged and defined by conquest? “Latin America” is a construct—a term referring to a vast region of the western hemisphere colonized by speakers of Latin-derived languages (including Spanish, Portuguese, and French). In this context, culture is political and politics are cultural. Throughout what is now called Latin America and the Caribbean, the cultural practices of Indigenous and African peoples became the justification for the imposition of European rule, territorial expansion, enslavement, the extraction of labor and natural resources, Christian evangelization, and the racialized legal frameworks that facilitated it all. This course traces these historical processes and examines present-day legacies of colonialism, including ethnic inequalities, colorism, economic vulnerability, patriarchal relations, and social unrest. We consider, as well, the agency of people of Indigenous and African descent as they pursued survival with tactics ranging from acquiescence and strategic passing to creative blending to outright defiance, resistance, and rebellion. Throughout, we look at how art, music, dance, literature, and religion have engaged critically with the forces of fascism, revolution, socialism, dictatorship, neo-imperialism, and globalization. Lecture 3 (Spring).
ANTH-410
Global Cities
This course examines the impact of global dynamics on cities from the early 20th century to the present. By tracing urban formations from metropolis to global city, emphasis will be placed on the making of identities, communities, and citizens in the architectural spaces, cultural places, ethnic zones, and media traces of urban life in the context of globalization. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
ENGL-316
Topics in Global Literatures*
This course presents a study of global literature by engaging in critically informed analysis of texts from different geographical regions or cultural perspectives. Students will discover new modes for thinking about what global literature is, and how globalizing impulses have changed and shaped our world. One of the goals of the class is to analyze and discuss the works in their respective socio-historical contexts, with a special focus on the theme of encounter or contact zones. The impact of various factors such as migration, nationality, class, race, gender, generation, and religion will also be taken into consideration. The course can be repeated up to two times, for 6 semester credit hours, as long as the topics are different. Lecture 3 (Spring).
INGS-489
Topics in Global Studies†
This course focuses on specific themes or issues in global studies, chosen by the instructor, vetted by the department chair, announced in the course subtitle on SIS, and developed in the syllabus. The topics of this course will vary, but the course number will remain the same. Students may repeat the course for credit, but may not repeat the same topic. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring, Summer).
MLSP-315
Culture & Civilization
Hispanic Culture and Civilization, taught completely in Spanish, examines the history and cultures of the Spanish-speaking countries of the world. Detailed history, regional identities, regional characteristics, connections, similarities and differences, important historical events, cultural expressions, and contemporary issues are discussed, based on readings, documentary films, and research. (Prerequisites: Minimum score of 3 on RIT Language Placement Exam or MLSP-301 or equivalent course.) Seminar 3 (Spring).
MLSP-351
Gender and Sexuality in Hispanic Studies
This course introduces students to the study of gender and sexuality in cultural production from the Hispanic world. Students will read, view, and discuss diverse works from a variety of historical periods and geographical regions that deal with gender identity, sexuality, and interrelated social movements. This course refines students' skills through discussions, presentations, and writing exercises on readings, lectures, and film screenings. Students will also develop research skills as they complete a project on a topic chosen in consultation with the instructor. The critical approach that will inform this course is feminist thought. Lecture 3 (Fall).
MLSP-352
Caribbean Cinema
This course provides an introduction to Hispanic Caribbean culture through cinema studies. We will study the role of film in Hispanic Caribbean societies as well as the unique artistic and technical achievements and obstacles of Cuban, Dominican, and Puerto Rican filmmakers. Topics covered include: The Basics of Film Analysis; An Introduction to Caribbean Film History; The Social Context of the Hispanic Caribbean Film Industry; Art and Revolution; Race, Ethnicity, and Religion; Occupation, Dictatorship, and War; Gender, Sexuality and Exile; Transnationalism and Migration, and Hispanic Caribbean Film in a Global Context. This course will take a cultural studies approach to the study of film as a social practice. Weekly films (1.5-2 hours in length) must be watched outside of class hours. All films with dialog have English subtitles. Lecture 3 (Spring).
MLSP-353
Trauma and Survival in the First-Person Narrative
This course introduces students to first-person narratives about trauma and survival from Latin America, the Hispanic Caribbean, U.S. Latina/o communities, and Spain. Students will learn about Hispanic literature, culture, and history while exploring the themes of memory, community, and survival in autobiography, testimonial narrative, chronicle, memoir, epistolary narrative, essay, and the historical novel. Through in-class discussion, presentations, reading, and writing exercises, this course refines students’ skills in oral expression, reading, writing, and critical thinking. Students will also develop research skills as they complete a project on a topic chosen in consultation with the instructor. Lecture 3 (Spring).
POLS-335
Politics in Developing Countries
This course explores the ways in which the historical, cultural, economic and political contexts of societies of Africa, Asia and Latin America determines the patterns of their political processes. Focus is directed to such factors as history, religion, economic underdevelopment, and culture and their impact on the efforts to promote liberalization and democratization, economic and social modernization, and political and social stability. Lecture 3 (Fall).
 
Modern Language Elective‡ (beyond intermediate)

* ENGL-316 may be used when the topic is pertinent to Latin American studies.

† INGS-489 may be used when the topic is pertinent to Latin American studies.

‡ Modern Language Elective may be used when the language is pertinent to the region.

Middle Eastern Studies
ANTH-255
Regional Archaeology: Middle East
Since the first humans set out from Africa nearly two million years ago, our ancestors and relatives managed to settle in almost every continent. Wherever they went, they left traces of their lives that are tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years deep. We call these traces the archaeological record. Almost everywhere our ancestors settled, they did many of the same things, such as inventing agriculture, cities, writing, and state-level societies. However, they did this in ways unique to each region and time. This course examines the archaeology of a specific region, such as the Middle East, Mesoamerica, North America, or East Asia, in detail. We examine the geography, culture, archaeological record, and significance of the region to various key themes in archaeological research with respect to other world regions. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).
INGS-489
Topics in Global Studies*
This course focuses on specific themes or issues in global studies, chosen by the instructor, vetted by the department chair, announced in the course subtitle on SIS, and developed in the syllabus. The topics of this course will vary, but the course number will remain the same. Students may repeat the course for credit, but may not repeat the same topic. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring, Summer).
POLS-335
Politics in Developing Countries
This course explores the ways in which the historical, cultural, economic and political contexts of societies of Africa, Asia and Latin America determines the patterns of their political processes. Focus is directed to such factors as history, religion, economic underdevelopment, and culture and their impact on the efforts to promote liberalization and democratization, economic and social modernization, and political and social stability. Lecture 3 (Fall).
 
Arabic Modern Language Elective (beyond intermediate)

* INGS-489 may be used when the topic is pertinent to Middle Eastern studies.

Sustainable Futures
ANTH-270
Cuisine, Culture, and Power
Physically, culturally, and socially, humans live through food and drink. Spanning the globe, as nearly limitless omnivores, humans have developed myriad ways of collecting and cultivating food and taking advantage of local environments. We also put food to work for us socially by creating cuisine. Through cuisine, we forge and nourish relationships, commune with deities, and through luxury choices, demonstrate our "taste" and lay claim to elite status. Through the cultural practices of production and consumption of food and drink, we wield power. Food and drink consumption patterns have sustained slavery, poverty, malnutrition, and illegal immigration, and have laid waste to the environment. In this class, we explore physical, cultural, social, political, and economic dimensions of food and become more aware of how the private, intimate act of a bite connects us to the rest of humanity. Lecture 3 (Fa/sp/su).
ANTH-295
Global Public Health
Global health is a term that reflects a complex series of problems, policies, institutions and aspirations that have only recently made their way to the global stage. From its earliest days, global health was guided by principles in public health that situate the nation-state as responsible for the health of its population. While international health and tropical medicine, the precursors to global health, was driven by the distinction between wealthy and poor nations, global health today, as this course explores, is oriented to the unequal burden of disease around the world. The course will consider major global health challenges, programs, and policies through an integrated social science lens. After placing global health in historical context, we will focus on how the science of disease cannot be dissociated from the social context and policies that both drive the emergence of disease(s) and respond to the unequal burden of disease around the world. We will analyze current and emerging global health priorities, including emerging infectious diseases, poverty, conflicts and emergencies, health inequity, health systems reforms, and major global initiatives for disease prevention and health promotion. Lecture 3 (Annual).
ANTH-360
Humans and their Environment
Humans and their societies have always been shaped by their environment, but as human societies became more complex, their relationship with their environment changed from one of simple adaptation to one in which they had the power to change their environment. Often, the changes they have wrought have had unintended consequences, forcing societies to adapt to the changes that they themselves have brought about. Although we tend to think that this is a relatively recent phenomenon, humans have been altering their environment since the first human societies made the transition to agriculture over ten thousand years ago, if not longer. In this class, we will use the tools of environmental archaeology to explore the history of human interactions with their environments and to draw lessons on how we could manage that interaction today. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
ANTH-410
Global Cities
This course examines the impact of global dynamics on cities from the early 20th century to the present. By tracing urban formations from metropolis to global city, emphasis will be placed on the making of identities, communities, and citizens in the architectural spaces, cultural places, ethnic zones, and media traces of urban life in the context of globalization. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
ECON-448
Development Economics
This course provides an introduction to development economics, which focuses on the problems and challenges faced typically but not exclusively by the developing countries. In this course we will study the economic transformation of developing countries by focusing on the characteristics of land, labor and credit markets in rural areas of developing countries. We will survey the large literature on modeling economic growth and discuss relevant case studies from developing countries. (Prerequisites: ECON-101 or completion of one (1) 400 or 500 level ECON course.) Lecture 3 (Fall).
IGME-382
Maps, Mapping, and Geospatial Technologies
This course provides a survey of underlying concepts and technologies used to represent and understand the earth, a form of new media collectively referred to as Geospatial Technologies (GTs). Students will gain hands-on experience with GTs, including Global Positioning Systems (GPSs), Geographic Information Systems (GISs), remote sensing, Virtual Globes, and geographically-oriented new media such as mapping mashups. Students also will develop basic spatial thinking, reasoning, problem solving, and literacy skills. Lec/Lab 3 (Fall).
IGME-384
Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
This course introduces students to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for understanding and representing people, places and culture through new media. Through applied research projects, students will learn how GIS is a support mechanism for spatially-oriented thinking, reasoning, literacy, and problem-solving at the global scale. Such global problems include international disaster management, digital humanities, climate change, and sustainable development. Course lectures, writing and reading assignments, and in-class activities cover a mix of conceptual, practical and technical GIS topics. Topics include interactions among people, places and cultures around the world, GIS data models, basic cartography, geodatabases, spatial data acquisition and creation, and spatial analysis. This general education course also examines GIS ethical issues such as privacy, information ownership, accuracy, and mapping and social power. Lec/Lab 3 (Spring).
INGS-489
Topics in Global Studies*
This course focuses on specific themes or issues in global studies, chosen by the instructor, vetted by the department chair, announced in the course subtitle on SIS, and developed in the syllabus. The topics of this course will vary, but the course number will remain the same. Students may repeat the course for credit, but may not repeat the same topic. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring, Summer).
PHIL-308
Environmental Philosophy
Environmental philosophy examines the ethical, metaphysical, and social justice questions surrounding human interactions with nature and the management of natural resources. This course explores the nature and source of environmental values and how environmental goals are achieved through policy decisions. We evaluate and apply philosophical and ethical theory to environmental issues such as endangered species, climate change, wilderness preservation, sustainability, and environmental justice. Lecture 3 (Fall).
POLS-220
Global Political Economy
The world’s economic environments are changing rapidly with globalization. New patterns in the international economy or fresh fields of a global economy require a reexamination of the basic concepts to remember, like power and efficiency, and the traditional roles played by leading actors in the world market: private businesses, individual governments, and international organizations. This course provides insights into understanding the relationship among the key players in the globalizing economy, most importantly interactions between the state and market. Classic viewpoints to explain international economy, like Mercantilism, Liberalism, and Marxism, will be critically reviewed and applied to various current cross-state economic affairs. Each perspective contains ethical and pragmatic concerns about human life and their interactions, conflicting or cooperative. What is right and what is good calls for a perpetual struggle to find the best combination in the practical field of trade or finance. So, critical evaluations of the perspectives are essential in this class to developing creative ideas appropriate for the transforming realities of globalization. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).
POLS-335
Politics in Developing Countries
This course explores the ways in which the historical, cultural, economic and political contexts of societies of Africa, Asia and Latin America determines the patterns of their political processes. Focus is directed to such factors as history, religion, economic underdevelopment, and culture and their impact on the efforts to promote liberalization and democratization, economic and social modernization, and political and social stability. Lecture 3 (Fall).
SOCI-295
Global Public Health
Global health is a term that reflects a complex series of problems, policies, institutions and aspirations that have only recently made their way to the global stage. From its earliest days, global health was guided by principles in public health that situate the nation-state as responsible for the health of its population. While international health and tropical medicine, the precursors to global health, was driven by the distinction between wealthy and poor nations, global health today, as this course explores, is oriented to the unequal burden of disease around the world. The course will consider major global health challenges, programs, and policies through an integrated social science lens. After placing global health in historical context, we will focus on how the science of disease cannot be dissociated from the social context and policies that both drive the emergence of disease(s) and respond to the unequal burden of disease around the world. We will analyze current and emerging global health priorities, including emerging infectious diseases, poverty, conflicts and emergencies, health inequity, health systems reforms, and major global initiatives for disease prevention and health promotion. Lecture 3 (Annual).
SOCI-322
Health and Society
What would a healthy society look like? What questions should we be asking of those in power to ensure health equity? What is health equity? The objective of this course is to develop a sociological language for answering these and other questions. To do so, students will evaluate the relationship between health and society – that is, the connections between contemporary health disparities and today’s social, physical, and political economic environments. This includes an analysis of macro-factors (climate change, environmental pollution, global and/or national economies, laws) and micro-factors (social media, neighborhood conditions, green spaces, poor- or low-quality housing, and leisure spaces). The course emphasizes that health is impacted by the social circumstances into which people are born; inequitable distributions of power; and social/legal categories of exclusion and inclusion. Though sociological in orientation, this course resonates with the disciplinary and professional aims of medical anthropologists, public health professionals, community health practitioners, and anyone committed to eradicating health disparities. Lecture 3 (Annual).
STSO-220
Environment and Society
Environment and Society examines the social, cultural, political, and ethical issues related to the environment. The main purpose of this course is to get you to think critically about environment and society relations—how humans interact with the environment and one another—and the consequences of those interactions on individual, local, national, and regional levels. It is organized around the concepts of sustainability and resilience, which combine interdisciplinary insights from the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Other key themes include the Anthropocene, industrialization and impacts of capitalism, and intersectionality and environmental justice. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).
STSO-330
Energy and the Environment
This course will examine contemporary energy issues, with particular emphasis placed on the environmental implications associated with energy consumption and production. Students will learn about how social, political, economic, and historical factors affect various energy technologies and fuels (including nuclear, coal, oil, natural gas, solar, biomass, and wind) and the environmental tradeoffs associated with each of these energy systems. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).
STSO-341
Biomedical Issues: Science and Technology
This course examines the ethics, conundrums, hopes, and fears associated with biomedicine within Western cultures and societies. For centuries human beings have been interested in the human body and its relationship with the world. With increasing technological intervention and diagnoses, we stand at a threshold of decision-making and procedure use and development. What are appropriate uses for biomedical technologies? Who decides? In a world of limited resources and unlimited imagination, what areas of medicine and biomedical investigations are best pursued, and at what expense to whom? Moving beyond “right and wrong” debates, we will explore the values inherent to the technologies themselves and those who build and utilize them, and examine a variety of views and arguments framing current scholarly debates surrounding these and other crucial questions of biomedicine. Lecture 3 (Biannual).
STSO-441
Cyborg Theory: (Re)thinking the Human Experience in the 21st Century
The developing cybernetic organism or cyborg challenges traditional concepts of what it means to be human. Today medical science and science fiction appear to merge in ways unimagined a century ago. By exploring scientific and cultural theories, science fiction, and public experience, this class examines the history and potential of the cyborg in Western cultures. Lecture 3 (Spring).

* INGS-489 may be used when the topic is pertinent to sustainable futures. 

Combined Accelerated Bachelor’s/Master’s Degrees

The curriculum below outlines the typical course sequence(s) for combined accelerated degrees available with this bachelor’s degree.

International and Global Studies, BS degree/Science, Technology and Public Policy, MS degree, typical course sequence

Course Sem. Cr. Hrs.
First Year
INGS-101
Global Studies
Within the past three decades, planetary computerization, burgeoning media industries, and other global processes have significantly altered the ways in which we experience our local and global worlds. Global reconfigurations of time and space change our consciousness, sense of self and others, and the material realities in which we live and work. This course provides the conceptual tools to assess emerging global processes, interactions and flows of people, ideas and things that challenge historical patterns of international studies and relations. The course will introduce you to international and global processes in areas such as global cultural economies, global cities, new forms of democracy and civil society, global religions, sexualities, health, and environments, increased competition for resources, political conflict, war and terrorism. Beyond understanding the causes and consequences of global change, this course will introduce you to ethical dilemmas in global justice movements, and in transferring ideas and technologies in new global contexts. Lecture 3 (Fall).
 3
UWRT-150
General Education - First Year Writing: FYW Writing Seminar (WI)
Writing Seminar is a three-credit course limited to 19 students per section. The course is designed to develop first-year students’ proficiency in analytical and rhetorical reading and writing, and critical thinking. Students will read, understand, and interpret a variety of non-fiction texts representing different cultural perspectives and/or academic disciplines. These texts are designed to challenge students intellectually and to stimulate their writing for a variety of contexts and purposes. Through inquiry-based assignment sequences, students will develop academic research and literacy practices that will be further strengthened throughout their academic careers. Particular attention will be given to the writing process, including an emphasis on teacher-student conferencing, critical self-assessment, class discussion, peer review, formal and informal writing, research, and revision. Small class size promotes frequent student-instructor and student-student interaction. The course also emphasizes the principles of intellectual property and academic integrity for both current academic and future professional writing. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring, Summer).
 3
YOPS-010
RIT 365: RIT Connections
RIT 365 students participate in experiential learning opportunities designed to launch them into their career at RIT, support them in making multiple and varied connections across the university, and immerse them in processes of competency development. Students will plan for and reflect on their first-year experiences, receive feedback, and develop a personal plan for future action in order to develop foundational self-awareness and recognize broad-based professional competencies. (This class is restricted to incoming 1st year or global campus students.) Lecture 1 (Fall, Spring).
 0
 
General Education - Global Perspective
 3
 
General Education - Electives
 6
 
General Education - Ethical Perspective
 3
 
General Education - Artistic Perspective
 3
 
General Education - Mathematical Perspective A
 3
 
INTLSTU Globalization Concentration Elective
 3
 
Open Elective
 3
Second Year
 
INTLSTU Globalization Concentration Elective
 9
 
INTLSTU Methods Elective
 3
 
Modern Language Intermediate Courses
 6
 
Field Specialization Elective
 3
 
General Education - Social Perspective
 3
 
General Education - Mathematical Perspective B
 3
 
General Education - Immersion 1
 3
Third Year
 
General Education - Immersions 2, 3
 6
 
Field Specialization Electives
 6
 
Globalization Concentration Elective
 3
 
General Education - Natural Science Inquiry Perspective†
 3
 
Advanced Study Option
 3
 
General Education - Elective
 3
 
INTLSTU Methods Elective
 3
 
Open Elective
 3
Fourth Year
Choose one of the following:
3
   ANTH-501
 Senior Research Project (WI-PR)
Students will write a library-based research paper or research proposal, bringing to bear the knowledge, methodological skills, and theoretical perspectives accumulated during the prior years of study. (Prerequisites: This class is restricted to students with at least 4th year standing.) Seminar 3 (Fall).
  
   INGS-501
 Capstone Seminar (WI-PR)
This upper division seminar constitutes the final core requirement in the international and global studies degree program. Students will enroll in this course in their final year of study. The capstone seminar will further develop and sharpen the student's understanding of globalization and international processes. The course uses a problem-solving focus to provide a detailed analysis of one or more contemporary issues in the field of international and global studies, culminating in a written senior thesis and project presentation. (Prerequisites: INGS-101 or equivalent course and 4th year status.) Research (Fall, Spring, Summer).
  
   SOCI-501
 Senior Research Project (WI-PR)
Students will write a library-based research paper or research proposal, bringing to bear the knowledge, methodological skills, and theoretical perspectives accumulated during the prior years of study. (Prerequisites: This class is restricted to students with at least 4th year standing.) Seminar 3 (Fall).
  
PUBL-701
Graduate Policy Analysis
This course provides graduate students with necessary tools to help them become effective policy analysts. The course places particular emphasis on understanding the policy process, the different approaches to policy analysis, and the application of quantitative and qualitative methods for evaluating public policies. Students will apply these tools to contemporary public policy decision making at the local, state, federal, and international levels. Lecture 3 (Fall).
 3
PUBL-702
Graduate Decision Analysis
This course provides students with an introduction to decision science and analysis. The course focuses on several important tools for making good decisions, including decision trees, including forecasting, risk analysis, and multi-attribute decision making. Students will apply these tools to contemporary public policy decision making at the local, state, federal, and international levels. Lecture 3 (Spring).
 3
 
Field Specialization Elective
 3
 
General Education - Scientific Principles Perspective
 3
 
General Education - Electives
 15
Fifth Year
PUBL-700
Readings in Public Policy
An in-depth inquiry into key contemporary public policy issues. Students will be exposed to a wide range of important public policy texts, and will learn how to write a literature review in a policy area of their choosing. (This class is restricted to degree-seeking graduate students or those with permission from instructor.) Seminar (Fall).
 3
PUBL-703
Evaluation and Research Design
The focus of this course is on evaluation of program outcomes and research design. Students will explore the questions and methodologies associated with meeting programmatic outcomes, secondary or unanticipated effects, and an analysis of alternative means for achieving program outcomes. Critique of evaluation research methodologies will also be considered. Seminar (Spring).
 3
Choose one of the following:
3
   PUBL-610
 Technological Innovation and Public Policy
Technological innovation, the incremental and revolutionary improvements in technology, has been a major driver in economic, social, military, and political change. This course will introduce generic models of innovation that span multiple sectors including: energy, environment, health, and bio- and information-technologies. The course will then analyze how governments choose policies, such as patents, to spur and shape innovation and its impacts on the economy and society. Students will be introduced to a global perspective on innovation policy including economic competitiveness, technology transfer and appropriate technology. Lecture 3 (Spring).
  
   STSO-710
 Graduate Science and Technology Policy Seminar
STP examines how local, state, federal and international policies are developed to influence innovation, the transfer of technology and industrial productivity in the United States and other selected nations. It provides a framework for considering the mechanisms of policy as a form of promotion and control for science and technology, even once those innovations are democratized and effectively uncontrollable. Further focus is dedicated to the structure of governance inherent in U.S. domestic policy, limits of that approach, the influences of international actors, and utilizing case studies to demonstrate the challenges inherent in managing differing types of technology. This seminar is restricted to degree-seeking graduate students or those with permission from the instructor. (This class is restricted to degree-seeking graduate students or those with permission from instructor.) Seminar (Biannual).
  
 
Public Policy Electives
 9
Choose one of the following:
6
   PUBL-790
 Public Policy Thesis
The master's thesis in science, technology, and public policy requires the student to select a thesis topic, advisor and committee; prepare a written thesis proposal for approval by the faculty; present and defend the thesis before a thesis committee; and submit a bound copy of the thesis to the library and to the program chair. (Enrollment in this course requires permission from the department offering the course.) Thesis 3 (Fall, Spring, Summer).
  
   PUBL-798
 Comprehensive Exam (plus 2 Graduate Electives)
  
   PUBL-785
 Capstone Research Experience
The Public Policy Capstone Experience serves as a culminating experience for those MS in Science, Technology and Public Policy students who chose this option in the Public Policy Department. Over the course of the semester, students will have the opportunity to investigate and address contemporary topics in science and technology policy using analytic skills and theoretical knowledge learned over the course of their MS degree. Project 1 (Fall, Spring, Summer).
  
Total Semester Credit Hours
144

Please see General Education Curriculum for more information.

(WI) Refers to a writing intensive course within the major.

* Please see Wellness Education Requirement for more information. Students completing bachelor's degrees are required to complete two different Wellness courses.

† Students will satisfy this requirement by taking either a 3 or 4 credit hour lab science course. If a science course consists of separate lecture and laboratory sections, students must take both the lecture and lab portions to satisfy the requirement.

Admissions and Financial Aid

First-Year Admission

A strong performance in a college preparatory program is expected. This includes:

  • 4 years of English with a strong performance is expected.
  • 3 years of social studies and/or history with a strong performance is expected.
  • 3 years of math is required and must include algebra, geometry, and algebra 2/trigonometry. 
  • 2-3 years of science.

Transfer Admission

Transfer course recommendations without associate degree
Courses in liberal arts, science, foreign language, and history

Appropriate associate degree programs for transfer
Liberal arts with social sciences, sciences, or languages

Learn How to Apply

Financial Aid and Scholarships

100% of all incoming first-year and transfer students receive aid.

RIT’s personalized and comprehensive financial aid program includes scholarships, grants, loans, and campus employment programs. When all these are put to work, your actual cost may be much lower than the published estimated cost of attendance.
Learn more about financial aid and scholarships

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Contact

Program Contact
  • Heather Roth
  • Assistant Director of Recruitment and Retention Outreach
  • Dean’s Office
  • College of Liberal Arts
  • 585‑475‑5456
  • hmrgla@rit.edu
Offered within the
Department of Sociology and Anthropology