For current, past and future for International Studies major to learn and share unique experiences.
Spring 2018 Course Descriptions:
INTL 200: This course aims to expose current and prospective International Studies majors who have taken INTL 100 to some of the key themes and theoretical concepts in the field, and help them shape their individual concentrations in the major. The course also provides opportunities for students to employ an interdisciplinary lens in studying these themes while drawing on both political economy and cultural analytical frameworks. Finally, the students will gain an understanding of the academic research process, including choosing a topic, formulating research questions, finding sources, and explaining the significance of research for analyzing, and when applicable, solving academic and real-world problems. The course will focus on four broadly conceived themes: economic development, nationalism/national identity, transnational migration, and mediated/popular culture.
INTL 201 Major Proposal
The required midlevel course is for all International Studies majors. The goals of this one credit course are to create a vibrant intellectual community of students, in which they collaboratively formulate individual interests in the field of International Studies through discussion and peer reviews in class, and consultation with the course coordinator (International Studies Program Director) and faculty advisor assigned by the coordinator. Through these processes, the students are expected to not only develop strong camaraderie among them as the new INTL majors, but also formulate comprehensive plans for how they will pursue their interests in International Studies during their final two years at Denison. This involves charting out their courses in International Studies for the next two years—including coursework from off campus study programs that they wish to count toward the International Studies major. By the end of the course, students submit the major proposal, in which they synthesize coursework, off campus study (or an internship), and language training in a way that allows them to develop a coherent area of expertise within International Studies. The proposals will be evaluated by the course coordinator, who consults with the entire International Studies Program Committee.
Migration and Citizenship 250: The course explores contemporary transnational movements of people and the social relations that are built around their movements, and the resulting membership of a nation-state—citizenship—shaped by not only politico-legal but also socioeconomic and cultural processes. The course will raise following questions: Why do people move across international borders, and where do they go? What are key political-economic and sociocultural factors that shape the migratory flows? How are diverse types of migration, such as voluntary vs. forced migrants, temporary vs. permanent labor migrants, and unidirectional vs. circular migrants, differently shaped by these factors? How do local communities, national governments and international institutions respond to them? What is “citizenship,” and how is it defined by political scientists, sociologists, and anthropologists? What does being a member of a nation-state mean amidst the global flows of people, goods, and information? To tackle these questions, the course will survey the scholarship on regular and “irregular” migrations, migration control, and ethnic, racial, and national identities, and learn theories and concepts regarding migration, globalization, and citizenship through an interdisciplinary lens by drawing on research by sociologists, political scientists, historians, economists and anthropologists. The course requires students of a significant amount of service and experiential learning through 10-12 weeks of volunteering at Columbus’s refugee service agencies, in order for us to learn migrants’ experiences through firsthand observation and real-life interactions. As INTL250, the course will satisfy GE “I” requirement, and as ANSO345, the course will satisfy GE “E” requirement.
250 Global Governance: This course cuts into the theme of globalization from two directions. The first, ‘macro’, approach analyzes how globalization is re-imagining governance. The traditional model of international politics, in which sovereign states interact under conditions of anarchy, must be revised and updated in the face of new realities. States remain central to global politics, but the rising complexity and interdependence associated with governing in the 21st century have introduced new problems and opportunities, as well as a network of new, non-state actors challenging the tight grip on authority states once held over international policymaking.
The second, ‘micro’, approach analyzes how globalization is re-imagining political identity. The 19th and 20th centuries gave rise to nationalism, which legitimized the power and authority of states to act in the interests of their citizens. However, as the density of interaction beyond the state accelerates and new technologies link populations across state borders, regional and global identifications increasingly challenge national ones from ‘above’. And as greater interaction magnifies socio-cultural difference across the globe, localization movements are simultaneously emerging to challenge them from ‘below’.
Postcolonial Literature & Criticism 250: This course is an introduction to the field of postcolonial studies and the literature and criticism of that field. We will begin by considering and contextualizing the term “postcolonial” before exploring the implications of the term in/for the texts. Arguably, the term “postcolonial” has only become more ambiguous with time and its meaning and relevance continue to be hotly debated. As Paul Brians already wrote over a decade ago, “The more it is examined, the more the postcolonial sphere crumbles. Though Jamaican, Nigerian, and Indian writers have much to say to each other; it is not clear that they should be lumped together. We continue to use the term ‘postcolonial’ as a pis aller, and to argue about it until something better comes along.”
We will engage with the arguments surrounding the “postcolonial sphere” and consider whether we can justifiably “lump together” those formerly colonized regions now considered “postcolonial,” particularly Africa, South Asia, and the Caribbean. The material for the course is grouped geographically...
This course is cross listed with ENGL 357 and BLST 357.
Hispanic Trans-Atlantic Culture (cross listed with SPAN 440)
In a world where everything is holistically connected and where students are able to gather information without constrains of geographic boundaries, it is important that we provide our students with a similar approach to the Hispanic World.
This seminar offers students the opportunity of exploring the historical encounter between America and Europe in 1492 and the consequences of this event. Through the study of various historiographical and theoretical texts that deal with the Spanish Conquest of America in the XVI century, students will learn how the dynamics of ideology, power and resistance work and how the final product of this encounter was a subject that shared European and also Indigenous knowledge. The course will explore different cultural traditions in order to see how this “complex” subject was developed.
Borders and Identities in Europe 250: Borders, as the ultimate markers of territorial sovereignty, separating “inside” from “outside”, and “us” from “them”, have been central to the articulation of a European space and identity for centuries. However, since the 1990’s, there has been a series of dramatic changes in the nature and the ethical political implications of the borders. The abolition of Europe’s internal frontiers accompanied by the birth of a common border politics, and externalization of border controls to the third countries have challenged the conception of borders as stable geopolitical lines that represent territorial sovereignty.
This course aims at introducing the students to new ways of thinking about borders, that is, borders as practices dispersed across various local, national and transnational settings beyond and above territorial frontiers. Conceptualizing borders as practices sheds light onto the power relations, political economy and cultural logic of European border-ing practices. Furthermore, it also brings about a new terrain of questions concerning the subjectivities produced in the processes of bordering. Presenting the students with various cases that exemplify the European border regime as it is enacted at various locales targeting a wide range of individuals, this course will unpack and deconstruct the taken for granted subject positions such as migrant/refugee/people not of concern, showing how these identities are constructed.
250 African Peoples and Historic Perspectives: Sub-Saharan Africa is ethnographically diverse whether we look to cosmopolitan cities, rural villages or the African Diaspora. In this course we will be looking at a rich array of African experiences, challenging conventional representations of Africa and Africans. We focus on how Africans themselves, acting as agents of change and resistance, confront the state, growing privatization of resources, campaigns for debt cancellation, the AIDs epidemic, cultural globalization and development. By “considering Africa’s place- in-the-world” and the social, economic and political relations this implies, we meet an entirely contemporary, global community.
Our broad mission is threefold:
To produce educated citizens who can understand and work within the context of these processes,
To create an intellectual environment which can sustain innovative, cutting-edge, curriculum development and research, and
To make the boundaries between Denison and "the world" far more permeable than they are currently through increased off-campus opportunity for Denison students and faculty (that are closely tied to curricular priorities) and through a greater presence of international scholars, artists, and students on our campus.
