Specializations
For a complete listing of courses offered in each specialization, visit the Provisional Bulletin.
- Cultures, Identities, and Encounters
- Global Economy
- Global Environment
- Global Governance
- Media, Communications, and the Arts
- Inequality, Poverty, and Global Justice
Cultures, Identities, and Encounters
The dynamics of global politics and economics and the increase in cross-cultural interaction have had a profound impact on national and local cultures--elite and popular, secular and religious. These processes of global cultural change have at once brought opportunities for cultural enrichment but also provoked intense resistance and strife. It is obviously critical to understand how cultural interaction and transfer have affected local cultures and identities; and, conversely, how specific ethnic, national, and religious groups have responded to these cultural challenges. Under what conditions have these "encounters with the other" tended to generate internationalism or nationalism, religious tolerance or religious strife, acculturation or xenophobia, racism or interracial harmony? How and why have particular cultures and regions, religions and races, classes and genders proven more receptive, or more resistant, to the new cultural challenges from without? How do cultural leaders (whether secular or religious) perceive and represent transcultural processes--their meaning, challenges, and opportunities? In what ways has cultural interaction been positive and in what ways negative?
Global Economy
The Global Economy specialization builds on the core curriculum of the International and Global Studies major, primarily Economics 8b (The Global Economy). It consists of two distinct, yet interrelated, areas of inquiry. The first is International Political Economy, which focuses on economic relations among nations, including the multilateral institutions that seek to govern trade, investment, capital flows, and the flows of technology and knowledge within the world economy. This area also concerns national policies and firm strategies that enable multinational corporations to transfer capital and technologies across borders. The second area of inquiry is Sustainable Development, which embraces a broad range of economic and institutional issues affecting the development of all nations, but especially the challenges facing low and middle-income nations. Among these issues are education and human capital, population growth, environmental impact, the design and functioning of financial systems, poverty and inequality, the role of institutions in shaping economic behavior and performance, and theories of long-run growth. Most important, Sustainable Development investigates the interrelationships among these issues.
- Special Requirements: Students must choose three out of four required courses.
Global Environment
Environmental pollution increasingly transcends state boundaries, defies national remedies, and requires international solutions that presuppose global governance to ensure implementation. This specialization seeks to explore the dynamics, problems, and responses to these profound changes in the global environment. It offers a close study of the patterns and dynamics of ecological change, drawing upon scientific assessments of the magnitude of these changes and their impact on the environment and public health. It also examines efforts to deal with these problems, at both the state and international level, with particular attention to the history of measures and movements seeking to minimize the ecological impact while ensuring an acceptable level of growth. Just how significant is the ecological change? What kinds of solutions have historically been applied by individual states and the international community to address these issues? How can societies and the international community ensure growth but do so in ways that minimize the negative side-effects (from greenhouse gases to chemicals in the food supply)? What reasonable measures can be taken to ensure biodiversity? What are the alternative visions for environmental sustainability and improvements in global health? What are the global politics of environment and what have been the key agents in shaping policy (including transnationals, from corporations to NGOs like Greenpeace)? What are the implications of HIV-AIDS, which is, without parallel, the most devastating disease in the world and threatens the lives and economic welfare of entire nations?
- Special Requirements: There are two suggested foundational courses for students in the Global Environment track.
Global Governance
Throughout most of modern history matters of international importance have been addressed either politically through bilateral or multilateral dealings between states or, failing that, through the threat or conduct of armed conflict. The analysis of international relations has accordingly been based on an international state system and the assumption that sovereign states are the actors that count most. While nation-states remain important actors, they now face significant challenges--not only to their sovereignty and power, but also to their capacity to cope with transnational problems, whether through cooperation or conflict. This specialization will explore, from a broad global and historical perspective, these challenges and modern attempts to deal with them. Have established institutions--international organizations like the UN, World Bank, IMF and WTO--proven adequate to new tasks of global governance? What are the roles of strong regional groupings like the European Union and NAFTA? What has been the impact of new non-state actors like multinational corporations, NGOs, and transnational interest groups? Is there an emerging global civil society and a global polity composed of non-traditional groups and parties? In the realm of conflict, how can the international community deal with "outlaw" states that refuse to recognize rules and can, given the proliferation of deadly military technologies, threaten catastrophic actions? What are the responsibilities of successful states and other actors in coping with the problems caused by failed states? How can countries, individually and collectively, combat transnational terrorism? How can the international community confront new criminality--drugs, money laundering, traffic in human beings--that recognizes no borders?
- Special Requirements: Introduction to International Political Economy is offered as a suggested foundational course to students in the Global Governance track.
Media, Communications, and the Arts
Global media systems present challenges for the definition and practice of culture. Worldwide, people now communicate more rapidly and more frequently through electronic media, while they also continue to communicate orally, in print, and through music, drama, and other forms. This simultaneity--as well as the nature of the new media themselves--offers new opportunities for artists, journalists, writers, politicians, educators and others. These opportunities have also led to challenges. In particular, the influence of American media on cultures elsewhere has elicited criticism of the corporatization of media and of the possibly nationally or culturally specific nature of the media. To understand these issues, it is important to explore the history of the various media and their interactive role in particular cultures. By inquiring into these and related issues, students in this specialization will be better prepared to participate in media industries--as employees, consumers, producers, and critics.
- Special Requirements: There are two suggested foundational courses for students specializing in Media, Communications, and the Arts.
Inequality, Poverty, and Global Justice
What have been the effects of globalization on inequality and poverty--within and between nations and among differing social categories such as gender, race, ethnicity, and class? Inequality and poverty are complex phenomena; they encompass a range of criteria (including income, education, and culture), reflect the values of a particular culture, and may vary significantly over the short and long term. The distributive effects of globalization will thus be exceedingly complex and uneven. For example, as developing and developed nations become partners in economic production, both experience rising GNP, yet their economic growth levels may differ profoundly. Why? Do "global cities" connected to the global system flourish at the expense of their own hinterlands? Why, and how, have entire regions of the globe like parts of Africa become worse off in the era of globalization? How have the millions of women entering the paid workforce, often in demanding and low-paying jobs, confronted new tensions between their traditional roles and new responsibilities? How effective have been efforts by the global media, NGOs in political and human rights, and other organizations been at helping to protect the poor and oppressed, to combat the traffic in human beings, and to ameliorate the plight of women? This specialization, in short, will explore the benefits and costs of globalization from the perspective of welfare and equality.
- Special Requirements: Students following the Inequality, Poverty, and Global Justice track must choose two courses from each of two sub-areas.
- Inequality and Development
- Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Inequalities