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Course Level: Undergraduate

Topics vary by section, may be repeated for credit with different topic. Rotating topics including economic policy, global environmental policy, international peace and conflict resolution, international development, U.S. foreign policy and regional studies, among others. Usually offered every term.

Course Level: Undergraduate

Topics in International Relations (1-6)

Practical Environmentalism

This course explores the causes of current environmental dilemmas and practical ways forward for creating sustainable societies. It studies artistic, social, and political efforts to build a green world and involves students in experiential types of learning aimed at advancing environmental well-being.

Course Level: Undergraduate

Topics in International Relations (1-6)

Political Ecology of Food and Agriculture

Food presents a unique lens to examine political, cultural, and technological connections to environment and development. This course provides students with an introduction to political ecology and its approach to global food studies. Students use political ecology and social theory paradigms to examine industrial and alternative food networks, including their impacts on the environment, communities, and rural development. Students also examine how food policy and the global food trading system shape these networks and local environments, communities, and development practices.

Course Level: Undergraduate

Topics in International Relations (1-6)

Introduction to International Security

Through this course students become familiar with some of the major theoretical issues in the study of international security as well as key actors and institutions. In addition to addressing central issues such as war and conflict, weapons of mass destruction, and terrorism, the course helps students apply theories and existing bodies of knowledge to better understand contemporary and emerging international security issues.

Course Level: Undergraduate

Topics in International Relations (1-6)

Asia, the State, and Globalization

This course compares economic development strategies of the East Asian developmental states (Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore) and the more recent export-led growth models of Malaysia, China, and Vietnam. All cases have in common strong government intervention in their economies and strong export promotion policies. The differences in global economic conditions have led scholars to assert that the developmental state model is no longer viable. This course investigates what created the economic miracles of China and Vietnam, and earlier Malaysia, and whether the basic principles of the developmental state model still apply; is state intervention obsolete, possible, or necessary in the twenty-first century global economy? The class then contrasts the East and Southeast Asian models with India, an emerging economy and one that in the past has been seen as a failed developmental state and concludes by trying to find lessons with wider applicability for developing countries.

Course Level: Undergraduate

Topics in International Relations (1-6)

Gender in International Development

This course examines from an interdisciplinary and international perspective how development is gendered and creates different meanings, impacts, and processes for women around the world. The course explores the different theoretical approaches used in understanding women146s situation in developing societies and examines the impact of production and reproduction, politics, globalization, environment, and migration on women in different parts of the developing world. The course probes the success and failure of development strategies in incorporating women into the development process and explores new approaches to ensure women146s empowerment and their agency to fully participate in development processes.

Course Level: Undergraduate

Topics in International Relations (1-6)

Minorities in the Middle East and North Africa

This course focuses on the ethnic, religious, national, linguistic, and political minorities in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa, including minority groups within Islam. It discusses the background and situation of various minorities in the area, and their roles in the politics and social structures of the societies in which they live, as well as their movement and diaspora status in the world. Meets with SIS-619 010.

Course Level: Undergraduate

Topics in International Relations (1-6)

Israeli Society

This course explores the emergence of Israeli society and its changes over time. It reviews Israel's ideological and political foundations, the centrality of immigration, the emergence of Arab minorities and Jewish ethnic divisions, and assesses political, economic, religious, and family patterns within the broader Jewish and Palestinian communities. Meets with SIS-619 009 SOCY-340/640 001.

Course Level: Undergraduate

Topics in International Relations (1-6)

Political Ecology of Food and Agriculture

This course examines political, cultural, and technological connections to environment and development. It provides students with an introduction to political ecology and its approach to global food studies. Students use political ecology and social theory paradigms to examine industrial and alternative food networks, including their impacts on the environment, communities, and rural development. Students also examine how food policy and the global food trading system shape these networks and local environments, communities, and development practices.

Course Level: Undergraduate

Topics in International Relations (1-6)

Peace and Social Justice

This course offers a study of the methods, history, and practitioners of nonviolence and the efforts to create a justice-based society. The course familiarizes students with both the philosophy of pacifism and alternatives to violence, whether among nations or among individuals faced with violence in their daily lives. This course is discussion-based, with dissent welcomed.

Course Level: Undergraduate

Topics in International Relations (1-6)

Theories and Methods of Nonviolence

Examines the successes and criticizes the shortfalls of six major nonviolent struggles of the twentieth century. Students sharpen their capacity for critical thinking by applying insights from these struggles to current problems in the United States. Meets with SIS-619 011.

Course Level: Undergraduate

Topics in International Relations (1-6)

Minorities in the Middle East and North Africa

This course focuses on the ethnic, religious, national, linguistic, and political minorities in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa, including minority groups within Islam. It discusses the background and situation of various minorities in the area, and their roles in the politics and social structures of the societies in which they live, as well as their movement and diaspora status in the world. Meets with SIS-619 018 SOCY-396 002 SOCY-696 001.

Course Level: Undergraduate

Topics in International Relations (1-6)

Israeli Society

This course explores the emergence of Israeli society and its changes over time. It reviews Israel's ideological and political foundations, the centrality of immigration, the emergence of Arab minorities and Jewish ethnic divisions, and assesses political, economic, religious, and family patterns within the broader Jewish and Palestinian communities. Meets with SIS-619 024 SOCY-340/640 001.

Course Level: Undergraduate

Topics in International Relations (1-6)

Introduction to International Political Economy

This course examines the post-World War evolution of our current global economy to understand how and why the system looks as it does. The course is focused on one driving question addressed from many angles: Is globalization the key to an era of unprecedented growth and the eradication of global poverty, or will inequities exacerbated by globalization fuel the fires of discontent and global conflict? To answer these questions, the course looks at the international political economy from the perspective of both the world's wealthy countries as well as the world's developing countries, and explores the politics that invariably surround international economics.