Catalogue 2024-2025
International Studies Program
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Director: Katherine Hite (spring 2024), Timothy Koechlin (2024-25);
Steering Committee: Pinar Batur (Sociology), Christopher Bjork (Education), Paulina Bren (International Studies), Robert K. Brigham (History), Patricia-Pia Célérier (French and Francophone Studies), Andrew Davison (Political Science), Maria Hantzopoulos (Education), Katherine Hite (Political Science), David A. Kennett (Economics), Timothy Koechlin (International Studies), Candice M. Lowe Swift (Anthropology), Himadeep Muppidi (Political Science), Michaela Pohl (History), Ismail O. D. Rashid (History), Mariam Rashid (International Studies), Stephen R. Rock (Political Science), Jeffrey Schneider (German Studies), Fubing Su (Political Science), Vinay Swamyab (French and Francophone Studies), David Tavárez (Anthropology), Silke von der Emde (German Studies), Kirsten Wesselhoeft (Religion), Eva Woods Peiró (Hispanic Studies), Yu Zhouab (Earth Science and Geography).
ab On leave 2024/25
The multidisciplinary program in International Studies is designed to provide a solid and systematic grounding in the study of global interdependence while allowing students to develop strengths in at least two traditional departmental disciplines. A student’s course of study for the major is designed in close consultation with the director and the Panel of Advisers. The objectives are to build a core of knowledge in the international social sciences and develop fluency in at least one language, while ensuring a multidisciplinary perspective by encouraging students to approach international issues from the viewpoints that interest them most. Consequently, approved programs of study may include upper-level work in the sciences, humanities, literature and arts as well as the social sciences and languages. In general, the advising process should be initiated early in the sophomore year, especially if a student is interested in study abroad in the first semester of the junior year. Additional information on the registration process is available from the program office.
Major
Correlate Sequence in Migration and Displacement Studies
International Studies: I. Introductory
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INTL 102 - Global Geography: People, Places, and Regions Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as GEOG 102 ) Places and regions are fundamental parts of the human experience. From our hometowns to the Vassar campus, the United States, and the world beyond, we all inherit but then actively reproduce our geographies through the ways in which we lead our lives—by our social practices and spatial movements, and by the meanings we ascribe to people, places, and regions. In this manner, people shape their cultural landscapes and create the spatial divisions that represent global power relations, ideologies, socioeconomic differences, and the uneven distribution of resources. In this course we study the making of the modern world at different scales, ranging from the local to the global—through case studies drawn from the Hudson Valley and around the world—with an emphasis on the ways people, places, and regions relate to socio-economic inequalities. In addition to learning about specific places and regions, we focus on major themes and debates in geography, including mapping and cartographic communication, culture and landscape modification, population and sustainable development, agriculture and urbanization, and political divisions of the globe. Joseph Nevins.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
INTL 106 - Perspectives in International Studies Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
An introduction to the varied perspectives from which an interdependent world can be approached. Themes which the course may address are nationalism and the formation of national identity, state violence and war, immigration, religion, modernization, imperialism, colonialism and postcolonialism, indigenous groups, cultural relativism, and human rights. These themes are explored by examining the experiences of different geographic areas. This multidisciplinary course uses texts from the social sciences and the humanities. The particular themes and geographic areas selected, and the disciplinary approaches employed, vary with the faculty teaching the course. Mariam Rashid
This course is required for all International Studies majors. Sophomores and first-year students should take this course if they are interested in pursuing an International Studies major.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
INTL 109 - A Lexicon of Forced Migration Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Every minute, 20 people are forced to leave their homes due to conflict or persecution, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Given the unresolved (and interrelated) challenges of climate change, global inequality, technological innovation, and war, forced migration will continue to increase. This course will help us prepare for the implications of these challenges, which will dominate global politics and domestic discussion for years to come. This process demands that we interrogate our terms, conscious of how much is at stake in excavating the underground meanings of the words we use to describe political realities. Global in scope and interdisciplinary in methodology, the course will be focused around the four thematic anchors of time, space, and movement; home, belonging and hospitality; discourse, representation, and memory; and law, ethics, and policy. Students should be ready to work collaboratively and creatively on a digital Lexicon of Forced Migration. Mariam Rashid.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
INTL 110 - International Study Travel
1 unit(s)
One 3-hour period.
Not offered in 2023/24.
International Studies: II. Intermediate
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INTL 235 - Ending Deadly Conflict
1 unit(s)
(Same as HIST 235 ) This course uses historical case studies to identify practical ways to end conflict and build sustainable peace. It is concerned with the vulnerability of the weak, failed and collapsed states, with post conflict periods that have reignited into violence, and problems of mediating conflicts that are unusually resistant to resolution. Of particular interest will be the role that third party intermediaries and global governance institutions have played in bringing about a negotiated end to violence. Major topics may include: the Paris Peace Accords, South Africa’s truth and reconciliation commissions, the Good Friday Agreement, Israel-Palestine negotiations, the Dayton Peace Accords ending the Balkans wars, and negotiations to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Robert Brigham.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2024/25.
Course Format: CLS -
INTL 238 - Environmental China: Nature, Culture, and Development
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 238 , ENST 238 and GEOG 238 ) As environmental actions suffer setbacks in the United States, it becomes even more important to understand the dynamics in other nations. China has emerged as a leading player in the environmental field. China is not only the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases; it is also suffering from many acute environmental problems related to its air, water and soil, among others, all of which make China the world’s most important experimental site for environmental actions. How do the Chinese government and Chinese people view their environment problems? What are the geographical and historical conditions underlining the evolution of such problems? As the world oldest continuous civilization and the most populous nation, China has a deep history in dealing with its environment, thus has formulated ancient cultures and practices regarding nature, some of which have reemerged in the country’s headlong march into modernity. What can China teach the world? Employing a political-ecological approach, this course explores the roots of China’s environmental challenges as created by and mediated through historical, cultural, political, economic and social forces, both internal and external to the country, and especially instigated by the movements of global socialism and capitalism in the last one and a half centuries. It also examines some of the solutions that the Chinese government and the people are taking on. Lessons from China have profound implications for the future of our livable world. Yu Zhou.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2024/25.
Course Format: CLS -
INTL 242 - Brazil in Crisis: Continuity and Change in Portuguese America
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 242 , GEOG 242 , and LALS 242 ) Brazil, a giant of Latin America and the Global South, has long been known as the “land of the future.” Yet frustrating political-economic crises have repeatedly followed periods of rapid growth and social progress. Taking current crises as a point of departure, this course examines Brazil’s contemporary evolution in light of the country’s historical geography, the distinctive cultural and environmental features of Portuguese America, and the political-economic linkages with the world system. Specific topics for study include: the legacies of colonial Brazil; race relations, Afro-Brazilian culture, and ethnic identities; issues of gender, youth, violence, and poverty; processes of urban-industrial growth; regionalism and national integration; environmental devastation and sustainability; controversies surrounding the occupation of Amazonia; and long-run prospects for democracy and equitable development in Brazil. Brian Godfrey.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2024/25.
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INTL 249 - National Model United Nations Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Prepares students to participate in the National Model United Nations in New York City. Students represent a country, research its history, its political, economic and social systems, and its foreign policy. There is also a comprehensive evaluation of the UN system, and the role of states and non-state actors, such as NGOs. Participation in the Model United Nations simulation occurs in the spring. Matthew Murray.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor. Application is required early in the fall term.
One 4-hour period.
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INTL 251 - Global Feminism Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as WFQS 251 ) Women have long been the silent figure at the center of debates on nation-building; the object to be saved in the event of catastrophe, pillaged in the event of war, exalted in the efforts to populate and nourish the nation. This course takes as its premise the intersections between key terms “migration,” “citizenship” and “feminism” and looks at ways women and gender nonconforming people work against this objectification to make themselves heard and form community in new spaces. Through a study of literature, film and theoretical texts, we explore the ways communities and activist groups are shaped and influenced by feminist networks across the globe, and the ways individuals define themselves in relation to concepts of feminism and nationhood. Close readings of personal and fictional narratives that center on gender and migration are paired with material on the relevant socio-political and historical contexts, in an effort to encourage critical reflection on how certain discourses surrounding both migration and feminism are racialized and gendered. We look at the consequences of repeating or ignoring those ideological underpinnings, as well as ways people are working against these norms. We consider fictional narratives, testimonials and media coverage as we follow the journeys of people traveling through Africa and Central America, across the Mediterranean through the Middle East and Asia in no small part because of current rising tensions and real peril surrounding these highly trafficked migratory thoroughfares. We pair analysis of cultural material with a body of theoretical work aimed at providing students with a toolbox of global feminist scholarship. Elena Krell.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
INTL 252 - Cities of the Global South: Urbanization and Social Change in the Developing World Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as GEOG 252 and URBS 252 ) The largest and fastest wave of urbanization in human history is now underway in the Global South—the developing countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Most of the world’s urban population already resides here, where mega-cities now reach massive proportions. Despite widespread economic dynamism, high rates of urbanization and deprivation often coincide, so many of the 21st century’s greatest challenges will arise in the Global South. This course examines postcolonial urbanism, global-city and ordinary-city theories, informal settlements and slums, social and environmental justice, and urban design, planning, and governance. We study scholarly, journalistic, and film depictions of Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro in Latin America; Algiers and Lagos in Africa; Cairo and Istanbul in the Middle East; and Beijing and Mumbai in Asia. Brian Godfrey.
Prerequisite(s): A previous Geography or Urban Studies course.
Two 75-minute periods.
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INTL 253 - Transitions In Europe
1 unit(s)
(Same as POLI 253 and RUSS 253 ) This course addresses themes such as collapse of authoritarianism, democratic consolidation, institution of ‘rule of law’, deepening of markets, break-up of nation-states, and education and collective identity formation. These themes are explored in the European and Eurasian areas, where in recent decades there have been break ups (sometimes violent other times peaceful) of former countries; as well as an unprecedented deepening of the sharing of previously national power in the peculiar entity of the European Union.
The course focuses on the political history of, and alternative explanations for changes that have taken place in the spaces of the former Soviet Union, particularly Russia, and the European Union. The course focus includes the demise of communism in the former Soviet Union; the challenges of democratic consolidation, and institution of a capitalist market economy in post-Soviet Russia; the deepening of the Single European Market and capitalism in the European Union; the state of the nation-state and democracy in the European Union; migration and citizenship; and nationalist backlashes. Leah Haus.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2024/25.
Course Format: CLS -
INTL 255 - Global Political Economy Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as LALS 255 ) This course explores competing visions of economic globalization, and uses these distinct frameworks to analyze the meaning, causes, extent, and consequences of globalization, with a particular focus on the relationships among global, national and local economic phenomena. What do we mean by globalization? What are the effects of globalization on growth, inequality, and the environment? How might international economic policy and the particular form(s) of globalization that it promotes help to explain the pace and form of urbanization? Who benefits from globalization, and who might be hurt? Why do economists and others disagree about the answers to these and related questions? This course explores some of the ways that interdisciplinary analysis might enrich our understanding of economic globalization. Timothy Koechlin.
Two 75-minute periods.
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INTL 261 - “The Nuclear Cage”: Environmental Theory and Nuclear Power
1 unit(s)
(Same as ENST 261 and SOCI 261 ) The central aim of this course is to explore debates about the interaction between beings, including humans, animals, plants, and the earth within the context of advanced capitalism by concentrating on the production, distribution, consumption, and disposal of nuclear power. The first question concerning the class is how does Environmental Theory approach nuclear power and its impact on the environment. The second question deals with how this construction interacts with other forms of debate regarding nuclear power, especially concentrating on the relation between science, market and the state in dealing with nature, and how citizens formulate and articulate their understanding of nuclear power through social movements. Pinar Batur.
Not offered in 2024/25.
Course Format: CLS -
INTL 265 - International Political Economy
1 unit(s)
(Same as POLI 265 ) This course addresses the relationship between power and wealth in the international arena. The interaction between politics and economics is explored in historical and contemporary subjects that may include the rise and decline of empires; economic sanctions; international institutions such as the IMF; regional integration in the European Union; globalization and its discontents; mercenaries and military corporations; education and internationalization. Leah Haus.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2024/25.
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INTL 266 - Population, Environment and Sustainable Development Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as GEOG 266 ) Concerns about human population are integral to debates about matters of political stability, socio-economic equity, ecological sustainability, and human wellbeing. This course engages these debates via an examination of environmental change, power and inequality, and technology and development. Case studies include: water supplies, fishing and agriculture and the production of foodstuffs. Being a geography course, it highlights human-nature relations, spatial distribution and difference, and the dynamic connections between places and regions. Joseph Nevins.
Two 75-minute periods.
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INTL 270 - Diasporas Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as JWST 270 and POLI 270 ) Topic for 2024/25b: Diasporic Poetics. What is poetic attuned exposure, and how might it possibly intensify the empirical, pragmatic, and ethical understandings of diaspora as an absence of, or alternative to, power? Andrew Bush and Andrew Davison.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
INTL 271 - Hello, Dear Enemy: Mounting an Exhibition on Children’s Experiences of War and Displacement Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as EDUC 271 , LALS 271 , MEDS 271 and WFQS 271 ) At a time when the world is witnessing the largest displacement of people since WWII, due in significant measure to armed conflict, this course examines select case studies (both past and present) of armed conflict and their consequences for children. Journalists, photographers, and writers of children’s literature have done much to raise awareness about children and armed conflict, and to treat them in such a way that audiences develop understanding, empathy, and solidarity with children affected by armed conflict. A principal aim of the course is to study the topics of armed conflict and displacement through photography, photojournalism, and children’s literature, and then to mount exhibitions both on campus and a traveling exhibition in the Vassar Collaboratory. Our work is enriched by the study of human rights and humanitarian laws and policies concerning children affected by armed conflict, as well as by interaction with visiting artists, educators, and children’s rights experts from the United Nations and other international organizations. The course focuses on the impact of armed conflict on girls, and includes such topics as displacement, education, child soldiers, child labor, birth registration, and sexual violence. Tracey Holland.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
INTL 272 - Geographies of Mass Violence Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as GEOG 272 ) Violence has been an integral part of the making of landscapes, places, and the world political map. This course examines theories of violence, explanations of why it happens where it does, and how mass violence has come to shape local, national, and international geographies. In doing so, it analyzes how violence becomes embedded in geographical space and informs social relations. The course draws upon various case studies, including incidents of mass violence in Cambodia, Indonesia, Mexico, Rwanda and the United States. Joseph Nevins.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
INTL 273 - Development Economics Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ECON 273 ) A survey of central issues in the field of development economics. Topics include economic growth, the role of institutions, trade, poverty, inequality, education, child labor, health, the environment, conflict and impact evaluation. Examples and case studies from Africa, Asia and Latin America provide the context for these topics.
Nusrat Abedin Jimi.
Prerequisite(s): ECON 102 .
Two 75-minute periods.
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INTL 275 - International and Comparative Education Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 275 and EDUC 275 ) This course provides an overview of comparative education theory, practice, and research methodology. We examine educational issues and systems in a variety of cultural contexts. Particular attention is paid to educational practices in Asia and Europe, as compared to the United States. The course focuses on educational concerns that transcend national boundaries. Among the topics explored are international development, democratization, social stratification, the cultural transmission of knowledge, and the place of education in the global economy. These issues are examined from multiple disciplinary vantage points. Chris Bjork.
Prerequisite(s): EDUC 235 or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
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INTL 276 - Economic Geography: Spaces of Global Capitalism Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as GEOG 276 ) We live in turbulent times. In the past decades, global capitalism has profoundly reorganized global space for production, distribution and consumption. Geography discipline, economic geography, in particular, is uniquely equipped to provide critical analysis of the spatial dynamics of the global economy. Differing from other disciplines concerning economics, economic geography studies the relationship between economics and space and place. Economic geographers argue that in all economic activities, accessibility, proximity and spatial agglomeration play essential roles in the location choice, organization and performance of economic units. Space, place, and mobility resulted in uneven development, which is deeply implicated features in the capitalist system in its emergence, development, and transformation.
Two areas of focus in this course are the globalization of the world economy and regional development under the first and third world contexts. We analyze the history of the emergence of the global the capitalist system, the commodification of nature, transformation of agriculture, the global spread of manufacturing, restructuring of transnational corporations and its regional impacts. Yu Zhou.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
INTL 278 - Education for Peace, Justice and Human Rights Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as EDUC 278 ) The aim of this course is to introduce students to the field of peace education and provide an overview of the history, central concepts, scholarship, and practices within the field. The overarching questions explored are: What does it mean to educate for peace, justice and human rights? What and where are the possibilities and the barriers? How do identity, representation and context influence the ways in which these constructs are conceptualized and defined and what are the implications of these definitions? How can we move towards an authentic culture of peace, justice, and human rights in a pluralistic world? In order to address these questions, we survey the human and social dimensions of peace education, including its philosophical foundations, the role of gender, race, religion and ethnicity in peace and human rights education, and the function and influence of both formal and non-formal schooling on a culture of peace and justice. Significant time is spent on profiling key thinkers, theories, and movements in the field, with a particular focus on case-studies of peace education in practice nationally and worldwide. We examine these case studies with a critical eye, exploring how power operates and circulates in these contexts and consider ways in which to address larger structural inequities and micro-asymmetries. Since peace education is not only about the content of education, but also the process, the course endeavors to model peace pedagogy by promoting inquiry, collaboration and dialogue and give students the opportunity to practice these skills through presentations on the course readings and topics. Maria Hantzopoulos.
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INTL 290 - Community-Engaged Learning Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Course Format: INT -
INTL 298 - Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Course Format: OTH
International Studies: III. Advanced
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INTL 300 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
1 unit(s)
A 1-unit thesis written in the fall or spring semester. Students may elect to write their theses in one semester only in exceptional circumstances. Usually students will adopt INTL 301 -INTL 302 .
Course Format: INT -
INTL 301 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
A 1-unit thesis written in two semesters.
Yearlong course 301-INTL 302 .
Course Format: INT -
INTL 302 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
A 1-unit thesis written in two semesters.
Yearlong course INTL 301 -302.
Course Format: INT -
INTL 305 - Senior Seminar Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
An examination of selected global topics in a multidisciplinary framework. Topics vary from year to year. Timothy Koechlin.
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INTL 330 - Religion, Critical Theory and Politics Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Advanced study in selected aspects of religion and contemporary philosophical and political theory. May be taken more than once for credit when content changes.
Topic for 2024/25b: Islam, Decolonization and Reform. (Same as AFRS 330 and RELI 330 ) In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a groundswell of reform in Islamic thought emerged, taking up the challenges, anxieties, and injustices posed by colonial and imperial politics. The meaning of Islam in the twentieth century, to Muslims and non-Muslims alike, was shaped by these social theorists and the political movements that they participated in. Reformist Islamic thought was entangled with processes of decolonization and revolution in Muslim-majority lands around the world – not only the gaining of national sovereignty by formerly colonized territories, but the decolonization of minds, communities, societies, morals, gender relations, & patterns of thought. How did political projects of revolution and resistance relate to projects of theological and moral revival in Islam? How did Muslim intellectuals around the world draw on the US Black radical tradition to theorize colonization and race? How did these projects contribute to the emergence of the “Muslim world” as an idea? This course surveys the development of modernist Islamic reform movements during the period of political decolonization, and explores the relationship between Islamic social theory and decolonial thought in the contemporary context. Kirsten Wesselhoeft.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
INTL 361 - The Global Haitian Revolution
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 361 and POLI 361 ) This seminar works through the essential contours of CLR James’ The Black Jacobins, which offers a powerful transnational vision of revolutionary change by reconsidering the global “Age of Revolutions” from the perspective of its most radical and most systematically erased constituent process: the slave revolution in Haiti. Rethinking the place of Haiti in world history, international relations, and political thought means rethinking much else as well: the stages and movement of historical progress, the relationship between formal rights and true freedom, and the deep-seated (and ongoing) centrality of race as a governing structure of global politics, law, sovereignty, humanitarianism, and humanity. More than simply a revolution against slavery or colonialism, Haiti marked a revolution in global order and how we understand it.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2024/25.
Course Format: CLS -
INTL 368 - Toxic Futures: From Social Theory to Environmental Theory Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ENST 368 and SOCI 368 ) The central aim of this class is to examine the foundations of the discourse on society and nature in social theory and environmental theory to explore two questions. The first question is how does social theory approach the construction of the future, and the second question is how has this construction informed the present debates on the impact of industrialization, urbanization, state-building and collective movements on the environment? In this context, the class focuses on how social theory informs different articulations of Environmental Thought and its political and epistemological fragmentation and the limits of praxis, as well as its contemporary construction of alternative futures. Pinar Batur.
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INTL 376 - Critical Inquiries into Refugee Resettlement and Education Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as EDUC 376 ) A goal of this course is for students to critically analyze notions of refugee resettlement and resettlement education in relation to the colonial and historical processes that re/produce and re/construct refugees. The course offers opportunities to explore refugee governance in both countries of protection and third countries of resettlement. Drawing on diasporic feminisms, black studies, and black feminist thought, students analyze and critique existing gendered and racialized resettlement policies and practices and move towards possibilities for reimagining resettlement anew. The course utilizes resettlement policy texts, documentaries, and primary documents to investigate resettlement educational programming in the US and in selected countries. The course seeks to explore these questions and more: How can refugee resettlement and education draw on refugees’ forms of knowing and legibility? What pedagogical possibilities open up when resettlement policies and practices are interrogated through the lenses of diasporic feminisms, Black studies, and Black feminist thought? How might the long-standing gendered and racialized policies and practices of the global refugee regime be ruptured? Mariam Rashid.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
INTL 385 - Women, Culture, and Development
1 unit(s)
(Same as LALS 385 , SOCI 385 , and WFQS 385 ) This course examines the ongoing debates within development studies about how integration into the global economy is experienced by women around the world. Drawing on gender studies, cultural studies, and global political economy, we explore the multiple ways in which women struggle to secure well-being, challenge injustice, and live meaningful lives. Light Carruyo.
Not offered in 2024/25.
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INTL 386 - Central Asia and the Caucasus: Nation Building and Human Rights Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as HIST 386 ) The Muslim regions between Russia and China are becoming more populated, prosperous, and connected. The Caspian Sea region is booming with new oil and gas wealth. A wave of democracy movements swept newly independent states but oligarchs and long-term autocratic presidents dominate politics and business. An Islamic revival after the fall of communism has brought a crisis of political Islam, including problems like terrorism, re-veiling campaigns, and bride-kidnappings. Chechnya and the North Caucasus became magnets for violence, while Tatarstan has seen a quiet renaissance of liberal Russian Islam. This cross-listed seminar explores nation building, human rights, and spiritual life in Central Asia and the Caucasus from a historical perspective. Topics include the legacies of Mongol and Tatar power verticals, the impact of communism on Central Asia, the war in Chechnya and its effect on human rights in the region, the history of Kazakhstan’s new capital, Astana, and daily life and politics since independence in 1991. Michaela Pohl.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
INTL 387 - Revolutionary Subjects and Political Futures Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ANTH 387 ) This class is a multidisciplinary inquiry into the global re-making of revolutionary subjects in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Through ethnographies, film, primary texts (including speeches and texts by revolutionary leaders and political movements), literature, poetry, and art across a wide range of regional contexts, we pursue two interrelated tracks of inquiry, as students develop semester-long independent writing projects. The first half of the class is dedicated to studying foundational debates in Marxist, feminist, and postcolonial thought regarding the formation of revolutionary political classes. Moving across Haiti, Russia, England, Cuba, India, China, and Algeria, we examine how political movements and scholars have debated the emancipatory potential of different political groups in response to specific social struggles across the world. In particular, we study debates concerning the foundational figure of the proletarian worker, and how the conditions of slaves, women, peasants and rural people, subaltern classes, migrants, and the urban poor have figured within them. The second half of the class is dedicated to reading ethnographic monographs about contemporary social movements and popular struggles. Cases include the Naxalite movement in India, food sovereignty and farmer-to-farmer movements in Cuba and North America, land occupations and evictions in South Africa, imaginaries of sovereignty and repair in the Caribbean, and the Movement for Black Lives in the United States. Our readings are supplemented by guest lectures from scholar-activists and close study of ethnographic films. Through a comparative approach rooted in traditions of critical political economy and engaged anthropology, students come away from this class with a deeper theoretical and empirical understanding of many of the world’s most significant political movements – including the lessons (and cautions) they may hold for addressing our current planetary predicaments and shared political futures. China Sajadian.
Prerequisite(s): Previous coursework in Anthropology/International Studies or permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
INTL 399 - Senior Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
The program faculty.
Course Format: OTH
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