Week 1: Class Welcome Guiding Question: What are our expectations for each other? o Introduce ourselves to one another and review the syllabus together. o Go over reflection as a practice and seminar assignments. Week 2: Perspective, Context, and the Media Guiding Question: How is what we know shaped by where we live? o Watch Alisa Miller: The news about the news Ted Talk o Watch a reading of the poem How to Write About Africa by Binyavanga Wainaina. o Discuss why it is important to study international topics from a variety of perspectives. o Assignments: Find one non-US media story about a current event that has been in our national news and upload a link to the story with a short (2 sentences) summary of it to Carmen for next week. Week 3: Social Identities in an International Context Guiding Question: What are social identities and why are they important to studying international issues? o Listen to presentation on social identities. o Reflect on how social identities have impacted our lives so far and what they have to do with studying and working in international affairs. o Assignments: Read the story What Language is That? from Say Youre One of Them by Uwem Akpan. Week 4: The Danger of a Single Story Guiding Question: How are we all victims and promoters of stereotypes? o Watch Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story Ted Talk o Discuss how stereotypes are harmful to both those who are the target and those who believe them. o Relate the content of the video to the reading. o Reflect on what stereotypes we all brought into college and how they relate to social identities. o Assignments: Read pages 9-17 of We the Peoples: The Role of the United Nations in the 21st Century by Kofi Annan. Block 2: What is the field of international affairs? What is the phenomenon of globalization? Week 5: Internationalization or Globalization? Guiding Question: How extensive is internationalization? o Participate in What does this have to do with international affairs? activity. o Discuss the ways that the reading suggests internationalization may be different from globalization. o Assignments: Read Its a Flat World, After All by Thomas Friedman.
Week 6: Globalization in Our Personal Lives
Guiding Question: What are the different ways that globalization has impacted peoples personal lives? o Watch several clips that introduce the stories of Third Culture Kids (TCKs) and international students. o Listen to and speak to guest speakers who have their own experiences living in foreign countries. o Assignments: Read pages 27 to 37 of Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman for next week. Week 7: Some Problems with Globalization Guiding Question: What are some of the challenges facing our globalizing communities? o Watch a clip discussing the UN Millennium goals. o Discuss the connections between the problems outlined in the clip and the reading. o Assignments: Reflection 3 Assigned o UN Millennium Goal Project: UN Millennium Goal Profile Due Block 3: The UN Millennium Goals: Attempting Change Week 8: Medicine as a Global Topic Guiding Question: What are some of the health challenges facing our globalizing communities? o Watch clips describing UN Millennium Goals 4, 5, and 6. o Discuss how knowledge of international affairs can be a benefit to those in the medical professions. o Assignments: Reflection 3 Due o Assignments: Read pages 59 74 of No God but God by Reza Aslan for next week. Week 9: Gender and Universal Primary Education Guiding Question: What unique challenges do women and young children face? o Watch a clip discussing feminist activism in a global context and discuss drawing on the assigned reading. o Assignments: Read Chapter Five of Affluenza by Graaf, Wann, and Naylor for next week. Week 10: Economic and Environmental Inequality Guiding Question: How is economic inequality connected to issues of health and the environment? o Participate in the Win as much as you can! activity. o Debrief activity using the reading. o UN Millennium Goals Project: Presentations Begin Next Week! Weeks 11 - 14: UN Millennium Goals Presentations Week 15: Course Wrap Up and Second Semester Expectations (Tues. 12/9 Make up from Thanksgiving week, Wed. and Thurs. No Class) Guiding Question: What comes next in the IA Scholars Program?