Political Economy Courses
POLECON C45 World History
Prof. Trevor Jackson
Tu,Th 9:30 am – 10:59 am
Class #: 33255
4 units
This course focuses on the history of global interaction, with a particular emphasis on the relationships between states and societies. Though it begins with a brief exploration of antiquity, it emphasizes world developments since the 15th century. The purpose of the course is to gain a better understanding of the rise and decline of states, empires, and international trading systems. Taking a panoramic view of the last 500 years, it explores the ways in which disparate places came closer together, even while it seeks to explain how those places maintained their own trajectories in the face of outside intervention.
POLECON 100 Classical Theories of Political Economy
Prof. Richard Ashcroft
Tu,Th 3:30 pm – 4:59 pm
Class #: 31843
4 units
One-semester lecture course offered each semester. In-depth analysis of the classical political economy literature, including such authors as Locke, Smith, Marx, Mills, and Weber to Veblen and Polanyi. Strong emphasis is placed on providing appropriate background for understanding the evolution of the literature that has emanated from the various social science disciplines which forms the basis of modern political economy.
POLECON 101 Contemporary Theories of Political Economy
Prof. Crystal Chang
Tu,Th 11:00 am – 12:29 pm
Class #: 33295
4 units
This course is designed to introduce students to modern theoretical works of central intellectual debates on 20th century international political economy. The course explores alternative explanations for inequality in economic development among nations and economic declines of of the dominate powers. It will also examine tensions between the increasing “globalization” of that economy and continued fragmentation of the international political system in nation-states.
POLECON 106 Intermediate Microeconomic Theory
Prof. Mario Muzzi
Tu,Th 9:30 am – 10:59 am
Class #: 20497
4 units
This course is designed as a comprehensive overview of intermediate microeconomic theory. It covers the basic supply and demand model. Topics include consumer choice, choice under uncertainty and information, demand theory, firm, production and cost theory, competitive market theory, imperfect competition, and market failure. The course is structured for majors in Political Economy and other non-economic social science majors.
POLECON 154 Global Trade and Finance
Prof. Mario Muzzi
Tu,Th 8:00-9:29am
Class # 33783
4 units
This is an interdisciplinary course in international trade and finance focused on the dynamic interaction between economics and politics in the global arena. The course provides students a systematic method of evaluating international economic policies, while developing critical thinking skills through case studies and critical analysis. More specifically, the course focuses on the impact of flows of trade, capital, and people across borders and the role played by: (1) states and their political actors, (2) non-governmental groups, e.g., multinational corporations and labor unions, and (3) domestic and international institutions that all establish the “rules of the game”, in shaping the global economy.
POLECON 157 Political Economy of Finance
Tu, Th 5:00 pm – 6:29 pm
Class #: 33418
4 units
This course examines the history, theory, and operation of the American financial system. Key questions we will consider include: What is money? What is finance? How did the financial system evolve historically in the American context? To answer these questions, we will first look to histories and then canonical theorizations before turning to the operation of money and the nuts-and-bolts of American financial markets. Finally, we examine the global financial crisis of 2008 and its aftermath in light of these considerations. The goal of this course is for students to develop a basic understanding of the historical development, theoretical underpinnings, and actual practice of the American financial system.
POLECON C138 Gender & Capitalism
Prof. Leslie Salzinger
Tu,Th 3:30 pm – 4:59 pm
Class #: 19911
4 units
The 21st century has seen powerful critiques of both growing economic inequality and the troubling persistence of domination based on gender, race and other categorical differences. Gender has a distinctive role here for many reasons: the centrality of gender to social reproduction; the historical coproduction of male domination and capitalism; and the way gender operates in the constitution of selves. Insofar as capitalism is organized and distributes power and profits through gendered structures, and gendered meanings and identities are shaped by their emergence within capitalist logics, it behooves us to think gender and capitalism in tandem. Figuring out how to do that, and sorting out the consequences, is our project in this class.
POLECON H195 001 Honors Seminar
Prof. Tiffany Page
Th 11:00 am – 1:59 pm
Class #: 14318
4 units
Honors students are required to research and write a thesis based on the prospectus developed in International and Area Studies 102. The thesis work is reviewed by the honors instructor and a second reader to be selected based on the thesis topic. Weekly progress reports required.
Global Studies Courses
GLOBAL C10A Introduction to Global Studies
Prof. Darren Zook
Tu,Th 5:00 pm – 6:29 pm
Class #: 21063
4 units
This course is designed as an introduction to comparative development. The course will be a general service course, as well as a prerequisite for the upper division 100 series. It is assumed that students enrolled in 10 know little about life in the Third World countries and are unfamiliar with the relevant theory in political economy of development and underdevelopment. The course will be structured around three critical concepts: land, labor, and work.
GLOBAL 10B Issues in Global Studies: Sex, Money, and Power around the World
Prof. Elora Shehabuddin
Tu,Th 12:30 pm – 1:59 pm
Class #: 19620
3 units
Global Studies 10B serves as an introduction to the Global Studies curriculum. Global Studies 10B introduces students to global issues through the lens of the humanities, such as art, literature, film, and culture. The topic of Global Studies 10B will vary from year to year, depending on the instructor. Students in each iteration of this course will learn about salient global interactions from a variety of cultural perspectives.
GLOBAL 45 World History
Prof. Emily Gottreich
Tu,Th 3:30 pm – 4:59 pm
Class #: 20356
4 units
This course focuses on the history of global interaction, with a particular emphasis on the relationships between states and societies. Though it begins with a brief exploration of antiquity, it emphasizes world developments since the 15th century. The purpose of the course is to gain a better understanding of the rise and decline of states, empires, and international trading systems. Taking a panoramic view of the last 500 years, it explores the ways in which disparate places came closer together, even while it seeks to explain how those places maintained their own trajectories in the face of outside intervention.
GLOBAL C100D Global Development: Theory, History, Geography
Prof. Tiffany Page
Class #: 20151
4 units
Historical review of the development of world economic systems and the impact of these developments on less advanced countries. Course objective is to provide a background against which to understand and assess theoretical interpretations of development and underdevelopment.
GLOBAL 100P Approaches to Peace and Conflict
Prof. Karenjot Bhangoo Randhawa
Tu,Th 11:00 am – 12:29 pm
Class #: 20062
4 units
This course will look at peace (and conflict) in a wide variety of formats and contexts, and will examine both the theories that seek to explain peace and the practices that compose it. The course is structured around a series of modules, each dealing with a different facet of peace and/or conflict.
GLOBAL 100S Global Societies and Cultures
Prof. Clare Talwalker
Tu,Th 2:00 pm – 3:29 pm
Class #: 19498
4 units
This course offers an introduction to ways of thinking about, and visualizing, “the global” over time. People from different societies and cultures have been drawn together as a result of processes that can best be conceived of as “flows” of people, capital, ideas and goods. Using a panoramic lens, we will explore a series of interactions, analyzing the wide-ranging effects of those interactions and the artifacts they produced. By studying a variety of encounters, we will cultivate a broader sense of how the “global” has been defined and experienced through the lens of cultural interaction. Globalization itself is not a new phenomenon; it can be traced back centuries if not millennia.
GLOBAL 102 Critical Thinking in Global Studies
Prof. Peter Bartu
Tu 2:00 pm – 4:59 pm
Class #: 20064
4 units
This course, required for students in the Global Studies major, will teach students to identify and evaluate arguments, explain conflicting evidence, interpret tables, charts, and graphs and evaluate the ethical implications of scholarly work. Students will explore how research questions are framed and developed and learn how to determine which method and approach is best suited to answering a particular research question.
GLOBAL 110E Europe/Russia in Global Context
Prof. Richard Ashcroft
Tu,Th 12:30 pm – 1:59 pm
Class #: 19480
3 units
This course seeks to introduce Global Studies majors to the regions of Europe and Russia and its significance to the larger study of the globe. The course will be divided into three parts based on the three concentrations within the Global Studies major: Society and Culture, Development, Peace and Conflict. Each of these sections, examines key topics for understanding the region and its relationship to other parts of the globe.
GLOBAL 110K Africa in Global Context
Prof. Noam Schimmel
W 3:00 pm – 5:59 pm
Class #: 19497
3 units
This course will provide students majoring in Global Studies with an introduction to Africa and its significance to the globe. We will address issues related to Africa that span all three concentrations of the major (Society and Culture, Development, Peace and Conflict). In particular, we will focus on the following four themes:conflict, identity, development and technology.
GLOBAL 110L Latin America in Global Context
Tu,Th 3:30 – 4:59pm
Class #19481
3 units
This course seeks to introduce Global Studies majors to the region of Latin America and the Caribbean and its significance to the larger study of the globe. The course will be divided into three parts based on the three concentrations within the Global Studies major: Society and Culture, Development, Peace and Conflict. Each of these sections examines key topics for understanding the region and its relationship to other parts of the globe.
GLOBAL 110M Middle East in Global Context
Prof. Peter Bartu
M,W 5:00 pm – 6:29 pm
Class #: 19499
3 units
This course provides Global Studies majors with an introduction to the Middle East region, broadly defined. It takes an interdisciplinary approach, joining the fields of history, political science, anthropology, religious studies, economics, and Middle Eastern studies. Students will be introduced to major historical themes in the study of Middle Eastern societies that are relevant in understanding contemporary intellectual debates and the origins, nature, and trajectory of war and peace in the region. Focusing on the 20th century, the course explores how the modern Middle East evolved politically, socially, and economically into a region burdened by webs of power and influence.
GLOBAL 110Q Asia in Global Context
Prof. Lanchih Po
Tu,Th 12:30 pm – 1:59 pm
Class #: 19479
3 units
This course provides students with an introduction to Asia in global context. The course employs a Global History approach, which emphasizes national histories as a part of a series of global processes. It explores how countries in Asia, regardless of their diverse cultures, have been drawn into the development of global capitalism. This course addresses all of the Global Studies major’s concentrations, i.e. Societies and Cultures, Development, Peace and Conflict.
GLOBAL 133 International Conflict
Prof. Karenjot Bhangoo Randhawa
Tu,Th 2:00 pm – 3:29 pm
Class #: 32173
3 units
Inspired by the changed meaning of international conflict and the expanding mission of conflict resolution in the post-cold war era, this course will study the contemporary context and issues of conflict by examining the evolution in thinking about conflict, the resolution, and their application in practice.
GLOBAL 144 Gender, Sexuality, and Islam
Prof. Elora Shehabuddin
W 2:00 pm – 4:59 pm
Class #: 22911
4 units
This course examines the diversity and complexity of Muslim women’s lives and faith around the world. It explores changing constructions of gender and sexuality in the Islamic world over time; the interactions between Muslims and travelers, colonial administrators, the modern state, and local and transnational feminist, secularist, and Islamist movements; and, generally, continuing challenges to the very notion of what a “Muslim” is. The course draws on primary source texts as well as ethnography, literature, film, and media.
GLOBAL 151Q Global China
Prof. Crystal Chang
Tu,Th 12:30 pm – 1:59 pm
Class #: 20535
3 units
Advanced multidisciplinary research in current issues and topics related to China. This Global Studies course will focus on specific issues related to China with appropriate comparative material included. Topics will change depending on the instructor teaching.
GLOBAL 172 UN UNPlugged
Prof. Peter Bartu
Tu,Th 12:00 pm – 1:59 pm
Class #: 20039
4 units
This course places the UN under the spotlight: history, culture and effectiveness and examines the organization’s key institutions in the context of a multipolar world. The course goal is to encourage students to think critically about the international system and the politics of global governance and to learn the necessary tools to research the United Nations and international organizations. The course is suitable for those interested in foreign policy, diplomacy, international relations and law and conflict management and resolution.
GLOBAL 178 Political Discourse in the Twenty-first Century
Prof. Darren Zook
Tu,Th 11:00 am – 12:29 pm
Class #:22943
4 units
This course situates the civil discourse of democracy in the larger context of political discourse in general. It does so at two levels: one that is academic and philosophical, and another that is personal and experiential. The course offers content for both reflection and practice. The course explains why democracy is currently in the crisis it is in, what the central role of civil/political discourse is in the context of democratic governance, and how the revival and expansion of civil/political discourse is essential to the project of restoring trust in democratic institutions. The course is international and comparative, drawing on an array of examples of world political systems, societies, and cultures, including the US.
GLOBAL H195 Honors Seminar
Prof. Tiffany Page
Th 11:00 am – 1:59 pm
Class #:14231
4 units
Honors students are required to research and write a thesis based on the prospectus developed in GLOBAL H102. The thesis work is reviewed by the honors instructor and a second reader to be selected based on the thesis topic. Weekly progress reports required.
GLOBAL 210 Global Studies MA Seminar
Prof. Crystal Chang
M 10:00 am – 11:59 am
Class #:26020
4 units
This reading seminar, required of all MA students in Global Studies, will approach a particular topic in global studies each year. Covering a variety of themes, students will engage with the literature of the field, and begin to study the ways in which particular problems have been approached from a variety of disciplinary perspectives in the social sciences.
Global Poverty and Practice Courses
GPP 105 The Ethics, Methods, and Pragmatics of Global Practice
Prof. Clare Talwalker
M, W 11:00 am – 12:29 pm
Class #: 17765
4 units
This course is limited to declared Global Poverty and Practice minors. It is intended to provide Global Poverty and Practice minor students with the necessary background and knowledge to undertake projects and work experience of a global scope. Students will be exposed to a diversity of methodological frameworks, introduced to the basic skills needed to effectively participate in organizations, and to understand the ethics of global service and practice. Students will be required to complete a literature review and a major project proposal.
GPP 115 Global Poverty: Challenges and Hopes
Prof. Kristopher Kohler
M, W, F 1:00 pm – 1:59 pm
Class # :22124
4 units
This class seeks to provide a rigorous understanding of 20th century development and thus 21st century poverty alleviation. Students will take a look at popular ideas of poverty alleviation, the institutional framework of poverty ideas and practices, and the social and political mobilizations that seek to transform the structures of poverty.
GPP 196 Global Poverty and Practice Capstone Course
Prof. Khalid Kadir
Tu 11:00 am – 12:59 pm
Class #: 14232
3 units
This course is intended to provide students with a forum for reflection on the Practice Experience component of the Global Poverty and Practice minor. Lessons learned in the minor will be applied to the realm of public discourse through various forms of public scholarship. Issues of power and privilege, civic engagement, and tensions between tourism vs. travel and community service vs. engagement will be addressed. Students will also explore academic and professional post-graduation options.
International Area Studies Courses
IAS 157AC Engineering, Environment, and Society
Prof. Khalid Kadir
Tu,Th 2:00 pm – 3:29 pm
Class #:17818
4 units
This course engages students at the intersection of environmental justice, social justice, and engineering to explore how problems that are commonly defined in technical terms are at their roots deeply socially embedded. Through partnerships with community-based organizations, students are trained to recognize the socio-political nature of technical problems so that they may approach solutions in ways that prioritize social justice. Topics covered include environmental engineering as it relates to air, water, and soil contamination; race, class, and privilege; expertise; ethics; and engaged citizenship. This course cannot be used to complete any engineering technical unit requirements.