Committee on Global Issues
Prerequisites: Junior standing.
Global studies courses explore the fundamental diversity and interconnectedness of the world.
Faculty developing a global studies course should submit a syllabus
that demonstrates how the course will address the following guidelines:
a) There is a substantial dimension of cultural and social
structural comparison in the course.
b) Students will gain substantive understanding of how the diversity of the world affects their everyday lives.
c) There should be a significant component to the course that reaches beyond the United States.
d) Students are exposed to primary sources (texts, music, artifacts) from multiple cultures.
e) There is a significant research component which pushes students to explore culturally diverse points of view
Each discipline is expected to approach this course with its own perspective on the unit of analysis: individual, group, culture, world or specific issue. For this reason, wide variation among offerings is to be expected.
Suggested elements of a Global Studies course:
Knowledge Goals
1. The subject matter of the course should extend the exploration of the fundamental diversity questions to living in our global contemporary world.
2. The Course should be interdisciplinary, comparative, and theoretical.
Skills Goals
The course should intentionally further students' abilities in:
1. Writing and research, appropriate to a junior-level course.
2. Critical thinking, especially in developing perspectives beyond the ethnocentric paradigm of the dominant culture and developing strong advocacy skills in defense of diverse positions using well-developed and well-supported argument.
3. Moral and ethical reasoning, with an emphasis on greater complexity and sophistication, appropriate to the content and goals of the course.
4. Working collaboratively, taking initiative and demonstrating leadership, and understanding the motivations, intentions, reasoning, perspectives, and emotions of themselves and others.
Values Goals
The course should intentionally instill greater sensitivity to diversity in the global society. both conflictual and cooperative.
Core Questions
All three core questions should be addressed, with specific emphasis upon one varying according to the nature and topic of the course.
Core Means
The course should:
1. incorporate the use of primary texts
2. include a significant library and research component consistent with a 300-level course
3. include pedagogies that emphasize active engagement with the
course content on the part of the student.