Courses
Courses from many departments are available to International Studies students. Because some of these courses have prerequisites and not all courses are offered every year, students are advised to carefully plan their program of study in consultation with their faculty advisor, our Peer Advisors, and/or our Director of Undergraduate Studies.
Click the buttons to see a list of pre-approved IS courses offered in the coming semester, or a complete list of nearly 500 pre-approved courses. (The latter does not indicate whether they are taught in a given semester, but is very helpful to look ahead for electives in your concentration theme.)
Course Audits are reports from the 糖心vlog直播平台 registration system (accessible through the Agora Portal) that chart a student's cumulative progress toward fulfilling graduation requirements. The IS Program's Advising Handbook describes how to read a Course Audit. If a class you've taken (e.g. an elective for an IS major concentration) doesn't appear in the proper part of your Course Audit, fill out a Course Substitution Form to say where it should be placed.听This and other important forms can be found at the Academic Forms & Diploma Information page at the Office of Student Services.
IS majors and minors should fill out their course plans when they enter the program, and update them each semester. We encourage you to discuss your course plan with your faculty advisor each semester.
IS Core for Majors
Consult the 鈥淚S Core鈥 tab of the 鈥淧re-Approved IS Courses鈥 spreadsheet for the most up-to-date information on IS core courses for majors.
Notes
- All sophomore majors must enroll in both 鈥淲here on Earth鈥 courses (INTL 2200 and INTL 2204 lecture+discussion) in the Fall semester, and 鈥淚ntroduction to International Relations鈥 (INTL 2501 lecture+discussion) in the Spring semester.
- Majors may take Principles of Economics and approved Comparative Politics and upper-level Economics courses in any semeser
- Majors should take 鈥淓thics, Religion, and International Politics鈥 after returning from studying abroad, if they go abroad.
Foundation Courses for Minors
Consult the Courses spreadsheet for the most up-to-date information on courses that are pre-approved as Foundation 3 or 4 courses for the IS Minor.
Conflict and Cooperation Concentration
Consult the Courses spreadsheet for the most up-to-date information on courses that are pre-approved for the C&C concentration in the IS major and minor. Students may petition the Director of Undergraduate Studies to consider courses that are not on this list toward their elective concentration.
Global Cultures Concentration
Consult the Courses spreadsheet for the most up-to-date information on courses that are听pre-approved for the GC concentration in the IS major and minor.
Notes
- Majors and minors who concentrate in Global Cultures should take only those electives that are pre-approved for their cluster ("Cultures at Work" or "Cultures and Social Movements").听
- Students can seek approval to count other courses鈥攊ncluding courses from the other cluster鈥攁s electives by sending a course abstract and/or syllabus to the Director of Undergraduate Studies (Prof. Nakazato) before the first week of that class (and ideally during registration period).听 听
Political Economy and Development Studies Concentration
Consult the Courses spreadsheet for the most up-to-date information on courses that are听pre-approved for the PEDS concentration in the IS major and minor.听
Notes
- Majors and minors who concentrate in Political Economy and Development Studies can take electives approved for EITHER the PE or DS cluster and count them for their own cluster.听
- Students can seek approval to count other courses as electives by sending a course abstract and/or syllabus to the Director of Undergraduate Studies (Prof. Nakazato) before the first week of that class (and ideally during registration period).
Senior Seminars and Thesis
2024鈥25 Academic Year
Senior Thesis
Senior Thesis writers enroll in INTL4951 (Prof. Hiroshi Nakazato). Your first semester of INTL4952 will count as an elective in your concentration; the second semester will fulfill your senior project requirement.
Senior Seminars (Fall 2024)
- Prof. Brian Gareau
- INTL 4941.01
- Mondays 3:00 - 5:25pm (Stokes 111S)听
听
In this seminar, students will explore the intersection of environmental sustainability and social justice through the lens of speculative science fiction. Drawing on contemporary literature and critical international studies perspectives, students will engage with narratives that envision diverse futures shaped by the ongoing climate crisis. By analyzing texts such as Kim Stanley Robinson's "Ministry of the Future" and NK Jemisin's "Broken Earth" trilogy, students will critically examine how authors portray the complexities of environmental challenges and the possibilities for equitable solutions on a global scale.
- Prof. Elizabeth Prodromou听
- INTL3615
- Wednesdays 3:00 - 5:25 p.m. (Stokes Hall 111S)
听
Orthodox Christianity has emerged as a subject of worldwide interest largely within the current context of Russia鈥檚 war in Ukraine, yet Orthodoxy's 2000-year history and global scope extend far beyond the present historical conjuncture. This seminar uses social science and historical approaches, insights from policy experts and faith leaders, to provide a broad introduction to Orthodox Christianity in global context. The seminar explores internal and external factors -- geopolitical, institutional, and religious -- that help to explain scholarly neglect and policymaking unfamiliarity with an ancient faith tradition and that elucidate Orthodoxy鈥檚 responses to issues of pluralism, human rights, war, and peace.
Senior Seminars (Spring 2025)
- Prof. Joseph Getzoff
- INTL4941.01
- Thursdays 3:00 - 5:20pm
听
Development, since World War II, reigns as the mandate for addressing inequality in the Global South. Development鈥檚 promise has been to equalize the uneven relations between the former colonized and colonizers. And yet, many post-colonial states face continued poverty, exploitation, and environmental degradation, what some call neo-colonial relations. Students will engage with interdisciplinary scholarship that spans many engagements with development, including Third Worldist critiques, postcolonial theory, environmental issues, the politics of expertise, social justice, biopolitics, and case studies of developmental efforts in the present. Our goal, as a class, will be to reimagine development for the challenges facing not only the Global South, but for the North as well.
- Prof. Elizabeth Prodromou
- INTL4941.02
- Mondays 1:30-3:50pm
听
What is geopolitics? This seminar explores geopolitics as a way of making sense of territorial (classicalgeopolitics) and identity (critical geopolitics) geographies and their implications for politics, in order tounderstand international relations as a geopolitical contest for hegemony waged by state and non-stateactors. The seminar analyzes the significance of religion for defining geographies, for competitivestruggles, and for affecting security. Introducing country, regional, and transregional case studiesprimarily drawn from Eurasia, the seminar uses cross-disciplinary literatures and presentations by guestexperts with diverse professional expertise at the intersections of religion and security in historical andcurrent geopolitics.
- Prof. Jonathan Kirshner
- INTL 4941
- Tuesdays 3:00-5:25 p.m.
听
John Maynard Keynes was the most influential economist of the twentieth century鈥攁nd the most misunderstood, with his vast, nuanced writings on innumerable topics commonly reduced to the mechanistic (and often controversial) practice of 鈥減ostwar Keynesianism.鈥 But Keynes was so much more than that, and he was immersed 鈥 as a scholar, government official, and public intellectual 鈥 in the great issues of his time. These included the fragility of the international economic order, the contentious politics of central banking, the causes of catastrophic global financial crises, the challenge of secular stagnation, the implications of economic inequality, and role of international institutions in the global economy鈥攅ach of which has remarkable parallels to the great issues of today. In this seminar, we will read Keynes鈥 own writings and consider how they engaged the daunting problems of his time, and how they can be applied to the pressing political-economic challenges of ours.
New & Featured Courses
Summer Abroad
Contentious History and the Politics of Contemporary Korea: Decolonization, Division, Development, and Democratization听(INTL/HIST 2856)
Prof. Ingu Hwang
June xx-July xx, 2024, based at Sogang University, Seoul, South Korea
Approved for听CC, GC-SM,听PEDS-PE/DS electives; also History elective听
This introductory immersion course surveys the contentious intersection between history and politics in contemporary Korea on the topics of decolonization, division, development, and democratization. In addition to the class discussion, students will be guided to actively participate in the historical and cultural immersion/excursion programs, including the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History, the DMZ tour, and the Kim Dae-jung Presidential Library and Museum.听
Food, Power and Politics听(INTL 2251)
Prof. Hiroshi Nakazato
late May - late June, 2024, based at University of Parma, Italy
Approved for听CC, GC-SM,听PEDS-PE/DS electives听
Description TBA
History of the Italian Mediterranean: Una Faccia, Una Razza听(INTL 2251)
Prof.听 Elizabeth Shlala
Located in Venice, Italy
NB: Electives are abbreviated as follows: CC = Conflict & Cooperation; ESJ = Ethics & Social Justice; GC-CW = Global Cultures/Cultuers at Work; GC-SM = Global Cultures/Social Movements; PEDS-DS = Political Economy & Development Studies/Development Studies focus;听PEDS-PE = Political Economy & Development Studies/Political Economy focus.
- Art and Patronage in Renaissance and Baroque Rome and Beyond
Location: Rome, Italy
Professor: Guendalina Serafinelli
Approved for: GC-CW
- Borders and Refugees: The Ethics of Migration
Location: Athens, Greece
Professor:听Micah Lott听(Philosophy)
Approved for: CC, ESJ
- Contentious History and the Politics of Contemporary Korea: Decolonization, Division, Development, and Democratization
Location: Seoul, South Korea
Professor:听Ingu Hwang
Approved for: CC, GC-SM, PEDS-PE, PEDS-DS
- The European Union: The Economic Shaping of Europe听(ECON 2110)
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Professor: Rui听Albuquerque
Approved for: 2000-level Econ requirement; PEDS-PE/DS concentration elective听听
- Global Health Perspectives
Location: Quito, Ecuador
Professor:听Rosemary Byrne, M.S.N
Approved for: 听ESJ, PEDS-PE
- History of the Italian Mediterranean: Una Faccia, Una Razza
Location: Venice, Italy
Professor:听Elizabeth Shlala
Approved for: GC-CW
- Imagination and Creativity in the Irish Landscape
Location: Ballyvaughn, Ireland
Professor:听Candice Ivy
Approved for: GC-CW
- Modernism in Paris
Location: Paris, France
Professor:听Thomas Epstein
Approved for: GC-CW
- Principles of Public Health: In the Happiest Place/ Public Health in a Global Society
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Professors:听Joyce Edmonds,听Summer Hawkins
Approved for: ESJ, PEDS-DS
- Provence: Art, Culture, Cinema, Diversity
Location: Aix-en-Provence, France
Professor:听Andr茅a Javel
Approved for: GC-CW
- Saints and Sinners
Location: Rome, Italy
Professor:听Liam Bergin
Approved for: GC-CW
- Restorative Justice and Prison Reform in Global Contexts: Australia
Location:听Sydney, Australia
Prof. Julia DeVoy听 //听July 16听- August 13, 2022
Approved for: ESJ
听听
- Spanish Art History: from Al-Andalus to Picasso
Location: Madrid, Spain
Professor:听Ana Pel谩ez
Approved for: GC-CW
- An Innovative Economy: Smart Cities and the Start-Up Culture in Tel Aviv, Israel
Location: Tel Aviv, Italy
Professor:听Edward Chazen
Approved for: GC-CW, PEDS-DS
- The Business, History & Politics of Sport
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Professor:听Michael Cronin
Approved for: GC-CW
- The Ethics of Capitalism: Flourishing in a Commercial Society
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Professor:听Jeremy Evans
Approved for: ESJ, PEDS-PE, PEDS-DS
- The Imaginary City: Why Writers Love Venice
Location:听Kevin Newmark
Professor: Venice, Italy
Approved for: 听GC-CW
- Which is Better? An Economic Comparison of Health and Health Care in France, the UK and the US
Locations: London, UK + Paris, France
Professor: Tracy Regan
Approved for: 听ESJ, PEDS-PE, PEDS-DS