Courses

Students are required to spend an extended period of time off-campus at a program that contributes to their concentration in INTL. Even though the majority of INTL majors spend one semester studying abroad in the programs approved by Denison’s Center for Global Programs (CGP), the off-campus study experience requirement can be fulfilled in various ways. Those who are interested in issues in the United States that are globally relevant may fulfill the requirement by participating in a domestic off-campus program. Those who are unable to study off-campus during a semester, for a host of reasons, must consult with the Director to determine alternate options to complete the requirement: by participating in an OCS summer or winter program, in a summer or winter internship, or in an independent research project during the summer or a semester, advised by an INTL faculty member. Students can transfer up to three courses from the off-campus study to INTL major’s four-research-focus course requirement.

Introduction to themes, concepts and approaches to International Studies from an interdisciplinary perspective. The course explores key concepts of modernity in the context of specific cultural, political, and economic experiences within a historical framework. This course must be taken before the end of the sophomore year.

The main goals of this course are to introduce sophomore students, who have completed INTL100, to some of the key themes and theories within the purview of International Studies to help them shape their individual thematic/regional focus. The course also provides opportunities for students to examine various world problems through an interdisciplinary lens, drawing on both political-economic and sociocultural analytical frameworks in various disciplines. Finally, students learn the basics of academic research and writing processes, i.e., formulating a well-defined topic, posing a relevant research question, finding and interrogating appropriate sources, justifying the research’s intellectual contribution to a broader scholarly audience and, when applicable, to the efforts to solve real-world problems, through writing and revising a carefully crafted prose. Among numerous debates and issues that International Studies scholars grapple with, the course focuses on four broadly conceived themes: economic development, nationalism and national identity, transnational migration, and mediated and material culture. After learning major scholarly approaches to theorize each of these themes, students each develop an individual research project and write a scholarly paper, complete with abstract, introduction, literature review, case study, and conclusion. At the end of the course, students are expected to be able to formulate, broaden, and contextualize their thematic and regional focus within the interdisciplinary scheme of International Studies, and be equipped with skills to conduct academic research.

Prerequisite(s): INTL 100.

This course aims to help students develop basic research competencies they can use in future classes while providing them with practical research skills they can use during their off-campus (OCS) program. The course draws from a diverse range of research projects and scholarship that helps students develop a greater understanding of, and appreciation for, the value of global research. Students learn the value of a global, transdisciplinary framework that transcends disciplinary borders, resists methodological nationalism, and draws on diverse methods and methodologies that help students to decenter Western-centric forms of knowledge production while being attentive to the importance of local-global flows and ways of thinking. Students learn to use mixed-methods (qualitative and quantitative) research, including archival research, compiling and using data sets, online surveys, interviews, ethnography, textual and discourse analysis, data visualization, as well as the basics of statistical analysis (both techniques and common software). The course also helps students develop their intellectual focus for the International Studies (INTL) major, both thematically and geographically.

A mid-level topics course that allows students to build upon concepts and theories introduced in INTL-100 and 200. It explores, in specific and contextualized terms, particular issues associated with global linkages in contemporary and historical contexts. The course takes into account cultural, economic and political factors. The specific topic or theme varies according to the interest of the faculty member teaching the course. Students may take more than one section of this course.

A study of the general features of the economic development experience of the Middle East and North Africa. We will study the structural transformation of these economies and the dynamics of their colonial and post-colonial structures. This course examines the different stages of economic development starting with the early post-colonial period, followed by the period of import substitution industrialization of the 1960s, export-led growth of the 1970s, the debt crisis of the 1980s, the structural adjustment programs of the 1990s, and the Arab uprisings of 2011. We will examine the political economy of the region as it relates to unemployment, poverty, inequality, migration, food insecurity, water stress, climate change, class conflict, gender dynamics, cultural norms, as well as regional and global geopolitical power struggles over the control of key markets such as oil and natural gas.

Prerequisite(s): ECON 301.

Crosslisting: ECON 415 and MENA 415.

The rapid integration of global markets that has taken place since the 1980s is the outcome of a common set of economic policies implemented in both developed and developing countries. This course examines the contradictory impacts of these policies on gender relations and asks: what challenges do global economic trends pose for gender equality and equity in both developed and developing countries? To answer this question, we begin with an introduction to alternative approaches to economics, focusing on the differences between neoclassical and feminist economics, and history and economic dimension of globalization. This will be followed by an exploration of the impacts of economic development policy on gender relations in the context of a globalizing world economy. Special topics will include the household as a unit of analysis; women’s unpaid labor; the gendered impacts of economic restructuring and financial crisis; the feminization of the labor force in the formal and informal sectors of the global economy; care penalty and the gendered impacts of COVID-19. The course will conclude with an evaluation of tools and strategies for achieving gender equity within the context of a sustainable, human-centered approach to economic development. This course satisfies the economics writing requirement, and the college W GE requirement, and as such the course will help to develop your writing and research skills within the economics discipline.

Prerequisite(s): ECON 101 and ECON 102.

Crosslisting: WGST 205 and ECON 205.

How do women negotiate the challenge of re-composing lives and cultural identities under conditions of geographical dislocation and cultural estrangement? Such self-fashioning requires a strong sense of voice. Yet, both migration and patriarchy challenge the self’s cultural expression: pressures to assimilate rush the stranger into silence, while patriarchal ideologies challenge women’s cultural relevance and claim to a public voice. In this course, we read work by women who have become recognized public voices: Hannah Arendt, Masha Gessen, Nora Krug, bell hooks, and Robin Wall Kimmerer, among others. We explore how their life writing (personal essays, memoirs, and graphic memoirs) becomes a rhetorical tool to evoke the experiences of the displaced, render them intelligible, and theorize transnational and anti-colonial feminist identities. By attending to women’s life writing as resistive and creative engagement, we consider displacement as not only a wound. Rather, we study it as the engine for rhetorical projects of transnational and cross-cultural belonging that articulate more awake, imaginative, spiritual, and connected living-thinking-being.

Prerequisite(s): COMM 280 and COMM 290, or INTL 100 or WGST 101 or consent.

Crosslisting: COMM 340 and WGST 341.

Readings in literature and criticism from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, in response to the experience of colonialism.

Crosslisting: ENGL 357 and BLST 357.

An introduction to Japanese architecture, sculpture, painting and the decorative arts from prehistoric times to the 20th century, with an emphasis on the works in their cultural and religious context.

Crosslisting: AHVC 231 and EAST 231.

One of the oldest surviving religions on the planet, what we call "Hinduism" is actually a complex of loosely related religious traditions that have been woven together by a shared geography and by historical circumstance. By reading primary texts--from the ancient Vedas and Puranas to the work of medieval poets and contemporary film makers--students will be invited into an encounter with the religious traditions and the world views that sprouted up in South Asia so long ago, and that continue to evolve even today.

Crosslisting: REL 215.

This course analyzes the emergence, expansion and enforcement of international human rights norms. Students taking the course will acquire an enhanced understanding of the United Nations, national governments, nongovernmental organizations, customary international law, treaty law, regional courts, and international tribunals in articulating and enforcing human rights. Students will acquire a broad understanding of human rights as a topic of both intellectual inquiry and political action.

Prerequisite(s): No FYS, sophomores by consent of instructor.

Crosslisting: PPA 345.

Using waste as a focusing lens, this course examines the theory and application of environmental justice and environmental inequality within a global context. The objective of this course is to understand, explore, and analyze the inequities and power dynamics associated with many types of socio-environmental issues, thus illustrating environmental (in)justice at multiple scales. Using several case studies (e.g., electronic waste, renewable energy, and climate change, among others), we explore three core questions: 1) How are justice issues experienced locally by different social groups? 2) How do socio-environmental issues relate to broader structural injustices? And 3) How can we reimagine solutions for environmental justice? By thinking critically about these questions, we challenge our thinking on a variety of topics, including consumption, circular economy, the meaning of waste, and why it matters today and in the future. Importantly, students in this course engage significantly with the oral communication of environmental justice issues to different audiences within the broader community.

Crosslisting: SES 276.

This is a course exploring Germany as an “imagined community” (per Benedict Anderson) and how it has been (re)made across the 20th and 21st centuries. The course centers both mainstream narratives and marginalized voices—what Fatima El‑Tayeb calls “Ungermans”—to examine how excluded groups have reshaped German identity. Through readings, films, and discussion, we address questions such as: how German Jews are alternately erased from and reinserted into national history; the presence and contested repatriation of Namibian skulls at Berlin’s Charité; the social and economic effects of Germany’s postwar division and reunification; and the politics behind recent refugee policy and the rise of calls for “remigration.”.

Crosslisting: GERM 307.

Imagine the world in five years. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a part of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda to create a healthier, more peaceful, and prosperous planet for all. The international community created the SDGs as both a guide for future development as well as an urgent call to action to address today’s most pressing global challenges. All SDGs are inherently interrelated and difficult to unravel, for example, SDG13 Climate Action includes creating both: SDG11 Sustainable Cities and Communities and SDG7 Affordable and Clean Energy. Moreover, many argue climate change is the result of severe global inequality and unsustainable consumption and production, addressed by SDG10 and SDG12 respectively. Nonetheless, the SDG framework breaks these global challenges down in a way that productively channels resources and focuses attention on more targeted solutions. This course will examine the creation, history, and evolution of the SDGs as well as the myriad solutions being implemented at the state level, and across civil society and the private sector to address the SDGs. Students in this course will explore an SDG of interest in-depth through a series of oral presentations & projects focusing on existing solutions to these pressing global challenges. Students will therefore gain both depth and breadth of knowledge about the SDGs and 21st century integrated sustainability value creation.

Crosslisting: SES 217.

A student in good standing may work intensively in areas of special interest under the Directed Study plan. A Directed Study is appropriate when, under the guidance of a faculty member, a student wants to explore a subject more fully than is possible in a regular course or to study a subject not covered in the regular curriculum. A Directed Study should not normally duplicate a course that is regularly offered. Directed Studies are normally taken for 3 or 4 credits. A one-semester Directed Study is limited to a maximum of 4 credit hours. Note: Directed Studies may not be used to fulfill General Education requirements.

A student in good standing may work intensively in areas of special interest under the Directed Study plan. A Directed Study is appropriate when, under the guidance of a faculty member, a student wants to explore a subject more fully than is possible in a regular course or to study a subject not covered in the regular curriculum. A Directed Study should not normally duplicate a course that is regularly offered. Directed Studies are normally taken for 3 or 4 credits. A one-semester Directed Study is limited to a maximum of 4 credit hours. Note: Directed Studies may not be used to fulfill General Education requirements.

Independent Study engages a student in the pursuit of clearly defined goals. In this effort, a student may employ skills and information developed in previous course experiences or may develop some mastery of new knowledge or skills. A proposal for an Independent Study project must be approved in advance by the faculty member who agrees to serve as the project advisor. Note: Independent Studies may not be used to fulfill General Education requirements.

Independent Study engages a student in the pursuit of clearly defined goals. In this effort, a student may employ skills and information developed in previous course experiences or may develop some mastery of new knowledge or skills. A proposal for an Independent Study project must be approved in advance by the faculty member who agrees to serve as the project advisor. Note: Independent Studies may not be used to fulfill General Education requirements.

This seminar integrates the three core courses, the four elective courses related to the student's thematic/regional focus, the off-campus experience and the language training, into a culminating research project. It focuses on theoretical tools, frameworks and methodologies in International Studies. This seminar emphasizes the development of independent research skills and scholarly writing in connection with a research project based on individual students' interests.

Students may enroll in Senior Research in their final year at Denison. Normally, Senior Research requires a major thesis, report, or project in the student's field of concentration and carries eight semester-hours of credit for the year. Typically, a final grade for a year-long Senior Research will not be assigned until the completion of the year-long Senior Research at the end of the second semester. In which case, the first semester Senior Research grade will remain "in progress" (PR) until the completion of the second semester Senior Research. Each semester of Senior Research is limited to a maximum of 4 credit hours. Note: Senior Research may not be used to fulfill General Education requirements.

Students may enroll in Senior Research in their final year at Denison. Normally, Senior Research requires a major thesis, report, or project in the student's field of concentration and carries eight semester-hours of credit for the year. Typically, a final grade for a year-long Senior Research will not be assigned until the completion of the year-long Senior Research at the end of the second semester. In which case, the first semester Senior Research grade will remain "in progress" (PR) until the completion of the second semester Senior Research. Each semester of Senior Research is limited to a maximum of 4 credit hours. Note: Senior Research may not be used to fulfill General Education requirements.