Readings in representative authors, themes and periods from France and from other Francophone countries.
Intensive grammar review and vocabulary expansion–specifically, the acquisition of pivotal expressions that aid in modulating the flow of the French sentence; the overall goal is to improve students' compositional skills for the various writing assignments required while studying in Nantes. Literary and cultural readings are also discussed and analyzed in the second part of the course, with excursions to areas within Nantes and the Brittany region that have a significant connection to the authors' lives. This course is part of the Sewanee Semester in France program.
This course investigates identity and belonging in German-speaking countries. Students examine, research and evaluate narrative texts to understand how they are influenced by and in turn shape negotiations of nationality, identity, gender, class, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Through this analysis, the course questions how memory, migration, colonialism, and cultural diversity form and inform national identity.
A general survey of the political, constitutional, economic, and social history of Britain and Ireland from pre-history to the Revolution of 1688.
A survey of urban life in the early modern world between 1400 and 1750. This course examines the dynamic contours of early modern cities in a variety of cultural contexts, considering how the period's emerging networks of exchange, as well as colonial ambitions, generated new links between decidedly urban spaces across the globe. How did residents experience and use the space of the city to regulate relationships among members of disparate social and cultural groups? Students also assess the status of early modern cities as key sites for the transfer and production of knowledge. The course ends with an introduction to cosmopolitanism in the eighteenth century.
This class surveys the political, social, and cultural foundations of East Asian civilization from earliest times to around 1600. From the rise of states and empires to the Ways of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, we will explore the flowering of Chinese cultural norms across Asia as well as consider the unique expressions of these norms throughout China, Korea, and Japan.
This class surveys the political, social, and cultural foundations of East Asian civilization from earliest times to around 1600. From the rise of states and empires to the Ways of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, we will explore the flowering of Chinese cultural norms across Asia as well as consider the unique expressions of these norms throughout China, Korea, and Japan.
This course rethinks the traditional, historical, and popular presentations of Africa as a coherent, bounded region. It employs a methodology of global interaction to unfold a regional approach to the continent's history, while providing the key analytical tools employed by African historians. It also examines the rise, problematic implications, and continued relevance of the concept of "Africa," "Africans," and "African history." In addition to becoming experts in the nested histories of one particular African locale, students will interrogate the broad wealth of African history and historiography.
A survey of the history of Japan from earliest times to the present. Topics include early Chinese influence, Buddhism, the rise of feudalism, unification in the 15th Century, the era of isolation, the intrusion of the west, the Meiji Restoration, the rise of Japan as a military power and World War II, and postwar recovery.
This seminar deals with the historical interaction of Latin America with the United States from 1898 to the present. Specific topics to be examined include U.S. views of Latin America, imperialism, economic nationalism, the Cuban Revolution, guerrilla warfare, the Chilean and Nicaraguan cases, and the drug problem. The course will discuss the goals, perceptions, and actions of the United States and various Latin American governments during this period.
An examination of the history of the practices of human slavery in the Atlantic World. Topics include the conduct of the transatlantic trade, the Middle Passage experience, plantation systems in North America, the West Indies, and Brazil, the role of Atlantic slavery in the transition to industrialism, slave resistance and revolt, and the abolitionist movements.
An examination of the historical origins and development of the discourses of sustainability, sustainable development, and the green economy, which have been ubiquitous, influential, and critically and historiographically under-examined in contemporary U.S. and global society. The course draws on contemporary global environmental historiography, while analyzing key primary sources such as Malthus' An Essay on the Principles of Population, Marsh's Man and Nature, Ehrlich's Population Bomb, Club of Rome's Limits to Growth, the United Nations' Brundtland Commission's "Our Common Future," the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, and the University of the South's Sustainability Master Plan.
This course examines the first circumnavigation of the globe during the 16th century and considers how the two maritime empires of the time, Spain and Portugal, spawned not only the opening of new routes of commerce and the development of cartography but also the very idea of globalization.
A course concerned with analyzing how international and global integration shape local development. After reflecting on this integration during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and its impact on nation-state formation and economic development, students analyze the construction of the post-World War II international system around the Bretton-Woods institutions. Attention is also given to how international norms pertaining to human rights and democracy apply to diverse countries during the current period of globalization, and to how transnational linkages shape economic and cultural transformations. The course concludes with discussion of living abroadincluding topics such as language acquisition and personal transformation. Required core course for IGS majors.
This course focuses on how African urban youth have confronted the challenges of life and the forces of globalization, through examination of local and global socio-political, cultural and linguistic patterns in major African cities. It interrogates the social practices that characterize African urban youth culture, questioning how these practices and youth identities contrast with those socially-ascribed within local cultural frameworks. The course draws reading material from contemporary literature on youth culture, globalization, and social change in Africa. It also uses African films to showcase the opportunities and challenges brought about by the globalization of youth culture in Africa.
This course examines how different cultures construct narratives about global catastrophe and climate change. It deconstructs common concepts related to natural and anthropogenic disaster to understand how conceptual affordances and constraints affect mitigation efforts, shape preparation, and guide response to disaster across global contexts. This course emphasizes a comparative approach including perspectives on both past and present societies. It interrogates how contemporary society incorporates tropes of archaeological “collapse” into catastrophic imaginaries. This course aims to foster a more critical, nuanced understanding of the courses of action available to global society in the face of a changing climate.
This course examines how different cultures construct narratives about global catastrophe and climate change. It deconstructs common concepts related to natural and anthropogenic disaster to understand how conceptual affordances and constraints affect mitigation efforts, shape preparation, and guide response to disaster across global contexts. This course emphasizes a comparative approach including perspectives on both past and present societies. It interrogates how contemporary society incorporates tropes of archaeological “collapse” into catastrophic imaginaries. This course aims to foster a more critical, nuanced understanding of the courses of action available to global society in the face of a changing climate.
This course examines how different cultures construct narratives about global catastrophe and climate change. It deconstructs common concepts related to natural and anthropogenic disaster to understand how conceptual affordances and constraints affect mitigation efforts, shape preparation, and guide response to disaster across global contexts. This course emphasizes a comparative approach including perspectives on both past and present societies. It interrogates how contemporary society incorporates tropes of archaeological “collapse” into catastrophic imaginaries. This course aims to foster a more critical, nuanced understanding of the courses of action available to global society in the face of a changing climate.
Globalization and the Challenges of Development in Ghana explores the multifaceted ways in which globalization manifests itself around the world and examines globalization's complex impacts on Ghanaian citizens and on society as a whole.
An interdisciplinary seminar required of all seniors in international and global studies. Shared readings on key topics and concepts in globalization are discussed in relation to students' geographic concentration and abroad experiences. Additionally, each student produces and presents a major research paper related to the student's course work as well as abroad experience and language study. This seminar is normally offered in the fall, in part to reintegrate majors who were abroad in the spring or summer as well as to draw best on the abroad experience while still fresh. This course also serves as the writing intensive credit within the major.