Detailed Course Schedule

Block 1: Who am I? Who are we together?

Week 1: Class Welcome
Guiding Question: What are our expectations for each other?
o Introduce ourselves to one another and review the syllabus together.
o Go over reflection as a practice and seminar assignments.
Week 2: Perspective, Context, and the Media
Guiding Question: How is what we know shaped by where we live?
o Watch Alisa Miller: The news about the news Ted Talk
o Watch a reading of the poem How to Write About Africa by Binyavanga
Wainaina.
o Discuss why it is important to study international topics from a variety of
perspectives.
o Assignments: Find one non-US media story about a current event that has
been in our national news and upload a link to the story with a short (2
sentences) summary of it to Carmen for next week.
Week 3: Social Identities in an International Context
Guiding Question: What are social identities and why are they important to studying
international issues?
o Listen to presentation on social identities.
o Reflect on how social identities have impacted our lives so far and what they
have to do with studying and working in international affairs.
o Assignments: Read the story What Language is That? from Say Youre
One of Them by Uwem Akpan.
Week 4: The Danger of a Single Story
Guiding Question: How are we all victims and promoters of stereotypes?
o Watch Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story Ted Talk
o Discuss how stereotypes are harmful to both those who are the target and those
who believe them.
o Relate the content of the video to the reading.
o Reflect on what stereotypes we all brought into college and how they relate to
social identities.
o Assignments: Read pages 9-17 of We the Peoples: The Role of the United
Nations in the 21st Century by Kofi Annan.
Block 2: What is the field of international affairs? What is the phenomenon of
globalization?
Week 5: Internationalization or Globalization?
Guiding Question: How extensive is internationalization?
o Participate in What does this have to do with international affairs? activity.
o Discuss the ways that the reading suggests internationalization may be different
from globalization.
o Assignments: Read Its a Flat World, After All by Thomas Friedman.

Week 6: Globalization in Our Personal Lives

Guiding Question: What are the different ways that globalization has impacted peoples
personal lives?
o Watch several clips that introduce the stories of Third Culture Kids (TCKs) and
international students.
o Listen to and speak to guest speakers who have their own experiences living in
foreign countries.
o Assignments: Read pages 27 to 37 of Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas
Friedman for next week.
Week 7: Some Problems with Globalization
Guiding Question: What are some of the challenges facing our globalizing communities?
o Watch a clip discussing the UN Millennium goals.
o Discuss the connections between the problems outlined in the clip and the
reading.
o Assignments: Reflection 3 Assigned
o UN Millennium Goal Project: UN Millennium Goal Profile Due
Block 3: The UN Millennium Goals: Attempting Change
Week 8: Medicine as a Global Topic
Guiding Question: What are some of the health challenges facing our globalizing
communities?
o Watch clips describing UN Millennium Goals 4, 5, and 6.
o Discuss how knowledge of international affairs can be a benefit to those in the
medical professions.
o Assignments: Reflection 3 Due
o Assignments: Read pages 59 74 of No God but God by Reza Aslan for
next week.
Week 9: Gender and Universal Primary Education
Guiding Question: What unique challenges do women and young children face?
o Watch a clip discussing feminist activism in a global context and discuss drawing
on the assigned reading.
o Assignments: Read Chapter Five of Affluenza by Graaf, Wann, and Naylor
for next week.
Week 10: Economic and Environmental Inequality
Guiding Question: How is economic inequality connected to issues of health and the
environment?
o Participate in the Win as much as you can! activity.
o Debrief activity using the reading.
o UN Millennium Goals Project: Presentations Begin Next Week!
Weeks 11 - 14: UN Millennium Goals Presentations
Week 15: Course Wrap Up and Second Semester Expectations
(Tues. 12/9 Make up from Thanksgiving week, Wed. and Thurs. No Class)
Guiding Question: What comes next in the IA Scholars Program?