The course uses several disciplinary approaches to introduce students to critical transnational studies. Course content examines capitalism and neo-liberal globalization and their relationships to culture, politics, economics, and other social forms and outcomes; considers the workings of transnationalism “from below”; explains and challenges linear and Western-centric thinking about progress and modernity; focuses a historical lens on a range of political discourses, institutions, and projects (nationalist, statist, colonialist, imperialist, anti-colonialist, fundamentalist, and so on) in order to understand them contextually; demonstrates how cultures and identities are dynamically constituted in interaction with historical, material, political, and situational factors; and considers how different kinds of inequality and contestation inflect most social formations and dynamics.
In addition to the lead professor, the course includes four to five visitors from different disciplinary and interdisciplinary homes who teach modules on their areas of expertise. Assignments are designed to improve reading, writing, research, analysis, and information-literacy skills.
The course fulfills the CCI mode of inquiry and CZ, SS areas of knowledge.
Whether or not they major in ICS, students are expected to complete the course in the fall or spring term of their first or second year of study. Students who plan to be ICS majors are expected to complete the course before a study-away semester.
ICS 489S: Capstone Seminar In ICS
This interdisciplinary seminar uses scholarship, literature and film to revisit some of the key critical transnationalism concepts and themes introduced in the ICS gateway course, with an integration and depth appropriate to a senior experience for ICS majors. Unifying critical transnationalism themes and topics are selected from the following: neo-liberal globalization and its consequences; inequality, power, and social justice; cultural and discursive formations; obstacles to and limits of constituting transnational or global communities; interactions between identities and institutions on various scales; human rights, justice and memory; and the possibilities afforded by, and limits of, an increasingly interconnected and interactive world.
In order to engage seniors in the university’s lively intellectual and creative environment, the course incorporates at least one scheduled campus event during the semester and requires a related assignment designed by the faculty member.
The course is writing-intensive, with assignments of varying length designed to advance writing, analytical, and library research skills, alongside individual reflection on classroom-, study away-, and work experiences. There is a significant individual final research project in the course that requires work in multiple stages of creation, presentation, feedback, and revision.
The course fulfills W, R, CCI modes of inquiry and CZ, SS areas of knowledge.
The ICS gateway course is a prerequisite for the capstone seminar.
Students who successfully complete the fall term of the ICS honors thesis course sequence are considered to have completed the capstone seminar requirement.
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