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2019 - 2020 Academic Catalog

Global Studies

The major in Global Studies offers a broad, interdisciplinary curriculum that prepares students to be citizens of the world: to understand changes in a global community in which ever-increasing connectedness in a shared world brings new benefits and novel challenges. In line with Lasell's Connected Learning Philosophy, the world becomes the classroom arena in the global studies major as the student activates a personal affiliation with and responsibility for the globe.  The curriculum includes course sequences in business, communication, philosophy and political science to support the development of critical thinking and analytical reasoning skills.  Study in environmental science prepares students as responsible global caretakers; history and anthropology courses help students understand their world and their humanity; world language and literature courses add depth and breadth to students' appreciation of the human condition in the global context.  Elective credits can be utilized to design elective tracks:  course sequences in areas relevant to the global studies major.  During the senior year, students complete a capstone research project and apply coursework to professional experience as they complete an internship in a global context.   

Students in the global studies major take part in at least one international experience, and participation in service abroad is encouraged in fulfillment of the departmental service-learning requirement.  The major in global studies will prepare students for graduate work in fields such as international politics, peace studies and area studeis; the major will also prepare students for careers in professions such as diplomacy, foreign service, government service, public administration, international business, journalism, law, and teaching at the secondary or postsecondary level. 


Goal 1: Cultural awareness
Upon completion of the major program of study in global studies, students will

1. demonstrate a critical awareness of the values and dynamics embedded in their own cultural perspective.
2. demonstrate an apprehension of the heterogeneous citizenry and sociohistorical dynamic underlying cultural diversity in the United States.
3. demonstrate an appreciation of the richness and diversity of the global human condition and the human global experience.

Goal 2: Intellectual milestones
Upon completion of the major program of study in global studies, students will

1. express ideas and convey information in clear and confident oral discourse.
2. respond knowledgeably and flexibly to written texts in a range of genres and from diverse global sources.
3. respond critically and analytically to moral and ethical questions.
4. participate as active citizens in local and global communities.

Goal 3: Interpretive/critical thinking and writing
Upon completion of the major program of study in global studies, students will

1. summarize content in materials from multiple disciplinary and global perspectives.
2. interpret diverse texts critically through close reading.
3. demonstrate awareness of ethical and legal guidelines as they analyze and synthesize pertinent data from multidisciplinary sources to create a valid argument.

Goal 4: Professional discourse and dialogue
Upon completion of the major program of study in global studies, students will

1. write in a professional manner.
2. speak in a professional manner.
3. work collaboratively in local and international professional settings.
4. explore career options, with an emphasis on the global experience.

ANTH101 - Principles of Anthropology (KP)

Anthropology offers the student a cross-cultural, comparative perspective on the human condition. In this course, students explore the varieties of ways in which human societies are organized. The five sub-disciplines of anthropology are introduced: cultural, biological or physical, archaeological, linguistic, and applied. Students gain an appreciation for the unique perspective of anthropology, including how anthropologists conduct fieldwork and contributions anthropology can make to effect social change. The aim of this course is to provide an overview of the field of anthropology, and to teach the student how to think systematically about how social groups work and how to understand human behavior in its cultural context.

BUSS224 - Organiz Behavior in a Global Environment

In this course, students study individuals and their interactions within group settings as they affect efficiencies in diverse business organizations. Group dynamics and intergroup dynamics are emphasized in relation to productivity and work satisfaction along with the examination of specific aspects of organizations that influence behavior on a global scale. Areas covered include structure, leadership, and change as they affect a multitude of cultures. Teaching modalities include case studies and role-playing. This is a writing intensive course.

BUSS237 - Global Leadership

In this course, students analyze what it means to be a global leader in the 21st century and identify the skills necessary to be successful in an increasingly global business climate. Students explore this question personally, collectively, and globally in a creative and collaborative atmosphere. Students examine classic as well as contemporary theories of leadership and how they apply to the dynamic global business culture. The course provides students with the opportunity to acquire perspectives and skills essential to successful management in the emerging markets that are increasingly becoming key contenders in world commercial enterprise. Prerequisite BUSS 224.

COM101 - Understanding Mass Media

This course surveys the theories, history, economics, audience, and regulations of the major forms of mass media, including newspapers, magazines, motion pictures, radio, television, and new electronic communication. Students develop a basic understanding of the roles of mass media and their effects on society and the individual. The course focuses on the relationship between mass media and society, so students can identify current trends that are changing the nature and function of traditional mass communication. Students examine and debate many current controversial issues concerning the mass media and their effects on our society and culture. Students discuss significant aspects of mass communication, including ethics and policy formulation that are playing key roles in the materialization of a new global communication era.

COM212 - Intercultural Communication

This course examines communication issues that arise from contact between people from different cultural backgrounds in everyday life, social encounters, and business transactions. Interdisciplinary approaches are applied to the study of how verbal and nonverbal presentation, ethnic, gender, and cultural differences affect communication. The course provides exercises in participation, analysis, and criticism of interethnic and interracial communications in small group settings. Students examine factors of international communication; such as the cultural, economic, political, and social influences and the role of communication in affecting social change in a wide variety of cultures and countries. Prerequisite: COM 101 or SOC 101 or PSYC 101.

COM325 - Global Media

This course introduces students to the global media landscape. Students are exposed to a number of topics including: the power of language in media, recent global media controversies, the economics of global media & ownership, the politics of global media, and the coverage of international events in U.S. media. Prerequisites: COM 101, COM 212

ENG217 - Contemporary Global Literature (KP)

In this course, we consider contemporary literature in its global context. Viewing literature as the expression of individual national/cultural traditions and as a rendering of the universally human condition, we examine both national literatures and texts written for a global readership. Topics such as global citizenship, diaspora, postcolonial aesthetics, modernism, postmodernism, and cultural/literary redefinition may be addressed.

ENG312 - Literature of Postcolonial World

In this course, students consider issues, movements, or traditions in literatures that respond to a history of colonization and/or imperialism. Latin American, African, and Asian cultures or traditions are emphasized in English or in English translations; issues addressed might include matters of publication and criticism, myths about the "third world," nationalism, fundamentalism, human rights, technology, and cultural resistance. Example topics include The Novel in India, Caribbean Dub Poetry, Prison Writing, Major South African Writers, Magic Realism. This is a presentation-intensive course.

ENV220 - World Geography (KP)

This course surveys the earth's social, cultural and economic patterns and their relationship to the physical geography of the earth. A regional approach is taken to provide a foundation for more intensive systematic studies of important environmental/political issues.

ENV303 - Environmental Justice

All people should have the right to live in and enjoy a clean and healthful environment. However, access to clean air and water, exposure to excessive noise, and access to natural areas is inequitable in our society. This course explores how racial, economic, and cultural backgrounds influence access to a clean and safe environment. Local, national, and international issues of the environment and social justice are explored. Students engage with local community organizations on projects promoting environmental justice.

GLBS400 - Reading & Research in Global Studies

This course represents the first semester of a two-semester individualized global studies capstone sequence. The student works closely with a faculty mentor from one of the disciplines represented in this interdisciplinary major, meeting weekly with the mentor to define a topic for in-depth examination through reading, research, and writing. Reading and research will begin during GLB400 and will continue during the following semester in GLB401. Students must complete GLB400 before enrolling in GLB401. Prerequisite: Global Studies Major

GLBS401 - Capstone in Global Studies

In this individual tutorial, the student works with the faculty mentor who oversees the capstone project. Meeting weekly with the mentor to discuss readings, research methodology, study design, and essay drafts, the student completes a substantial capstone essay on well-defined topic in global studies. Prerequisite: GLBS400

HIST104 - World Civilization II (KP)

This Knowledge Perspective course will provide students with the opportunity to interpret and analyze the complex interrelationships and inequities in human societies in a global historical context. Emphasizing the interrelatedness and mutuality of influence between East and West, we examine questions of exclusiveness, intolerance, and cooperation. Prerequisite: ENG101 with a C or better

HUM399 - Humanities Internship Seminar

This seminar helps students to develop objectives and identify potential sites for the senior internship. Topics include the application of humanities course work to a professional career and the development of skills necessary to locate an internship. The final goal of this course is to locate an appropriate internship. Junior or senior standing is required; this course is designed for Humanities Department majors only.

HUM400 - Humanities Field Experience

This course provides individually arranged participation in a work setting related to students' majors. Students spend 150 hours at the internship site over the course of the semester. Primary responsibility rests with students in identifying and pursuing an area of interest in consultation with the instructor. Students participate in a one-hour seminar each week that focuses on reflective activities that enhance the internship experience. Students complete written exercises about and evaluations of the experience. Evaluation of the field experience is based on student performance as reviewed by the employer and instructor at the internship site, as well as participation in the seminar and written assignments. Prerequisites: junior or senior standing, approval of instructor, HUM 399. Humanities Department majors only.

POLS208 - Contemporary International Relations

Basic concepts and major contemporary problems of international relations are examined in this course. Topics include the Middle East, East-West relations, deterrence versus disarmament, human rights, and developing countries. Throughout the semester, the local impact of national issues are discussed.

PHIL106 - World Religions

This course provides an overview of the major religious traditions: Taoism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Central themes from these traditions are studied through selected scriptures and texts of each tradition.

PHIL208 - Knowing & Reality

This course is a comparative analysis of Eastern and Western perceptions of reality in philosophy and literature, beginning with an historical overview of theories of knowledge and truth as well as the psychological factors in learning.

HIST208 - Sub-Saharan Africa after 1800

This survey of sub-Saharan African history explores the ongoing story of African political, social, and economic developments from the post-transatlantic slave trade period to the present. The course considers the impact of European merchants, missionaries, and adventurers on Africa from the time immediately preceding imperialism and colonialism up through the emergence of nationalism and the decolonization and liberation movements. The new nation-states, their postcolonial economies, and their developing systems of justice, education, and rule are investigated. Finally, topics such as soil erosion, disease, conservation, famine, and Africa’s relationships with the wider world are discussed.

HIST209 - China from 1600 to Present

This course is a survey of modern Chinese history from the founding of the Qing Dynasty in the seventeenth century to Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms of the 1990s. Special attention will be paid to modernization, Western and Japanese imperialism in China, and the rise of Communism under Mao Zedong. In addition to learning about important milestones in Chinese history, students will be introduced to aspects of Chinese art, culture, and women's issues through primary sources translated into English. This is a writing-intensive course.

HIST210 - Latin Amer Colonial Period to Present

This survey looks at Latin American history from pre-Colombian to contemporary times. Emphasis is on native cultures, the “discovery” of the New World, European presence, colonialism, imperialism, the creation of the peasantry, wars of independence, the formation of nation-states, the role of the military, slavery and racism, development and underdevelopment, the Catholic Church, liberation theology, poverty, and revolution. Major emphasis in South America is on Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Venezuela, and the Portuguese-speaking nation of Brazil. The course also examines foreign intervention and inner instability in Mexico, including struggles for democracy, economic rights, and social justice. In the Hispanic Caribbean and Central America, especially with regard to Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Belize, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama, land and labor systems, gender relations, race and ethnicity, and varied forms of rule are discussed. This is a writing-intensive course.

HIST211 - Middle East & Islamic World Since 1800

This course looks at the Middle East and its relations with the wider world, from the appearance of Napoleon to the present. Topics include attempts at reform and modernization in the Ottoman Empire; the impact of Western imperialism on the region as a whole; and twentieth-century developments in the area, including nationalism, pan-Arabism, pan-Islamism, the cult of the personality, coup, revolution, Zionism, and the Palestinian-Israeli confrontation. The economic and social impact of oil, the influence of fundamentalism, and the Great Power rivalry down through the position of the United States toward the area are investigated. The efforts of Iran to gain acceptance in/by the contemporary world are examined, as is the shifting attitude of Egypt toward modernity. Finally, connections between the region and the rest of the Islamic world are explored. This is a writing-intensive course.

HIST212 - Mod Japan: Culture & History

This course is a survey of Japan's modernization from the fall of the warring states period to the economic bubble of the 1980s. Special attention will be paid to the contributions of the early modern Tokugawa Shogunate, the Meiji period of cultural borrowing from the West, and the cultural nationalism of the Japanese empire until 1945. In addition to learning about important milestones in Japanese history, students will be introduced to aspects of Japanese art and culture through a variety of primary and secondary sources and film clips. This is a writing-intensive course.

HIST218 - Global History of Childhood

This course introduces students to the ways in which cultural ideas about childhood and childrearing have changed over time. Using Western history as a departure point, the course will compare and contrast key topics of childhood, such as child labor and child rights, in various cultures. This is primarily a discussion seminar, in which students present and discuss a variety of academic readings. There is also a service-learning component. This is a presentation-intensive course.