This two-semester course explores the challenges of understanding the global world in which we live, a world that demands new conceptual approaches and ways of thinking. The objectives are to explore the various methodologies and approaches that Committee on Global Thought faculty apply to their scholarship on pressing global issues, and to confront the challenges of conducting research across local, regional, and global scales. This will take place through multi-week modules that center on a critical issue, asking students to familiarize themselves with key questions and context, engage with an expert on the topic, and apply their insights to a specific case or question.

The skills and assignments developed in MA Seminar will support students in the research and completion of their 10,000-word MA essays, which they will present to each other and to CGT faculty at the Spring Symposium of their final semester. 

This course will examine some of the key institutional challenges and most vexing conceptual controversies in the current rethinking, some might stay in turmoil, over world order and global governance. Faced with a daunting range of challenges and crises—including the management of the international economic system, climate change and environmental sustainability, terrorism, human rights and democracy promotion, international peace-keeping, the challenge of urbanization and human settlements, the apparent implosion of the Middle Eastern state system to mention just a few—it is no wonder that many of the features of the international system established at the end of World War II are under severe strain and are subject to intense scrutiny and reevaluation. These debates reveal at least three key characteristics: First, a depth of disagreement about the shape of the international system which is arguably unprecedented in the last fifty years. Second, there is a dizzying multiplicity of actors, arenas, and scales involved which renders the global system exceedingly complex. Third, there appears to be an absence of any recognizable consensus about the most appropriate conceptual frameworks for addressing these often bewildering challenges. After surveying some of the key debates surrounding questions of world order and sovereignty, as well as the most appropriate conceptual models, the course will examine how well the current structures are addressing a selected number of problem areas.

All art is political, but some art is made as a form of protest or to incite an audience to protest. Most often it is both. This course—though far from exhaustive in its coverage—will present a sample of genres (music, plastic arts, theater, dance, installation, photography) in a variety of locations and times to understand how art and artists have engaged in protest. Much of modern art is conceptual, using installations and performances, to communicate. Therefore, we will start the class by first understanding what we mean by protest, which will underpin how we think about artists’ using various media to engage voicing opposition. Then, we turn to T. J. Clark, the preeminent art historian, for his answer to the question, when did modern art begin and how does it relate to protest? This question will lead us to explore the debate on the purpose of art in the 20th century and into the present. Next, we will move to how artists responded to moments of crisis in the early 20th century—world wars, economic depression, and the rise of fascism—because the art that emerged informs much of what we see today. Based on these foundational questions, the class will turn to case studies from around the globe.

Our world is interconnected thanks to the worldwide web, social media, academic institutions, news outlets, ease of international travel, fashion trends, diasporic communities, music…the threads that are woven into the global textile are boundless. However, this textile is torn and frayed. People are–as they have been for centuries–fragmented by war, religion, disasters and crises, poverty, and disparate concentrations of wealth. In this class, we will examine these various fault lines, by addressing issues such as cultural difference, nationalism, populism, and identity politics. By understanding the fissures in our collective humanity, we will have a better understanding of what binds us together.

The current era of economic globalization, which until recently appeared inevitable to many observers, faces numerous challenges that have erupted in the past few years–including war (and accompanying sanctions), heightened superpower rivalry, pandemic-related disruption of supply chains, and inflationary pressures. To this list, we must add a series of preexisting conditions, such as ballooning inequality, the climate crisis, rising nationalist and xenophobic sentiment, and increasing support–on both the left and right–for protectionism and skepticism of both “free trade” and (global) capitalism itself. This course centers around analyzing the structure of the contemporary global economy, its political origins and inherently political nature, and how power is exercised therein by actors including states, corporations, international institutions, and even individuals. Specifically, we will discuss the rise and consolidation of today’s neoliberal global order, its “governance”, and the various forms of backlash against it that are currently proliferating. We will also carefully analyze the role of race, class, and gender in the global economy, as well as the persistence of colonial legacies, and the ongoing relevance of North-South and other inequalities. Additionally, we will discuss how issues such as climate change, U.S.-China relations, technological change, and the pandemic itself may shape the future trajectory of the global economy. As we will highlight throughout the semester, the global economy shapes the lives of people all over the world, including our own.