16 courses with the subject GIST, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
GIST 1300Gender Perspectives from the Global South4
Goals: To introduce students to basic concepts shared between global studies and the study of gender; to examine power and agency, and the ways in which gender politics changes its form in varying situations; and to study global South contexts, subjectivities, and struggles utilizing these analytic tools. Content: Students will be introduced to feminist perspectives that represent current trends in the discipline, especially as they pertain to global South/Third World contexts; study how globalization, as an ongoing process of social and economic change, impacts gendered practices, ideologies and forms of politics; develop analytic skills through dialoguing about films, memoir, ethnography, essays and articles focused on gender issues in the global South.
GIST 1910Introduction to Global and International Studies4
Goals: To introduce students to the interdisciplinary field of global and international studies. Content: An introduction to key concepts and issues in global and international studies. Key texts introduce themes explored in upper-level courses. International Roundtable presentations by guest faculty illustrate the interdisciplinary and global nature of the field. Taught: Each semester
Crosslisted: Also listed as HIST 3020 Goals: To introduce students to interdisciplinary research methods and to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to develop original research questions, and write research proposals and carry out research. Content: The course focuses on understanding and practicing various interdisciplinary research methods. Students will acquire and practice the skills necessary to approach research questions from multiple disciplinary perspectives and develop, write, and carry out sophisticated research proposals. Taught: Fall semester
Goals: To learn about social and cultural consequences for Africans of historical and contemporary exploitation of the continent’s natural resources and its human beings. To gain an understanding of how countries and societies in Africa have fared in the past couple centuries as global economic, political, cultural, and environmental interconnections have intensified. Content: Particular emphasis will be placed on interrogating reasons for exploitation, and we will do this through immersion in journalistic, literary, cultural, and cinematic representations of various “crises” on the African continent. Students will become more aware of root causes of some of the strife and destitution that often gets associated with Africa as a result of Hollywood and mass media representations. We will also explore specific responses and resistances to socio-political turmoil in given locales.
Goals: Through this course, students will gain: a comparative, global standpoint on disability, and a connection with local organizations that empower people with disabilities to be independent, creatively engaged, and often self-supported. Content: “Ableism” – like its sister concepts of sexism, racism, ageism, and classism – is best understood as a structural form of exclusion and inequality. Individuals are marked as “impaired” and thereby treated as if they “cannot” (read: should not) participate in mainstream, everyday activities. This course is designed to get students to think critically about how societies exclude, oppress, and disadvantage large numbers of their members through stigmatizing people as “dis-abled.” The seminar portion of the course will include discussion of readings and films that examine disabilities from critical and culturally diverse (global) perspectives. The practicum portion of the course will involve engagement with a community organization in the Twin Cities.
Goals: To learn about the ways in which geographic and social locations as well as institutional structures and global economies affect peoples’ interpretations, understandings, and experiences of illness and health. Content: Particular emphasis will be placed on examining differential access to health resources and interrogating ways in which power is utilized to privilege some sectors and deprive other groups of basic standards of health. Health care becomes synonymous with human rights in this framework, and examinations of structural violence help us to look at how global processes interact with more local institutional and economic systems to have a direct impact on the life chances and health of specific communities and individuals.
Crosslisted: Also listed as PBHL 3020 Goals: To introduce students to the dynamic field of global health and cultivate an appreciation for the pursuit of health equity for all people. Content: Introduction to the history of colonial medicine, international development, and the emergence of a global health framework. Introduction to a set of analytic tools utilized by practitioners and scholars: biosocial approach to health and illness; health disparities and the global distribution of poor health (global burden of disease); the nature, effects, and limitation of medical and public health interventions; discipline and biopower; structural violence and social suffering. Exploration of case studies such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, MDRTB, mental health and disability, SARS-CoV-2. Students will gain an understanding of how global health integrates knowledge from epidemiology, medicine, political economy, as well as the social and behavioral sciences.
Goals: Learn about impact of migration on health; work in small groups to research a population and design a migrant friendly health initiative for them. Content: This course examines the implications of population movements for well-being and health, as well as the global labor market in trained health care workers. According to the United Nations, during the decades of the 1970s through the early 2000s, the number of migrants crossing international borders grew steadily so that now at least one out of every 35 people on the planet is an international migrant. This increase in movement has occurred for a variety of reasons, including: natural disasters and environmental degradation; poverty and lack of access to basic services; conflict, war, political persecution, and discrimination; a quest for new opportunities such as education and work. On top of this, an unbalanced system pushes Global South communities to export their health professionals (creating staffing crises), while powerful Global North entities export health ideas and ideologies (along with trade and aid) thereby creating unconscious superiority around health practices that may not meet the needs of local communities. We will begin by learning about migrant, refugee, and diasporic communities and the kinds of health issues they face; and we will learn about the global labor market in trained health care workers. Students will then work in small groups to research a specific population of transnational migrants (e.g., Somali people in the UK, Polish people in Argentina, or Shona [Zimbabwean] people in Australia), gathering information about challenges to health and well-being for that particular community. Ultimately students will design a “migrant friendly health initiative” for their chosen group, and at the end of the semester they will present their innovative program or system to the class.
GIST 3300Gender Perspectives from the Global South4
Goals: To introduce students to basic concepts shared between global studies and the study of gender; to examine power and agency, and the ways in which gender politics changes its form in varying situations; and to study global South contexts, subjectivities, and struggles utilizing these analytic tools. Content: Students will be introduced to feminist perspectives that represent current trends in the discipline, especially as they pertain to global South/Third World contexts; study how globalization, as an ongoing process of social and economic change, impacts gendered practices, ideologies and forms of politics; develop analytic skills through dialoguing about films, memoir, ethnography, essays and articles focused on gender issues in the global South.
Goals: This course will examine major themes in global justice: the moral status of individuals, states and peoples; theories of human rights; the ethics of humanitarian intervention; and global inequality, poverty and distributive justice. The ultimate objective of the course is to provide a better understanding of the uneven impact of the process and policies of development and globalization on different populations and segments of society. Content: Particular emphasis will be placed on transnational efforts to promote global justice, equitable development, and peace and security. Topics include the roles of the United Nations and other IGOs such as the WTO and IMF in the North-South debate, Structural Adjustment Policies, Free Trade versus Fair Trade, Environmental Security, democratization of global governance, and the responsibilities of individuals and states to secure universal human rights and sustainable human development.
Goals: To explore the foundations of international governmental and nongovernmental organizations; through case studies and policy issues, to discuss the United Nations and its affiliated groups; to examine how transnational actors have tried to deal with critical world issues such as hunger, environmental dilemmas, human rights, and the disparities of development. Content: This course includes a discussion of theories of integration, histories of international organizations, and analyses of approaches to policy and politics in the international arena. This course serves as a prerequisite for GIST 3650 (Model United Nations), which is offered in the Spring, and helps prepare students to participate in the Model United Nations program at Hamline. It fulfills upper level requirements for Global and International Studies and Political Science. Taught: Fall semester
Goals: This course surveys normative questions within human rights discourses, with a stress on international and transnational efforts to promote equity and human rights standards. Content: Topics include the contributions of international and non-governmental organizations as well as transnational actors to global discourses on human and women’s rights, social justice and global equity. A particular emphasis is placed on understanding the North-South Debate, the process and policies of development and their uneven impact on the human rights of different populations and segments of society. Special consideration is given to the controversy between the universal and particular applications of human rights.
Crosslisted: Also listed as PSCI 3600 Goals: Through this course, students will develop research, critical thinking, and team-building skills; students will also gain perspectives on the role of international organizations and non-governmental organizations in the international community. Students will gain an appreciation for diverse cultures, modes of negotiation and conflict resolution, and the professional nature of diplomacy. Content: This course is designed to help prepare students to serve as delegates to the National Model United Nations Conference in New York. Students will also have the opportunity to visit other international agencies and NGOs (non-governmental organizations) in New York as well as volunteer with organizations in the Twin Cities. Topics discussed in the class will include: the nature of diplomacy, how nations interact, the operations of the United Nations system, the role of NGOs, and case studies of individual countries which the team will represent at the simulation in New York. Students will engage in mock debates and discussions of UN policy initiatives. By discussing the work of the UN and NGOs, students will also gain an understanding of a variety of transnational issues such as arms control, security, HIV/AIDS, environmental protection, child labor, etc. Taught: Spring semester
GIST 3700Social Media and Contentious Politics in the Global Age4
Goals: The tweet heard across the world started a revolution in a small, relatively stable country in the Middle East (Tunisia) in January 2011 and within months had spread like wildfire across the globe, challenging the reign of the seemingly most firmly entrenched economic and political systems. Fueled by a newly energized youth and social media technology, non-ideological and peaceful protest movements —from Occupy Wall Street in the U.S., to riots in London, protests in Spain, Chile, and Russia, for example— have generated a wave of unprecedented regional changes with far-reaching global effects. Content: This course will examine the roots and future implications of these global youth movements as they navigate uncharted territory, and consequent regional upheaval through the lens of new social movement theory, cyberactivism and the democratization of the public sphere.
Crosslisted: Also listed as PBHL 5020 This interdisciplinary course is designed for students to deepen their understanding of global health equity by continuing to investigate what the field of global health may include, how global health problems are defined and constructed, and how global health interventions play out in expected and unexpected ways. Our core text will be Turning the World Upside Down – global health in a time of pandemics, climate change, and political turmoil. This guide will take us step-by-step through the following themes: a) an overview and critique of systems of healthcare, globally, and the uneven flow of health ideas, goods, services, and personnel; b) unfair trade typically exports health workers from global South to global North contexts (or from lower-income to higher-income countries) and creates what has been referred to as a “brain drain”; c) unfair trade also results in low-income countries importing ideas and ideologies from global North foreign aid bureaucracies, donor agencies, Western NGOs, and so forth – ideas that are often culturally inappropriate and irrelevant to the local context, and often in exchange for financial assistance; d) concrete strategies for turning these trends on their head. Examining efforts to reverse the trend opens the door to learning from low- and middle-income countries; studying ways in which global health equity respects and embraces local knowledge, practical knowledge, community-based care, social prescribing, and value-based healthcare (defined as the “equitable, sustainable and transparent use of the available resources to achieve better outcomes and experiences for every person”). Slogans for this approach include “the primary diagnosis is social” and “health is made at home; hospitals are for repairs.” As part of this revitalized vision of health creation, health professionals are understood as agents of change. The very notion of health shifts away from the “absence of disease” toward the “ability of individuals and communities to adapt and self-manage in the face of social, physical, and emotional challenges.” Principles of self-determination and human flourishing are wed to global sustainability development goals focused on planetary health. Whereas Global Health I is research and writing intensive, culminating in a substantive term paper, Global Health II is speaking and discussion intensive – aimed at encouraging vibrant dialogue and verbal exchange.
GIST 3220 or PBHL 3020, grade of C- or higher Credits: 4
GIST 5950Interdisciplinary Capstone4
Crosslisted: Also listed as HIST 5950 Goals: To provide an interdisciplinary capstone experience in which students practice and polish previously learned skills and build on previous knowledge and experience to produce a significant research product that demonstrates the ability to conduct research and writing in global studies or history. Content: A focus on the research and writing process, from conceptualization through completion. Students pursue individual projects, share discussions of the research and writing processes, and share their final products with one another. Taught: Spring semester
