12 courses with the subject GLBL, 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.
GLBL 010Global Migration: A Critical Survey1
Migration is one of the most contentious issues of our time. Today, there are over 1 billion migrants globally, representing about 1 in 8 people on the planet. This includes over 763 million internal migrants, 304 million international migrants, and 123 million forcibly displaced individuals (WHO, 2022). This course offers a panoramic survey of seminal literature on the causes and consequences of migration from the perspective of both receiving and sending societies. In doing so, we will strive to understand how migration both shapes and is shaped by a complex interplay of institutional, political, economic and cultural factors. Specifically, we will examine how migrants have been conceptualized and portrayed in existing academic and media discourse, why people move and what informs these decisions, how migration transforms receiving and sending societies economically, culturally, and politically, and how citizens and states respond to migrants and refugees. In examining these questions, we will draw from a wide range of source materials, including cutting-edge scholarship in history, political science, economics, and sociology, as well as podcasts and film. We will cover the full richness of migration across world, engaging with case studies from the United States, Latin America, Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East, and Asia. Our examination of migration will span various scales, from the macro-level of nation-states to the micro-scale of communities, households, and the individual. The primary goal of this course is for students to understand the multicausal nature of migration, and to appreciate the connections between migration and contemporary debates on globalization, identity politics, economic development, and democratic citizenship. Social Sciences. 1 credit.
This course provides an interdisciplinary approach to globally shared issues, processes, interactions and systems that affect people, communities, regions, nations, and our planet. Some topics the course examines are: the effects of a globalized world economy, global inequality and poverty, migration and refugees, identity in a global age, world cities, media in the global age, colonization and decolonization, global ethics, global social movements. The course takes seriously the interaction between the local and the global. It offers students an opportunity to more strongly command an understanding of their place in the world and an awareness and appreciation of differences through cross-cultural competence as well as a greater ability to mediate these differences. The interdisciplinary nature of the course demands multiple points of entry to communicate and analyze these issues beyond reading and writing, such as films, podcasts, lectures. Each fall Global Studies faculty selects several topics for an in-depth look at the past, present, and future global landscape.
Migration is one of the most contentious issues of our time. Today, there are over 1 billion migrants globally, representing about 1 in 8 people on the planet. This includes over 763 million internal migrants, 304 international migrants, and 120 million forcibly displaced individuals. This course will consider the causes and consequences of these movements from the perspective of both receiving as well as sending societies. In doing so, we will strive to understand how migration both shapes and is shaped by a complex interplay of institutional, political, economic and cultural factors. Specifically, we will examine how migrants have been conceptualized and portrayed in existing academic and media discourse, why people move and what informs these decisions, how immigration transforms receiving societies economically, culturally, and politically, how states and societies respond to immigration, and what the economic and political consequences of emigration are for places of origin. We will cover the full richness of migration across the world, engaging with case studies from the United States, Latin America, Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Our examination of migration will span various scales, from the macro-level of nation-states to the micro-scale of communities, households, and the individual. The primary goal of this course is for students to develop an in-depth understanding of the multicausal nature of migration and to appreciate the connections between migration and contemporary debates on globalization, identities, economic development, and democracy. 1 credit. Eligible for ESCH
GLBL 017South Asia in Global Perspective: From Democracy to Conflict1
Crosslisted with PEAC 017 This course provides an introduction to the society, economy, and politics of South Asia, a region that is home to a quarter of the world’s population. It is a region of striking contrasts: while it hosts the second largest share of the world’s extreme poor after Sub-Saharan Africa, it is also home to the some of its wealthiest individuals. How the region navigates its unique development challenges amidst the ongoing climate crisis, increasing rural-urban migration, intense social conflict, and high levels of ethnic diversity will have profound implications for global peace and development. We will focus on five major themes during the course of the semester: (i) Colonialism and its legacies, (ii) Nationalism and state formation, (iii) Identity and ethnicity (iv) political economy of development, and (v) migration and nativism. In engaging with these themes, we will examine how colonialism shaped post-colonial institutional and social development; why poor countries like India remain democratic, while other equally poor countries, such as Pakistan don’t; whether identity politics strengthens or undermines democracy; why ethnic violence erupts and persists in some places but not in others; and the challenges and opportunities presented by large-scale internal and international migration. To address these questions, we will draw on seminal texts across a wide range of social science disciplines alongside empirical work and case studies from different South Asian countries. The primary goal is for students to understand the historical, institutional, and social forces that have shaped political and economic development in South Asia, and to appreciate how these experiences inform global discussions on democracy and development. social science 1 credit. Eligible for ESCH; Asian Studies Spring 2027. Dhar
Cross-listed with SOCI 020C and BLST 020 . “I don’t see color.” The common adage is an allusion to a society in which phenotype bares minimal weight on one’s life chances. Scholars have long noted that the opposite is true-what we look like matters and greatly impacts our lives. Only coined in the 1980s, colorism, the preferential treatment of those with lighter skin and “desirable” features, has plagued communities of color for centuries. In this course, we will trace the origins of colorism considering global contexts for communities of color in general, and the African diaspora in particular. We will use emerging theories of colorism to examine the role of racism, colonialism, media, and capitalism in engendering and maintaining colorist ideals in contemporary society. We will engage academic and ‘non-academic’ texts to expose the variations of systemic colorism on a global scale often impacted by other demographic markers including: gender, region, class, ethnicity, and culture. Social sciences. 1 credit. Eligible for BLST, GLBL-paired, LALS. Spring 2027. Veras.
Cross-listed as LITR 038G and GMST 038 . In this course we will compare two historical periods of mass migrations: refugees fleeing Nazi Germany in 1930s and 1940s and refugees from conflict zones coming to Germany today, and especially during the so-called “refugee crisis” between 2015 and 2019. Connecting political reality with literary and artistic representation, we will use texts, films, current news coverage, and activist art projects to place flight narratives in their historical contexts and to learn about refugee lives, the lasting effects of migration, the social and political reality of those considered “migrants,” and the ways in which migration enables new connections between marginalized histories and precarious positionalities. Taught in English. HU Writing course. 1 credit. Eligible for Eligible for CPLT, GLBL paired, PEAC
(Cross-listed as DANC 052 ) Dance in China encompasses various practices and traditions. This course provides comprehensive training in the foundational techniques, aesthetics, and cultural contexts of Chinese Classical and Folk dances. Students will be introduced to two distinct Chinese dance forms: Chinese xì qǔ Classical Dance (中国戏曲古典舞) and a selected Chinese Folk Dance (中国民族民间舞) from Han and minority ethnic dances. Throughout the semester, students will develop technical skills and awareness in 身韵/shēn yùn (the integration of physical form and inner circular flow), gestural and facial expression, physical strength, and rhythmic precision while examining the significant philosophical concepts influenced by Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, as well as traditional rituals and ceremonies. This studio-based course consists of readings, video viewing/analysis, discussion, and reflective writing in addition to physical training. If taken for academic credit, two short papers are required. Open to all students. No prior experience in dance is required; however, commitment to regular practice and reflective engagement is expected. Humanities. 0.5 credit or P.E. Eligible for ASIA, ASAM, GLBL paired Fall 2026. Zhao.
Cross-listed with LALS 054 . How did the Cold War seep into everyday life? This course explores the relationship between culture, cultural production, and Cold War politics in the Americas. Over the course of the semester, we will focus on how films, literature, music, television, and sports served as platforms for Cold War politics in the hemisphere. This class will focus on the cultural and political relationship between the United States and Latin America, with particular attention to the role of cultural diplomacy during the Cold War. Social Sciences Writing course 1 credit Eligible for GLBL paired Spring 2027. Almeida.
Cross-listed as RELG 065 . This course explores how Jews and Jewish communities have confronted, negotiated, and reshaped their traditions from the eighteenth century to the present day. Students are introduced both to what Jews do (Jewish rituals and holidays) and why they do them (or why not). The course also considers that “Judaism” is itself a modern category-reimagined through encounters with Enlightenment thought, nationalism, colonialism, racism, antisemitism, secularism, feminism, and contemporary debates about statehood and diaspora. By the end of the course, students will understand modern Judaism not as a single, static “religion,” but as a thriving field of debate that takes place within a minority culture that spans the globe. Key areas of these debates revolve around notions of race, nation, peoplehood, politics, religion, gender, sexuality, and embodiment, as Jews and Jewish communities participate in ongoing negotiations between the past and present to imagine Jewish futures. Humanities. 1 credit. Eligible for Eligible for GSST, GLBL-core. Fall 2026. Kessler.
GLBL 078Film and Place: West African Filmmakers At Home and Abroad1
Cross-listed with LITR 078F . The moving image, it is often argued, has a special relationship to time and space, and in this class, we will explore how West African filmmakers explore and represent space by emphasizing place(s), both real and imagined. Using the lens of critical issues in postcolonial film studies, we will consider how to analyze these places by focusing our observations on the built-environment and the natural world; homelands and hostlands; mobility and stillness. Filmmakers studied include Mati Diop (France/Senegal), Sembène Ousmane (Senegal), Abderrahmane Sissako (Mali/Mauritania), Jean-Marie Téno (Cameroon), Apolline Traoré (Burkina Faso), Paulin Soumanou Vieyra (Senegal), among others. This course is open to all students. There are no prerequisites. The course is taught in English. 1 credit. Eligible for Eligible for BLST, GLBL-paired
Cross-listed with ENVS 028 and POLS 081 Global climate change, in particular, and environmental issues, in general, have moved to the forefront of public debates. This course examines the governance of these issues from an International Relations perspective. Topics include: multilateral trade agreements and the environment; United Nations processes, agreements, and institutions; climate change finance and environmental foreign aid; multilateral development banks (including the World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank) and environmental governance; non-state actors; social movements; and global environmental governance and great powers. The course will begin with a political-economic conceptualization of global environmental governance and also introduce students to some fundamental concepts in public policy and environmental regulation. Given this is taught primarily from global governance and International Relations perspectives, it is not suited to students looking to engage in particular countries’ environmental regulation, though student presentations will examine differences across some countries. It is ideal for students to have taken POLS4 prior to taking this course, and students should be ready to apply basic economic concepts to environmental regulation (without which their understanding of the governance of climate change cannot be advanced).
One political science course or GLBL 015. Social sciences. 1 credit. Eligible for GLBL-core; ENVS; PPE. Fall 2026. Kaya. Catalog chapter: Global Studies Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/global-studies Access the class schedule to search for sections.
GLBL 090Directed Reading1
Available on an individual or group basis, subject to the approval of and overseen by a faculty member in GLBL. 1 credit.
