Overview of Course

This course aims to enrich your understanding of global issues and the countries we visit through the lens of globalization. Globalization is the rise of economic, political, and cultural interactions and interdependencies at local to global scales. The effects of globalization are profound and present unprecedented opportunities and challenges at all scales. We will investigate some of the benefits and costs of globalization in the countries we visit, the diverse worldviews we uncover in our travels, and how globalization generates competing actions and responses. We will also consider insights and reactions from young people working for international non-governmental organizations. Our approach will be interdisciplinary and comparative and rely on insights and methods from across the social and natural sciences. You will learn and practice skills applicable to many fields of study, including how to make systematic observations, document observations in a field notebook, find patterns (if they exist) in your observations, and communicate written and verbal results with clarity and potency. By practicing these skills, you will learn how new, data-informed knowledge of the world is created through original research. We will strive for an intellectual and emotional synergy between our learning in the classroom, the field program, and our experiences during the voyage.

INST 200 is the companion 3-credit course for the Chapman Impact Cohort. Through multi-day (approximately 4-5 days) in-country field program, the Cohort will explore and support the work conducted by international partners addressing issues, opportunities, and responses to globalization. During at-sea days, the course will meet for 16, one-hour sessions due to the learning contribution of the expanded field classes for Impact Scholars.