Introduction to International and Global Studies This is the core course of the International and Global Studies major. It is an introduction to key international issues and problems that will likely feature prominently in their courses at Middlebury and study abroad. Issues covered will differ from year to year, but they may include war, globalization, immigration, racism, imperialism, nationalism, world organizations, non-governmental organizations, the European Union, the rise of East Asia, politics and society in Latin America, and anti-Americanism.

Foundations of European Studies: Texts, Contexts, and Legacies In this course we will review major texts that serve as a foundation for understanding core aspects of European societies. Covering the period from the Hebrew Bible to Dante’s Inferno, we will read works of religion, literature, philosophy, and politics such as Homer’s Odyssey, Plato’s Republic, Virgil’s Aeneid, the New Testament, Beowulf, an Icelandic Saga, and Marco Polo’s Travels. We will focus on the context in which these texts were written and the legacies they produced for understanding Europe as a region, discussing themes such as friendship, loyalty, family, home, gender roles, slavery, power relations, and the definition of Europe itself.

The European Catastrophe, 1914-1945 This course is an interdisciplinary introduction to what began as a political, economic, socio-cultural, and security crisis in Europe and quickly spread across the globe. Through the lens of history, philosophy, sociology, literature, film, and memoir, we will explore a range of topics and themes: the perfection of mechanized warfare, the fall of the European imperial state system, the economic crises of the 1920s and the Great Depression, the birth of bolshevism and fascism, the rise of experimental artistic movements in the interwar period, the psychological understanding of authoritarianism, the Holocaust, and the origins of the postwar order. There will be a bi-weekly film viewing associated with the class.

Political Economy of Contemporary India Since gaining independence from the British in 1947, and three decades since the launch of the most ambitious set of economic reforms, India has changed dramatically over the years; but what does all this change really mean for the lives of ordinary citizens?   This course will explore the political economy context of India’s development, and in particular, the changing texture of democracy, economic transition from the state to the market, gender relations, environmental challenges, India's economic globalization, and a changing world view from the time of India's independence to the present.  The course will also capture the tensions inherent in such a multifaceted process of change. We will make use of historical texts and visual sources to map out how local and national economic, socio-political and cultural factors interweave with the global movement of people and ideas in the continued evolution of contemporary India.

The Origins of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict When did the Jewish-Arab conflict begin? This survey course considers several different moments of its birth, such as the 1880s first wave of Zionist immigrants to Palestine, the 1917 Balfour Declaration, the 1948 and 1967 war and the 1964 establishment of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and other landmark moments. Based on secondary literature and primary textual and visual materials, we will engage with these competing periodizations and analyze various Israeli and Palestinian historical narratives they embody, considering broader themes such as the relations between the historian’s identity and the production of historical narratives, and the dynamic between facts, narratives and ideologies.

Intercultural Jerusalem (1850-Present) The course approaches the history of modern Jerusalem through the lens of intercultural encounters. Based on primary historical sources and secondary literature, we will examine how the relations between Muslims, Christians, and Jews transformed as the city changed hands between the Ottomans, British, Jordanians, and Israelis. The introductory units will discuss the making of multi-cultural Jerusalem in the late Ottoman period and how, under British rule (1917-1948), its cosmopolitanism was abated by nationalism. We will then discuss its partition following the 1948 War and the emergence of “West Jerusalem” and “East Jerusalem.” Proceeding past 1967, we will examine if and to what extent Jerusalem became an integrated, united city under Israel sovereignty before concluding with a discussion of contemporary trends.

Introduction to Latin American Studies This course is an interdisciplinary introduction to Latin America and Latin American studies. It introduces key debates on the region (and its many subregions) that will feature prominently in other courses not only at Middlebury, but also study abroad. By tracing the region’s historical development, we closely examine issues such as colonialism, economics, identity, imperialism, modes of citizenry, and nationalism, as well as explore how class, commerce, culture, ethnicity, gender, politics, race, religion, and sexuality have come to be understood in Latin America and its study. Critical, scholarly, and theoretical readings will supplement primary texts. 3 hrs. Lect./disc

Africa in the World In this survey course students will learn to situate Africa in the context of globalization. To do this, we will probe three main questions: (1) How has globalization shaped African political systems? (2) How has it shaped African societies and cultures? and (3) What development challenges and opportunities has globalization generated for the continent? To answer these questions, we will delve into experiences from Algeria, Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, and Uganda. Reflection papers, class participation, in-class quizzes, and exams will help gauge students’ learning.

Global Challenges and Opportunities In this course we will learn to identify, describe, classify, analyze, solve, and make predictions about the world’s most pressing problems. Using the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework, we will select specific issues and learn to compare and connect across them to establish their interconnectedness and complexity. Students will then conduct independent research, collaborate with classmates across disciplines, and use a variety of approaches to come up with innovative solutions to issues most pressing to them. Lectures, class discussions, in-class group work, and oral presentations will guide students’ learning while self-study reports, group oral presentations and issue papers, individual written reflections, and class participation will be used to gauge student learning. By the end of the course, students will be proficient in collaborative problem assessment and problem solving across a variety of global issues.

Global Financial Crime Detection Behind nearly every international crime involving money lies a money laundering scheme. In this course we will look at how corrupt dictators, terrorists, drug traffickers, sanctions evaders, and North Korean cyber hackers, among others, hide and launder their ill-gotten gains. We will explore traditional money laundering techniques, trade-based laundering techniques, black market peso exchange, Chinese mirror trades, the use of virtual assets, shell companies, etc. Throughout the semester we will also consider red flag indicators of suspicious activity. This course is designed for students who hope to go into professions where they can use financial crime detection skills (law, banking, crypto compliance, research think tanks, journalism, and security/intelligence).

Legal Aspects of Financial Crime In this course we will explore global efforts used to protect the financial integrity of private businesses and organizations, including regulatory, investigative (by state actors and non-government investigative bodies) and legal aspects of compliance with applicable laws and regulations. We will review corporate governance, US and international investigative and prosecutorial agencies. We will discuss the applicable judicial systems and laws.  Jay Shapiro, ‘77, was a New York City prosecutor for 20 years, specializing in complex investigations, and then was a partner at major law firms handling civil litigation. In 2023, he was a Fulbright US Scholar in Albania, lecturing at the School of Magistrates and the University of Tirana. He’s the author of numerous treatises on criminal practice./

Postcolonial Literature, Migrants and the City In this course, we will analyze postcolonial literature that portrays the lives of migrants in cities. Postcolonial novels such as Brick Lane by Monica Ali, Love Enough by Dionne Brand, Brother by David Chariandi, The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai, Carnival by Rawi Hage, The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon and A Free Man by Aman Sethi present counter-hegemonic narratives and visions of the city. They show that the city, indelibly marked by relations of Empire and the product of racial capitalism, is also a battleground for decoloniality: a delinking from colonial knowledge practices. To map this insurgent knowledge in postcolonial novels of the city, we will focus on four prominent themes that also serve as analytical categories: mobility, labor, conviviality, and protest.

Postcolonial Literature and the City In this course we will examine a number of novels from the 20th and 21st centuries that are about life in the city, taking a global and trans-national approach.  We will explore formations of urban life alongside transformations in the novel as a genre.  We will put these novels of city life in dialogue with critical theory—that is, theories of culture and society that have as their aim human emancipation (for example, Marxism, feminism, critical race studies, and postcolonial studies).  The novels we read will reflect important literary movements such as realism, modernism, and postmodernism.  (Not open to students who have taken ENAM 0447) (Diversity)

Leadership What is leadership, and what does good leadership require? In this course we will investigate these important questions, focusing on today’s world context. Examples from politics, business, and community organization around the world will guide our inquiry, help us evaluate the quality of leadership affecting us and others, and enable us to assess our own leadership potential. To achieve these course goals, we will analyze real-world examples of good and poor leadership from around the world, compare across leadership cases, and assess leadership examples against theories of leadership in business, political science, history, and psychology. Class discussions, in-class simulations, short lectures, individual research projects, and oral presentations will inform our learning experience while reflection papers, individual research projects, individual oral presentations, and class participation will help gauge student learning.

Borders, Migration, and Identification in Global Perspective In this course we will investigate the concept and historical emergence of borders, their relation to mobility, and the identification regimes that grew up around them.  After interrogating the implications of what a border can mean and the different forms it can take—ideal and material, of mind and body—we will focus our study on the historical origins of modern state borders, various representations of borders, and case studies that particularly highlight the importance of borders regarding the supervision and the sorting of movement. Topics of study will include cities, physical barriers, refugees, and passportization. Regions of study will include the United States, France, Israel, Angola, and Guantanamo Bay.

Economic Development: Development /as/ Freedom Much of the world still faces the daily pain of poverty and inequality. Developing countries have to accelerate their growth rates, eradicate poverty, reduce inequalities, create productive employment, and address pressing environmental concerns. We will examine the major analytic and policy issues raised by these challenges and study the need for a productive balance between market forces and positive state action. We will pursue this against the backdrop of Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen’s path breaking work, “Development as Freedom” and bring in case studies from Asia, Latin America and Africa.  We will focus on different development strategies adopted, choice of policy instruments, methods of implementation, all the while asking if development is indeed an integrated process of expansion of substantive human freedoms that connect with one another for a higher purpose.

Guns, Drugs, People: The Illicit Economy in the Global Perspective In this course, we will focus on patterns of illegal activity in the international economy. Students will study phenomena such as illegal trade in arms, animals, and drugs, and the trafficking and smuggling of human beings. The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the systematic analysis of the illicit global economy. Students will be taught to examine the causes of illicit markets, the actors involved (entrepreneurs, consumers, governments), and how markets respond to efforts to combat them. The objective is for students to understand the phenomenon and its drivers, and to translate this understanding into a critical evaluation of current policy approaches.

How Democracies Die After years of expansion since the end of the cold war, democracy now is in retreat. From young democracies in the developing world to bastions of liberal democracy in Western Europe and North America, democratic political systems are under mounting pressure. What are the fundamental features of this recession? What are the driving forces behind global democratic backsliding? Why do people support autocrats? In this course we will tackle these questions and discuss an array of factors that contribute to global democratic recession including the role of the political elite, failing institutions, eroding norms, and the role of ordinary people. In so doing we will delve deeper into economic and social causes of this decline. Our focus will span from global trends to individual cases such as Venezuela, Turkey, Hungary, India, the United States, and the Philippines. (Not open to students who have taken FYSE 1544) 3 hrs. Sem.

Terrorism Terrorism has taken on new dimensions in an age dominated by technology and mass media. It has continued to cause carnage as terrorists around the globe continue to resist violently real or perceived oppression. In this course we will examine the breeding grounds for terrorist activities and interrogate the global connections behind local and national extremist/terrorist groups. We will explore ethno-national and religious terrorist groups from Asia, Europe, and Latin America, and probe white supremacist groups in the U.S. The aim of the course is to develop critical understanding of the phenomenon of terrorism, the local-global connections, and the challenges associated with terrorism in the 21st century.

Ecocriticism and Global Environmental Justice Many global environmental problems—climate change, biodiversity, deforestation, clean water, and transboundary waste movement—are ineffectively managed.  In this course we will take a critical look at these failures and ask: do existing norms and attitudes make effective, sustainable environmental management more difficult?  In doing so, we will examine institutions and phenomena such as the sovereign nation-state, free market capitalism, and the authority of scientific knowledge. We will ask whether sustainable management is compatible with these institutions and phenomena, or whether they contribute to environmental injustice, racism, political marginalization, and gender and class inequity by studying contemporary and historic examples.

The 1940s The 1940s saw enormous and often violent change: a global, destructive war; ongoing privation after the formal end of hostilities; the intensification of national liberation movements; the founding of the United Nations and the establishment of a new global economic order; the beginnings of the Cold War; new artistic expressions; and the reconfiguration of sexual and cultural mores. In this course we will begin with an overview of the global scale of the second world war and, using a comparative approach, focus on examples of individual suffering. We will then study the war’s effects in select countries around the world.

The Rise of Asia and US Policy In this course we will study what is arguably the most important strategic development of the 21st century: how the rise of Asia presents security challenges to the region and the United States. Drawing from international relations scholarship, the course will focus on foreign policy challenges and potential responses. These challenges include both traditional security and nontraditional  areas such as water and the environment. We will integrate the analysis of these issues in South, East, and Southeast Asia with study of the policy process, in part  through simulations and role-playing exercises.

Population Peril? Human Reproduction and Fertility in Postindustrial Countries As postindustrial countries grapple with increasingly low fertility rates, the phenomenon o aging societies with fewer children has become a hot – and contested – topic. In this course, we will critically investigate human reproduction and trends in fertility in various contexts using multiple frameworks, including a reproductive justice lens, environmental and societal perspectives, and gender equity theory. We will address questions such as, are low fertility rates necessarily “bad” for society? How are gender and other identities implicated in different population and family policies? In the latter part of the course, students will develop either a policy recommendation addressing the fertility rate in a given country or a final paper that incorporates original, interview-based research on individuals’ reproductive decision-making.  Holly Hummer is a PhD candidate in Sociology at Harvard University who studies family and demographic trends in the U.S. and East Asia using qualitative methods. She is a 2015 graduate of Middlebury College./

Postcolonial India – 10 Stories In this course we will explore changes in Indian society and literary expression through ten Hindi stories (in translation) by women writers. The course covers the modern post-colonial period defined by urbanization, industrialization in a state-controlled and largely insular economy, two wars with neighbouring countries, a brief, harsh suspension of the democratic process and far-reaching social changes with disintegration of the joint family system. Perhaps the most significant change of all was women becoming economically independent, challenging patriarchy and their angst and defiance finding creative expression in literature. The texts chosen for this course will include short stories representative of the period, originally written by women writers ranging from Shivani and Krishna Sobti to Sara Rai and Geetanjali Shree.  Anukrti has post-graduate degrees in Management and Literature, and a graduate degree in Law. She has written a doctoral thesis on human relationships in Hindi short stories of the period post 1960. She has spent a life-time at global investment banks and is an award-wining author of fiction and poetry in both English and Hindi./

Russia-Ukraine War & Nuclear Order Has conflict between Russia and Ukraine ushered in a new era of nuclear dangers? Nuclear weapons were central to Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine from the outset. Indeed, persistent Russian threats to use nuclear arms and provocations at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station have drawn considerable public attention. In this course, students will think about nuclear weapons in the context of the war. They will consider topics such as implications for (non)proliferation, arms control, disarmament, and the future of the “nuclear taboo” established in the aftermath of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In-class simulations will enable students to better understand how practitioners attempt to analyze and avert nuclear risks. No prior background with nuclear issues is required.  Dr. Stephen Herzog is Professor of the Practice at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. He is an Associate of Harvard University’s Project on Managing the Atom and a former U.S. Department of Energy nuclear arms control official./

Contemporary debates and approaches to feminist theory, gender studies and decoloniality in Latin America This introductory course approaches contemporary debates in Feminist Theory, Gender Studies, and Decoloniality in Latin America. From an intersectional and decolonial standpoint, theoretic materials and other discursivities such as cinema, literature, and art focus on the relationship between sex, sexuality, gender, race, and class, attending questions of sexism, racism, colonialism, capitalism, body, and power. The thematic units also address the history of feminist thought, black feminisms, and the articulations between gender, coloniality and decoloniality; current discussions between feminisms and indigenous movements; masculinities and the relationship between gender and violence; and recent debates in “fourth-wave” feminism, LGBTTTIQNB*, and human rights movements.

Women prisoners in Stalin's labor camps - from lawlessness to rehabilitation: based on E.S. Ginzburg's memoires The course is based on E.S. Ginzburg’s memoir “Into the Whirlwind”. The unique feature of this source is that it gives a detailed description of each trial a common USSR citizen would have to undergo in the 1930s – early 1950s once they had been suspected of committing a political crime. Written by a woman, whose fate was much harder than that of male prisoners, it also gives particular attention to the problem of deprivation of the right to have a family and parent your children in the totalitarian Soviet State.

South America in turmoil: The quest for democratic stability and representation in the Region This seminar highlights the social and institutional challenges that the region faces. First, we will discuss the evolving political and ideological landscape of the last thirty years as well as recent social unrest and protests across the continent. Second, we will review the relevant theories explaining voters’ attitudes and preferences, and how representation and demands are structured by political actors. Third, we will study the underpinnings of democratic consolidation and the risks of authoritarian temptations. Finally, we will center on social evolution, new forms of political participation, and the conflicts that may arise from competing views, discrimination, or unfulfilled representation.

Adi Livny

Amit Prakash

Erik Bleich

German Clulow

Guntram Herb

Holly Hummer

Ian Barrow

Jay Shapiro

Jeffrey Lunstead

Josefina Itoiz

Kemi Fuentes-George

Ludmila Scheinkman

Moyara Ruehsen

Nadia Horning

Natalie Chwalisz

Nicolas Poppe

Sarah Stroup

Sebnem Gumuscu

Stephen Herzog

Sunder Ramaswamy

Timi Mayer

Yumna Siddiqi

Yury Bit-Yunan

Read 67 reviews for International & Global Studies courses at Middlebury College. Find the best International & Global Studies professors and courses.  Discover your new major today!

Out of the two professors teaching the course, I prefer Professor Prakash. He is very enthusiastic about both lectures and discussions and allows breaks between the slideshows. His grading is quite fair, and he accommodates any extension request. However, if you are not a reader (like me), you will find the midterm very nerve-racking as it randomly pulls materials from the assigned reading pile, and you have to know it beforehand. 

I think the content itself was really interesting, but it was not the class I had wanted. If you are not planning to take IGS as major, it is not worth the struggle. There are so much reading every week and if you don't catch up with them, it can be detrimental when you are taking exams. 

Professors Prakash and Ramaswamy are both extremely strong professors. They put lots of time into crafting lectures and leading discussions, but ultimately it was difficult for me to fully engage with the class. If you are not an IGS major I would suggest not taking this class. Although I've learned information that will prepare me for other humanities-related courses at Middlebury, we covered such a wide range of topics that make it difficult to make clear connections between different course sections.