Introduction to International and Global Studies

Student Learning Outcomes, Goals, Objectives:

Students successfully completing this course will be able to:

MAC Global Engagement & Intercultural Learning Student Learning Outcomes

• Describe dynamic elements of different cultures.
• Explain how similarities, differences, and connections among different groups of people or global systems affect one another over time and place.

General Course Student Learning Outcomes

• Analyze globalization as a historical and contemporary process using interdisciplinary perspectives.
• Evaluate how global issues, including climate change, migration, and inequality, are shaped by interactions between political, economic, and cultural systems.
• Communicate complex global issues effectively through writing and oral presentation.

Course Goals

• Introduce students to the interdisciplinary field of International and Global Studies.
• Develop students’ understanding of the historical foundations, institutions, structures, and processes associated with globalization.
• Help students recognize the connections among political, economic, cultural, social, and environmental systems.
• Strengthen students’ ability to examine global issues from multiple disciplinary and cultural perspectives.
• Encourage informed and respectful engagement with cultural differences and global interdependence.
• Develop students’ skills in critical reading, analytical writing, discussion, oral presentation, and the application of course concepts to contemporary events.

Course Objectives

• Identify and explain key concepts associated with globalization and International and Global Studies.
• Examine how colonialism, industrialization, international institutions, migration, trade, technology, and environmental change have shaped contemporary global systems.
• Apply interdisciplinary concepts and theories to historical and current global issues.
• Analyze the relationships among local communities, national governments, international organizations, corporations, and transnational networks.
• Compare the experiences and perspectives of different cultural and social groups.
• Explain how global systems affect communities differently across time and place.
• Connect current international events to course readings, lectures, discussions, and media.
• Interpret maps, timelines, case studies, documentary films, and other forms of evidence.
• Construct clear, coherent, and evidence-based written and oral arguments about global issues.
• Reflect critically on their own assumptions and responsibilities within an interconnected world.

Course Grading Information:

Activity/Performance Measure	Percentage/Points
In-Class Short Exams	60%
Participation and Current Event Presentation	20%
Migration Documentary Response	10%
Final Open-Format Critical Engagement Project	10%

Grading Scale

Percentage	Letter Grade
94.0–100%	A
90.0–93.9%	A-
87.0–89.9%	B+
83.0–86.9%	B
80.0–82.9%	B-
77.0–79.9%	C+
73.0–76.9%	C
70.0–72.9%	C-
70.0–72.9%	D
Below 60.0%	F

Attendance/Participation:

Regular attendance and active participation are essential to success in this course. Much of the learning will take place through lectures, discussions, short exams, group activities, simulations, presentations, and the analysis of course media. Students are therefore expected to attend every class meeting, arrive on time, remain for the full class period, and participate actively.

Active participation includes:

• Completing assigned readings before class
• Bringing required materials to class
• Contributing thoughtfully to discussions and activities
• Asking relevant questions
• Listening respectfully to classmates
• Participating constructively in group work
• Remaining attentive and avoiding unrelated use of electronic devices
• Completing in-class exams, exercises, and other assigned activities

Missing more than two classes without an excused absence may lower the student’s final course grade. Attendance will also affect the Participation and Current Event Presentation grade because in-class activities and discussions cannot always be recreated outside the classroom.

An absence may be excused when it results from a documented emergency, illness, religious observance, required University activity, or another circumstance recognized under University policy. Students should notify the instructor as early as reasonably possible and are responsible for obtaining notes, announcements, and missed materials.

Because short exams are administered during class, students who miss an exam will not normally be permitted to make it up. Make-up exams will be considered only in cases of a documented emergency or an absence officially recognized by the University.

Merely being physically present does not constitute full participation. Participation grades will reflect the student’s preparation, consistency, engagement, and contribution to the learning environment throughout the semester.

Course Materials Purchased by the Students:

No purchase required. The course text, Shawn Smallman & Kimberley Brown, Introduction to International and Global Studies (3rd ed., UNC Press, 2020), is available through the library: https://www-jstor-org.proxy180.nclive.org/stable/10.5149/9781469660011_smallman