In Spring 2023, INTS will offer four Special Topics courses for students. Special Topics (courses that end in 90) are new courses not yet in the catalogue. Unlike other courses, students can take the same course number multiple times, provided it is a different course. Please see below descriptions, and feel free to reach out to the instructors with questions!
INTS 290: The Politics of Developing Countries Dr. Murrell Brooks
This course is a general introduction to the political, economic, social factors that has shapes the growth and history of developing countries from the pre-colonial period to the present day. The course’ method of analysis will be grounded in international political economy. Through an inter-disciplinary approach, the course will expose students to the main theoretical schools and conceptual approaches used by political economists to grasp the monumental changes occurring in developing countries. Students will examine factors that have propelled the development of countries such as China, Ethiopia, South Africa, Iran, Turkey, Brazil, and their role in a twenty-first century international system that will be dominated by ‘great power’ competition. Students will interrogate important ideas in the study of developing countries including modernization theory, dependency, neo-liberalism, neo-colonialism, the state, nationalism, and the role women in development. A central question for this course is what role will developing countries play in the Twenty-first century’? To answer this and other questions, we will make use of the lectures, empirical data, documentary film, discussion, and the course readings.
INTS 290: Traditional Ecological Knowledge Dr. Chika Esiobu
There is a growing emphasis on broadening our knowledge of the natural world beyond the narrow confines of pure Western science. Scientific, philosophical, technological, artistic, and other such searches for environmental sustainability actions are increasingly leading to a renewed interest in Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). TEK is knowledge about relationships with the natural surroundings, gathered over hundreds, or even thousands, of years by local communities. This trans-generational knowledge has evolved as a result of communities and their direct interaction with their environment. TEK includes knowledge about geography, plants, forestry, landscapes, animals, animal husbandry, natural events, water management, soil science, the atmosphere, spirituality, and the connections between humans, animals, and plants.
Rather than compete with Western science, researchers are embracing TEK as complementary, and there are efforts towards its mainstreaming in Environmental Sciences. Early on, this course will begin with an emphasis on indigenous knowledge. The aim is to explore the philosophy and politics of knowledge. The early portion of this course will ask who determines what is valid knowledge and what is not. The recent global rise in prominence of TEK in academia and in practice will be examined afterwards. An examination of the intellectual, social, cultural, and spiritual foundations of TEK will take up a portion of the course. Some of the aspects of TEK that will be looked at are agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting, animal husbandry, water management, and fire management.
Empirically, TEK across different regions of the world, including Africa, Asia, South and North America, Europe, and Oceania, will be examined. Topical issues surrounding TEK such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the Convention on Biodiversity, Intellectual Property Rights, Indigenous Language Extinction will be examined towards the latter part of the course.
At the end of this course, students will understand Traditional Ecological Knowledge as a valid way of knowing as distinct from Western science. Students will have a better idea of how TEK can be used to manage the environment in a way that is sustainable at both the local and global levels.
INTS 390: Race, Ethnicity & Human Rights Dr. Lisa MacLeod
The principle of non-discrimination (“on the grounds of race, color, sex, language, religion or social origin”) comprises the core of the international human rights regime. This course explores the international human rights system focusing on the prohibition of discrimination on the basis of race and ethnicity and the protection of minority and indigenous people’s rights. Students explore a range of questions examining the link between social, political, and legal processes, from the local to the global and back again.
INTS 390: Ancient and Medieval African History Dr. Chika Esiobu
The study of African history enhances a student’s understanding of world history. This course will focus on the history of ancient and medieval Africa, with a strong focus on the realities and complexities of those times.
The course begins by looking into the scientific evidence that all humans originated on the African continent. This will be followed by a study of ancient African civilizations such as the land of Punt, Nok, Carthage, and Kush. The course will go on to investigate Egypt as a major civilization that existed on the African continent. An examination of succeeding dynasties, their rulers, notable individuals, and events that distinguished each will be conducted. The course will analyze the writings of researchers who theorize that ancient Egypt was a black African civilization, as well as those who deny such assertions. Then, Alexander the Great’s defeat of Egypt and how it affected Greek, Roman, and modern Western civilization will be looked at. The course will investigate the Bantu migration, which is the most significant movement to have happened since the earliest modern human ancestors left Africa for other continents some hundred thousand years ago. The kingdoms of Africa in the Middle Ages, such as Aksum, Songhai, Great Zimbabwe, Mali, and Ghana, will be studied in depth. This course will examine the massive Trans-Saharan commerce that flourished between the eight and sixteenth centuries, linking the Mediterranean and sub-Saharan Africa across the Sahara Desert. The course will also investigate Iron Age societies in Africa, such as the Nok Civilization, Igbo ukwu bronze items, Ife Art, and Benin Art. The emergence of the Swahili Coast and Swahili City States by Bantu settlers along the East African coast will be studied. Finally, African traditional religion and the medieval history of Christianity and Islam in Africa will be studied in depth.