Approaches to Global Thought

Challenges confronting the world today require multiple perspectives, approaches, and methods to grasp their complexity and devise responses and solutions. Whether addressing the climate crisis, public health threats, global and local inequities, social problems, geopolitical tensions, or any number of other problems, all demand the expertise developed in disciplinary training as well as flexible thinking and the ability to collaborate and solve problems across disciplinary boundaries. This course places students with different majors into conversation with each other to consider the approaches of their own disciplines, learn about the methodological “tool kits” of other fields, investigate examples of transdisciplinary research, and work with their classmates to design their own problem-centered collaborative projects.

• T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Laura L Neitzel
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 4 points

MA SEMINAR IN GLOBAL THOUGHT II

Building upon M.A. Seminar I’s global approach to core issues and conversations with CGT Faculty, M.A. Seminar II tackles new topics and supports the completion of student research and writing. Multi-week modules will continue building discussions around key questions, engaging with guest speakers, and applying new perspectives to hard problems. Research workshops will address common challenges in turning research into writing, engaging sources and citation, and communicating your findings beyond the scope of this class.

• T 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Laura L Neitzel
  CULPA: 1 Info
• Instructor: Sarah A Miller-Davenport
  Info
• 4 points

Global Political Economy

According to a recent article in
The Economist
, 2020 marks “the year when everything changed” and a “turning-point” in human history and the global economy. Indeed, the current era of economic globalization, which until recently appeared inevitable to many observers, now faces numerous challenges—including the disruption of supply chains, the closing of borders, and sharp falls in economic output. However, the global economy was already encountering strong headwinds prior to the emergence of COVID-19 due to factors such as ballooning inequality, the climate crisis, rising nationalist and xenophobic sentiment, and increasing support for protectionism and skepticism of both “free trade” and (global) capitalism itself.  

This course centers around analyzing the structure of the contemporary global economy, its political origins and inherently political nature, and how power is exercised therein by actors including states, corporations, and international institutions. As we will highlight throughout the semester, the global economy shapes the lives of people all over the world, including our own. 

Specifically, we will discuss the rise and consolidation of today’s neoliberal global order, its “governance,” and the various forms of backlash against it that are currently proliferating. We will also carefully analyze the role of race, class, and gender in the global economy, as well as the persistence of colonial legacies, and the ongoing relevance of North-South and other inequalities. Additionally, we will discuss how issues such as climate change, U.S.-China relations, and the pandemic itself may shape the future trajectory of the global economy.

To shed light on these and related matters, we will critically engage with the contributions of a diverse array of classic and contemporary thinkers who have sought to
theorize
the global economy, and the dynamic interplay between politics and economics, in different ways.

• W 10:10 a.m.-noon
• R 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Kevin Funk
  h-index: 6 Info
• 3 points

Culture and Identity in Global Issues

Culture Identity Global I

Pick up any news article today, and you’ll see references to culture, identity, and globalization. The growth of white nationalism in the United States. The prolonged politics of Brexit in Europe. The rise and fall of the Islamic State across the Middle East. Constructions of culture, identity, and globalization appear all around us. In fact, all of you invoked these terms in your essays to join our Master’s program in Global Thought.

So join me for a deep dive this semester to investigate what we mean by these terms. How do people define culture, identity, and globalization? What kinds of work do these loaded words do? Are their definitions the same or different across societies? How have various academic disciplines defined these terms? How can analyzing debates over their use in psychiatry, psychology, and anthropology help us understand contemporary events?

The goal of this seminar is to explore a wide range of sources on culture, identity, and globalization.
We start with big thematic ideas like culture and identity at the beginning of the course and then focus on particular issues such as nationalism and immigration.
The point is not to side with any single author, but to make our assumptions explicit when we use these terms and to better analyze the arguments of others.

• M 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Ramona H Bajema
  Info
• 3 points

GLOBALIZATION&THE PROBLEMS OF WORLD ORDE

We are currently living through a significant transformation of some of the core features of the international system, or what is more broadly often referred to as, “world order.” Several recent events have highlighted and impacted this sweeping change. The first is the failure of multilateral institutions (such as the UN, WHO or even the G-7 countries) to meet the challenge of the 2020 Covid pandemic. The failure of international collective action is also an obstacle to tackling the effects of global warming. In both cases narrow national interests trumped transnational values.  The second is the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine which highlights the failure of multilateral institutions (such as the UN Security Council) to protect the independence of territorial nation-states, a principal unit of the international system since 1945. Narrow national interests continue to outweigh the commitment to the long-standing norm of territorial integrity of nation-states as the foundation for the modern post-imperial international order. Nationalism remains the most powerful force in international affairs. Third, the optimism of the post-Cold War (post-1989) era that economic globalization would lead to the liberalization of China and Russia has now almost entirely faded. The current moment is marked by the rise of these authoritarian states (together with Iran and others) which are seeking to overturn the Western liberal international order  that was established after 1945. This Western order consists of three components: capitalist market economics, democratic self-rule and universal human rights, and peaceful diplomacy as the preferred way to manage inter-state conflicts. In its stead we are seeing in major parts of the world the persistence of socialist command economies, the rise of illiberal authoritarianism, and a return to 19th century patterns of war and conquest. Finally, the era of expanding globalization, driven by capitalist economic integration across the globe, appears to be over. The world is de-globalizing.

This course will examine some of the key institutional challenges and most vexing conceptual controversies in the current rethinking, some might say turmoil, over global governance and competing forms of world order. These debates reveal at least two key features. First, a depth of disagreement about the shape of the international system which is arguably unprecedented in the last seventy years. Almost every dimension of global government and governance is today the subjec

• W 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Kian Tajbakhsh
  Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

INDS APPROACHES GLOBAL THOUGHT

This course supports the interdisciplinary M.A. in Global Thought by encouraging students to attend events, workshops, lectures, and conferences on global issues at Columbia, throughout New York City, and in the era on online everything—around the world at relevant institutions. It supports and encourages students to maximize their intellectual enrichment during their time at Columbia and supports their research projects and plans for placement post-degree.

Students earn credit in this course by writing thoughtful and critically engaged reflection papers on the substance of lectures, workshops, and academic meetings attended at Columbia and other institutions in New York City and beyond.

For each event, the student writes a brief response (no less than 1 page/350 words) that is posted to CourseWorks within 
three days
 of the event. The work receives comments from the instructor intended to provoke further thought and engagement.

Students may register for one, two, or three credits: 


One credit = students must attend four events (one must be CGT-related event)

Two credits = students must attend eight events (two must be CGT-related events)

Three credits = students must attend twelve events (three must be CGT-related events)


Additionally, students must attend two online sessions for the course – one at the start and the other at the end of the semester. In the first session, we will discuss what types of event qualify for the course and how to compose reflection papers.  

Three criteria will be introduced:  1) Writing analytically; 2) Thinking across disciplines, and 3) Critically reflecting on global issues through event selection and response papers.

• Instructor: Linn C Mehta
  CULPA: 18 Info
• 1-3 points