Patrick Lynn Rivers

In 2003, Nikhil Pal Singh and Andrew F. Jones co-edited a special issue of positions, an insightful journal delving into the nuances of cultural critique with Asia and its diaspora at the center. Singh and Jones began with an underlying assumption. Specifically, if the 20th century was the American Century, the 21st century would be the century where Africa and Asia¿s historical links (economic, political, and especially cultural) would set the stage for the ascendance of two continents and their diasporas with both converging and diverging colonial pasts. This course is used to revisit this argument by assessing where Africa, Asia, and their diasporas are in the Afro-Asian Century. Course texts mostly consist of readings (scholarly, creative, and journalistic writing) and films that address African and Asian cosmopolitanism and power. This cosmopower unfolds mostly through music, film, kung fu, photography, dance, and literature. All texts will be available on Canvas. Evaluation is based on quizzes, a midterm and final exam, and a short final paper as capstone assignment.

The course is a general introduction to politics in the United States, closely examining several current policy debates. Significant attention is given to the ways that the critical engagement and intervention of artists, writers, and other creators contribute to and shape these debates. Topics include but are not confined to Iraq and the politics of war, globalization and economic change, immigration 'reform,' global warming and environmental politics, cultural policymaking.

This introductory course is used to historicize globalization as well as to understand its contemporary dimensions. Emphasis is placed upon analyzing the rationales underlying globalization, the emergence of institutions making globalization possible, manifestations of globalization in culture (especially art and popular culture), and resistance to globalization as shaped by race, nation, gender, class, and their intersections. Possible authors and texts include Saskia Sassen, Deciphering the Global: Its Spaces, Scales and Subjects; Anita Chan, et. al., Chen Village: Revolution to Globalization; Ann Marie Stock, On Location in Cuba: Street Filmmaking During Times of Transition; Valentine Moghadam, Globalizing Women: Transnational Feminist Networks; and McKenzie Wark, A Hacker Manifesto.

This is an introductory course providing a foundation for the study of major issues in international politics. This politics is shaped at the nexus of global security challenges and economic precarity in the Global North and South. The most recent iteration of this nexus has led to an inward turn as marked by the election of Donald Trump, Brexit, and burgeoning nationalist and populist movements from Brazil to France and Italy to the Philippines. Now, international politics finds itself with a second Trump presidency that views international norms as optional. Europe wonders what to do as lonely defenders of a waning post-WWII order that made them richer. China, as leader of ¿emerging powers,¿ has sought to challenge American power understood by many to be neocolonial and imperial. Course topics and texts (all on Canvas) reflect the course¿s major themes: international relations theory and feminist international relations; national security policy and practice; international political economy and globalization; the rules-based order; conflicts in the Middle East, Sudan, and Ukraine; Global South visions of a new world order; global climate change politics. Forms of evaluation include the following: quizzes, a midterm and final exam, and a short final paper as capstone assignment.