International Conflict The Origins of Global Fury Afghanistan and the Origins of Global Fury - Spring 07 Afghanistan and the Origins of Global Fury - Fall 06 Cuba and Haiti Religious Revolutions and violence Haiti and the Caribbean Contemporary Issues in International Relations Introduction to International Relations South Asia in a Global and Historical Context Politics of the Third World

Seeing "War of the Worlds": Global politics through Popular films Music of the African Diaspora Worlds of Music Musical Meaning in a Global Context Politics and Literature

Global Political Economy of Oil Understanding Capitalism Foundations in the Political Economy

Ideas and Ideology Love, Hate and Sexual Desire Under Colonialism Junior Year Honors Seminar: Cultural Encounters, 1999-2000

PSC 351.100
Contemporary Issues In International Relations
MWF 1:55-2:50 132 Lyman

Naeem Inayatullah
Qiong xie

I. Course Format: This is an experimental course. It differs from other courses in three important ways. First, all the readings are either novels, memoirs, or travelogues of some type. Second, there will be no lectures unless students request them. After the first week, every session will be allotted for discussion. Third, there is no explicitly theoretical material. Theoretical and historical materials can be introduced but must be requested by students.

II. Assumptions and Goals: Four assumptions motivate the design of this course: 1) I consider theory, history, geography and other aspects of social sciences as crucial in understanding contemporary issues in (what we still call) international relations. However, I have found that most students think of the technical nature of social science as an obstacle in developing their interests. 2) Usually social science asks us to sever our emotions from our analysis. The idea is that an emotional absence contributes to objectivity. While there is a grain of good sense in this idea, my experience suggests that emotional intensity and engagement is a necessary prelude to developing an interest in theory, history, and geography. 3) In North American academic institutions, contemporary international issues are usually treated as something that exist outside the self, family, classroom, nation, and state. The hidden assumption behind this thinking is that issues, events, and especially crisis have little to do with our lives because they occur to others in far away places. I think this way of thinking is not only wrong but dangerous both to North Americans and to all people of the world. 4) Contemporary issues are usually the stories about powerful leaders, great and weak states, clear or hidden ideas. Rarely, however are contemporary issues concerned with the story of everyday people understanding, struggling, and resisting as they build their lives. Overlooking this everyday aspect of the global reality may lead to missing important transformative possibilities both for our lives and for the world at large.

The goals of this course, then, are: 1) to allow the lives and insights of everyday people as revealed by textual narratives, to affect us emotionally; 2) to use that emotion in exploring our complicity and our responsibility in the creation of contemporary issues; and 3) to theorize and speculate on our creative role in transforming ourselves and our world.

These are some of the central assumptions of this course. Within the context of these themes we have two pedagogical goals which are described as follows: 1) To help you clearly understand your own values and thinking process. The goal is never to change your values nor to reject your thinking. Rather, by the end of the course we hope that you will begin a) to understand why you hold your specific values and b) to recognize the specific rhythm of your thinking process. 2) To help you to arrive at a judgement about the ethics of our way of acting in the world. Thinking and understanding clearly usually suggests a change in our life style or world view. This is one reason why learning is both dangerous and fulfilling.

III. Readings:

Ivo Andric, The Bridge on the Drina, Translated by Lovett E. Edwards, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977 [1945]).

Liana Badr, A Compass for the Sunflower, translated by Catherine Cobham, (London: The Women's Press, 1979)

Elisabeth Burgos-Debray (editor) I, Rigoberta Menchu, (New York: Verso, 1983)

Merle Collins, Angel, (Seattle: The Seal Press, 1987)

Assia Djebar, A Sister to Scheherazade, translated by Dorothy S. Blair, (London: Quartet Books, 1987)

Slavenka Drakulic, The Balkan Express: Fragments From the Other Side of the War, (New York: W.W. Norton, 1993).

David Grossman, The Yellow Wind, translated by Haim Watzman, (New York: Delta , 1988)

Jean Said Makdisi, Beirut Fragments: A War Memoir, (New York: Persea Books, 1990) pp. 1-253.

All Books are available at the Orange Student Book Store on Marshall Street.

IV. Assignments: There are seven written assignments for this course. These consist of turning in an intellectual journal four times during the term and three essays. Each assignment may be between 1250-2500 words. Please mark the following schedule on your calendar:

First journal due: Sept 15
First essay due: Sept. 29
Second journal due: Oct. 13
Second essay due: Oct. 27
Third journal due: Nov.10
Third essay due: Dec. 1
Fourth journal due: Monday Dec. 13

I will pass out suggestions on how to write journals and essays for this class before the end of the second week.

We will count the best six of your seven assignments towards your final grade. Each assignment counts towards 1/6 of your overall grade. No one will be assigned a grade which is below the averages of their six grades. In calculating the final grade, however, we reserve the right to bring into consideration such things as general improvement, the excellence of any one assignment, attitudes and actions which are deemed to facilitate the learning experience, and creative and synthetic efforts.

V. The Evaluation Process and the Meaning of Grades: The course is designed to respond to the content and form of your writing on a regualar basis. We will comment both on the strengths and weaknesses of your presentation You are expected to take up these comments during office hours. The written comments and the oral conversation will help you to know what we expect and will help us find out your needs and concerns. Evaluators always respond best to your needs if you show a concern for the ideas, an awareness of their criticism, and an appreciation for their efforts. Concentrate on these aspects of the conversational process and the grades will take care of themselves. Of course, disagreements are always a part of any conversation. There is always room to discuss your concerns.

Grades are assessed on bringing together two criteria. The first is absolute and external the second is relative and internal. On the one hand, your work will be assessed on the basis of the norms of clarity, organization, coherence, logical flow, creativity, depth, and intensity. We have all been in the practice of teaching long enough to know how to make such judgements. On the other hand, each of you will be assessed according to your specific development. That is, each one of us is in a different situation in our educational process. Our assessment of your work will be based partly on your progress relative to your starting point in this course (The criteria will differ slightly between the journal and the essay.)

While evaluation can be a rewarding process, no one I know likes to assign grades. In this course, grades serve merely as shorthand for characterizing the evaluation process. They say nothing about your general capacity, your intrinsic worth as a human being, nor do they forecast your ability to grow and learn in the future. Keeping this in mind, here is what we may mean by assigning the following grades. A "C" means either that an adequate amount of effort is noticeable, or that that effort is somewhat mis-focused or mis-targeted. A "B" means either that good effort is coupled with a fairly good understanding of what is being asked. An "A" reveals both intense effort and remarkable achievement. At the other end of the scale, a "D" means either that an inadequate amount of effort is being put forth or that strong effort seems to have been mis-targeted. That is, there is little overlap between the our expectations and the your efforts. An "F" means little or no effort is noticed or that there is a complete misunderstanding about expectations. Receiving a "D" or an "F" means that we want to see you as soon as possible.

Finally, keep in mind that the evaluation and grading process is reciprocal. You will also be evaluating our performance. We hope that you will also make this a regular process. You should know that your formal evaluation of us at the end of the term means a lot to us in two ways. First, it affects our standing within the department and the university both socially and financially. Second, and more important, it is often seen as the best indicator of the effectiveness of our efforts. You will need to let us know how intense and how much on target our efforts were. Your evaluation will directly influence how we teach future courses.