GLST: Global Studies + Self, Culture & Society I
Application Deadline: August 2, 2020
What is the "globe" in Global Studies? Intro to Global Studies introduces the Global Studies major by considering how people have organized and conceptualized political and social difference across space. From World Systems theory and coloniality to the movement of global capital and the problem of the nation-state, we will prioritize approaches offering insight into the unequal distribution and flow of power worldwide. This course will also provide brief introductions to the pressing issues confronting Global Studies today, including public health and infectious disease, borders and migration, climate change, and transnational religious and political movements.
In "Global Viral News Lab," students will track recent journalistic work on the political, economic, and other forms of social fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic through news portals, podcasts, and other media. Ethnic and racial politics, class conflict, and the obsession with quantification have all consistently re-emerged as issues and frequently as dangerous tropes in coverage. Moreover, omnipresent “crisis” narratives often slip into easy justifications for bipartisan corporate bailouts, surveillance, and the unequal access of intricate, amplified social hierarchies. How does the commodification, clickbait news-making, and late capitalist temporalities each pose threats to an ideology of supposedly unmediated, unfiltered, “just the facts” information-sharing (including in academia)? How do viruses, illness, and health emerge as both news stories and metaphors for understanding the contemporary media and social landscape? In this experimental new course, students will relate their weekly findings to recent classics in the history and ethnography of journalism. In tracking contemporaneous reporting on the pandemic, students will consider how their analysis of news connects to those developed by scholars of journalism who have critically considered stories of state collapse, conflict, and other topics of crisis reporting.
The third class in this bundle is a standard Fall section of Self, Culture, and Society (SOSC 12400).
Optional Work Experience:
Students who enroll in the global studies course bundle will also have the opportunity to complete an internship with an employer in their field of interest. Once you’ve been selected for the bundle, please contact Lee Price at lee@uchicago.edu to express your interest in an internship opportunity. Career Advancement will work individually with students to help them find an opportunity that aligns with their interests and career goals.