INTL 106 - Perspectives in International Studies

Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)

Topic for 2025/26a: Voices of Justice: Writing on International Studies and Human Rights. This first-year writing seminar introduces students to the craft of academic writing through the interdisciplinary lens of international studies and human rights. With a particular emphasis on Latin America, the course explores pressing global issues using the foundational categories of human rights: civil, political, economic, social, and cultural. Through engagement with scholarly texts, case studies, legal frameworks, and multimedia sources, students develop the ability to analyze, interpret, and write critically about real-world challenges such as inequality, political repression, migration, women’s rights, and environmental justice. In addition to developing their analytical writing and thinking, students develop research strategies, learn to navigate academic databases, and practice citing sources responsibly. This course is particularly valuable for students interested in international studies, Latin American studies, feminist studies, and human rights. Tracey Holland.

Open only to first-year students; satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar.

An introduction to the varied perspectives from which an interdependent world can be approached. Themes which the course may address are nationalism and the formation of national identity, state violence and war, immigration, religion, modernization, imperialism, colonialism and postcolonialism, indigenous groups, cultural relativism, and human rights. These themes are explored by examining the experiences of different geographic areas. This multidisciplinary course uses texts from the social sciences and the humanities. The particular themes and geographic areas selected, and the disciplinary approaches employed, vary with the faculty teaching the course. Mariam Rashid.

This course is required for all International Studies majors. Sophomores and first-year students should take this course if they are interested in pursuing an International Studies major.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS