I chose “Peace, Conflict, and Security” as the concentration for my Global Studies certificate, because I wanted to go beyond my Political Science major and develop a working understanding of international conflict resolution in regions around the world. Throughout these courses, I was excited to explore regions that had never previously explored, such as Europe, the Middle East, and countries in South and Central Asia. My primary geographical interest as a Political Science major has been Latin America, and I sought to align my certificate with my major and the Spanish courses that I took during my undergraduate career. In all of the courses that I took, my main concern was identifying the reasons behind independence movements, outrage, and war in countries. I learned that the motivating factors behind all of these events stemmed from a variation of the same three issues: economic inequality, systemic and/or racial inequality, and political instability.
Destiny Harrison-Griffin
Global Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh
Global Studies Coursework
Coursework Descriptions
In the Introduction to Global Studies course, I was able to receive a comprehensive overview of the Global Studies discipline. The course focused on key global issues including, but not limited to, the housing crisis, the water crisis, and food shortages. When looking at the disparities that exist between the Global North and the Global South, the course helped me pinpoint a few of the key causes such as colonialism, predatory legislation, and neoliberalism.
This course allowed me to connect more deeply with my concentration in Peace, Conflict, and Security, because I was able to exclusively focus on the political and socio-economic factors that lead to civil wars throughout the globe. By learning and utilizing a variety of theoretical frameworks such as the bargaining and veto player theories, I unpacked the reasons why the duration of civil wars can be so lengthy as well as mechanisms to help end the wars earlier. I enjoyed that the course emphasized the importance of group work and allowed students the time to brainstorm the ways that we would help put an end to these conflicts if we were in the applicable positions of power. Throughout the course, we analyzed the causes, effects, and possible solutions of both the Syrian and Yemeni Civil War, which provided me with an adequate foundation to analyze and provide solutions for an end to these stalemates.
I feel that the Rebellion Against Authority course was a great way to decipher the reasons why issues revolving around Peace, Conflict and Security can exist. In most of the Political Sciences courses in my major, the discipline focuses on the legislation and theoretical frameworks that has caused political outcomes to occur. On the contrary, this Sociology course adopted a humanistic approach and centered human behaviors as the responses to socio-political and economic inequalities. In the course, we discussed the mechanisms and reasonings behind social justice movements including the Freedom Riders Movement, Arab Springs, and backlash from the Vietnam War.
Within this course, we explored the economic, political, and social context of race and the criminal justice system by investigating the interactions between citizens and the police, court systems, and correctional institutions. By learning about the history of the creation of race as a social construct, I was able to more deeply understand the racial inequalities that exist not only in the US, but also throughout the diaspora and the rest of the world. I was also intrigued when learning about all of the independence movements and intrastate/interstate wars that occur as a result of racial and ethnic conflicts and inequalities, as the concept of race has become one of the most powerful and dangerous social constructions of all time.
In this course, we examined the international origins of organized crime and the introduction of various organized crime groups and practices into the United States. Before we began learning about the various types of organized crime groups and their alliances, we learned of key components that constitute organized crime groups that include but are not limited to, a bureaucratic structure, compartmentalization, points of convergence, and the objective to obtain money through illegal activities. Certain political events were also identified as catalysts for increased organized crime, such as the collapse of the Soviet Union which led to an underground economy of people working outside of the legal framework and Prohibition in the 1920’s.
One of the most interesting concepts that I learned in this class was the importance of psychology in organized crime. “The strain of Anomie” explained that ‘pathological materialism’ which is the fixation of economic success causes people to alleviate their financial burden by turning to crime. Additionally, learning about Differential Association taught me that social enclaves or subcultures that center criminality within intimate personal groups will have a greater percentage of individuals that partake in organized crime. The main organized crime groups that we focused on during this course were various Mafia groups, the Colombian Cartel, and regional gang organizations.
I enjoyed taking this course, because it provided me with the opportunity to understand the complexities of the legal system in a way that I had never before. Instead of viewing the legal system as a set of black and white laws, this course presented the gray areas in the legal system through an anthropological view. One of the trouble cases that we analyzed in this course was the homicide case discussed in the play, “12 Angry Men”. During this analysis, I learned how to analyze the motivating factors such as environment and upbringing that may contribute to a suspect committing a crime as well as the backgrounds of jurors that can sway them in the direction of a guilty or not guilty verdict.
During the final stretch of the course, we also read an ethnography and analyzed the trouble case of the PCC which is an organized crime group in Brazil. This ethnography opened my eyes to circumstances that are prevalent in countries in the Global South, such as government corruption, unsafe conditions, and in this case, unsanitary and harmful prison conditions. Though their values have become skewed over a span of time, this group originally began as an independence movement aimed at correcting the harmful conditions that prisoners face in Brazil on a daily basis.