This class provided an overview of the main language families of the world, as well as their history, phonology, syntax, and morphology. This class enabled me to grow my knowledge of politics and social issues around the world by learning about the history and culture of people who speak different languages. Additionally, we learned about the impact of language contact and about the history of areas where multiple languages are spoken. At the end of this class, we worked in groups to present on a language family of our choosing; this served as a good summary of what we learned over the course of the semester.

I took this course the fall semester of my senior year, as opposed to taking it freshman year like many other intro courses. Despite this, this course served as a great overarching summary for what global studies is and what factors impact people across the world. This course provided an overview of the main topics that global studies looks at and proved that global studies is multidimensional — global studies looks at economic, political, cultural, and ecological factors to paint a picture of the world around us. We completed two papers for this course. In my first paper, I investigated the growing influence of neoliberal capitalism and how it has hurt the majority of the world’s population. In my final paper, I discussed why global warming is continuing to be a multidimensional problem (economic, political, cultural, and ecological), as well as what should be done to mitigate the effects to avoid total climate disaster.

This course comprised of three main sections. First, we began by learning about case studies on Ancient Rome and Imperial Japan to gain perspective on what state narratives and myths were. This taught us how states are able to create a common identity and belief in a population. For this section of the course, I completed a paper investigating how precisely timed mass rituals led to obedience in Imperial Japan. Next, we looked at state propaganda, specifically US propaganda during WWI and WWII and advertisements in the US. Then, each student created their own propaganda and an analysis about the art of it. I completed a propaganda poster that pointed out the pay of CEOs of large companies versus the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour in the US. This was meant to serve as propaganda to increase the federal minimum wage. This class culminated in a content analysis paper on a topic of our choice related to state myth or state propaganda. I completed a content analysis paper on the United States’ and the Soviet Union’s Cold War posters. This paper can be found in the “Research” tab of my portfolio.

I completed this course while on my study abroad program in India. In this course, we mainly focused on the environmental aspect of human rights and human security. Through day trips to forests and mountains in India, we learned about many different plants, animals, and people all involved in the human security story. We learned about sustainable agricultural practices and how these practices are aiding farmers and the environment. One connection I now see after taking Introduction to Global Studies, is that the countries that are going to be most impacted by climate change are the ones who are doing the most to try to curb emissions.

I completed this course while on my study abroad program in Spain. Our professor gave us insight into what immigration in Europe looks like. Throughout the course we learned about the EU, historical immigration, migration flows in Spain as well as Europe, and public opinion. For this course, we were each assigned a country and looked at the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA)’s European Islamophobia Report. I was tasked with researching Austria and the Austria’s far-right party — FPÖ (Freedom Party of Austria). Learning from my research and other students’ research on other European countries helped me to see how far spread Islamophobia is in Europe and how this issue impacts people’s opinions on immigration. Additionally, we had a discussion day in class where we were assigned a player in the Brexit vote, such as a party or political leader. I was assigned the Conservative Party, so I did research on that party’s stance on Brexit and the people in that party’s vote on Brexit. Through this, I learned how the major players in the Brexit debate thought. Our professor, through both of these assignments, taught us how immigration plays a major role in politics internationally.