This Critical Thinking Seminar introduces students to the contemporary concepts, issues, and questions related to global business practice and corporate social responsibility.

Global Studies is an interdisciplinary, holistic, and experiential field of study that investigates the most pressing issues facing people around the globe today. This course introduces students to key theories of globalization through topics such as: colonialism, nationalism, transnationalism, and postcolonialism; global economic systems, trade networks, and neoliberalism; diaspora, migration, and the refugee crisis; global media, performance, and expressive culture; global anti-blackness and systemic racism; globalization and its impact on women and minoritized genders; and climate change, health & diseases, and environmental justice.

An introduction to the principle methods of analysis in global studies. Students will gain experience using research tools such as interviewing, focus groups, textual interpretation, participant observation, SWOT analysis, and basic quantitative analysis to research global issues. Prerequisite: Declared Global Studies major or permission of instructor.

This is the culminating course in the Global Studies curriculum, serving to synthesize lessons learned from the previous courses. Course assignments will direct students to review, reflect on, and integrate the knowledge, skills, and attitudes gained from the curriculum; to apply that learning to debates about current global issues; and to articulate the research questions or goals that will drive their next steps in a career or graduate school.

Independent readings, individualized seminars, or field projects in selected areas designed to meet the special interests of advanced students. Prerequisites:Permission of the instructor. May be repeated.

Professional work experience with a global organization such as a business, governmental agency, or non-governmental organization in a specific concentration. The internship in Global Studies course may not be used to satisfy any major requirements. Graded S/U. Prerequisite: permission of department chair. Open to Global Studies majors only.

This Critical Thinking Seminar introduces students to the depth and breadth of human diversity and to the methods anthropologists use to study human diversity. Organized around the material, ecological, and ideological interplay between cultures, this course focuses on the divergent ways that peoples of the world have adapted to their environments, created communities, moderated conflicts, developed cosmologies, and expressed creativity.

A survey of sociocultural anthropology and anthropological linguistics. The course takes a comparative approach to the study of culture. Topics include: family, kinship, and marriage; cultural ecology and economics; political organization; gender roles and socialization; religion and ritual; and culture change. Basic concepts, methods of research, and analytic perspectives are introduced.

A survey of physical anthropology and archaeology. The course follows an evolutionary approach to the development of human life and culture. Topics include: human genetics; comparative primatology; the fossil record; the emergence of human culture; and prehistoric and historic archaeology. Basic concepts, methods of research, and analytic perspectives are introduced.

An introduction to anthropological approaches to race and racism, this course explores why race persists as a powerful social force and cultural idea despite its fallacy as a biological concept. Topics covered include human biological diversity, racial hierarchies around the world, historical and contemporary intersections of race and sexuality, and racism in everyday language use.

This course introduces students to anthropological theories and methods for the critical analysis of gendered structures of inequality globally. By comparing culture specific ideas and practices, anthropology provides a unique lens for understanding the cultural construction of gender identity. As we explore gender identity cross-culturally, students will also discover their own culturally formed, taken for granted, notions of the role of gender. Topics explored include: the saliency of the categories man and woman; the relationships between race and gender; the role of colonialism and neocolonialism in the representation of gender, sex and sexuality; and the role of gender in the family and the household, the realm of religion and the world of work.

In settler societies, Indigenous peoples face a variety of social and institutional pressures to conform to certain expectations. These range from the need to be recognized by the state in order to have rights, to pressures associated with the representation of Native peoples in media. Indigenous people face considerable tensions between embodying external stereotypes and racial expectations, while trying to forge individual and collective identities that go beyond these expectations. In this seminar, we will engage with recent scholarship in Native American and Indigenous Studies that addresses indigeneity as a political status, a supposed biological category, a social experience, and a point of departure for political involvement and activism. Our readings will also engage feminist and queer perspectives on the problem of authenticity and we will devote attention to the appropriation of Indigenous culture by non-Indigenous people. Geographic focus includes North and South America, Oceania, and some examples from Europe and Asia. Moreover, we will discuss indigeneity as a source of global affinity among colonized peoples and as a human rights framework within the United Nations.

In the midst of global climate change, environmental crises surrounding water resources, and the concomitant national and international conflicts over water, humans all around the world are coming to grips with our complete dependence on water. Indeed, as the source of life, water is deeply imbricated in our understanding of the past, present, and future of human life on earth. This course investigates our long-term engagement with water through cultural ecology, environmental history, visual, literary and ethnographic sources. We will explore the flow of cultural meanings of water as well as political contestation over water resources globally. And, paying particular attention to the gendered engagements and aspects of sustainability, we will cross the world through case studies of rivers, lakes, oceans and urban water infrastructures as they connect life on this planet. And in these case studies – of Lake Michigan, Lake Titicaca, Peru, the Bay of Bengal, Bali, Indonesia, the Mekong, Vietnam, Yunnan, China, and the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia – we will examine connections and disconnections among social movements focused on sustainability.

The presentation of selected subjects not included in regular departmental offerings. The course content and format will be determined by student and faculty interest. Materials may be organized variously according to culture area, theme, or issue. Prerequisites established by the instructor. May be repeated with a different topic.

Independent readings, individualized seminars, or field projects in selected areas designed to meet the special interests of advanced students. Prerequisites: 6 hours in ANTH, junior or senior status, and permission of the instructor. May be repeated.

Work in an approved anthropological setting such as a museum or research center under professional supervision. Graded S/U. Prerequisites: 9 hours in ANTH and permission of the department chair. May be repeated.

This course provides an introduction to understanding the cultural construction of individual and collective identities such as race, class, gender, sexuality, and religion. We will begin by establishing a theoretical understanding of what culture is and how it operates, both globally and locally. And then we will examine how colonization and imperialism impact cultural conflict in the US and around the world. Key issues covered include how race has been constructed historically and culturally; how power and privilege perpetuate interpersonal, systemic, and institutional racism; and how to challenge racism and other forms of oppression. By the end of the semester, students will have a foundation for understanding and addressing inequality in our interconnected world.

Intercultural Engagement is an on-line course offered to students enrolled in a study abroad program; it is designed to help develop intercultural competence by engaging students in critical reflection and analysis of their experience of living abroad. Graded H/S/U. Corequisite: enrollment in a study abroad program.

Intercultural Engagement is an on-line course offered to students enrolled in a study abroad program; it is designed to help develop intercultural competence by engaging students in critical reflection and analysis of their experience of living abroad. Graded H/S/U. Corequisite: enrollment in a study abroad program.

This class will combine reflection and analysis of the experiences of immigration, deportation, and asylum-seeking refugees while traveling and doing service projects at Catholic Charities’ Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen, TX.

Topics of special interest in Intercultural Studies not covered in the regular offerings of the program. May be repeated with different topic.

Diversity Dialogues uses the framework of a “study circle” to conduct a series of structured conversations that deal with questions of race and identity and ways that participants might bring change to their local setting. The study circles that form the basis of this course will include both students and members of the campus and local communities, insuring a wide range of experiences and insights on the subject of race. Respect for each other’s ideas and allowing everyone a fair hearing are hallmarks of the study circle approach; the process of building relationships between members of the group is as important as the issues discussed. The study circle is small-group democracy in action; all viewpoints are taken seriously, and each member has an equal opportunity to participate. Graded S/U. (Also listed as JUST 310).

The Catalyst Trip is an immersive learning trip offered every other year during the fall break. It combines a series of experiences with critical reflection in an intense five-day trip, traditionally to southern Ohio and the city of Cincinnati. When possible, the Catalyst trip includes community women as participants in addition to Saint Mary’s students. The Catalyst Trip includes a pre-departure workshop plus 5 days during Fall Break (inclusive of two half-days of travel between South Bend and the immersion destination).

Topics of special interest in Intercultural Studies not covered in the regular offerings of the program. May be repeated with different topic.

This course is designed to provide upper-level students the opportunity to examine intercultural issues using a framework and content of their own design. Prerequisite: ICS 201 or permission of advisor. May be repeated.

Community-based experience in an intercultural studies related field at an approved site. Jointly supervised by a faculty member and a representative from the sponsoring agency. Must be approved by the Director of the Intercultural Studies Program. Student will submit a reflection paper appropriate to the nature of the internship within two weeks of the end of the internship. Graded S/U. May be repeated.

Topics of special interest in Intercultural Studies not covered in the regular offerings of the program. May be repeated with different topic.

This course is designed to provide upper-level students the opportunity to examine intercultural issues using a framework and content of their own design. Prerequisite: ICS 201 or permission of advisor. May be repeated.

Internship opportunity. May be repeated.