Curriculum in Global Studies (GRAD)

The master of arts (M.A.) in global studies is a two-year interdisciplinary “applied research” degree that combines scholarly rigor and practical skills. Students enrolled in the program will focus on analysis of transregional and transnational themes, events, and processes that affect states and societies around the world, such as transnational social movements; the diffusion of, and clashes over, political and social norms; and implications of global trade, investment, production, and employment patterns. The program’s courses focus on issues with contemporary global significance and policy relevance. Global studies is an emerging discipline, and UNC–Chapel Hill is at the forefront of defining the field and evolving methodological approaches.

The educational objectives of the program are to:

  • Highlight issues of current and emerging global significance;
  • Prepare current and future leaders with knowledge and analytical skills needed for careers in international work; and
  • Provide an education that trains individuals to understand and respond to the nature of global change.

Students specialize in one of four concentrations: Global Politics, Global Economics, Global Migration, or Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies (REEES).

Facebook: facebook.com/UNCGlobalStudies

Twitter: twitter.com/UNC_GlobalCurr

Requirements for the Global Studies M.A. Degree

The Curriculum in Global Studies offers graduate work for the degree of master of arts (M.A.) in global studies. Students pursue a concentration in one of the following three thematic areas: global politics, institutions, and societies; global economy; or global migration and labor rights. A concentration in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (REEES) is also available, but it has distinct degree requirements. (See below.)

To earn the global studies M.A., the student must fulfill the following curriculum requirements:

GLBL 700Introduction to Research and Theory in Global Studies3
GLBL 701Political Economy of Development3
GLBL 702Global Politics, Institutions, and Societies3
GLBL 703Global Migration and Labor Rights3
GLBL 750Quantitative and Qualitative Methods for Social Sciences and Policy Research3
GLBL 992Master's (Non-Thesis) (3 hours each semester in your second year in program)6
At least five courses in a concentration determined in consultation with the director of graduate studies15
Completion and defense of capstone project
Total Hours36

Further information concerning the global studies M.A. program may be obtained on the program's website or from Dr. Erica Johnson, Director of Graduate Studies, CB# 3263, FedEx Global Education Center, 301 Pittsboro St., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3263. Telephone: (919) 962-0663. Fax: (919) 962-8485.

Requirements for the REEES Concentration in the Global Studies M.A. Degree

The global studies M.A. program also offers a concentration in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (REEES). To earn the global studies M.A. with the REEES concentration, the student must fulfill the following requirements:

Four semester courses in a Slavic or East European language (Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Russian, or Serbo-Croatian)12
Research methods course appropriate to the student's concentration3
HIST 783Introduction to Russian, Eurasian, and East European History3
GLBL 700Introduction to Research and Theory in Global Studies3
GLBL 730Identities and Transitions3
GLBL 993Master's Research and Thesis3
Elective credits9
Completion and defense of a thesis
Total Hours36

Further information on the REEES concentration in the global studies M.A. program may be obtained on the program's website or from Dr. Erica Johnson, Director of Graduate Studies, CB# 3263, FedEx Global Education Center, 301 Pittsboro St., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3263. Telephone: (919) 962-0663. Fax: (919) 962-8485.

Professors

Renée Alexander Craft (Communication), Mark Driscoll (Asian Studies), Banu Gökariksel (Geography), Liesbet Hooghe (Political Science), Arne Kalleberg (Sociology), Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja (African, African American, and Diaspora Studies), Elizabeth Olson (Geography), John Pickles (Geography), Graeme Robertson (Political Science), Milada A. Vachudova (Political Science).

Associate Professors

Inger Brodey (English and Comparative Literature), Chad Bryant (History), Nina Martin (Geography), Townsend Middleton (Anthropology), Michael Morgan (History), Christopher Nelson (Anthropology), Eunice Sahle (African, African American, and Diaspora Studies), Brigitte Seim (Public Policy), Mark Sorensen (Anthropology), Angela Stuesse (Anthropology), Meenu Tewari (City and Regional Planning), Michael Tsin (History).

Assistant Professors

Lucy Martin (Political Science).

Adjunct Assistant Professors

Hannah Gill (Institute for the Study of the Americas), Niklaus Steiner (Political Science) 

Teaching Professors

Erica Johnson (Global Studies), Michal Osterweil (Global Studies), Jonathan Weiler (Global Studies).

Teaching Assistant Professor

Carmen Huerta-Bapat (Global Studies).

GLBL

Advanced Undergraduate and Graduate-level Courses

IDEAs in Action General Education logoGLBL 401.  Right Wing Populism in Global Perspective.  3 Credits.  

This course will examine right wing populism globally. We will consider why right wing populism has gained traction in such diverse places as India, Brazil, Germany, France, Hungary, Britain, and the United States. We will ask what role such factors as religion, ethnicity, economics, and gender play in its rise. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-GLOBAL or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: GL.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoGLBL 413.  Socialist and Decolonial Ecologies.  3 Credits.  

This course will focus on the relation of capitalism and anthropogenic climate change and feature Marxist and Indigenous critiques of capitalism's responsibility for climate change. We will feature an interdisciplinary lens - philosophy, feminist geography, cultural anthropology, socialist economics - that will analyze how the anthropocentric subject of the Enlightenment separated itself from its natural environment.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-GLOBAL.
Making Connections Gen Ed: BN.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, GLBL 210.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
GLBL 415.  Dealing with Difference: Criminal Justice, Race, and Social Movements in Globalization.  3 Credits.  

Recommended preparation, GLBL 210. This course is dedicated to understanding how sameness and difference are used and contested globally, in particular through the criminal justice system and its intersection with race and capitalism. The course pays particular attention to popular social movement responses, and what they say to theories of difference, globalization, and social change.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: GL, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoGLBL 450.  Social Change in Times of Crisis: Knowledge, Action, and Ontology.  3 Credits.  

Examines dominant, alternative, and emergent narratives of change and the future from around the world. Takes as a premise that we live in a period of multidimensional crises characterized by uncertainty and conflict about how to pursue sustainable economic, ecological, political, social, and cultural projects. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: GL, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoGLBL 481.  NGO Politics.  3 Credits.  

This course will investigate how nongovernmental organizations emerge, how they structure their organizations, how they function, and how they influence public policy. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-GLOBAL.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
GLBL 482.  Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Institutions.  3 Credits.  

This course is an introduction to the history and contemporary politics of the post-Soviet region and explores topics of religious, ethnic, and identity politics; international influences; and civil society and social movements. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoGLBL 483.  Comparative Health Systems.  3 Credits.  

This course provides students with an understanding of the origins and comparative performance of a range of international healthcare systems. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-GLOBAL.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
GLBL 484.  History and Politics of Central Asia.  3 Credits.  

This course is an introduction of the history, politics, and societies of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The class explores the foundations and conditions of change in the modern history of these societies and investigates how these issues influence contemporary politics.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoGLBL 485.  Comparative Development.  3 Credits.  

This course is an APPLES service-learning course whose goal is to integrate real-world experience working with development-oriented organizations, theoretical discussions about the origins and evolution of development thinking, and exposure to the challenges facing practitioners of development, in some of its many substantive and geographical contexts.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: HI-SERVICE.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Service Learning.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoGLBL 486.  Sports and Globalization.  3 Credits.  

This course explores some of the relationships between sports and globalization and will delve into sports as an important social and cultural practice within larger social, cultural, and political forces shaping studies of globalization. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-GLOBAL.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoGLBL 487.  Social Movements: Rethinking Globalization.  3 Credits.  

This course explores the history, objectives, and manifestations of global social movements. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-GLOBAL or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: GL, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoGLBL 489.  Paradigms of Development and Social Change.  3 Credits.  

By deliberately juxtaposing questions of global development with an investigation of approaches in community organizing locally--both through course material and service-learning assignments--the course encourages students to develop a more critical understanding of the relationship between development projects and emancipatory frameworks. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-POWER, HI-SERVICE.
Making Connections Gen Ed: BN, EE- Service Learning.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
GLBL 490.  Current Topics.  3 Credits.  

Current topics in international and area studies. Topics vary by semester.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
GLBL 491H.  Major Controversies in Human Rights.  3 Credits.  

A forum for exploring conceptual and practical problems related to the emergence of a global human rights regime after World War II. The course analyzes relevant arguments, and students will consider whether it is possible to construct a coherent, workable, universally accepted system for articulating and enforcing human rights norms.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
GLBL 492.  Global Food Films.  3 Credits.  

Thinking about one of our most basic human needs illuminates aspects of our own everyday lives, such as our relationship to nature, other cultures, and to history, as well as our general assumptions about humanity. Students will study films that explore cross-cultural differences in the social and philosophical understandings of what it is to be human. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoGLBL 691H.  Honors in Global Studies.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor. Preparation for writing the honors thesis.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Mentored Research.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoGLBL 692H.  Honors in Global Studies.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor. Completion of the honors thesis and an oral examination of the thesis.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Mentored Research.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  

Graduate-level Courses

GLBL 700.  Introduction to Research and Theory in Global Studies.  3 Credits.  

Global studies examines world systems, transnational processes, and global-local interactions from a multi-disciplinary perspective. This course will introduce students to current interdisciplinary theoretical approaches to global studies and examine the primary topics of contemporary research relating to the rise of a complex but increasingly integrated world society.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
GLBL 701.  Political Economy of Development.  3 Credits.  

Presents foundational theories, concepts, and empirical research regarding the political economy of development. In content, course will define this topic broadly, from considering the political and economic dynamics of the international community (e.g., aid) as well as the intersection of economics and politics in comparative perspective (e.g., democratization and development).

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
GLBL 702.  Global Politics, Institutions, and Societies.  3 Credits.  

This course will address global governance and global public policy; interactions among states, international organizations, businesses, social movements, and NGOs. It addresses the diffusion and promotion of democracy and other norms and the interactions between political institutions and social cleavages. Students with this concentration must take one appropriate methodology class.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
GLBL 703.  Global Migration and Labor Rights.  3 Credits.  

The course will focus on the interactions of migration, labor rights, human rights, economics, health disparities, and cross-border tensions. Students with this concentration will also take at least one appropriate disciplinary methodology class.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
GLBL 710.  Monitoring and Evaluation for Peacebuilding Interventions.  2 Credits.  

This introductory course offers a review of the core concepts, skills and practical steps in monitoring and evaluation of coexistence and peacebuilding interventions. The course will stress participatory methods in monitoring and evaluation, in which multiple stakeholders are involved in the process of planning, collecting, interpreting, synthesizing, and using information. The course will feature case studies, proposals, and organizational evaluation plans and reports.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
GLBL 730.  Identities and Transitions.  3 Credits.  

Capstone course for the REEES concentration in the Global Studies MA program. Interdisciplinary course focusing on the variety of problems encountered by the societies of East European countries and successor states of the former Soviet Union in their transition from communism to democracy.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: POLI 746.  
GLBL 750.  Quantitative and Qualitative Methods for Social Sciences and Policy Research.  3 Credits.  

This course presents an introduction to qualitative and quantitative research methods. It addresses the theoretical, ethical, and practical aspects of conducting research in local and global contexts. Students will learn how to collect and analyze empirical information from multiple sources such as interviews, focus groups, written records, and surveys. Students will develop the skills necessary to understand and critique the methods of evaluation in others' work.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: PLCY 750.  
GLBL 890.  Special Topics in Global Studies.  1-3 Credits.  

Instructors and topics vary from semester to semester.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit; may be repeated in the same term for different topics; 9 total credits. 3 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
GLBL 893.  Global Studies Internship and Field Experience.  1-9 Credits.  

Students may earn academic credit toward degree requirements for completion of an internship or other field experience. Internship and work load must be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies. Specific guidelines must be followed earn academic credit.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
GLBL 896.  Independent Reading and Research.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor. Reading and research on special topics in global studies.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit; may be repeated in the same term for different topics; 6 total credits. 2 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
GLBL 992.  Master's (Non-Thesis).  3 Credits.  

Master's thesis substitute paper; permission of the instructor required.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit.   
GLBL 993.  Master's Research and Thesis.  3-6 Credits.  
Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit.   

Curriculum in Global Studies

Visit Program Website

301 Pittsboro Street, FedEx Global Education Center, Suite 2200

Chair

Banu Gökarıksel

banug@email.unc.edu

Director of Graduate Studies

Erica Johnson

ericaj@email.unc.edu

Student Services Manager

Zach Ward

wzw59@email.unc.edu

Business Services Coordinator

Julian Lindsay-Kaufman

julianlk@unc.edu