From interpreting Black Lives Matter in an international context to analyzing YouTube’s influence on the Middle East to researching your next steps in global service, the Hamilton Lugar School is offering a variety of intensive courses that provide a special opportunity for students across IU to enter the field of international studies. In these courses you’ll get one-on-one attention from a renowned professor as you gain a depth of understanding on vital subjects in just a couple weeks.
The August session features an in-person component from August 10 to August 19, and the winter intersession invites students of every year to dive into intensive courses from November 30 to December 14.
Classes incorporate area studies, the connection between global trends and local or national issues, and the skills needed to create a meaningful international career, providing a window into the values and perspective of the Hamilton Lugar School.
August Course Spotlights
Intensive Courses (August 10-19)
Black Lives Matter as a Global Movement (Open only to freshmen)
Professor Hamid Ekbia
Students will look at Black Lives Matter as a human rights movement, its US roots, and history through a global lens and perspective, while exploring how countries around the world are viewing and joining this movement. The course will also touch on the immigrant/refugee/revolutionary perspective and feature a number of guest lecturers from Indiana University and of national renown.
Great Firewalls of China (Open to all students)
Professor Michael Brose
China views the internet as a potent threat to its national security. Borrowing from the traditional model of wall building, China is working hard to construct a “Great Firewall” to address this perceived threat. But China’s new Firewall also has offensive as well as defensive purposes, similar also to premodern physical walls along China’s northern border. We will learn about both sides of China’s Great Firewall in this class, along with some basic knowledge of China’s history, government and society.
Winter intersession courses cover topics such as international criminal tribunals and Arabic language and culture. Several winter intersession courses focus on the skills needed to create a global career after IU, with professors focusing on writing op-eds for global policy debates, data visualization, and navigating the job market, as well as connecting local action to international issues.
Winter Course Spotlights
Winter Intersession Courses for All Students (November 30-December 14)
Women in International Affairs
Instructor Ashlynne Bender
Students will evaluate the barriers and obstacles facing women in international affairs, both from the perspective of women’s absence in careers and leadership roles in the field, as well as the exclusion of women and “women’s issues” in policymaking. Students will hear from a range of guest speakers who will discuss how they have navigated barriers and pitfalls, and provide advice on career and leadership development.
Global Issues Affecting Local Communities
Instructor Ashlynne Bender
Students will select one of a variety of global issues affecting today’s world and complete research to create tangible resources that can be used in their local communities.
![](https://blogs.iu.edu/hamiltonlugar/files/2020/07/HLS-Winter-Intersession-careers-232x300.jpg)
Visualization: Basic Tools and Techniques
Instructor Mindy King
It’s not enough to understand data. You also need to know how to interpret and explain it to others. This course provides foundational skills in data visualization that can be applied across a wide range of disciplines and audiences. Students will develop the fundamental knowledge and skills to communicate trends in quantitative and qualitative data and also learn how to create and edit a variety of charts and present them in dashboards and presentations. All data analysis and assignments will be completed using commonly available software (e.g., Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint).
Black Lives Matter as a Global Movement will also be taught during the winter intersession for students of all years across IU.
Classes at the Hamilton Lugar School draw from departments and majors like International Studies, East Asian Languages and Cultures, the Russian and East European Institute, the African Studies Program, the Center for the Study of the Middle East, and many others to provide students across IU with opportunities to learn about the ideas, people, and trends that shape our world.
At a time when the importance of global affairs has never been clearer, these close-knit classes plunge students into some of our most pressing debates and issues while giving them the opportunity to practice the skills needed to make an impact in the field that excites them.
Our regular-length fall semester courses span the globe and include everything from the International Political Economy of China, to the Politics of Modern Xinjiang, to Global Fake News, to ISIS and Terrorism. Take a look at all of our intensive and semester-long classes. We have a saying at the Hamilton Lugar School: if you wish to make a difference in the world, you have to understand it first.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.