Current Events and Global Issues

 

Course Summary:  This junior/senior elective is a course where you will examine what is going on in the world today through reading, research, writing and discussions.  First - Through the use or a range of News articles/commentaries, you will have current news stories to examine and discuss.  The historical background of important events will be looked at as they come up.  You will also be required to follow the news and report on major news stories on a regular basis.  Second - during the first quarter we will conduct some in depth examinations of major issues facing the world today.  Examples of some of the topics and areas we may look at includes the situation in regions of Africa, the troubles in the Middle East, the role of the United States in the world, terrorism, the environment, Global Hotspots and possible/current problems in the other regions of the world (i.e., China, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, the Balkans, South America, Afghanistan, southeast Asia, etc.). We will also look at the many international attempts to end and prevent conflicts.  You will be expected to develop a greater understanding of the world today and your place in it.  My goal for you is to further develop research, discussion and written skills.  Regular examination of other media sources as well as the ability to evaluate major events will be required.  You are expected to complete all research projects/activities, as well as reading required book and a range of articles.  Regular writing prompts may also be given to evaluate your understanding of regularly assigned magazine articles. We will have regular discussion posts to show your engagement with the materials we use in class and with each other.

Third – We will be spending time, slowly reading through a very important Book: CASTE, by Isabelle Wilkerson.  this book is a very important publication that can help us reframe and understand the inequalities and long standing Racism that the United States has faced and help frame this system of inequality through a historical and comparative narrative.  Human beings do create hierarchies for societies and Racism is a form of Caste system.  This is important work for us to do.

During the class,  we will be examining the extremely important issues of International Law, Human Rights and specifically, Genocide, one of the most horrific and complicated issues we are still facing in the world today.  We will be looking at a number of genocides of the 20^th century, evaluate the possibility that this terrible crime can occur again in the 21^st century (which it is: in Darfur, China, Myanmar) and how the international community can prevent future genocides or ethnic cleansing programs through international legal systems, humanitarian organizations, education and the attempts/failures at prevention and intervention.