Overview
- International Study Paper
- A 1200-1500-word paper that compares two of the course themes with a global studies approach and current events. Cite readings/lectures appropriately. You can cite things from outside course but focus on the class.
- Focusing on one main theme (like immigration) but subordinating it to another week’s theme (monarchy)
Focus on two themes equally (maybe from the same week or from different weeks). Let’s say you focus on one week (then find 2 themes that drawing on my lecture, guest lecture, and reading)
Focus on 2+ or more major themes (big themes and/or subthemes), you can even do 3 or 4 (all weeks), but that’s a different scope - Come up with an original argument (most college papers are persuasive papers) that is creative, original, different, unique, cool. More than just summaries or simple compare and contrast papers or open-ended essays
- Example：
- Let’s say you like the unit on elite Indian law firms but you also like the unit on Thailand’s gender fashion. At first, they have nothing in common but…
- You might talk about the similar globalization strategies of two middle-income nations as a matter of responding to Western nations (maybe call it accidental globalization?)
- You might even think of the Thai government as branding itself the way an Indian law firm might (Thai Inc.)
- You might think of accidental feminism happening in Thailand (where the speaker obviously mentioned there was sexism in fashion, but you can argue otherwise there is something else there for women’s empowerment
- WEEK 1：nationalism and Thailand
- Read: Thepboriruk, Kanjana Hubik. "Dressing Thai: Fashion, Nation, and the Construction of Thainess, 19th Century–Present." Journal of Applied History1-2 (2020): 112-128.
- WEEK 2： law and regionalism
- Read: Cabatingan, Lee. “A Myth.” A Region among States: Law and Non-sovereignty in the Caribbean. University of Chicago Press, 2023, pp. 34-58.
- WEEK 3：immigration and crime
- Read: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.432... In K. Kempadoo, and E. Shih (eds.), White Supremacy, Racism, and the Coloniality of Anti-Trafficking. Routledge, 2022, pp. 65-78.
- WEEK 4：gender and professionalism
- Ballakrishnen, Swethaa S. Foci: “Market Liberalization and the Changing Nature of Professional Work,” Accidental Feminism: Gender Parity and Selective Mobility among India’s Professional Elite. Princeton University Press, 2021, pp. 23-44.
- ESSAY PROMPTS
Prompt for Essay #1: Theme: Rules and Norms
Think about the ways that we create, organize, and manifest social divisions through objects and things. How do they appear or vanish into what seems “natural”? Who benefits or loses from these divides or stratifications as dictated by tradition, elites and rulers? Produce a unique perspective on a world divided theme using your class sources. You can still address how we can come together but focus on what categorically separates/divides/demarcates us.
Prompt for Essay #2: Theme: People and Places
Consider how people and places are united. What brings people, groups, and communities together? Is it easy? What common struggles or goals are able to be conceived for humanity? Using class material, give us your own unique perspective with a global international studies perspective on the manner. For your second paper, you can incorporate and use materials from the first half if you want to BUT you must draw on post-midterm materials, but show you read and followed lectures after the midterms. - Your essay should write from a critical and interdisciplinary perspective. What does this mean? Be flexible in thinking, broad in focus, and conceptual in your approach. In terms of style, your essays are not simple compare and contrast papers (they said X and they said y). They are argumentative persuasive essays. You must make an original argument by juxtaposing two or more weekly themes together. The authors and guest speakers won’t make those connections for you in their lecturers. YOU must do it. Tell us what each scholar (or I) said that linked or synced up, creating fresh new insights via linking.
You don’t have to compare them equally; you can prioritize one and use it to discuss the other theme, but the art and skill of writing requires deep analysis and argumentation logic that weaves things together into a neat holistic package. Sophisticated college-level writing takes practice. For each paper, you must even bring in more than 3 reading/lectures, but still focus on two things to make your argument.
Basically, read through and between the texts to come up with something brilliant, so you are not a clone of another student just answering with basic robotic summaries