Featured Courses
Engaging World Religions
KGSA 30600 / ASIA 30600 / IIPS 30434
Instructor: Mahan Mirza
MW 2:00 – 3:15 p.m.
3 credits
In a religiously diverse and vastly troubled world, how do religious traditions motivate believers to work toward the common good? "Engaging World Religions," the course title, refers to three things we will examine. First, it describes how religions are intrinsically engaging: they draw in adherents by fulfilling their material, intellectual, and spiritual needs. Second, it specifies what various secular institutions like governments and development organizations must do in pursuing the common good across our planet -- most of whose inhabitants are religious. Finally, it characterizes our work in this class: exploring how various religious traditions conceptualize and work toward the common good in a global context. We will read historians, social scientists, philosophers, and critical theorists on how to analyze and interpret the role of religion in contemporary life, while examining case studies of how religious practices, beliefs, and identities intersect with issues in global affairs such as inequality, armed conflict, and climate change. In doing so, we will engage how religious traditions from the East and West -- from Asian and Abrahamic "world" religions, to a variety of indigenous "local" religions -- complicate or complement modern Catholicism's emphasis on Integral Human Development.
Credit hours contribute to the:
Global Affairs Major — Keough School of Global Affairs
Peace Studies Supplementary Major or Peace Studies Minor — Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies
Asian Studies Supplementary Major or Asian Studies Minor — Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies
American Evangelicals and Global Affairs
KSGA 30606
Instructor: Charles Powell
MW 9:30 - 10:45 a.m.
3 credits
Since the end of the Cold War, American Evangelicals’ political influence has increased significantly. For example, Christian Zionist have continued to contribute meaningfully to American political support for the state of Israel. Additionally, to improve human dignity, Evangelicals have established schools and promoted literacy, built clinics and dispensaries, promoted agricultural development and distributed food aid, created orphanages, and propagated values about the inherent worth of all persons. Twenty-five to thirty percent of the US population is neo-evangelical and another five to ten percent adheres to some form of evangelical theology. That means that 100 million Americans are in one way or another tied to evangelical theology and they seem to pray, think, vote, and lobby as a coalition.
This course will examine the rise of American Evangelicalism and explore matters deemed important to Evangelicals: social and political affairs, global engagement, participation in public affairs, international affairs, support of Israel, political and economic development. More generally, this course offers a compelling account of Evangelicals’ influence on America’s role in the world. Students will learn how to engage more thoughtfully and productively with this influential religious group – a group that has been called political kingmakers! Students will also learn about the largest protestant denomination in the world – Southern Baptists – from the professor, who was a former Southern Baptist Minister and church planter.
Global Affairs Major — Keough School of Global Affairs
Am. Evangel. & Global Affairs Minor — Center for Citizenship & Constitutional Government
American Studies — Department of American Studies
Connecting Asia
KSGA 30310 | ASIA 30002
Instructor: Alex Hsu
TH 12:30 - 1:45 p.m.
3 credits
Many people predict that the 21st century will be the "Asian Century," dominated by China, India, and other nation-states on the continent. What does it mean to imagine an Asian future? In this class, we answer this question by rethinking connections between past, present, and future, both within and between different nations in Asia. How can we better understand the global connections between past and present if we take Asia, rather than Europe and North America, as our starting point? By contextualizing contemporary issues in Asia within global social and historical context, students will learn to move beyond common stereotypes about the region. We will use materials from history, anthropology, religion, and literature to explore the impacts of colonialism, nationalism, and globalization on everyday life across the continent. Through this course, students will learn how to analyze the intersections of personal, local, regional, and global contexts in order to better explain how Asia shapes our world. All majors and backgrounds are welcome. No prior knowledge about Asian languages or topics is required.
Global Affairs Major — Keough School of Global Affairs
Asian Studies Supplementary Major or a Minor in Asian Studies - Liu School for Asia and Asian Studies