Students participate in field work during a GLP course trip in Kruger National Park, South Africa, May 2024. Photo credit: Meilin Hoshino 鈥27
The following three Global Learning Program courses will be offered for 乐播传媒入口 first year students (class of 2029) in spring 2026. Questions? Contact Ashley Laux, Institute for Global Engagement.
Historic Memory and the Shadows of Violence in 21st Century Europe
Taught by Xavier Escandell, Sociology, and Brigittine French, Anthropology
This course addresses the ways in which shared memories of violence in the past lives on in art, culture, and politics in the contemporary era. It does so through a focus on historic and ethnographic examples from within European nation-states, particularly those that have been situated 鈥渙n the margins鈥 in some way. It highlights the importance of the past for present social processes of inclusion and exclusion from social scientific and humanistic perspectives and emphasizes on-going processes of collective identity formation among local, national, and diasporic communities as they continue to grapple with legacies of violence targeted at specific social groups and the inequalities which they justify. This course will include trips to Ireland and Northern Ireland (March 2026) and Spain (May 2026).
New and Emerging Infectious Diseases: The intersection of environment, animal health and human health
Taught by David Campbell, Biology, and Shannon Hinsa-Leasure, Biology
This course examines the fundamental pathogenesis, etiology and epidemiology of infectious diseases, human, plant, and animal. It examines the geopolitical and social changes those diseases have wrought on human demography, history, economy, and destiny. Course travel will take place in South Africa (spring break, to study the ecotone where animal diseases saltate into humans) and Alaska (May 2026, to examine the impact of climate change on the spread of disease).
SPAM: U.S. Empire in a Can
Taught by John Petrus, Spanish, and Sharon Quinsaat, Sociology.
This interdisciplinary course examines the development and impact of American imperialism through SPAM, a brand of processed canned pork and ham made by Hormel Foods Corporation. Imperialism as a strategy of political control by one nation-state over another not only entails economic expansion through multinational corporations and projection of strategic power through military bases, installations, and interventions; it also necessitates the maintenance of cultural hegemony. Using combined sociological and humanistic methodologies, we analyze the importance of SPAM as an artifact that is evidence of the enduring effects of U.S. colonization and continuing military occupation in Asia-Pacific, a site to explore the history of the industrialization of food, and a cultural marker tied to Asian, Latinx American, and Asian American identities. Course travel will take place over spring break (March 2026) and in May 2026.