Mar 29, 2024  
College Catalog 2023-2024 
    
College Catalog 2023-2024 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

International Studies Major


Major Requirements


Students plan their fourteen-course major in consultation with their international studies advisor. All majors must complete the following:
 

  1. Introduction. One of INTL 110 , INTL 111 , INTL 112 , INTL 113 , INTL 114 
     
  2. Language. Competency in a foreign language equivalent to six semesters of college work: examples are FREN 305 - Advanced Expression: Communication Tools  and FREN 306 - Introduction to Literary Analysis ; and GERM 308 - German Cultural History I: Uniting and Dividing Germany ; JAPA 306 - Third Year Japanese II ; Portuguese through PORT 331 - Journeys through Brazil ; Russian through RUSS 204 - Intermediate Russian II  plus a semester immersion program abroad or its equivalent; or SPAN 305 - Advanced Oral and Written Expression  or SPAN 307 - Introduction to the Analysis of Hispanic Texts . Students may complete this competency requirement while abroad. Likewise, students may meet this requirement in a language not regularly offered at the College by demonstrating equivalent ability, as confirmed by the department chair with appropriate consultation. Students for whom English is a second language have met the language requirement.

    Students choosing Classics as the disciplinary focus of their International Studies major may satisfy the I.S. language requirement by passing five semesters of Greek or Latin, plus a sixth semester of advanced independent or equivalent language work. Students focusing on Hebrew or Arabic may combine work at Macalester with coursework and/or experience abroad or at neighbor institutions.
     
  3. Study abroad. One semester of study abroad on a program chosen at least in part to support the individual major plan. International students at Macalester meet this requirement by completing a semester at Macalester.
     
  4. Capstone. A capstone experience of either a senior seminar in international studies or, in select cases, an advanced independent project developed under appropriate supervision and with the approval of the department chair.

    In addition to these four requirements, at the center of the major plan the student must complete a twelve-course sequence with the following characteristics:
     
  5. Focus. To develop a coherent body of knowledge with a skill set, five trans/internationally focused courses drawn from a single disciplinary department including anthropology, biology, classics, economics, English, French, geography, geology, German studies, history, Japanese, philosophy, Spanish & Portuguese studies, political science, religious studies, Russian, or sociology. Please see List 1 below. One of these courses may be a non-introductory culture-neutral methods course in the chosen disciplinary department. Please see List 2 below. This would be in addition to the methods and skills elective (H).

    Alternatively, students may have an interdisciplinary focus (options are American, Asian, Environmental, Latin American, Media and Cultural, and Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies). Of the five trans/internationally focused courses, one must be a survey/introductory course in the interdisciplinary department, two courses must be cross-listed with a single disciplinary department, and one must be a non-introductory methods or skills course within or directly relevant to the interdisciplinary field of study (this would be in addition to the methods and skills elective (H)).  All courses must be chosen in consultation with the International Studies Department Chair.

  6. Intermediate courses. To ensure immersion in global and transnational issues, five international studies courses beyond the introduction. Students may take a second senior seminar as one of these five. At times international studies courses are cross-listed with other departments. Thus there can be up to a two-course overlap between the courses for E and F.
     
  7. Complementary elective. Allows exploration of one or more interests on the major plan from another angle. The course is chosen from List 1 below. The course must be international, outside the disciplinary focus department (E), and cannot include International Studies courses (F) without chair approval.
     
  8. Methods and skills elective. One course chosen from List 2 below (courses with fewer than 4 credits may be combined to meet this requirement).

Additional Notes:

  1. Courses abroad. Courses taken during study abroad may count, when appropriate, toward the major; indeed students should tailor study abroad to contribute to the major plan.
  2. Language courses. Courses taken to satisfy the language requirement may not be included in the fourteen-course major plan, except when the focus department under “E” is French, German, Japanese, Russian, or Hispanic studies. In these cases one advanced language course may be counted among the five disciplinary courses.
  3. The major plan can include one internship.

 

List 1: Internationalist Courses


American Studies (some courses, focusing on the U.S., acceptable for non-U.S. students)

AMST 305 - Telling Queer and Trans Stories: Oral History as Method and Practice 
AMST 315 - U.S. Imperialism from the Philippines to Viet Nam  

Anthropology

ANTH 101 - General Anthropology 
ANTH 111 - Cultural Anthropology 
ANTH 239 - Medical Anthropology 
ANTH 241 - Anthropology of Death and Dying  
ANTH 243 - Psychological Anthropology  
ANTH 246 - Refugees/Humanitarian Response 
ANTH 253 - Comparative Muslim Cultures 
ANTH 255 - Latin America in Motion 
ANTH 256 - India and its Neighbors: The Anthropology of South Asia 
ANTH 258 - Dynamic Africa 
ANTH 259 - Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic 
ANTH 358 - Anthropology of Violence 
ANTH 362 - Culture and Globalization 
ANTH 363 - Anthropology of Development 
ANTH 368 - Life Histories/Cultures/Selves  (if international focus)
ANTH 380 - Stigma and Disabilities 
ANTH 381 - Emerging Infectious Diseases   (if international focus-possibly international public health focus)

Art (courses which focus on traditions outside the U.S.; studio courses do not count)

ART 160 - Introduction to Art History I: From Prehistory to the Medieval Period 
ART 161 - Introduction to Art History II: From Renaissance to Modern 
ART 272 - Art of China 
ART 273 - Art of Japan 
ART 252 - Gender, Sexualities, and Feminist Visual Culture 
ART 270 - Making Sacred: Religious Images and Spaces in Asia  
ART 271 - Japan and the (Inter)National Modern  
ART 280 - Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt  
ART 281 - Art and Architecture of Ancient Near East  
ART 282 - Art and Architecture of the Islamic World  
ART 283 - Art and Architecture of Ancient Greece and Rome  
ART 284 - Art and Architecture of Byzantium and Medieval Europe 
ART 285 - Making of Imperial Cities: Babylon, Rome, and Constantinople  

Asian Studies

 
ASIA 123 - Masterpieces of Chinese Literature  
 
 
 
 
 
ASIA 254 - Japanese Film and Animation: From the Salaryman to the Shojo  
 
 
ASIA 260 - Narratives of Alienation: 20th Century Japanese Fiction and Film  
ASIA 274 - The Great Tradition in China before 1840 
ASIA 275 - The Rise of Modern China 
ASIA 276 - The Great Tradition in Japan before 1853 
ASIA 277 - The Rise of Modern Japan 
ASIA 281 - Dialects, Multilingualism, and the Politics of Speaking Japanese  
ASIA 320 - Asian Cities  
ASIA 378 - War Crimes and Memory in East Asia  

Biology (chosen in consultation with relevant Biology faculty)


BIOL 180 - Biodiversity and Evolution 
BIOL 170 - Ecology and the Environment 
BIOL 357 - Immunology 
BIOL 473 - Research in Immunology 
BIOL 476 - Research in Biodiversity and Evolution  
BIOL 406 - Seminar in Immunology  

Chemistry

None

Chinese (most courses, other than language courses)

CHIN 123 - Masterpieces of Chinese Literature  
CHIN 255 - China on Screen  
CHIN 258 - Gender and Sexuality in China  

Classics

 
 
 
CLAS 129 - Greek Myths 
CLAS 130 - Early Arab and Persian Empires  
CLAS 135 - India and Rome 
CLAS 145 - Pagans, Christians and Jews in Classical Antiquity: Cultures in Conflict 
CLAS 155 - January in Rome: The Art, Archaeology, and Urban History of Ancient Rome  
CLAS 223 - Introduction to Archaeology  
CLAS 260 - Introduction to Art History I: From Prehistory to the Medieval Period  
CLAS 200 - Ancient and Medieval Philosophies  

Computer Science

None

Economics


 
 
ECON 229 - World Economic History  
  (if international focus)
ECON 233 - Health Economics  
ECON 238 - Introduction to Entrepreneurship  
  (if international focus)
 
 
ECON 426 - International Economic Development Capstone  


Educational Studies

EDUC 250 - Building Trust: Education in Global Perspective  
 

English (all courses in British and/or world literature, but not U.S.-focused or creative writing courses.
English courses on “neutral” or thematic subjects (such as love or justice) are evaluated case by case.

 
 
  (if international focus)
 
 
 
  (if international focus)
 
  (if international focus)
 
 
 
  
ENGL 341 - 20th Century British Novel  
  (if international focus)
  (if international focus)
 
 
  

Environmental Studies (courses focused on international and/or transnational issues)

  (if international focus)
  (if international focus)
ENVI 215 - Environmental Politics/Policy  
ENVI 221 - Environmental Ethics  
 
 
  (if international focus)
ENVI 368 - Sustainable Development and Global Future  

French

FREN 308 - From Lascaux to 1789: The Evolution of French Civilization  
FREN 309 - Contemporary France: History, Culture and Current Events 
FREN 310 - Passerelles: Introduction to French and Francophone Studies  
FREN 320 - Francophone Theater of Exile and Immigration 
FREN 330 - Towards a Postcolonial Pacific  
FREN 331 - Haiti: Culture, Human Rights and Humanitarianism  
FREN 333 - The Language of Diplomacy  
FREN 370 - Translation Workshop 
FREN 340 - Voices of the Francophone Mediterranean  
FREN 403 - Voices from the Pacific Rim 
FREN 345 - Censorship in Francophone Africa: Film, Literature and Popular Music  
FREN 341 - The Francophone Caribbean Islands 
FREN 350 - Contemporary Québec  
FREN 440 - Science, Art and Literature in Cartography in the 16th Century 
FREN 441 - Images of the World from the 16th Century to the 21st Century 
FREN 442 - France from the Renaissance to the 17th Century 
FREN 445 - How to Start a Revolution: Revolutionary France and its Legacy 
FREN 446 - The Animal and the Human in the French Enlightenment 
FREN 450 - Money and the Marketplace in the 19th Century 
FREN 451 - Environmentalism in the 19th Century  
FREN 342 - Literature and Cinema of Immigration in France 
FREN 473 - Contemporary Art in France and Francophone Countries 
FREN 475 - Parisian Women, 1730-2010  
FREN 477 - African and French Cinema in Dialogue  
FREN 378 - Inventing the Future: Technology, Utopia and Dystopia in French Literary and Visual Culture  
FREN 371 - French Intellectuals in/and the World  
FREN 420 - French Avant-Gardes in the 20th and 21st Centuries  

Geography

 
GEOG 113 - World Regional Geography: People, Places and Globalization  
GEOG 116 - Physical Geography 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
  (if international focus)
 
 
GEOG 375 - Rural Landscapes and Livelihoods 
GEOG 477 - Comparative Environment and Development  

Geology

 
 
GEOL 165 - History/Evolution of Earth 
 
GEOL 303 - Surface/Groundwater Hydrology  

German Studies (most courses, other than language courses)


GERM 279 - Value: The Bad, the Ugly, and the Cheap  

 
GERM 309 - German Cultural History II: Ruptures and Remakings of Modern Germany  
GERM 337 - Dead White Men 
 
 
GERM 365 - A Kafkaesque Century 
GERM 366 - Cinema Studies  

History


 
 
  
HIST 154 - African Life Histories  
HIST 180 - Going Global: The Experiment of World History  
 
HIST 235 - Captives, Cannibals, and Capitalists in the Early Modern Atlantic World 
HIST 250 - Science, Magic and Belief 
HIST 251 - Pirates, Translators, Missionaries  
HIST 252 - Conversion and Inquisition: Religious Change  
  
HIST 257 - Empires 
 
 
 
HIST 262 - Soviet Union and Successors  
 
 
HIST 350 - Race, Gender, and Medicine  (if international focus)
HIST 353 - Oceans in World History  
HIST 376 - Public History 
HIST 381 - Transnational Latin Americas  
HIST 382 - Remembering the Modern City  

Interdisciplinary Studies

INTD 411 - Sr Seminar in Community and Global Health  

International Studies

All courses

Japanese

 
JAPA 251 - Fiction of Modern Japan 
JAPA 254 - Japanese Film and Animation: From the Salaryman to the Shojo 
JAPA 260 - Narratives of Alienation: 20th Century Japanese Fiction and Film 
JAPA 281 - Dialects, Multilingualism, and the Politics of Speaking Japanese  
 
JAPA 488 - Translating Japanese Literature: Theory and Practice  

Latin American Studies

 
 
LATI 171 - Susurros del Pasado: Whispers Toward the 21st Century 
 
 
  
LATI 249 - Environment and Society in Latin America  
 
 
 
  
LATI 308 - Introduction to U.S. Latinx Studies  
  
LATI 355 - Cultural Resistance and Survival: Indigenous and African Peoples in Early Spanish America  
LATI 385 - Frontera: The U.S. Mexican Border   
 
LATI 386 - Constructions of a Female Killer  

Linguistics

 
 
 
 
 
 
LING 281 - Dialects, Multilingualism, and the Politics of Speaking Japanese  
LING 309 - Introduction to Hispanic Linguistics 
LING 335 - Analyzing Japanese Language 
LING 435 - History of the Spanish Language 
LING 436 - Spanish Dialectology 
LING 488 - Translating Japanese: Theory and Practice  

Mathematics

None

Media and Cultural Studies (and other non U.S.-focused courses as they emerge)

  (if international focus)
  (if international focus)
 
MCST 247 - Documentary Film and Video  (if international focus)
  (if internationally focused enough)
 
MCST 256 - Mass Culture Under Communism 
MCST 315 - Gender, Sexuality and Film  (if international focus)
MCST 334 - Cultural Studies and the Media  (if internationally focused enough)
MCST 364 - Afrofuturism in Media and Popular Culture  (if internationally focused enough
MCST 376 - Critical Social Theory and the Media  (if international focus)

Music

 
 
MUSI 110 - Introduction to Western Classical Music  
 
MUSI 131 - African Music  
MUSI 155 - Music and Freedom 
MUSI 180 - Music, Race, and Ethnicity  
MUSI 342 - Sacred, Secular, Subline: Music and Meaning in Europe, 1300-1800 
MUSI 343 - Romanticism and Nationalism  
MUSI 354 - Gender and Music  

Neuroscience

None

Philosophy

 
 
PHIL 210 - Existentialist Metaphysics  
 
  
  (if internationally focused enough)
PHIL 222 - Philosophy of Human Rights 
PHIL 223 - Health and Human Rights 
PHIL 300 - 20th Century Continental Philosophy  

Physics

None

Political Science

 
  
 
 
POLI 170 - Theories of Rhetoric  (if international focus)
  (if internationally focused enough)
 
 
 
 
 
 
POLI 247 - African Politics  
 
 
  (if international focus)
  (if international focus)
POLI 266 - Medieval Political Thought  
POLI 267 - Liberal and Conservative Political Theory  
POLI 305 - Women’s Voices in Politics  
POLI 316 - Information Politics, Policy and Law  
 
POLI 321 - International Security 
POLI 322 - Advanced International Theory 
POLI 323 - Humanitarianism in World Politics 
POLI 341 - Comparative Social Movements  
POLI 342 - Urban Politics of Latin America  

Psychology

None

Religious Studies

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
RELI 136 - World Religions and World Religions Discourse  
RELI 145 - Pagans, Christians and Jews in Classical Antiquity: Cultures in Conflict  
 
  
RELI 212 - Philosophy of Religion  
 
 
RELI 226 - Martyrdom Then and Now  
RELI 232 - Religion and Food  
 
 
 
 
 
 
RELI 277 - Metaphysics in Secular Thought  
 
 
RELI 359 - Religion and Revolution: Case Studies  

Russian Studies


 
 
RUSS 255 - Fierce and Beautiful World: Russian Culture Before the Revolution 
RUSS 256 - Mass Culture Under Communism 
 
 
 
 
 
 
RUSS 364 - Culture and Revolution 
RUSS 245 - Nabokov 
RUSS 367 - Dostoevsky in Translation  

Sociology

  (if international focus)
 
 
SOCI 290 - Islam and the West 
SOCI 370 - Political Sociology  (if international focus)

Spanish and Portuguese (most courses, not language)

PORT 331 - Journeys through Brazil  
SPAN 151 - Caribbean Literature and Culture: Aesthetics of Resistance 
SPAN 171 - Susurros del Pasado: Whispers Toward the 21st Century  
SPAN 305 - Advanced Oral and Written Expression 
SPAN 307 - Introduction to the Analysis of Hispanic Texts  
SPAN 309 - Introduction to Hispanic Linguistics  
SPAN 316 - Mapping the New World: Exploration, Encounters, and Disasters  
SPAN 343 - Culture and Politics in Spain from Civil War to Today  
SPAN 354 - Here and There: Superando Limites  
SPAN 355 - Cultural Resistance and Survival: Indigenous and African Peoples in Early Spanish America  
SPAN 357 - El Quijote as Timeless Text 
SPAN 359 - “Neither Saints Nor Sinners”: Women Writers of the Early Modern Hispanic World 
SPAN 360 - One Hundred Years of Plenitude: Modern and Postmodern Hispanic Fiction  
SPAN 361 - The Fight Against Tradition: From the Enlightenment to the Avant-Garde  
SPAN 362 - Modern Hispanic Novel and the Visual Arts  
SPAN 366 - Parody in the Postmodern Hispanic World  
SPAN 367 - Dramatic Words: Hispanic Theater and Poetry  
SPAN 375 - History of the Spanish Language 
SPAN 382 - Constructing the Nation 

SPAN 385 - Frontera: The U.S./Mexico Border  
SPAN 386 - Constructions of a Female Killer  

Theatre and Dance

 
  

Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies


 
  (if international focus)
WGSS 240 - Comparative Feminisms: Whiteness and Postcolonialisms  
WGSS 300 - Worlds Upside Down: Revolutions in Theories and Practices 
WGSS 305 - Telling Queer and Trans Stories: Oral History as Method and Practice  
WGSS 315 - Comparative (Neo/Post) Modernities  WGSS 330 - Democracies, Feminisms, Capitalisms  

These departments offer some courses, focusing on the United States, acceptable for use on the International Studies major plan of non-U.S. students: American Studies, Psychology, and Urban Studies.

These departments typically do not offer courses that count toward the major: Chemistry, Mathematics/Statistics/Computer Science, Neuroscience, Physical Education, and Physics/Astronomy.

 

List 2: Methods and Skills Courses


Anthropology

ANTH 111 - Cultural Anthropology  
ANTH 230 - Ethnographic Interviewing  
ANTH 232 - Field Methods and Research Design  

Biology

BIOL 255 - Cell Biology and Genetics Laboratory Methods  
BIOL 472 - Research in Molecular Biology 
BIOL 473 - Research in Immunology 
BIOL 474 - Research in Biochemistry 
BIOL 476 - Research in Biodiversity and Evolution 
BIOL 480 - Research in Paleobiology  

Computer Science

COMP 112 - Introduction to Data Science  
COMP 123 - Core Concepts in Computer Science   

Economics

ECON 113 - Financial Accounting  
ECON 353 - Managerial Accounting  
ECON 381 - Introduction to Econometrics  
ECON 472 - Macroeconomic Modeling Capstone  
ECON 481 - Advanced Econometrics  
ECON 485 - Empirical Finance  

Geography

GEOG 225 - Introduction to Geographic Information Systems  
GEOG 362 - Remote Sensing of the Environment  
GEOG 364 - GIS and Community Partnerships  
GEOG 365 - Urban GIS   
GEOG 367 - Environmental Geographic Information Systems (GIS)  
GEOG 277 - Qualitative Research Methods in Geography  
GEOG 378 - Statistical Research Methods in Geography  

Geology

GEOL 240 - Field Methods  
GEOL 303 - Surface/Groundwater Hydrology   

Linguistics

LING 300 - Linguistic Analysis    
LING 401 - Field Methods  

Mathematics

MATH 135 - Applied Multivariable Calculus I    
MATH 354 - Probability  

Media and Cultural Studies

MCST 114 - News Reporting and Writing  
MCST 128 - Film Analysis/Visual Culture  
MCST 357 - Advanced Journalism: New Media  

Philosophy

PHIL 110 - Critical Thinking  
PHIL 111 - Introduction to Symbolic Logic  
PHIL 313 - Advanced Symbolic Logic  

Political Science

POLI 269 - Empirical Research Methods  
POLI 272 - Persuasion and Political Change  

Psychology

PSYC 201 - Research in Psychology I  
PSYC 301 - Research in Psychology II  

Religious Studies

RELI 235 - Theorizing Religion  

Sociology

SOCI 269 - Social Science Inquiry  
SOCI 270 - Interpretive Social Research  
SOCI 275 - Comparative-Historical Methods for Social Science  

Statistics

STAT 112 - Introduction to Data Science  
STAT 125 - Epidemiology 
STAT 155 - Introduction to Statistical Modeling 
STAT 253 - Statistical Machine Learning