Introductory description

Globalisation has changed our perspectives and experiences of the world through multidimensional, fluid and complex processes that interlink cultural, economic, ideological, political, social and environmental factors. In our increasingly interconnected world, the importance of developing, promoting and enhancing our intercultural awareness and understanding of global connections shouldn’t be underestimated. In the wake of counter-globalisation forces and the rise of the national populist movement, a rich and pluralistic appreciation and understanding of 'the global' will be relevant to all Warwick graduates in their personal and professional lives.
'Global Connections' offers a transdisciplinary approach to learning through an innovative and research-led online format which encourages students to share insights as co-collaborators, and engage with new knowledges from inside and outside the academic world. Practical activities guide the learning experience - drawing on an exciting series of contributions from experts engaged in globally-oriented projects across a range of professional landscapes - and facilitated by specialist tutors from diverse backgrounds. Students are encouraged to reflect upon and integrate their own disciplinary excellence, and personal and professional experiences into their learning journey as they examine the complexities of global connections throughout the module.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

subject to change based on contributor availability

Week 1: ‘Global Connections’: A Transdisciplinary Approach
This introductory week will explore the two overarching themes of ‘global connections’ and ‘transdisciplinarity’. Students will be introduced to key ‘globalisation’ theories and begin exploring perceptions of what a ‘global connection’ means in today’s world. This week will set the foundation for the module.

Week 2: Global Governance, Democracy and Colonisation
This session will introduce Global Governance by exploring the history of the United Nations, its links to colonialism and the process of decolonisation, as a case study. Students will be introduced to these key concepts, as well as the value of archival research to examine the development of today’s global (dis)connections.

Week 3: Global and Sustainable Development
This week will build on the previous week, by exploring the UN's Sustainable Development Goals through a series of case studies which showcase the successes (and failures) of international development work involving local communities- including the role of responsibility, governance and sustainability in these interventions. This session will further develop the conceptualisation of ‘transdisciplinarity’ as linked to value systems around knowledge.

Week 4 - Natural Resources, Trade and Commerce
This week will explore natural resource extraction, trade and commerce as a globally-connected theme and through the lens of 'globalisation'. We will continue exploring power structures and imbalances, the creation of global disparities between actors. A sample case study is Caroline Knowles’ (2009) ‘Journey of a Flip Flop’, which examines the global processes linked to the production of an 'everyday' object, with a focus on the voices of individuals involved in this journey.

Week 5: Global Health and Wellbeing
This week will explore global connections under the topic of health and well-being, through working with case studies revealing global health issues - how measures are implemented, who takes responsibility, and the implications of these responses in local, regional, national and international contexts. We will consolidate by returning to global governance by looking at the work of the World Health Organization and the SDGs.

Week 6: Migration
This week explores the interplay between migration and global connections. It will examine how certain diasporas are contextualised and perceived as 'global', 'regional', 'national', 'local' issues and responsibilities, and examine the ‘loaded’ language associated with the theme of migration. It will build on previous weeks on push/pull factors of human mobility, including climate-induced migrations.

Week 7: Environment and Climate
This week builds on discussions from previous weeks- examining how global climate change is affecting different regions of the world, who is taking responsibility, and how global action can be delivered. A case study from the Environmental Sciences and Migration Studies will be used to explore the wide-ranging, global implications of seemingly ‘local’ climate-related issues.

Week 8: Global Cultural Flows
This week will explore the notion of ‘Culture’: how we define and understand it, the extent of its complexity in a globally-connected world, and the power structures that are embedded within these understandings. This week will be contextualised by a case study from the Blue Humanities.

Week 9: Media
This week will explore the media’s role in reproducing and maintaining global connections. Students will be able to consolidate the module’s content here by exploring how the issues covered so far have been reproduced within the media and the ensuing impact of this, globally, nationally, regionally and locally.

Week 10 - Global Knowledge Economy: Where are we now? / SDA Peer Review
This week will explore the theme of education as a globally-connected, powerful economy which is embedded within power structures supported by external bodies. We will look at what education means today, who receives it, who is excluded, and where it might be headed in the future. This week will be an opportunity for students to informally present their SDA work and to receive formative feedback from their peers. Students will get the opportunity to reflect on their learning journey over the course of the module, as a concluding activity.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• 1. Demonstrate a broad theoretical knowledge base and in-depth understanding of the complexities of globalisation and/or global connections.
• 2. Critically reflect on and evaluate their progress, including its applicability beyond academia, in response to and engagement with module content, independent research, and collaboration with peers.
• 3. Critically appraise disciplinary/interdisciplinary boundaries (benefits and limitations) in addressing globally-oriented problems.
• 4. Critically reflect on and apply an interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary approach towards their learning, including towards an independent research project.
• 5. Develop a coherent, informed and justified argument and thesis in response to interrelated, global issues/problems.
• 6. Critically engage with online course material through participation in online discussion boards, activities and tasks involving students/staff from different backgrounds.

Indicative reading list

Adamson, F.B. & Tsourapas, G. (2020) ‘The Migration State in the Global South: Nationalizing, Developmental, and Neoliberal Models of Migration Management. International Migration Review. 54(3), 853-882.

Adamson, F. & Greenhill,K. (2022) ‘Global Security Entanglement and the Mobility Paradox’. Current History. 121(831), 3–9.

Adger, N. & Safra de Campos, R. (2020) ‘Climate Change Disruptions to Migration Systems’. In: Routledge Handbook of Migration and Development. 382-395

Borkovic, S., Nicolacopoulos, T., Horey, D. & Fortune, T. (2020) ‘Students Positioned as Global Citizens in Australian and New Zealand Universities: A Discourse Analysis’. Higher Education Research and Development. 39(6), 1106-1121.

Chapman, A. (2018) ‘Climate change is triggering a migrant crisis in Vietnam’. The Conversation. [online] Available at: https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-triggering-a-migrant-crisis-in-vietnam-88791

Collier, P. (2008) The bottom billion: why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gardner-McTaggart, A.C. (2021) ‘Washing the world in whiteness: international schools’ policy’. Journal of Educational Administration and History. 53(1), 1-20.

Gibbs, P. (2017) Transdisciplinary Higher Education: a theoretical basis revealed in practice. Cham: Springer.

Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. (2014) ‘Gender and Forced Migration’. In: Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. et al. The Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies. London: Oxford University Press, 395-408.

Harsant, Katy (2022) ‘Introduction’, Selective Responsibility in the United Nations: Colonial Histories and Critical Inquiry, London: Rowman and Littlefield.

Heise, U.K., Christensen, J., Niemann, M. (2017) The Routledge companion to the environmental humanities. New York: Routledge.

Jimoh, M.O. & Jacob-Oricha, S.O. (2022) ‘Sustainable Management of Humanitarian Water Supply, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Interventions’. In Yiannis Koumpouros, et. al. (eds) Modern Challenges and Approaches to Humanitarian Engineering. Hershey, PA, USA: IGI Global. 41-57.

Kääpä, P. (2018) Environmental management of the media: policy, industry, practice. Abingdon: Routledge.

Kickbusch, I., Allen, L. & Franz, C. (2016) ‘The commercial determinants of health’. The Lancet Global Health. 4(12), 895-896.

Knowles, C. (2014) Flip-flop: a journey through globalisation’s backroads. London: Pluto Press.

Lechner, F.J. & Boli, J. (2019) The Globalization Reader. Hoboken: Wiley Blackwell.

Maxwell, R. & Miller, T. (2012) Greening the Media. New York: Oxford University Press.

Mazower, Mark (2009) No Enchanted Palace: The End of Empire and the Ideological Origins of the United Nations, USA: Princeton University Press

Meyer, H. (2021) The Global Imaginary of International School Communities. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Muller, B. (2019) ‘Biometric Borders’. In: Mitchell, K. et al. Handbook on Critical Geographies of Migration. London: Edward Elgar Publishing

Perkins, H.C., Thorns, D.C. 2012. Place, Identity and Everyday Life in a Globalising World.

Quintanilla, A. (2023) ‘The Marshall Islands, Guam, and the figure of Climate Refuge(e)s’. In: Lê Espiritu, E. The Routledge Handbook of Refugee Narratives. New York: Routledge. 470-482.

Ranganathan, S. (2020) ‘Decolonization and International Law: Putting the Ocean on the Map’. Journal of the History of International Law / Revue d’histoire Du Droit International. 23 (1), 161–83.

Ranganathan, S. (2019) ‘Ocean Floor Grab: International Law and the Making of an Extractive Imaginary’. The European Journal of International Law. 30 (2), 573–600.

Russett, B.M. & O’Neal, J.R. (2001) Triangulating peace: democracy, interdependence, and international organizations. New York: Norton.

Steger, M.B. (2017) Globalization: A Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Steger, M.B. & James, P. (2019) Globalization Matters: Engaging the Global in Unsettled Times. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Stuckler, D. & Nestle, M. (2012) ‘Big Food, Food Systems, and Global Health’. PLoS Medicine. 9(6), 1-4.

Te Punga Somerville, A. (2017) ‘Where Oceans Come From’. Comparative Literature. 69(1), 25-31.

Unnikrishnan, D. Temporary people: a novel. Brooklyn: Restless Books.

Vora, N. (2013) Impossible Citizens: Dubai’s Indian Diaspora. Durham: Duke University Press.

Whyte, K. (2017) ‘Indigenous Climate Change Studies: Indigenizing Futures, Decolonizing the Anthropocene’ English Language Notes. 55(1), 153-162.

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Research element

All students will undertake an individual, supervised research project in the form of a Student-Devised Assessment (SDA). Students will work closely with their tutor to develop an interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary project in an agreed format which best articulates their ideas, and will satisfy the learning outcomes for this module. All students on this module will also be required to submit, as a formative activity, an Interdisciplinary Abstract of their SDA through their Moodle page. This task is essential in developing the skill of communicating research ideas to non-specialist audiences; developing the vocabulary to articulate how inter-/transdisciplinarity features in their work; and creates pathways to further research dissemination opportunities offered by IATL including the International Conference of Undergraduate Research; Reinvention Journal; and the IATL Assessment Exhibition space. This is an embedded element of IATL’s research-infused curriculum.

Interdisciplinary

This module introduces the theme of ‘global connections’ through different interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary themes each week. Each week, students will be exposed to new interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary approaches towards the weekly problem-based topic by a specialist contributor (first, in the format of a pre-recorded lecture to be accessed asynchronously online, coupled with asynchronous online activities to facilitate active, student-led learning. They will then be given the opportunity to consolidate their knowledge and weekly readings in an interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary discussion with their peers through a discussion board. Both assessment formats on this module will encourage students to examine issues in an interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary manner, and are designed to facilitate reflective thinking as a significant component of interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary work.

International

The ‘Global Connections’ module is, in its very nature, international. One of the central objectives is to explore the ‘global’ as it sits within/among imbalanced, uneven local, national and international orientations and frameworks. Each week, students will be exposed to case studies which are located within a global-local nexus – in the online pre-recorded lectures, asynchronous learning activities, readings and discussion forums. The guest contributors come from different parts of the globe and their research will reflect this diversity.

Subject specific skills

1. Understand and articulate global issues from a variety of perspectives.

2. Study globally-oriented topics of trade, conflict, migration, culture, health, media and climate in a scholarly manner.

3. Ability to contextualise theories, concepts and methodologies related to the aforementioned themes and overarching topic of 'global connections'.

4. Work with and reflect on case studies to formulate arguments and generate discussion.

Transferable skills

1. Apply critical reflection towards problem-based learning and the development of a transdisciplinary orientation.

2. Analyse a range of approaches towards a problem and appraise their effectiveness.

3. Consider audience in the communication of ideas, information and critical responses in different formats.

4. Challenge existing beliefs, conventions, norms in the pursuit of developing innovative, novel and original responses.

5. Take initiative of individual learning development (academic, professional, scholarly) in a resourceful and ethical manner.

6. Manage time effectively in autonomous online work each week, while independently developing a research project, with support of a tutor.