Perspectives 2: Global Perspectives on Power, Justice, and Equity
NOTE: Students who started taking classes at Northwestern in Spring 2023 or earlier are not required to complete the US or Global perspectives (see the prior degree requirements). The information below pertains to students who start at Northwestern after Spring 2023.
The global perspective addresses the geographic and environmental conditions, historical and present social and political structures, linguistic and cultural formations of groups and individuals primarily outside the United States, focusing on the interaction among cultures.
Learning Objectives
In courses satisfying this perspective students will:
- Engage with scholarship describing the historical and contemporary structures, processes, human-environment relationships, and practices that shape global intercultural relations among groups, cultural traditions, and/or nations, focusing primarily on those outside the United States.
- Explore the social, political, environmental, and cultural bases of these groups, traditions, and/or nations, and how they constitute themselves and are constituted by others.
- Generate the knowledge and develop the skills necessary to grapple with key issues. The following list of possible issues is not intended to be exhaustive but illustrative: appropriation, art, borders, colonialism, diaspora, diplomacy, education, empire, the environment, ethnicity, exploration, health, indigeneity, immigration, migration, nationality, refugees, cultural reception, sustainability, statelessness, travel, and war.
- Analyze how these and other terms intersect and overlap, with attention to the dynamism and variety of experiences and expressions.
choosing courses
Note that a perspective course may simultaneously count for any other requirement in which it is approved (such as foundational discipline, major, or the advanced expression requirement).
Approved Courses
| Subject | Number | Title |
| ANTHRO | 211-0 | Culture and Society1 |
| ANTHRO | 215-0 | Study of Culture Through Language1 |
| ANTHRO | 326-0 | Archaeologies of Sustainability and Collapse (with ENVR_POL 385) |
| ART_HIST | 220-0 | Introduction to African Art2, 4 |
| ART_HIST | 222-0 | Introduction to Art of the African Diaspora2, 4 |
| ART_HIST | 232-0 | Introduction to the History of Architecture: 1400 to Present2, 4 |
| ART_HIST | 235-0 | Introduction to Latin American Art2, 4 |
| ART_HIST | 240-0 | Introduction to Asian Art2, 4 |
| ART_HIST | 255-0 | Introduction to Modernism2, 4 |
| ART_HIST | 340-1 | Baroque Art: Italy & Spain 1600-18002, 4 |
| ART_HIST | 342-0 | Eighteenth-Century European Art2, 4 |
| ART_HIST | 350-1 | 19th Century Art 1: 1800-18482, 4 |
| ART_HIST | 350-2 | 19th Century Art 2: 1848-19002, 4 |
| ART_HIST | 360-1 | 20th Century Art 12, 4 |
| ART_HIST | 386-0 | Art of Africa2, 4 |
| ASIAN_LC | 300-0 | Advanced Topics in Chinese Literature and Culture4 |
| ASIAN_LC | 375-0 | South Asian Societies4 |
| ASIAN_LC | 390-0 | Advanced Topics in Asian Languages and Cultures4 |
| ASIAN_LC | 392-0 | Advanced Studies in Asian Film, Media, and Visual Culture4 |
| ASIAN_LC | 393-0 | Asian Environmental Humanities4 |
| COMP_LIT | 207-0 | Introduction to Critical Theory (with PHIL 220-0)3 |
| ENGLISH | 280-0 | Introduction to Postcolonial Literature4 |
| ENGLISH | 281-0 | Topics in Postcolonial Comparative Literatures4 |
| ENGLISH | 365-0 | Studies in Postcolonial Literature4 |
| ENGLISH | 369-0 | Studies in African Literature4 |
| ENVR_POL | 337-0 | Hazard, Disaster and Society (with GBL_HLTH 337-0)1 |
| ENVR_POL | 338-0 | Environmental Justice (with GBL_HLTH 338-0)1 |
| ENVR_POL | 340-0 | Global Environments and World History (with HISTORY 376-0) 1,2 |
| ENVR_POL | 385-0 | Archaeologies of Sustainability and Collapse (with ANTHRO 326-0) |
| FRENCH | 211-0 | Reading Cultures in French4 |
| FRENCH | 271-0 | Introducing the Novel4 |
| FRENCH | 386-0 | Gender and Writing4 |
| FRENCH | 395-0 | Advanced Studies in Culture and Thought4 |
| GBL_HLTH | 201-0 | Introduction to Global Health1 |
| GBL_HLTH | 302-0 | Global Bioethics3 |
| GBL_HLTH | 306-0 | Biomedicine and Culture1 |
| GBL_HLTH | 321-0 | War and Public Health1 |
| GBL_HLTH | 323-0 | Global Health From Policy to Practice1 |
| GBL_HLTH | 324-0 | Volunteerism and the Ethics of Help3 |
| GBL_HLTH | 325-0 | History of Reproductive Health2 |
| GBL_HLTH | 337-0 | Hazard, Disaster and Society (with ENVR_POL 337-0)1 |
| GBL_HLTH | 338-0 | Environmental Justice (with ENVR_POL 338-0)1 |
| GNDR_ST | 233-0 | Gender, Politics and Philosophy (with PHIL 221-0)3 |
| GNDR_ST | 341-0 | Transnational Perspectives on Gender and Sexuality1 |
| GERMAN | 224-0 | Contemporary Germany |
| GERMAN | 234-1 | Jews and Germans: An Intercultural History I3,4 |
| GERMAN | 234-2 | Jews and Germans: An Intercultural History II4 |
| GERMAN | 303-0 | Speaking as Discovery |
| GERMAN | 328-0 | Prague: City of Cultures, City of Conflict (with SLAVIC 328-0)4 |
| GERMAN | 349-0 | History of the Holocaust (with HISTORY 349-0)2 |
| HISTORY | 201-2 | Europe in the Modern World2 |
| HISTORY | 250-2 | Global History II2 |
| HISTORY | 251-0 | The Politics of Disaster: A Global Environmental History1,2 |
| HISTORY | 275-1 | History of Early Modern Science and Medicine2 |
| HISTORY | 275-2 | History of Modern Science and Medicine2 |
| HISTORY | 286-0 | World War II in Asia2 |
| HISTORY | 349-0 | History of the Holocaust (with GERMAN 349-0)2 |
| HISTORY | 352-0 | Global History of Death and Dying2,3 |
| HISTORY | 376-0 | Global Environments and World History (with ENVR_POL 340-0) 1,2 |
| HISTORY | 381-3 | China in Reform2 |
| HISTORY | 382-0 | The Modern Japanese City2 |
| HISTORY | 385-1 | From Taj to Raj: Early Modern India, ca 1500-18002 |
| HISTORY | 386-2 | History of Modern Southeast Asia Until 19452 |
| ISEN | 230-0 | Climate Change and Sustainability: Ethical Dimensions (with PHIL 270-0)3 |
| LEGAL_ST | 356-0 | Constitutional Challenges in Comparative Perspective (with POLI_SCI 356-0)1 |
| PHIL | 220-0 | Introduction to Critical Theory (with COMP_LIT 207-0)3 |
| PHIL | 221-0 | Gender, Politics and Philosophy (with GNDR_ST 233-0)3 |
| PHIL | 222-0 | Introduction to Africana Philosophy3 |
| PHIL | 270-0 | Climate Change and Sustainability: Economic and Ethical Dimensions (with ISEN 230-0)3 |
| POLI_SCI | 240-0 | Introduction to International Relations1 |
| POLI_SCI | 250-0 | Introduction to Comparative Politics1 |
| POLI_SCI | 304-0 | Human Rights Between East and West3 |
| POLI_SCI | 341-0 | International Political Economy1 |
| POLI_SCI | 343-0 | Politics of International Law1 |
| POLI_SCI | 347-0 | Ethics in International Relations3 |
| POLI_SCI | 350-0 | Social Movements1 |
| POLI_SCI | 351-0 | Politics of the Middle East1 |
| POLI_SCI | 352-0 | Global Development (with SOCIOL 317-0)1 |
| POLI_SCI | 354-0 | Politics of Southeast Asia1 |
| POLI_SCI | 356-0 | Constitutional Challenges in Comparative Perspective (with LEGAL_ST 356-0)1 |
| POLI_SCI | 362-0 | Politics of Europe1 |
| POLI_SCI | 374-0 | Politics of Capitalism1 |
| POLI_SCI | 376-0 | Civil Wars1 |
| POLI_SCI | 377-0 | Drugs and Politics1 |
| POLI_SCI | 383-0 | War and Change in International Politics1 |
| POLI_SCI | 384-0 | International Responses to Mass Atrocities1 |
| PSYCH | 317-0 | The Holocaust: Psychological Themes & Perspectives1 |
| RELIGION | 360-0 | African American Religions2,3 |
| SLAVIC | 328-0 | Prague: City of Cultures, City of Conflict (with GERMAN 328-0)4 |
| SOCIOL | 305-0 | Population Dynamics1 |
| SOCIOL | 317-0 | Global Development (with POLI_SCI 352-0)1 |
| SPANISH | 204-0 | Advanced Spanish II: Artivism in Times of Political Change4 |
| SPANISH | 231-0 | New Latin American Narrative4 |
| SPANISH | 260-0 | Literature in Latin America before 18884 |
| SPANISH | 261-0 | Literature in Latin America since 18884 |
| SPANISH | 362-0 | Citizenship and Urban Violence in Latin America4 |
1Also FD-Social and Behavioral Sciences
2Also FD-Historical Studies
3Also FD-Ethical and Evaluative Thinking
4Also FD-Literature and Arts
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