GDEV 2105 - Critical Global Citizenship: Preparing for Ethical Engagement

Spring. 2 credits. Letter grades only.

J. Ficarra.

The global development challenges impacting our planet are many and the need to work collaboratively, across geographic, cultural, and ideological borders to address these challenges has never been so urgent. In order to effect positive change in our societies, we must embrace our interdependence and develop a sense of “global citizenship”, or a shared promotion of equity, environmental justice, and human equality on a global scale. However, “critical global citizenship” pushes this concept further by emphasizing praxis, critique, and collaborative learning experiences in order to identify global, historical, systems of power and to better understand how we might transform these systems to maximize opportunities for ethical development in communities both near and far. The course will introduce key concepts related to critical global citizenship, organized around four themes: theoretical foundations; social identity, power, and privilege; global and local communities; and ethical engagement. We will focus on global civic action – that is, concrete ways that we can prepare to engage ethically with diverse communities towards our collective goals of human and environmental flourishing.

Outcome 1: Utilize appropriate vocabulary to identify and analyze issues of inequity, identity, and development.

Outcome 2: Identify power differences and other potential sources of inequities encountered in the development work, as well as actions to minimize these inequities.

Outcome 3: Evaluate the role of interdisciplinary and systems thinking in approaches to development practice in communities both locally and globally.

Outcome 4: Summarize paths towards global civic action and current best
practices for ethical, sustainable travel.

Outcome 5: Develop a personal approach to critical reflection and cultural
humility, anchored in a deepened understanding of global interconnectedness.