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In IDS, you will:

• explore topics from multiple perspectives
• open doors to many fields of study
• experience interactive & conversational learning
• meet students with similar interests
• gain practical experience
• have choice, flexibility & variety

Who can take these courses?
Any U of R student. This program will be of particular interest to Arts and Fine Arts students.
 
Will these courses fit into my degree program?
All courses are university credit courses and fit within most degrees. 
 
How do I enrol?
Courses are filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Contact the your student advisor for easy one-stop registration.
 
 
Winter 2010

Interdisciplinary studies 101
Global Citizenship 2: current dynamics

What does it mean to be a global citizen today?  What hope is there for our environment in a time when seven billion people occupy the earth?  Given that the economies of the world are interconnected, is it better that we have more or less “free trade” and what does that mean anyway? “Sustainable” is a word ascribed to almost anything desirable but what does it mean in terms of a world economy so dependent on energy sources?  In a world where many debunk religion as unscientific nonsense and blame it for much of the world's violence and social ills, and yet where religious and cultural identities are also asserted more forcefully, how do we make sense of religions' (and cultures') potential both as an asset or a liability to global wellbeing?  How are we to understand gender in an increasingly complex, interrelated world where what it means to be a woman or a man can mean quite different things? 

We are all citizens of some place, but what does it mean to be a citizen of the world?
 
Dr Bryan Hillis, professor of religious studies, Luther College
Citizenship is more than being born or taking an oath; it’s about belonging.  And belonging necessarily involves awareness leading to knowledge and ideally resulting in responsibility and accountability. Whether you become responsible and accountable is your decision. What this course will do is make you aware and knowledgeable of the issues involved in belonging to this world and the rest of its inhabitants.
 
Dr Noel Chevalier, professor of English, Luther College
Global citizenship, to me, means a way of thinking of oneself not simply as a resident of a specific spot (town, city, province, or nation), but as a person whose actions and choices, however local they may seem, are affected by, and, in turn, affect the actions of the whole world.
 
What does it mean ecologically, politically and culturally to live in a global context?
 
Dr Bryan Hillis, professor of religious studies, Luther College
In an increasingly smaller and crowded world, every action we take or don't take affects others. Ecological awareness of our biological and geographical connectedness is real whether or not we want to acknowledge it. Living as a global citizen politically is awareness that what my country, province, even city decides has repercussions elsewhere. Living as a cultural global citizen is an attitude as much as it is knowledge; openness to the distinctiveness and, again, the connectedness of other cultures.
 
Dr Noel Chevalier, professor of English, Luther College
These three things are inseparable for me: in all cases, it means that our everyday lives are as bound up in what happens halfway around the world as by what happens down the street.  Very little of what we buy today is produced locally; our political choices, even at the municipal level, often involve decisions that even indirectly affect people of other nations; our collective awareness of other cultures has increased staggeringly even in the last 20 years.
 
Who are we? Where have we been? Where are we going?
 
Dr Bryan Hillis, professor of religious studies, Luther College
Everyone must answer these questions for themselves, but there is a sense in which we share a common background and experience as people of this generation, this area, this country and this hemisphere. Understanding ourselves relative to others in those same places and beyond will help us all survive and simply be together in a better way.
 
Dr Noel Chevalier, professor of English, Luther College
We cannot ignore the fact that, if we identify ourselves as non-Aboriginal North Americans, we are already declaring the effects of globalisation.  The exploration and appropriation of the North American continent goes back over 500 years, and it is imperative that we understand that history in order to understand ourselves as "global citizens."  The reasons for colonising parts of the world remote from Europe are incredibly complex and varied; the actions of our ancestors has irrevocably changed the entire world, for the better and worse, but if we seek to comprehend why we are here, then we can, to some degree, control our choices for the future. I believe that, unless we appreciate and understand our history, we are in danger of being led by rootless ideas about our future that may be motivated by immediate self-interest rather than informed decision-making or concern for succeeding generations.  Basically, if you don't care about the past, you can't really care much about the future, either.
 
What is it like to live in an increasingly smaller world?
 
Dr Bryan Hillis, professor of religious studies, Luther College
It means on the one hand that our environmental options become more limited every day, in so many ways.  It also means that our possibilities for working with others, most of whom are very interesting for their “otherness," increase every day. Will our possibilities overcome our limitations or be smothered by them?  At the very least, we will need to understand our limitations and our possibilities if we are to survive the futures we and our forerunners have created.
 
Dr Noel Chevalier, professor of English, Luther College
On the positive side, I think it means that we participate in a cultural richness that is probably unparalleled in human history.  We are able to know far more about peoples and places than even my parents' generation; students routinely travel to places only glimpsed in the pages of National Geographic a generation ago; children grow up in ethnically and racially diverse communities that, hopefully, may make racism seem as remote and ridiculous an idea as the geocentric universe. On the other hand, globalisation has resulted in a tendency towards cultural and economic imperialism that is also unparalleled in human history.  Third-world countries have become, in effect, the vast indentured labour market for first-world businesses; at the same time, mass-marketed products and corporate entities have infiltrated virtually every part of the globe, ironically suggesting that the so-called "cultural mosaic" that we enjoy may become an artificial remnant that only exists in the minds of displaced peoples longing to preserve their culture.
 
Beyond the cultural, of course, we also need to be aware that, fundamentally, the phenomenally privileged life that we enjoy in North America has been, and continues to be, built on principles of colonialism and expansionism that started several hundred years ago—and is unsustainable without them.  Without cheap labour, easy access to natural resources, and the lion's share of the world's wealth, we could not maintain the life we have built here.  That's the reality we live every day, something we participate in even when we buy a pair of shoes or a cup of coffee.  It's easy to talk about "globalisation" and "doing something for the planet," but when we realise just how fully our lives are bound up in the rest of the world, it becomes much harder to see how we can change that.  That's why we need to study both the past and present realities, so that we can have a clearer sense of how we can shape our future.