Fall 2017’s GLOA 400: Capstone Courses Announced— “Globalization in Asia” and “Global Crises”

Each semester the Global Affairs Program offers students exciting options in the GLOA 400: Global Affairs Capstone course. This fall semester students can choose between “Globalization in Asia” (section 003) with Dr. Byunghwan Son or “Global Crises” with Dr. Kathalene Razzano (section 002). Either section of GLOA 400 will fulfill the “synthesis/capstone” requirement in the Mason Core curriculum. Alternatively, students can choose to count their section of GLOA 400 toward another requirement in their degree program.

 

 In Focus: GLOA 400-002 Global Crises

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Dr. Razzano’s “Global Crises” capstone course explores an array of critical situations that have developed in our global and globalizing world. In addition to more widely publicized crises like water scarcity and the Syrian refugee situation, “Global Crises” also challenges students to consider dilemmas like the environmental hazards of e-waste and fast fashion’s pressure on global supply chains.

 

This course encourages students to apply their understandings of political, economic, sociocultural, and environmental dimensions of globalization to a wide variety of global crises and engage with the existing and proposed solutions to these problems. Students also push further and analyze how proposed solutions benefit or disadvantage varying populations across the globe

 

In Focus: GLOA 400-003 Globalization in Asia

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Dr. Son’s “Globalization in Asia” capstone course offers a unique, in-depth look at East Asia’s remarkable rise within the global economy despite persistent political and cultural challenges throughout the region. The course canvasses issues in the majority of East and Southeast Asian countries and will pay particular attention to South Korea, Japan, China, and Taiwan.

 

In this course students draw on the interdisciplinary knowledge from core and concentration coursework to go beyond a cursory exploration of globalization in Asia and work to answer some of the most interesting questions that have come out of the region in the past decade, such as “how did rampant corruption not hinder economic growth in Asia?”, “Why don’t Asian countries accept many immigrants/refugees?”, and “how do Asians view globalization?”.

 What Academic Requirements Can the GLOA 400 Capstone Count Towards?

 

  • GLOA 400-002: Global Crises may count towards either (but not both)

 

  • the Mason synthesis/capstone requirement

or

  • one of the following GLOA concentrations: International Development (IDEV), Human Security (HMSC), Global Inequalities and Responses (GIR)

 

  • GLOA 400-003: Globalization in Asia may count towards either (but not a combination of

 

  • the Mason synthesis/capstone requirement

or

  • one of the following GLOA concentrations: Global Economy and Management (GEM), Global Governance (GGOV), International Development (IDEV), or Asia

or

  • the Asia-Pacific and East Asian Studies minor “elective” requirement