Culture, Place, and Identity

Please read the ‘Curriculum and Tracks’  section before reading this track description.

Culture, Place, and Identity compares processes of globalization in different times and locations, with an emphasis on power, culture, place, and identity.  Courses in this track consider changes wrought by global flows of ideas, people, and commodities.  Those flows have reshaped cultural geographies, regions, borders, contact zones, and accents in complex and sometimes contradictory ways.  Course offerings pay particular attention to national and transnational identities, indigenous and diasporic cultures, and colonialism and postcolonialism. While our inquiries are often focused on a specific topic, region, or identity group, coursework consistently situates the local in its global context.

This necessarily interdisciplinary track fosters development of the intellectual flexibility needed to study the dynamic and ambiguous objects, identities, and practices that comprise globalization. Students in this track must complete GLBL 101 Introduction to Global Studies, GLBL 301 Approaches to Globalization, and four gateway courses. The gateway courses are listed in the Curriculum and Tracks section. It is recommended that students pursuing this track take the following gateway courses:

• ANTH 211 – Cultural Anthropology

• GWST 340 – Women, Gender, and Globalization

• MLL 305 – Introduction to Intercultural Communication

• POLI 260 – Comparative Politics

To complete the Culture, Place, and Identity track, students must select six electives with one from each of the following groups. Five of the six courses must be at the 300-400 level. Course descriptions are available in the Course Index.

For questions about Track I, please contact Dr. Brigid Starkey Fine Arts Building, South Wing 551 (410) 455-2182 bstarkey@umbc.edu