Global Issues Symposium
US/Mexico border (Tijuana-San Diego)US/Mexico border (Tijuana-San Diego)
US/Mexico FenceUS/Mexico FenceGetty Images photograph by John Moore
International Space Station image of India/Pakistan BorderInternational Space Station image of India/Pakistan BorderPhoto by ISS Expedition Crew 28 (NASA Earth Observatory)
Israel/EgyptIsrael/EgyptPhoto by Chris Hadfield(NASA)
Germany/Netherlands border inside the Eurode buildingGermany/Netherlands border inside the Eurode buildingPhoto by Robert Smith (NPR)
Torkham Afghanistan/Pakistan border.jpgTorkham Afghanistan/Pakistan border.jpg

March and April 2017

Oberlin College is pleased to host the second annual Global Issues Symposium, on the theme of Challenging Borders: Migration, Rights and Security in the 21st Century. With developments like the Syrian refugee crisis, and the domestic political surge in favor of walling off the United States from its neighbors, the creation and impact of national borders has regained salience in recent times. Through the speaker series and related events of the symposium, we seek to assess these developments, which urgently need discussion from a wide range of perspectives.

 

About the Global Issues Symposium

Beginning in 2016, Oberlin College hosts the annual Global Issues Symposium, which brings to its campus renowned scholars, policy practitioners and activists to discuss crucial transnational issues with the college and community. Each year features a specific transnational issue, and brings a cohort of speakers from diverse backgrounds to offer equitable representation in dialogues needed to address the most pressing issues of our times.

The symposium series is organized by the International Studies Concentration, and funded through a generous donation from the Isenberg Family Charitable Foundation.

Global Issues Symposia will be held over four years, and constitute a significant starting initiative for a larger Global Scholars Program envisioned to expand student learning beyond the existing curriculum of the International Studies Concentration.

About the International Studies Concentration

The International Studies Concentration prepares students for careers and pursuits spanning national boundaries. It is grounded in the social sciences and focused on contemporary issues to help students develop an understanding of the current dominant modes of international interactions, and the global nature and consequences of those interactions. Interested students may select International Studies as a concentration within their liberal arts education. The concentration can complement many academic majors, building students’ capacities to apply disciplinary knowledge from their major to the challenges of the globalized world.

For the concentration, students choose from more than 100 courses across the Oberlin curriculum on the world’s cultures, regional interactions, and international dynamics, in addition to core politics and economics classes. We expect majors to attain at least a second year of (non-English) language proficiency.

 

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