Reading Global Politics
Course content
21st century global politics seems to move fast, demanding ever quicker analysis, while AI promises to deliver information, bite-sized summaries of lengthy arguments and above all answers at lightning speed. And yet scholars take the time to read and write books on global politics. Indeed, many of the most significant contributions to scholarly debate continue to be books. This course therefore introduces students to the significance (and joy) of reading books.
This course revolves around carefully reading a small number of books – classic and current - by scholars writing on key themes of global politics such as race, migration and climate change. It will allow students to gain deep insight on how key themes and concepts have been thought about over time. It will allow them to see how, even when times move fast, certain challenges persist and ‘slow’ analyses continue to matter. It will explore what it means to read, what book-length arguments achieve and why they are still (or perhaps particularly) relevant in the current moment.
While there are no substantive prerequisites, students taking this course will need to be willing to carefully read entire books.
Full-degree students enrolled at the Department of Political Science, UCPH
- MSc in Political Science
- MSc in Social Science
- MSc in Security Risk Management
- Bachelor in Political Science
Full-degree students enrolled at the Faculty of Social Science, UCPH
- Bachelor and Master Programmes in Anthropology
- Bachelor and Master Programmes in Psychology
- Master Programme in Social Data Science
The course is open to:
- Exchange and Guest students from abroad
- Credit students from Danish Universities
- Open University students
Knowledge:
- Read key texts and reflect on their reading
- Explain and analyse how key themes of global politics are conceptualised in key texts
- Analyse and respond to these conceptualisations and the arguments of which they form a part
- Discuss the implications of conceptualisations and their readings for global politics
Skills:
- Carefully read and interrogate texts and engage with the conceptualisations they produce
- Reflect on the significance of reading
- Construct, defend and critique arguments
Competences:
- Reading
- Critical thinking
- Independent working
- Oral communication and writing
Students will learn primarily through their reading and through discussing their reading in class. They will need to carefully read and engage with entire books. They will be asked to bring their insights and interpretations to class to discuss in both small group and plenary settings. The course convenor will read the books with the students and facilitate both discussion of the books and reflection on reading itself.
Indicative book list
- Getachew, Adom, Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination (Princeton: Princeton University Press 2019). 248 pages
- Fanon, Frantz, Black Skin, White Masks (London: Pluto Press 2008). 225 pages
- Sharma, Nandita, Home Rule: National Sovereignty and the Separation of Natives and Migrants (Durham: Duke University Press 2020). 384 pages
- Baldwin, Andrew, The Other of Climate Change: Racial Futurism, Migration, Humanism (London: Rowman & Littlefield 2022). 204 pages
When registered you will be signed up for exam.
- Full-degree students – sign up at Selfservice on KUnet
- Exchange and guest students from abroad – sign up through Mobility Online and Selfservice- read more through this website.
- Credit students from Danish universities - sign up through this website.
- Open University students - sign up through this website.
The dates for the exams are found here Exams – Faculty of Social Sciences - University of Copenhagen (ku.dk)
Please note that it is your own responsibility to check for overlapping exam dates.
- ECTS
- 7,5 ECTS
- Type of assessment
-
Home assignment
- Type of assessment details
- Three-day compulsory written take-home assignment.
See the section regarding exam forms in the programme curriculum for more information on guidelines and scope. - Aid
- All aids allowed except Generative AI
- Marking scale
- 7-point grading scale
- Censorship form
- No external censorship
- Re-exam
-
In the semester where the course takes place: Three-day compulsory written take-home assignment
In subsequent semesters: Free written assignment
Criteria for exam assessment
Meet the subject's knowledge, skill and competence criteria, as described in the goal description, which demonstrates the minimally acceptable degree of fulfillment of the subject's learning outcome.
Grade 12 is given for an outstanding performance: the student lives up to the course's goal description in an independent and convincing manner with no or few and minor shortcomings
Grade 7 is given for a good performance: the student is confidently able to live up to the goal description, albeit with several shortcomings
Grade 02 is given for an adequate performance: the minimum acceptable performance in which the student is only able to live up to the goal description in an insecure and incomplete manner
Single subject courses (day)
- Category
- Hours
- Class Instruction
- 28
- Preparation
- 84
- Exam Preparation
- 58
- Exam
- 36
- English
- 206
Kursusinformation
- Language
- English
- Course number
- ASTK18475U
- ECTS
- 7,5 ECTS
- Programme level
- Full Degree Master
Bachelor
- Duration
-
1 semester
- Placement
- Spring
- Studyboard
- Department of Political Science, Study Council
Contracting department
- Department of Political Science
- Department of Anthropology
- Department of Psychology
- Social Data Science
Contracting faculty
- Faculty of Social Sciences
Course Coordinator
- Maja Zehfuss (12-6f636c63307c676a68777575426b6875306d7730666d)
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Kursusinformation for indskrevne studerende