FYS 77 What’s Going On in the World, and Why Should You Care
This is a discussion-based, writing-intensive course. It is a course that will help you develop practical skills and healthy work habits that you will find useful no matter what you end up choosing to do in life (including your next three and a half years at Oxy). Substantially, the course is an introduction to some of the main issues, actors and processes shaping domestic and global politics at the turn of the 21st century. It covers issues such as the decline of democracy in the United States and abroad, climate change, global health, global inequality and poverty, and nuclear proliferation, among others. It is a course designed to jump-start—or reinforce—your curiosity about some of the most pressing issues shaping the world we all live in; as the cost of ignoring is always higher than those of knowing, regardless of where you may stand on things.