Sources: UNDP, Center for Budget and Policy Priorities; FAO, UN, UNDP, World Bank

Exploring the relationship between globalization and inequality, this course will probe the complex forces driving the integration of ideas, people and economies worldwide. This year-long inquiry into global disparities will consider the challenges of global governance, societal and economic norms, and the imperatives of economic and social justice. We will examine dilemmas of social stratification: class, race and gender; poverty; functional democracy; civil society; and competing visions of citizenship. Thinking about the relatedness of freedom, development, and sustainability, we will consider the realities of sovereignty, power and powerlessness. We will probe the complexities of growth, poverty reduction, corruption, and the roles of international organizations such as the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. We will investigate the global impact of multinational corporations and their accountability and transparency and the impact of fast track trade authority on labor and environmental concerns.

From Brazil to the U.S., from India to South Africa , from Nigeria to China, we will look at issues of education, environmental degradation, debt relief, land distribution, resource allocation, extractive industries, labor practices and standards, the new slavery, genomics, intellectual property and patenting, and the political economy of civil wars...

Of special concern throughout will be the development of human security strategies to reduce inequalities and address marginalization and disenfranchised populations.

This global disparity lies at the heart of EPIIC's 2001-02 inquiry. Working with Professor Sen and many others from the UNDP to Transparency International, from John Hancock to USAID, this year-long effort will be a discourse on global integration, global societal and economic norms, world governance, and social justice. We will examine the dilemmas of social stratification, class, race, gender, poverty, functional democracy, civil society, and competing visions of citizenship.

Informed by the theoretical debates over distributive justice and social choice theory and the thinking about the relatedness of freedom, development, underdevelopment and sustainability, we will consider the realities of sovereignty, power and powerlessness. We will probe the complexities and incongruities of international trade and investment policies and the post Seattle/Quebec City/ Bangkok WTO, including international financial flows and the roles of the IMF and World Bank; multinational corporations and concerns with accountability and transparency; the impact of fast track-trade authority on labor and environmental concerns; global health care; genomics; intellectual property and patenting; the digital divide; and corruption and transnational crime.

Among the global issues under scrutiny from Brazil to the U.S., from India to South Africa, will be environmental degradation; debt forgiveness; land distribution and other resource allocation; sweatshops, labor practices and standards; disparities in investment in education; disposable people, the new slavery in the global economy; and the vulnerability of the world's children. Under specific investigation will be the social construction and processes of marginalization, disenfranchisement and the effects of globalization that have reinforced, and perhaps even expanded, the division between the world's rich and poor.

THE EPIIC COLLOQUIUM

As the preparatory class for EPIIC's annual international symposium, the colloquium offers the unique opportunity of fusing serious academic coursework with the planning and enactment of the symposium, simulations, professional workshops, and special events. EPIIC enables students to produce tangible, intellectual products such as CD-Roms and the opportunity to mentor high school students in Inquiry. EPIIC's approach affords students both a broad, multidisciplinary survey of an expansive topic and opportunities for in-depth, independent research.

Throughout the two-semester course, students are exposed to diverse perspectives, regularly discoursing with authors of required readings and other eminent thinkers and practitioners. Students also can utilize EPIIC as a platform to pursue senior honors theses and to conduct original field research. Over the last few years, students have traveled to Australia, Bosnia, Chiapas, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, France, The Hague, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Jerusalem, Lebanon, Nepal, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, South Africa, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.