SYD4701: Nationalism/Ethnicity Across Europe

This course analyzes the sociological distinctions between race, ethnicity, and nationality as well as how each of these identification characteristics affects contemporary European nations and their relations with one another.  I believe this course both contextualized the history of ethnic conflict within Europe (and the territories they have outside of the continent) and it gave me an in-depth perspective of current events such as the political "refugee crisis" in Germany and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. I took this class the semester before studying abroad in Germany, so I got to reflect on all I learned in this class while living in Europe.

LIT4930: Vampire Cinema

I never thought that a course on vampirism in pop culture would have such a strong emphasis on global relations, but Professor Kujundzic showed me how multidimensional the vampire trope can be. This course showcased the development of vampire folklore throughout history and the inspiration it derives from religious traditions, psychoanalytic procedures, imperialist political heritage, and the persecution of queer individuals. We analyzed films and literature depicting vampires from a variety of different nations, cultures, and time periods to decipher how this archetype can be interpreted differently around the world.

SYD3395: Sociology of Globalization

This course examined the economic, political, and ecological ties that make up current international relations and how these relations have changed over the previous century. We analyzed critical definitions of the term "Globalization" and the social effects it has on members of various populations. I learned so much about how interdependent every country is on each other, especially in an economic sense. I also really appreciated that this course took a personal route by having our final project be to analyze our own experiences with international travel, including a paper discussing how the principles we talked about in class relate to our family's history of migration.

IDS4956: International Cultural Studies

I took this class while studying at the Universität Mannheim in Germany, and I loved seeing an analysis of various global cultures from the perspective of a nation that wasn't the USA. In this class, we studied literature from various philosophers regarding how culture is defined, how it shapes a population of individuals, and how a clash of cultural values can create conflict. The assignments in this class involved discussions of how various cultures around the world were shaped by contemporary Globalization and political events within the 20th and 21st centuries, which I felt added further context to the international coursework I took at UF.