Our present existence is the outcome of billions of human beings who came before us, their past activity silently informing the way we live. This past has been bequeathed to us in the form of our natural environment and the constellation of social, economic, and political institutions that we today hold to be self-evident.* And it is this past that ultimately conditions the set of choices we have available to us and how we decide to live our lives. In this course, we will focus on three key themes that bear on our present existence: the historical development of the global economy, the contemporary mass migration of peoples throughout the world and the polarization of liberal democracies across the globe, and the looming specter of climate change.

The objective of this course is twofold. From one angle, this course provides an assortment of textual material ranging from news articles, essays, books, and autobiographical accounts, all of which participate within ongoing conversations on the above-mentioned themes. Another aim of this course is to foster our critical reading, writing, and thinking faculties. Towards this end, we will read texts from educational experts and psychologists that can help foster a reflexive approach to reading and understanding of academic texts. Moreover, the course aims to foster alternate methods of reading as an active process integrating writing and engaged thought, and not simply a passive process of reflection and assimilation of information.