This is a discussion based and active learning course designed for students from different disciplinary backgrounds from science and engineering fields to the social sciences and humanities. The intellectual and academic content of the course allows students to draw on their educational and professional experiences abroad or attained in different intercultural contexts as we explore concepts and practices related to identity, citizenship, globalism and intercultural competencies. The course explores the meaning of global citizenship as it has evolved conceptually in scholarly and public debates and how it is “practiced” by individuals and “institutionalized” by universities, corporations and other organizations that deploy the concept as a strategic goal or a set of value commitments. We will also consider the extent to which global citizenship is a contested idea and evaluate those oppositions in both normative and empirical terms. The course will be anchored by a survey of the relevant concepts, theories and analytical tools from the Social Sciences and Humanities, as well as from Intercultural Communication and Social Psychology to enable students to fulfill the following objectives:

• Think critically and systematically about our subject matter, particularly as it is bound up with complex constructs such as national identity, globalization and the causes and consequences of human migration.
• Perform an active investigation of perception, values, and problem-solving approaches, all of which differ in patterned ways across cultures, and exert tremendous influence on how we define global citizenship.
• Acknowledge the necessity of shifting from ethno-centrism to ethno-relativism and away from “us versus them” thinking to successfully conceptualize global citizenship as an idea and a practice