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UST Course Spans the Globe
3/28/2007
 A cutting-edge course on globalization at St. Thomas that will reach classes around the world has redefined the term.
Through an Internet-based platform, students and professors from nine universities internationally will study, teach and exchange their views in a rigorous, 14-week course that promotes international understanding and interaction in the search for answers to problems that require cooperation among all countries.
The fact that the more than 150 students who are expected to register and 12 faculty members who are participating in the fall class will be viewing and discussing the same issues from the vantage point of their highly diverse cultures gives the course its vigor and validity, says Dr. Pierre Canac, associate professor of economics and finance in the Cameron School of Business.
“If all the students participating were foreign exchange students visiting the United States, they couldn’t contribute their unique viewpoints in the same manner because they would be influenced by the American culture,” Canac said. “It’s that subtle difference that’s important – we want them to express themselves from their own experiences in their own countries.”
Canac and Dr. Gustavo Wensjoe, associate professor and director of the Center for International Studies, designed the original course, “Globalization and Regional Integration,” which first crossed the academic boundaries of economics and international studies for both undergraduate and graduate students and also the boundaries of four countries in 2003. The course was offered again in the fall of 2005 with 116 students from five universities in different countries participating.
Dr. Ravi Srinivas, associate professor of Environmental Science and director of the Master of Liberal Arts program, will teach a module on global environmental policy, and Dr. Beena George, assistant professor, will address management information science as part of the course.
All reading materials for the course, which includes issues in economics, political science, law, philosophy, psychology, science and management information science, will be posted online in English and Spanish. Students aren’t required to be bilingual, but a basic understanding of both languages will enhance their learning experience, Canac said.
The classes are team-taught by faculty members from the nine participating universities. All are members of the International Consortium of Universities of St Thomas Aquinas, or ICUSTA, which was founded in 1993 to unite Catholic institutes of higher education that are inspired by the life, work and tradition of St. Thomas Aquinas, said Dr. Joseph McFadden, UST president emeritus, who co-founded the organization with the president of the Universidad Santo Tomás in Chile.
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