How can we make a better future? Can we achieve a sustainable future? Global Futures is a field of study that aims to answer these questions through an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the structural, cultural and historical circumstances that we find ourselves in today. We explore shared global trends, discourses and institutions that shape life chances for people around the world. We explore what it means to anticipate different futures through a series of case studies that probe real-world issues around technology, health, sustainability, political systems, and inequality. We will examine the future as both a culturally constructed idea and a space for speculating and planning for new sustainable and equitable futures. We explore strategies for understanding how to understand global trends and anticipate possible futures through the lens of history, science and technology studies, sociology, anthropology, economics, and politics.

Special topics are experimental courses offered per semester.