Global Poverty

Course Number: POL 295
Credits: 4
Offered: Spring 2009
Instructor: Dr. Toppen
Overview:

About half of the world's six billion people live in poverty (defined as $2/day or less). This course will focus on the politics of global poverty -- at the local, national, and global levels -- while also considering the economic, religious, environmental, and other dimensions of what is arguably the single most compelling issue facing humanity in the 21st century. Among other things, we will explore the impacts on poverty of corrupt government, free trade deals, the status of women, debt relief, AIDS, food aid, federal government policies, the IMF and World Bank, ethnic conflict, multi-national corporations, the UN, and human rights.