Engage with our global community

FYSEM-UA 484 Global Citizenship: Podcasting Global Issues, with Professor Uli Baer

Engage with our global community

FYSEM-UA 484 Global Citizenship: Podcasting Global Issues

We are living through an enormous sociocultural shift, one that is changing the world irreversibly. As globalization makes the world an increasingly cosmopolitan place, our cultures are changing - so what values are universal and immutable, and which are community-specific? How are they changing? Are women’s rights to equal social standing universal? Is the death penalty acceptable? It is morally defensible to eat animals? And does democracy have a uniform definition that must include free elections, freedom of expression, and independent courts? These are the types of question explored in FYSEM-UA 484 Global Citizenship: Podcasting Global Issues, taught by Prof. Uli Baer.

Globalization is a phenomenon for which NYU itself is at the forefront, with one in four CAS students an international student. As the world comes together at Washington Square, what does this mean for our sense of community? What can we learn from each other, and indeed, what can we learn about ourselves?

Prof. Baer has always been interested in such internationalist questions, and was in fact heavily involved in the development of NYU as a ‘Global’ university - for instance, as Vice Provost for Global and Multicultural Programs, he led contract negotiations in the establishment of NYU Shanghai. A professor of Comparative Literature, German, and English, Prof. Baer always likes to approach questions with a ‘big picture’ approach, examining issues through multiple lenses.

A large part of this seminar is the development of the technical and production skills to create collaborative podcasts - something Prof. Baer is uniquely qualified to teach, as he runs several popular academic podcasts, and students will acquire the skills to script, record, produce and present short podcasts as part of this seminar. Students will use the skills they develop in this seminar to interview experts, activists, and their fellow students, and ask the question: what does it mean to have a global mindset?