HIV/AIDS, an “Introduction to International Studies” class lecture

September 14, 2020 / global health / , , ,
Mercator Map of the Congo, 1595, from the Northwestern University Library Maps of Africa collection, accessed through Wikipedia.

I wrote a book, the AIDS Pandemic in Latin America, and have studied public policy and infectious disease for nearly twenty years. Here is a lecture that I wrote (around 2010?) for an “Introduction to International Studies” class. It would need to be updated now; it may also some references to my own experiences, which would need to be removed. But my hope is that it might prove a useful starting place for someone who wants to do a lecture on this topic in a similar class.

Shawn Smallman

HIV/AIDS

Terms:

clades

HIV 1-B

HIV 2

Retrovirus

Cameroon

 

Character of the Virus:

  • HIV is not one virus but many
  • The result of more than one introduction into humanity
  • Two main forms: HIV-1; HIV-2
  • Great diversity
  • Difficult to create vaccine
  • 10 year latency
  • initial infection- blood/sex/mother daughter
  • flu-like symptoms
  • body holds the virus in check
  • over time, the virus gradually erodes the immune system’s ability to defend the body
  • the person dies of opportunistic infections
  • there are different latency periods for different people: my Cuban experience
  • medicines don’t work with everyone: my experience in the support group in Sao Paulo
  • most people, the medications are effective
  • recently realized: in a discordant couple medications prevent transmission in 98% of cases
  • means that treatment is prevention
  • heart-breaking: long argued that treatment was too expensive
  • the only economical way to treat the virus was prevention
  • proves to have been a flawed paradigm

…

HIV/AIDS, an “Introduction to International Studies” class lectureRead More »

Indigenous Futurism with Grace Dillon: A Dispatch 7 podcast

September 14, 2020 / indigenous peoples / , ,

I’ve just published my latest podcast episode of Dispatch 7, which is an interview with Dr. Grace Dillon about Indigenous Futurism. I’ve known Grace for a long time. She kindly wrote the preface to my own book -Dangerous Spirits- on the windigo, an evil spirit in Algonquian narratives and history. I like to think that this preface captured the enthusiasm, breadth of knowledge and humor that Grace shows in this podcast episode.

It’s ironic that in this podcast I briefly brought up the Indigenous knowledge of how to manage a landscape with fire, in order to avoid mega-fires. About a week after our interview much of the West Coast of the United States went up in flames. I am deeply worried for many old friends and former students. I’ve left that short comment in, because the point is still valid. But I would have spoken differently if I had known what was about to happen.

One of the great things about talking with Grace is that she always leaves me with a long list of novels that I want to read. This conversation was no different. Please see the show notes for a long list of novels, graphic novels and programs that Grace recommended. If you are looking for some reading suggestions, this is the right podcast episode for you.

Shawn Smallman

The Murder of Musicians in South East Asia

September 1, 2020 / Music / , ,

In my most recent episode of my podcast, Dispatch 7, I interviewed Dr. Priya Kapoor about the murder of musicians in South Asia. Priya was able to put these murders into a larger historical and religious context in the region, while at the same time showing the commonalities between different South Asian states. In the show notes you can find YouTube videos (which she kindly shared with me) of different musicians performing, as well as the citation for her new book chapter on the topic.

I posted the podcast episode last night before I went to bed, and by the morning people had already found and listened to it. I think that this will be a popular episode. In upcoming episodes I will be talking to an expert on Indigenous Science Fiction and a Chinese language learner. Please check back in two weeks for the next episode.

Shawn Smallman

Introduction to Latin American Studies, an online syllabus

August 27, 2020 / teaching / ,

Global Perspectives: Latin America

I’ve shared a copy of a syllabus for an online “Introduction to Latin American Studies” class before, and somebody recently wrote on Twitter how much they appreciated that. I think that I had posted that syllabus in 2014, and I’ve changed the syllabus significantly since then. Here is the syllabus that I’ll be using when I teach the class this fall. Of course, many of the videos that I am using (and other resources) are only accessible from my library, so you’ll have to see what resources are available at your own institution’s library. But I hope that this may give you some ideas.

I am making this syllabus freely available for anyone to take, adapt or use. In this era of COVID-19, I know that many people are struggling to put classes online, so I hope that this resource may help someone.

Shawn Smallman, 2020

Pages: 1 2

Coffee in Nepal- A podcast interview with Andrew Russo

August 21, 2020 / food / ,

The latest episode of my podcast, Dispatch 7, will be a must-listen for coffee fans. In this week’s episode I interviewed Portland State University graduate student Andrew Russo about his experience as a coffee broker. We talked about how he came to enter the business, wrote a coffee tasting guide, and even worked to help a coffee estate in Nepal that was damaged by the 2015 earthquake. We also talked about his interest in the area of disaster management, and how he traveled with a class to study how Japan responded to the 2011 earthquake.

Shawn Smallman

Labor Migration in India

August 21, 2020 / migration / , ,

I want to thank my colleague Dr. Pronoy Rai, who joined me on my Dispatch 7 podcast to discuss labor migration in India. I enjoyed hearing about how he does fieldwork with the migrants. Towards the end he talked about COVID-19, and how it’s impacting labor migrants in India now. You can find the podcast episode here.

Shawn Smallman

Subhrajyoti07 / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

The Drug War: an intro class lecture

September 14, 2020 / drugs, U.S. Foreign Policy

A Cannabis plant. By Cannabis Training University (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
I want to share this lecture on the drug wars. Although I now teach only online, I taught the face to face course for nearly twenty-years. This lecture is approximately six years old, so it would need to be updated. It also has references to my own experiences doing interviews with drug traffickers and users in Brazil, which wouldn’t be relevant for most people. My hope, though, is that it might be helpful to someone who is teaching the “Introduction to International Studies” class, who can take some of these ideas and make it their own.

Shawn Smallman, 2020

The Drug Wars

Terms:

Realism; human security

The First Opium War

The Second Opium War

Lin Zexu

Coca

Cocaine

Crack cocaine

basuco

The Mexican drug war, 2006-present

 

Lecture Outline:

Realism versus human security

The Opium Wars

Early Drug Policy

Coca

Cocaine

Drugs in South America

The Mexican Drug War

Legalization

Discussion

…

The Drug War: an intro class lectureRead More »

Instructor Resources

August 9, 2020 / pedagogy /

The cover of the third edition of our textbook with the University of North Carolina Press

Kim and I have completed the third edition of our textbook. After nearly three years of work, the first copy showed up in my mailbox last week. With this rewrite we didn’t just update references, but rather rework the text entirely. For example, Kim created a new organization for the exercises in our work to ensure greater consistency. We created new case studies, such as one in the health chapter that looks at Indigenous health in Australia’s outback and Canada’s Nunavut. And we gave particular attention to the rise of nationalism and populism globally, as well as to profound changes in our energy systems.

When it came to the Instructor Resources, we similarly wanted to rework our text. What’s been important is that we’re able to build on what we’ve seen about which resources are used, as well as the feedback from our peers. For example, one of the most popular resources has been a list of films that are appropriate to use in an intro class. We’ve worked with our colleagues and our students to update that list from scratch. We’re currently reworking sample essay questions. We have a new introduction, our published paper that talks about universal design for learning.  And we have a new assignments section, which includes rubrics that I’ve been using in the class myself for many years. In short, it’s a comprehensive set of resources, which will make it easy to step into this class for the first time, or to adopt a new set of tools. All these materials will be available before the end of August, which is also when the book will also be released for purchase.

Shawn Smallman, 2020

Colonialism – an introductory lecture for an INTL 101 class

July 23, 2020 / teaching / ,

Colonial architecture, Macau, China. Photo by Shawn Smallman. August 2017

Even though I no longer teach face to face classes, I’ve always loved lecturing. Here I want to share an introductory class lecture that covers colonialism. If you are a faculty member, please feel free to use this lecture in your classes. Please note that this lecture is about eight years old as I post this, so you will likely want to update it.

Shawn Smallman, 2020

…

Colonialism – an introductory lecture for an INTL 101 classRead More »

The Fulbright Program, a podcast interview with Chiara Nicastro

July 25, 2020 / podcasts /

Chiara Nicastro is an International Studies graduate from Portland State University, an Oregon Consular Corps Scholarship winner, and a Fulbright scholar. She was a fantastic guest on the latest episode of my podcast, Dispatch 7, in which she talked about the Fulbright program. If you’ve ever thought about doing this program after you graduate, or know someone who might be interested, this is worth a listen. Plus, Chiara is just a high energy and positive person, so she’s always fun to talk with. You can find the podcast episode here.

Shawn Smallman, 2020

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. See our Privacy Policy for details. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use. If you do not consent, click here to opt out of Google Analytics.