Click on the links to the right to see fellow students’ questions for each week.
As an example, here are a few possible discussion questions about the first assigned reading, Arjun Appadurai’s “Disjuncture and Difference”:
Throughout the chapter, Appadurai uses the word “we.” To whom to you think he’s referring? What are the effects of using this word? What are the possible range of meanings? What does it elide?
How and why is nostalgia important to Appadurai’s formulation of global flows? How does it figure into his representation on contemporary life?
Do you think globalization or transnationalism is something new?
How does the experience of reading this compare with other theoretical writing you’ve read? How do you approach theory? Do you differentiate it from other styles of writing? If you do, what styles?