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For Graduate Students The Cutting Edge: Interdisciplinary Possibilities Richard Appelbaum
For Graduate Students The Cutting Edge: Interdisciplinary Possibilities Richard Appelbaum
| Richard Appelbaum | | Print | |
Professor, Sociology, Global and International Studies, Director, M.A. in Global and International Studies Richard Appelbaum’s research includes world-system theory; global production and labor; science, technology, and society.UCSB rightly prides itself on being highly interdisciplinary, fostering collaborations across what is usually the science/social science/humanities divides. Our program in Global and International Studies includes faculty and students from the humanities and social sciences, whose research ranges from the study of religious nationalism to the role of technology in economic development. Our two-year MA program in Global Studies, which prepares students for careers in global civil society organizations, attracts students from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds (and a wide range of countries as well); their interests have ranged from environmental preservation to the use of drugs to eradicate malaria in Tanzania to eliminating child labor in the cotton fields of Uzbekistan. My own research, for example - under the auspices of the NSF-funded Center for Nanotechnology in Society - looks at emerging technologies in emerging economies such as China. In conducting this research, I work closely with colleagues in the College of Engineering, the History, Political Science, Sociology, and Feminist Studies Departments. In my capacity as a professor of both Sociology and Global and International Studies, my most recent graduate students have worked on a highly diverse (and interdisciplinary) range of projects - for example, the experience of women immigrants from Africa and Central Europe, who play an increasingly central role in caring for of Italy's aging population; how the World Trade Organization manages disputes, particularly when the countries involved have disparate economic and political power; and the role of emerging technologies in enabling "green" and sustainable economic development in India and China. |