IDST-1001H: Human Inequality Global Perspectives

Instructor: Haroon Akram-Lodhi

Course Code: IDST 1001H

When Taken: Fall 2020

Class Notes: All notes.docx (1)

Major Assignment: From Colonization to Imperialism.docx

My takeaway from the content of this class was very simply “neoliberalism is bad”. This is a really interesting conclusion for a class to draw, as neoliberalism is the way of the world today, and is still widely thought by politicians to be the way forward, particularly in areas in international relations. This conclusion caused me to question a lot of the things that I had taken as assumed, like international trade, or the world bank getting involved in developing countries. I had assumed throughout highschool that these things were simply good, because that was the way of the world, and people simply said that they were good.

Questioning neoliberalism was a start to questioning things that I had thought were just the way of the world, particularly questioning them through looking at different perspectives on an issue, and giving the people who hold these perspectives a voice. Even if I still think that something is good or bad, I think that in every issue there is nuance, and it is still in shades of grey rather than just black and white.

While learning nuance was certainly not something that started with this class, and definitely did not end with it, the introduction to questioning political systems that currently exist and are affecting the world was an introduction that was highly influential on my ways of thinking.