Shampa Biswas’ career at Whitman College has been devoted to encouraging students to be global thinkers. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, she knew it was a historic moment in global politics—and she wanted to give students a space to learn, think and talk about it.
“Regardless of where our students end up in their careers, they live in a world which is interconnected,” says Biswas, the Judge and Mrs. Timothy A. Paul Chair of Political Science and Professor of Politics at Whitman. “It’s really important for our students to have a sense of the global, a sense of what’s happening far away even if they think that it doesn’t directly impact their lives, because it does.”
In the fall of 2022, Biswas taught a special topics seminar: Global Politics of the War in Ukraine. She followed a similar model as she did for a class during the Iraq War, developing and modifying the syllabus as issues arose.
The students began by delving into the debate among international relations scholars regarding the reasons Russia invaded. Then they explored broader issues, such as nuclear politics, war crimes, the efficacy of the United Nations and the role of independent media.
Read the full story in the spring issue of Whitman Magazine.
