Di (Wendy) Wang, Lecturer, Political Science
Globalization is inherently spatial, yet students often encounter it only through abstract concepts and written texts. This project was developed to help students better understand globalization as a set of uneven connections across places. In PS 124W, students select a globalization-related case drawn from everyday life, such as a product, platform, policy, or cultural phenomenon, and trace how it links people, institutions, and regions across the world.
The project is organized as a semester-long portfolio that moves deliberately from low-stakes individual observation and engagement with scholarly literature to collaborative research design and StoryMap construction. Students then complete an individual paper that builds on the group StoryMap while advancing their own argument. This structure supports students as they learn to work with spatial data, collaborate effectively, and use unfamiliar digital tools without sacrificing analytical rigor.
The primary deliverables are a public-facing StoryMap and an individual research paper. The project can be adapted to other social science courses seeking to integrate spatial analysis, digital tools, and writing-intensive learning.
