Homer's "Iliad" and Modern IR

• Published in: Polity Vol. 46; no. 1; pp. 143 - 149
• Main Author: Moon, Katharine H. S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Palgrave Macmillan 01-01-2014; Palgrave Macmillan UK; The University of Chicago Press; University of Chicago Press
• Subjects: Classrooms; Humanities; Humanities instruction; International politics; International Relations; Liberal arts education; Methodology (Data Collection); Military alliances; Military bases; Military technology; Military withdrawals; Music; Natural satellites; Poetry; Political Science; Political Science and International Relations; Political Science and International Studies; Political Theory; Politics; POLITY SYMPOSIUM ON LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGES AND POLITICAL SCIENCE; School attendance; Students; Studies; Teaching; US Politics; World War I; World wars; United States > US; international relations; interdiscplinary pedagogy; IR; liberal arts; foreign policy; IR methods
• ISSN: 0032-3497; 1744-1684
• DOI: 10.1057/pol.2013.35

The author asserts that a liberal arts approach to teaching International Relations (IR) is a unique way to teach undergraduates and to conduct research that is reflective of and relevant to real-world situations. A liberal arts approach includes interdisciplinarity, a bottom-up method to balance the top-down elite orientation of conventional IR, and data collection that focuses on human beings in real-life, concrete conditions. The article offers specific examples of interdisciplinarity in the classroom, including the use of literature, visual arts, and music, to enrich students' understanding of international relations.