Books on global issues to be discussed

Faculty will discuss their new books about the global apparel industry, drug-trafficking in Afghanistan, the landscape of global television and the collapse of the Soviet Union in the International Institute and Borders Books’ third book series.

All talks begin at 7 p.m. and will be at Borders West, 3750 University Ave.

The series, “The World Beyond Our Borders,” opens Tuesday, Feb. 24 with Jane Collins, rural sociology, women’s studies, who will discuss “Threads: Gender, Labor and Power in the Global Apparel Industry” on Tuesday, Feb. 24. The book is a comparative study of apparel firms in the United States and Mexico. Moving from corporate headquarters to factory floors, Collins traces the threads that tie First and Third World workers, and managers, producers and consumers. She examines how the transnational economics of the apparel industry allows firms to relocate or subcontract their work anywhere in the world.

Additional speakers, their books and appearance dates include: Shanti Kumar, communication arts, “Planet TV: A Global Television Reader,” Tuesday, March 30; and Al McCoy, history, “The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade,” Wednesday, April 7.