This course examines cross-cultural encounters in the modern world. Cultural difference has not faded away or disappeared with globalization; rather, the accelerated mobility of people and circulation of commodities have created new forms of interaction and demands for making sense of difference. These encounters take many forms, both within and across national boundaries. Explanations of difference may invoke religious identity, history, politics, ideas about race, and culture itself. This course draws on concepts from political scientists, historians, sociologists, and anthropologists who seek to explain these encounters and the persistence of difference, including nationalism, ethnicity, modernity, race, and culture. It then applies these concepts to a series of thickly-described cultural encounters: between people living in rural Papua New Guinea, the state, and a transnational mining company; Ladinos and Mayans in Guatemala; Muslims and Christians in contemporary Spain; how globalization includes people living in rural Togo; and how advertisers in Bombay market commodities by invoking culture. Above all, this course examines the continued significance of culture and difference in a globalizing world.