ANN ARBOR—Before hair gel could bring down an airplane and the Internet connected people around the world with the click of a mouse, citizenship for many Americans meant voting, jury duty, the Pledge of Allegiance and the Fourth of July.

Today high energy costs, global warming, terrorism and debates over immigration and human rights have blurred the traditional boundaries of 21st century citizenship. Nations around the world must understand each other’s politics and culture in order to survive.

On the eve of a critical mid-term election and the five-year anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts is launching a year-long look at what it means to be a citizen locally and globally.

The LSA Theme Year, ” The Theory and Practice of Citizenship: from the Local to the Global,” will offer students a chance to learn about the opportunities and risks facing citizens in their local communities and the global village. Students will also be able to put knowledge into action through community outreach programs.

For more than 20 years, theme semesters have been an integral part of U-M’s teaching and learning experience, offering a unique, interdisciplinary approach on topics as varied as civil rights, death, food and evolution.

This year the tradition has been expanded to a full academic year, marshaling the resources of the entire University to examine this critical topic, said Terrence J. McDonald, dean of LSA.

“Understanding citizenship has never been more important. ” McDonald said. “We have an obligation to apply the vast resources of one of the nation’s preeminent research universities to illuminate the issues and showcase the opportunities for action. This is especially important in our role as educators of the next generation. “

Through a series of courses, lectures, plays, concerts and public events, the theme year will examine the issues facing citizenship, how citizenship is reflected in the arts and citizenship in action.

Charles Bright, chair of the theme year steering committee and director of LSA’s Residential College, said the theme year will explore the interconnectedness of citizens around the world.

“In the mid-term elections this fall, hundreds of political campaigns will turn on matters that seem parochial and of urgency only to folks close by,” Bright said. “The attacks of 9/11, on the other hand, have exposed to us all to our ‘global selves'” and underscored what a trip to the mall can tell us: that the world is very much part of our local lives” in us and close by.

“What we do here is sharply affected by what happens there; the buffers of time and distance are much reduced; the far away is very much in your face. In fact we live, all the time and at once, in multiple and layered contexts that run from the local to the global.

“How do we act effectively across these tiers? Where are the boundaries of citizenship? What are the frameworks in which we lay claim to rights or the outer limits of our responsibilities to others? These are questions we hope to explore in the theme year. “

Among the events and activities:

Sept. 4: ” A Day of C.H.A.N.G.E.