Undergraduate Programs

Why Global Studies?

Global studies interrogates the waning importance of regional borders and disciplinary boundaries in the world today.  The Center offers academic credentials to students who desire a deeper understanding of social and economic inequality in transnational context, with thematic concentrations that allow them to dig deeper into a particular topic of interest.

The foundational course, Introduction to Global Studies, offers a framework for students to consider as they pursue their courses within their global concentration. Beyond the classroom, a broader understanding of the dominant political and economic trends will equip students to lead lives of impact, as well as the analytical tools and 21st century professional skills necessary to effectively navigate their future careers. A wide range of co-curricular opportunities allow students to further personalize their education while contributing to a dynamic, intellectually diverse community that prioritizes faculty, peer, and alumni mentorship.  Lastly the certificate requirements and extra-curricular offerings facilitate students reaching a Level 3 on the Global Learning and Engagement Rubric. The rubric designed in collaboration with the University Center for International Studies, was inspired by Global Learning VALUE, developed by the Association for American Colleges and Universities.

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Global Studies Certificate and Academic Credentials

Global Studies offers 3 academic credentials.  Students personalize a suite of courses and experiences unique to their global interest working with courses from their major, general education requirements and electives, along with co-curricular experiences.
Students draw from more than 200 courses across 5 global concentrations.  Students begin the process by selecting one of the five global concentrations relevant to their personal and/or career interests. The certificate requires 18 credits of coursework, a demonstrated 2.5 GPA, language study and completion of a digital portfolio.

Globally Themed Certificate Requirements: 

PS 0550 Introduction to Global Studies
15 credits of coursework in one global concentration
4 semesters of language study or demonstrated language proficiency
Completion and approval of digital portfolio

Global Concentrations

The following descriptions emphasize overarching themes and concerns; students might pursue a wide variety of questions, contemporary or historical, within these concentrations.  Think of these concentrations as doorways into global studies, rather than as separate silos within it. We encourage a flexible and individualized approach to studying what interests you within this broad framework.

Cultural Dynamics explores the diverse ways people understand, evaluate, and feel about the world around them and how these shape and reflect people’s involvement in complex new forms of social interaction related to globalization.  Students might study the processes producing increasing cultural sameness and growing cultural difference, identity formation and challenges of intercultural communication and understanding, or people’s engagement with these processes through the arts, film, literature, performance, and other forms of creative expression.

Critical World Ecologies - How do humans shape nature, and how does it shape us? Critical World Ecologies explores the broad transnational and historical processes that affect how humans think about and exploit nature as well as the contemporary social, cultural, economic, and political relations through which “nature” and “the environment” are continually reproduced. Students might study how colonialism, migration, and globalization shape and reshape the dynamic interrelationship between humans and (the rest of) nature, or they might focus on how these interactions affect differently situated people, highlighting (e.g.) slow violence, environmental intersectionality, environmental (in)justice, and the efforts of people acting collectively to ensure that democracy, human rights, and social justice prevail in ecological struggles about our present and future. They will also encounter debates about “The Anthropocene” and alternative ways of thinking about contemporary human ecological impacts. Unlike sustainability, which focuses on enhancing efficiency, conserving resources, and preserving existing social structures, Critical World Ecologies questions how humans came to understand nature as an object of scientific knowledge, a repository of resources, and a support system for human life and how we came to think of ourselves as distinct from (or distinctive within) nature.

Health and Well-Being explores the relationship between global health, social suffering, and the processes that connect and divide people around the world.  Students might study how globalization affects people’s susceptibility to physical and mental illnesses, their access to appropriate kinds of care and, more broadly, their well-being (enjoyment of a healthy, secure, and satisfying life) and capacity for “living well” (belonging to a community in which people live harmoniously with one another and with nature).

Peace, Conflict, and Security addresses contemporary possibilities for peace and security in the world by examining how major conflicts and emergencies arise, are addressed, and are sometimes averted.  Students might study the relationship between state sovereignty, international law, and armed intervention, the meanings of human rights and (human) security, terrorism and counterterrorism, processes of peace building, peace keeping, and reconciliation, and the work of the UN, NGOs, and other non-state actors.

Politics and Economy focuses on the organization and workings of power.  It highlights the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services and how these processes relate to one another in producing global connections and divisions; it also highlights how states and other actors interact as they attempt to manage these processes.  Students might study changes in the character and reach of capitalism, models of sustainable development, interactions among states, empires, social movements, and other political entities, or systems of inequality organized geopolitically and by factors such as class, race, gender, and sexuality.

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Undergraduate Global Health Certificate