Mission & Goals

Program Mission

Our graduates are global citizens who demonstrate broad cultural and intercultural competence, including proficiency in a second language and familiarity with a specific geographic, cultural, and linguistic region of the world. Through their multi-disciplinary training, they gain the knowledge and ability to conduct research that addresses global challenges.

Program Goals

  1. Students will develop sophisticated knowledge of historical and current international issues, policies, events, and trends.
  2. Students will learn and apply various theoretical and methodological frameworks to analyze issues critical to this multidisciplinary field and our increasingly global world.
  3. Students will develop research competence, thereby enabling them to think, write and speak critically about complex global, regional, and national problems.
  4. Students will demonstrate proficiency in a second language at the intermediate level.
  5. Students will demonstrate an understanding of other countries’ or regions’ cultural expressions in the context of globalization.
  6. Students will gain a more nuanced understanding of their own culture from an international and global perspective.

Recommendations for Study Abroad and Foreign Language Study

In support of the program's goals, students are strongly encouraged to study abroad for a semester or more, develop a facility in a second language beyond the intermediate level, and immerse themselves in the languages and cultures of non-English speaking countries.

Majors interested in postgraduate studies and programs, such as Fulbright and Peace Corps, the following programs should be of particular interest:

  1. SIT (Argentina; Bolivia; Cameroon; Chile; China; Ecuador; Ghana; India; Indonesia; Jordan; Kenya; Madagascar; Morocco; Nepal; Peru; Rwanda; Samoa; Senegal; Serbia; South Africa; Tanzania; Uganda; Vietnam)
  2. CIEE (Botswana; Chile; China; Ghana; Japan; Russia; South Korea)
  3. IFSA (Argentina; India)
  4. IES (Ecuador; Morocco; South Africa)
  5. ISA (Fiji)
  6. SSA (Argentina; Cuba)
  7. SFS (Bhutan; Cambodia; Chile; Kenya; Tanzania)
  8. MILA (Bangladesh; Costa Rica; Cuba; Japan; Panama, South Africa)