ABOUT GLOBAL STUDIES

The Global Studies Program Themes: 

1. The arts provide a lens to examine societal issues, cultural identity and ways to make a difference in the world.

2. Environmental change in the context of globalization. Through emigration, trade, war, exploitation of natural resources, and exploration, humans have powerfully altered the natural world. We study the effects of species extinction, climate change, pollution, and water use as well as environmental solutions. 

3. Globalization, or the study of how cultures change when influenced by contact with peoples in distant parts of the world. Globalization encompasses the exchange of commodities, ideas, pathogens, and people.

4. Global health seeks to improve health and access to medical care for people worldwide. Global health recognizes that diseases and pathogens know no borders and controlling and preventing outbreaks is a priority.

5. Human rights are the fundamental and inalienable rights each person has to be treated with dignity. This provides a lens to examine ethics, events in twentieth-century history when ethical restraint has broken down, and efforts by the United Nations and other organizations to articulate and enforce universal human rights.

6. Non-violence and war. This theme focuses on the psychological, economic and environmental toll imposed by warfare and genocide as well as the diplomatic and non-violent approaches to conflicts.

7. Religion as a shaping feature of culture and personal identity. 

8. Sustainable development goals seek to meet the needs of today and tomorrow by considering the intersection between the economic, environmental and social aspects of society. 

9. Technology and communication. We study how technology shapes and determines communication and how it allows us to understand the world more deeply.