Global & Area Studies identifies specific learning goals for all undergraduate majors in the program. These are accomplished by a pair of first-year courses, a range of core (foundation and international systems) courses, a thematic or area studies concentration, elective courses, and the acquisition of a second language. All students take a capstone course their senior year that integrates disciplinary approaches and knowledge. We regularly assess student learning in our program to ensure that learning goals are met.
Goal 1. Students graduating with a BA in International Studies will be able to recognize and appreciate the historical, political, social, cultural, and economic dimensions of international processes and issues, integrating these into an interdisciplinary perspective.
Goal 2. Students graduating with a BA in International Studies will have the capability to critically read, write about, discuss, and engage in scholarly inquiry related to international processes and issues.
Goal 3. Students graduating with a BA in International Studies will have a minimal level of fluency in a second language and are expected to experience a foreign locale in which to use the second language skills.
Goal 4. Students will be made aware of career and post-graduate opportunities suitable for an international studies major.
All students who graduate with a Master's degree in international studies will be able to:
Engage in independent empirical enquiry that makes an original contribution to the field of study
Think critically and reason logically about a problem and the ways it can be answered
Employ the best recognized methods appropriate to their research
Effectively develop alternative explanations, use theories and concepts to guide the research project, and conduct the work in such a way that disproof is possible
Present their work intelligently, with both written and oral capability at a level of professional expectations
and will have a broad understanding of: international affairs; the diversity of national cultures and social structures; political and economic systems; and major global trends and problems.
