About Global Studies

Global Studies is an interdisciplinary enquiry into the developments which have in the past and will continue to shape the interconnectedness of people and places around the world. It employs critical analyses of the processes which have contributed to both the complexity and variety of our world societies and to the common features of the changing human and natural environments. It begins with basic questions, such as how does people's struggle to survive connect them across time and space, or what common features are there in the dynamics of conflict for people in different regions with similar experiences, and, how do apparently local issues or developments in one region of the world have profound impacts on people across the globe? Global studies is much more than just the tracking of elements of "globalization," a process which has been going on since human communities first began migrating beyond the confines of their geographic origins. It is about the ways we both see and affect each other, and how people, states, societies, and the global community struggle to reconcile common individual and local interests with broader world-wide interests. Global Studies is, therefore, the study of us, and the world we share from a variety of perspectives.

Global Studies empowers us to see beyond our experiences, to understand the holistic nature of human interconnections. It utilizes a wide range of intellectual disciplines to broaden our understanding of our world and our place in it. These may include history, political science, science and medicine, philosophy and religious studies, and geography and environmental sciences as well as economics. It seeks to illuminate our understanding of such transnational and global phenomenon as environmental degradation, epidemic disease, mass migration, human rights issues, peace, conflict, global trade and economic linkages, and even spirituality. At its heart, Global Studies is about you as an individual and your global citizenship; it is about your identity within, experience of, and impact upon the world you live in. As a discipline, Global Studies prepares you to be better able to shape and improve your world.