The undergraduate program in Global Studies draws on the strengths of the College faculty in a variety of disciplines and their innovative work in a number of areas of international relevance (e.g., human rights, international relations, globalization, transnationalism, area studies). It is designed to attract students who are preparing for academic, government, nonprofit, or business careers with an international focus and who value the benefits of study abroad and of cross-cultural learning. The program is organized around courses drawn from three thematic tracks and area studies: (1) international political economy, (2) transnational processes, and (3) area and civilization studies.
Students are required to study abroad for at least one quarter and gain proficiency in a foreign language. Students in Global Studies—which was recently ranked seventh in the U.S. by Foreign Policy magazine—can take advantage of a new EU-focused quarter at UChicago’s Center in Paris.
Since its founding in 1968 as the Adlai Stevenson Institute for International Affairs, the University of Chicago Center for International Studies (CIS) has been encouraging and supporting research and education on critical global and international issues, including national security, human rights, the environment, international relations, and area studies.
The Center also directly sponsors several programs of research and education:
The Human Rights Program focuses on interdisciplinary research and teaching in human rights, combining core questions of human dignity with critical examination of the institutions designed to promote and protect human rights in the contemporary world. The Human Rights Program sends interns around the world each summer and offers a range of courses as well as a full schedule of public events. Students in other fields of study may complete a minor in Human Rights.
The Program on the Global Environment is designed to explore and integrate perspectives on critical environmental issues coming from the sciences, social sciences, and policy communities. This program includes the major and minor in Environmental Studies as well as support for internships, conferences and other events, and research.
The Joint Threat Anticipation Center (JTAC) is funded by the Department of Defense and co-sponsored by Argonne National Laboratory. JTAC brings experts in computation and the social sciences together with scholars whose deep understandings of critical world regions will help develop more reliable and powerful tools to anticipate threats to national security. JTAC supports basic research, modeling, and training of advanced graduate students.
CIS also sponsors an impressive roster of public events including the annual human rights film festival, lectures, conferences, and the successful World Beyond the Headlines lecture series at International House. CHIASMOS is the University of Chicago Area and International Studies Multimedia Outreach Source, which provides podcasts of CIS-sponsored lectures.