The Department of Global and International Studies offers a Ph.D. program in Global Studies. The program provides a critical transdisciplinary degree that stands out from other programs for its cutting-edge curriculum, faculty research, and embracing of scholarship from across the social sciences and humanities engaging multiple theoretical perspectives and methodologies. Faculty analyze global issues such as conflict, inequality, migration, human rights, climate change, health, indigeneity, racial formations, global cultures, diasporas, and development from an interdisciplinary perspective.
The program is unique for its foregrounding the importance of engaging global south scholarship and non-western epistemologies that broaden the base of knowledge production and bring new perspectives to bear on the pressing global issues of our times. The program interrogates taken-for-granted concepts and relations of power while foregrounding the deep historical legacies of colonialism and imperialism.
Graduate students work closely with core faculty in the Department in conjunction with over 50 associated faculty from across the campus, providing access to a broad spectrum of expertise and interdisciplinary scholarship. The Department maintains close ties with the School of Humanities, as well as faculty housed in various ethnic programs including Asian American Studies, African American Studies, and Chicano/Latino Studies. Graduate students have the opportunity to participate in and apply for funding from a variety of interdisciplinary research units including the Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies; the Humanities Research Center; the Latin American Studies Center; Center for Critical Korean Studies; and the Long China-US Institute. In addition, Ph.D. students have the option of taking graduate emphases in Feminist Studies, Critical Theory, and Law, Society and Culture. Students are also encouraged to work with faculty in the School of Law and College of Health Sciences.