Curriculum Overview
There are four basic components in the requirements for the Bachelor of Arts degree in International Studies. Students enter the major with the program’s “orientation” class and a set of “introductory core” classes, followed by more advanced work in one (or two) “areas of emphasis” and completion of a “capstone” requirement.
1. Orientation to International Studies (1 hour course). Students entering the international studies major are required to enroll in INTS199. Taught each Fall semester, this one credit class overviews the logic of the major, its special programs (study abroad, Model UN and OAS), and alerts students to graduate school and career opportunities.
2. Introductory Core (15 hours of course work). These courses, usually taken in the freshman and sophomore years, introduce students to basic perspectives on international affairs and prepare them for advanced study in the major. 15 hours of course work is required, including two semesters of economics (micro and macroeconomics ), along with three other courses such as global political issues, history, and world regional geography. Click on this link to view a list of introductory core classes.
3. Area of Emphasis (36 hours of course work). This segment of the major is the most substantial and has the student specialize in either one of two types of areas of emphasis: “regional” tracks and “global affairs” tracks.
Regional tracks focus on the history, culture, politics, and economics of a particular region. Students concentrating in one of these area pursue an advanced foreign language relevant to the regional area and, ideally, have a study abroad experience in that region. These regional areas are:
Global Affairs tracks focus on the general nature of international/ transnational relations with respect to a particular set of issues in global affairs. Each of these tracks requires students to take course associated with professions associated with the particular area of international affairs. The tracks currently offered are:
- International Business
- Diplomacy & International Security
- International Development
- Intelligence and National Security
- International Environment
Click on to each track to see the specific courses required for that area of emphasis. Note also that there typically is some “overlap” across the regional and global affairs tracks, and this enables students to concentrate in dual tracks, e.g., environmental issues with respect to Latin America or international security issues with respect to the Middle East.
4. Capstone Requirement (1-3 hours of course work). All International Studies majors must complete INTS 488 to meet the university-wide capstone requirement for graduation. For this major, this can be satisfied in one of the following ways: a study abroad experience, an internship, or participation in a course structured around an international simulation, e.g., Model UN, or Model OAS, or the foreign policy simulation course. Each of these activities includes a project in which a student employs analytic skills from several of the disciplines that make up international studies.
