Interdepartmental Program
College of Letters and Science
10274 Bunche Hall
Box 951487
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1487
The Global Studies interdepartmental program provides undergraduate students with a rigorous interdisciplinary education in the processes of globalization and their consequences. Housed in the UCLA International Institute, Global Studies offers a research-oriented undergraduate major leading to a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree, as well as an undergraduate minor. The curriculum features three thematic pillars that capture the principal dimensions of the unprecedented depth and breadth of interconnections among nation-states, ethnic and religious groups, and individuals. Culture and society courses concentrate on the tensions between local ways of life with deep historical, linguistic, ethnic, and religious roots; and today’s pressures for transnational cultures and multiple identities, fueled by the communication of ideas and the movement of people all around the world. Governance and conflict courses focus on challenges to the nation-state from forms of governance above (regional and global forms of governance) and below (autonomy and secessionist movements); and from security threats beyond interstate warfare (ethnic conflict, terrorism, civil wars). Markets and resources courses address the interactions among global, regional, national, and subnational economic processes over resources and market dynamics; their effects on different societies with respect to economic growth, poverty, inequality, the environment; and the interactions among market forces, political institutions, and public policy.
The curriculum draws on insights from disciplines across the humanities and social sciences to give students the theoretical and methodological skills and knowledge base necessary to understand this complex and rapidly changing world.
