On Purpose: Portrait of Global Studies
The Institute for Global Studies (IGS) is a community of students and scholars who explore today’s most pressing global issues. We make connections across boundaries—geographic boundaries, disciplinary boundaries, cultural boundaries, and boundaries across communities.
We are a community dedicated to social justice, understanding, and transforming our globalized world. We are a community that is committed to turning academic exploration into action.
We explore flows of people, goods, ideas, and diseases. Faculty and students work collaboratively to address ever-evolving challenges including human rights violations, rapid large-scale urbanization, global access to health care, and the “new green revolution.”
We draw on deep knowledge of place. Our students and scholars ground their theoretical work with regional expertise developed through language competency and connecting with communities around the world.
We prepare students for global citizenship—citizenship that is critical and analytic, and engaged with both global issues and their impact on local communities. Our students are fiercely dedicated to engaged, collaborative work. They make connections between the global and the local.
The Institute for Global Studies connects beyond the campus through active engagement with communities, K-12 educators, NGOs, and other nonprofit organizations.
Founded in 1998, IGS was one of the first global studies programs in the country. Since its founding, IGS has been dedicated to providing an innovative curriculum, exploring significant global challenges, and engaging with the world beyond the University.
