Global Studies
Get ready to really see the world.
If you’re deeply curious about the world and want to make a difference in people’s lives, Whitman’s Global Studies concentration will help prepare you to make a meaningful impact on global art, science, business or politics—anywhere your career takes you. You can add this concentration to any major—rooting your chosen course of study in a global framework. This concentration prioritizes language study, international experiences and coursework that highlights global perspectives. Global Studies will help you place your own academic interests in webs of natural, economic, cultural and social connection that defy borders.
3 Reasons to Study Global Studies at Whitman
Get On-the-Ground Experience
With the Global Studies Concentration, you’ll learn a second (or third!) language and spend time outside the U.S.—taking college courses abroad or doing an international internship. Nothing prepares you for a global career like the experience of living, studying, working and researching in another country.
Explore Your Interests From Multiple Angles
To solve global problems, you’ll need to understand the complex relationships between politics, language, culture, economics, ecology and more. The Global Studies concentration will encourage you to break out of your major bubble, explore courses in other disciplines and make meaningful connections between them.
Learn From Each Other
Whitman attracts students and faculty from all over the world. Together, you’ll learn to engage with difference and challenge your own assumptions. Your courses will explore and highlight global ideas and events. And you’ll thrive on a culturally rich campus that celebrates diversity.
Interested in Global Studies?
We’d love to send you information, including more on academic majors and student life at our beautiful campus in Walla Walla, Washington.
“The Global Studies Concentration was a natural path for me to take with my fields of study because the concentration is interdisciplinary and fit well with many of the avenues I already planned to pursue in my college career: language studies, study abroad, interdisciplinary classes, etc.”
Student Voices From Around the WorldCourses in Global Studies
See just a few of the fascinating courses you might take.
Global Returns: Critical Engagement After Study Abroad
Reflect on your transformative off-campus experiences alongside other students who’ve studied or interned outside the U.S. Together, you’ll situate your international experiences within a larger liberal arts framework—and understand them through the lens of other kinds of global encounters, like colonialism, othering and cosmopolitanism.
Indigenous Feminisms in the Americas
Discover the alternative feminisms that have arisen from the unique experiences of Indigenous women in the Americas. In this class, you’ll read texts by and about women from Bolivia, Guatemala, Mexico and beyond as you explore the relationship between Indigenous feminisms and other feminist traditions. Plus, you’ll learn how Indigenous feminisms are connected to broader Indigenous resistance struggles.
Globalization, Culture and Media
What role do media narratives play in spreading ideas across physical, cultural and linguistic boundaries? How does global culture evolve and impact the world? In this course, you’ll screen television, film and other media from around the world—and investigate their impact on global art, economics, politics and more.
