The curriculum for a proposed Global Studies major is still in the works, said Politics Prof. Jeff Legro, the vice provost for global affairs. Friday, the Global Studies Curriculum Committee hosted an open forum to discuss the ongoing effort.
A growing demand among undergraduates for an internationally focused major — outside of the politically angled Foreign Affairs program — prompted the committee to draft their proposal, Legro said.
Philip Zelikow, association dean for the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, said the Global Studies major would have a more creative and expansive curriculum design.
“People who wanted to study international stuff at U.Va … were … channeled into the Foreign Affairs major, which is a disciplinary major in political science,” Zelikow said.
The current draft of the Global Studies curriculum aims to avoid what Zelikow called “narrow channels,” or a focus on one particular discipline from a global perspective.
“[The major seeks to] get students to have broad based core of how they understand the global, and then deepen and specialize,” Zelikow said.
The proposed major would offer five different tracts: Development Studies, Global Public Health, Global Sustainability, Arts and Humanities, and Security and Justice. Anthropology Prof. Richard Handler, the director of the Global Studies program, said two existing programs, Global Development Studies and Global Public Health, would assimilate into the larger Global Studies program.
“[It’s important] not to think of this as shutting down options, but opening more,” Handler said.
The various new tracks represent an effort to offer students more options and “bulk up” the Global Studies program to compete with international programs at the University’s peer schools, Legro said.
Zelikow described the program as “a high priority for the University.” Work on the draft began last summer, and is moving at a rapid pace, he said.
Committee members expect the program to be very popular among students.
“There is intense interest in this program,” Zelikow said. “[I]t’s not inconceivable this could be the largest degree program on the undergraduate side of the University within three years.”
The committee deferred logistical questions of enrollment processes and prerequisites, as many components are still in the works, Legro said.
The committee is aiming for a “soft launch” of the program in the fall, on the condition the major can “offer a first rate product to students,” by that time Legro said.
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