Global Studies, Graduate Emphasis
Long T. Bui, Graduate Director
559 Social Science Tower
longb@uci.edu
The Emphasis in Global Studies offers graduate students from across the social sciences, humanities, law, social ecology, and public health schools an opportunity to pursue additional training in Global Studies. The Emphasis is designed to instill an intellectual ethic of interdisciplinarity among participating students and to create trans-disciplinary communities of emerging Global Studies scholars whose intellectual development will be enhanced by formal and informal exchange across diverse fields. The Emphasis is structured around the following core questions: (1) What are the phases of globalization and how do we understand it as an historical process? (2) What are the qualities, current manifestations, and implications of globalization today? (3) How does one conceptualize and implement research across the local-global continuum? (4) How can disciplinary-based scholarship be broadened to engage interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary theoretical frameworks and methodologies? Conversely, how can interdisciplinary questions engage disciplinary concerns and contexts? (5) How does one design global studies research projects, making our work timely and relevant to the unique challenges of our contemporary era?
Students from any UCI graduate or professional program (except for those in self-supporting graduate programs) are eligible to apply to the emphasis in Global Studies, administered through the Department of Global and International Studies.
In the spring quarter of their first or second year, interested Ph.D. students must contact the Graduate Director, Long T. Bui to indicate interests in applying for the Graduate Emphasis in Global Studies. The application process consists of:
- An online application
- A one-page statement of purpose, including areas of interest and research
- One copy of student’s unofficial transcript
- Two faculty letters of recommendation (one from the student’s primary advisor)
Upon admission into the Graduate Emphasis in Global Studies, the student must complete the three-course sequence: INTL ST 204-INTL ST 205-INTL ST 206.
The emphasis is comprised of three inter-connected components: 1) a year-long theory and research sequence of three seminars taught by core faculty in the Department of Global and International Studies; 2) cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary mentorship and advising; and 3) ongoing professionalization opportunities for students. The courses are designed to be taken in sequence, but to ensure flexibility, a student can take the courses in any order and complete them over one year or more.
Each student will be assigned a faculty member outside of his or her home department and will meet with that mentor on a regular basis to discuss the student’s ongoing research.
Admitted students who satisfactorily complete the program requirements are awarded a letter signed by the Director noting that the student has incorporated Global Studies into their research and professional activities.