A Global Studies Program for Washington & Lee

Advisory Group on International Education
draft proposal, 25 May 1999
Hugh Blackmer

The image of the Earth in space is familiar to everybody, but the global perspective it implies has only been possible for about 30 years. We are bathed in a flood of data from satellites, connected to the rest of the world by a webwork of glass fiber, and equipped with computers and software which enable us to visualize and monitor systems and processes at scale levels from submolecular to extraterrestrial. We can ask questions and study trends and interconnectivity in ways that were unthinkable a generation ago.

Disciplines which adopt an explicitly global perspective include biology, geology, economics, meteorology, history, anthropology, oceanography, geography, political science, communication, and demography. Writers whose focus is on world systems include the sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein, the economist Kenneth Boulding, the historian William McNeill, and the ecologists Eugene and Howard Odum. Utopian visionaries like Buckminster Fuller and extrapolatory Cassandras like Jay Forrester have taken the global view of man's future.

Preparing students for the world of the near future demands energy and flexibility beyond the capabilities of traditional disciplines and curricula. To a greater degree than their parents, they will create careers outside of the familiar categories, need to deal with people of different backgrounds, and require knowledge about the complexities of the world around them. International studies and travel can contribute to broader understanding, but should rest upon a foundation in global and cross-disciplinary context. This foundation may inspire a new approach to General Education, emphasizing a breadth of intellectual frameworks and a general understanding of analytical tools.

Global Studies programs have been created in a wide array of college and university settings (see links to a selection of illustrative web pages), and examples and data resources abound. While a focus on international studies and an emphasis on analysis of large-scale phenomena are common to most programs, many also include visiting scholars, research support for students and professors, sponsorship of public events and workshops, exchanges with other institutions, and electronic archives of data, studies, and stimulus materials.

The elements of the Global Studies Program:

A liberally educated young man, I hadn't the faintest idea how the world worked.
(Stewart Brand, Whole Earth Epilog, 1986)

Organization and Administration

The Global Studies Program would be led by a Coordinator, a faculty member appointed in the same manner as Poverty Program and Environmental Studies Coordinators are, and thus the Program would not require additional faculty positions. Funding for Visiting Professorships (for a term or an academic year) and Visiting Scholars (for shorter periods) would bring expertise to W&L, but most Global Studies courses would be taught by W&L faculty, either as augmentations of existing departmental offerings or as new courses in Interdisciplinary Studies (to fulfill a prospective Global Studies Gen Ed requirement).

Courses aimed at Freshmen and Sophomores would encourage the development of perspectives that go beyond the single nation-state, single linguistic community, and single set of beliefs that most have grown up with (see 'Liberal Arts and General Education', above). Upper level courses could be more problem-focused and would probably be organized as data-oriented cross-disciplinary seminars. Courses might include subjects like: Global Warming, Development and Modernization, Globalization of Information, Human Rights, World Health, Political Economy, Emergence of the World System, Secularization and Revival, Pollution, War and Peace, Deforestation, Converging World Views?, and any number of others that emphasize plurality of viewpoints.

Missing Pieces