What is IGS?

Our 21st-century world seems to become more interconnected with every passing minute.  Increased worldwide economic transactions and integrated decision-making structures, strengthened and proliferating international governmental and non-governmental organizations, new and ever faster communication and transportation technologies, alarming changes across the global environmental commons… all of these developments—and others—have challenged the idea and value of state borders while creating unprecedented links among diverse societies, regionally and across the globe.  They have also engendered an urgent need for men and women who are able to engage both the “international” and the “global” meaningfully and appropriately in their academic, professional, and personal lives.

International and Global Studies at UNCG is a distinctly interdisciplinary program designed to empower students to expand their knowledge of issues and processes affecting societies beyond US borders and across the globe through the social sciences and humanities in such discipline areas as political science, sociology, history, economics, public health, geography, anthropology, religious studies, and foreign languages. Students who major in IGS also develop a variety of vital skills, including the ability to conduct research, to analyze and evaluate information critically, to express thoughts clearly and persuasively both orally and in writing, and to use a modern foreign language at an advanced level.  In addition, they develop the invaluable dispositions that come with being interculturally competent by participating in the Program’s rich co-curriculum, by completing an international/global experience through study abroad, and often by volunteering or interning with one or more non-profit organizations serving immigrants and refugees in our community.

Equipped with such knowledge, skills, and dispositions, IGS majors are especially well suited for a variety of public- and private-sector careers where these qualities and experiences are valued, as well as for graduate and professional studies in fields with an international or global focus.