Skip top navigation
Lasell University
Lasell University

School of Humanities, Education, Justice & Social Sciences

B.A in Global Studies

Global studies students

Global Studies at Lasell

The B.A. major in Global Studies degree program makes the world your classroom as you learn your connection to and responsibility for the globe. Global Studies students take classes across all subjects - from business and communication to environmental sciences and history - as well philosophy and political science. Students gain a broad context for understanding a complex world.

The major prepares students for careers in media, journalism, research, language, education, social services, and international relations, or to attend graduate school programs.

Program Features

  • At least one study abroad or international immersion experience is required, and students are encouraged to take part in additional international service learning trips to explore the world and engage in other cultures through service.
  • A world language requirement ensures every student is proficient in at least one additional language than English.
  • During the senior year, students complete a capstone research project and apply coursework to professional experience as they complete an internship in a global context.

What You'll Learn

From your first day, you’ll take courses in your major and advance towards graduation with a yearly plan. Not sure what classes to take? We’ll help you create the perfect plan. 

Learning Outcomes

    • Demonstrate cultural awareness by understanding the history, culture, society, geography, and political economy of major world regions and their relationship to current and future global events associated with globalization.
    • Demonstrate awareness of ethical challenges when working across cultural and legal frameworks to research and develop solutions for global problems.
    • Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of academic arguments and use evidence to support arguments.
    • Become proficient in at least one language other than English.
    • Write and speak professionally with people from a diverse range of cultural, religious, ethnic, national, and other identities in a respectful and informed manner.
    • Explore career options with an emphasis on the global experience.

    For a complete list of courses and Learrning outcomes, view the Academic Catalog >>


    Accelerated Master's Program

    Save time and money — earn your graduate degree in just 1 year with the Accelerated Master's program. Learn more and how to apply >>

    Undergraduate alumni return to Lasell for second (or third!) degrees 
    Read their stories >>

    Career Success with a Global Studies Degree

    Lasell’s degree in Global Studies prepares students for careers in international business, law, journalism, foreign service, and education.

     

    Request more information about the Global Studies major:

    Loading...

    COM212 - Intercultural Communication

    This course examines communication issues that arise from contact between people from different cultural backgrounds in everyday life, social encounters, and business transactions. Interdisciplinary approaches are applied to the study of how verbal and nonverbal presentation, ethnic, gender, and cultural differences affect communication. The course provides exercises in participation, analysis, and criticism of interethnic and interracial communications in small group settings. Students examine factors of international communication such as the cultural, economic, political, and social influences and the role of communication in affecting social change in a wide variety of cultures and countries. Prerequisite: COM101 or SOC101 or PSYC101

    ECON206 - Global Economic Development

    The goal of this course is to introduce the main issues of global economic development. Students will explore the problems facing developing countries of the world as they attempt to industrialize, develop their economies and raise the standards of living of their people. The course will address the following broad questions: What is the meaning of Economic development? Why some countries are rich while others are poor? What would explain the success of such East Asian countries as China? What are the key constrains that prevent poor countries, especially those in the African continent, from achieving progress? What are the strategies that poor countries can adopt to foster development?

    ENG312 - Literature of Postcolonial World

    In this course, students consider issues, movements, or traditions in literatures that respond to a history of colonization and/or imperialism. Latin American, African, and Asian cultures or traditions are emphasized in English or in English translations; issues addressed might include matters of publication and criticism, myths about the "third world," nationalism, fundamentalism, human rights, technology, and cultural resistance. Example topics include The Novel in India, Caribbean Dub Poetry, Prison Writing, Major South African Writers, Magic Realism. This is a presentation-intensive course.

    GLBS200X - A Traveler's Guide to Global Studies

    The promise of the quest--the belief that travel can transform one physically, psychologically, emotionally--is deeply coded in the cultures of many peoples and regions. This course brings together students who hope to travel for experience with those who have returned from travels and those who simply marvel at or experiment with border-crossings of all kinds. It is open to all students and encourages those past and future travelers in tours, study abroad, Shoulder to Shoulder experiential programs, and alternative breaks. An intensive experience elsewhere is often overwhelming because of the depth of new perspective it calls for and the many challenges it poses to the ways of living and thinking we once considered “normal.” Our sense of self, our family and friends, our goals, and even our understanding of the world may be in the process of a fundamental shift. This course creates the opportunity for us to exchange our varied experiences and revelations, as well as our dreams of travel, and to open them to a broader interconnected vision of the patterns and systems that define what we call humanity and “the world.” Readings, essays, documentaries, and dialogues will help us reframe our plans and experiences, integrating these experiences into a larger framework for thinking about why things work the way they do and how they, and we all, are interconnected. We will examine clichés and fantasies about global connection, as we also introduce and explain the fundamental international systems and non-governmental organizations that changed the 20th century and have come to govern the way we think about international relations and trade. As we do, we will also look at social, political and economic phenomena that escape or challenge those systems. Students will be encouraged to explore ways these global systems serve or fail to serve various cultures and their values, the global environment, etc., and transformations now underway. Each student will further investigate those regions to which they have traveled or plan to travel to as we explore the questions that this comparative framework opens about our experiences and ourselves.

    GLBS223 - Special Topics in Global History

    In this seminar, students will explore and discuss topics in modern global history focused on a subject of interest to both faculty and studies. Topical areas will vary, and students may take this class twice with a different topical emphasis.

    GLBS400 - Reading & Research in Global Studies

    This course represents the first semester of a two-semester individualized global studies capstone sequence. The student works closely with a faculty mentor from one of the disciplines represented in this interdisciplinary major, meeting weekly with the mentor to define a topic for in-depth examination through reading, research, and writing. Reading and research will begin during GLB400 and will continue during the following semester in GLB401. Students must complete GLB400 before enrolling in GLB401. Prerequisite: Global Studies Major

    GLBS401 - Capstone in Global Studies

    In this individual tutorial, the student works with the faculty mentor who oversees the capstone project. Meeting weekly with the mentor to discuss readings, research methodology, study design, and essay drafts, the student completes a substantial capstone essay on well-defined topic in global studies. Prerequisite: GLBS400

    HUM399 - Humanities Internship Seminar

    This seminar helps students to develop objectives and identify potential sites for the senior internship. Topics include the application of humanities course work to a professional career and the development of skills necessary to locate an internship. The final goal of this course is to locate an appropriate internship. Junior or senior standing is required; this course is designed for Humanities Department majors only.

    HUM400 - Humanities Field Experience

    This course provides individually arranged participation in a work setting related to students' majors. Students spend 150 hours at the internship site over the course of the semester. Primary responsibility rests with students in identifying and pursuing an area of interest in consultation with the instructor. Students participate in a one-hour seminar each week that focuses on reflective activities that enhance the internship experience. Students complete written exercises about and evaluations of the experience. Evaluation of the field experience is based on student performance as reviewed by the employer and instructor at the internship site, as well as participation in the seminar and written assignments. Prerequisites: junior or senior standing, approval of instructor, HUM 399. Humanities Department majors only.

    MATH208 - Statistics

    This is an introductory course in descriptive and inferential statistics. Topics include: data analysis, and graphical methods of describing data, measures of central tendency and variability, probability, the normal distribution, sampling distributions, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, correlation, and regression analysis. Prerequisites: MATH 106 with a grade of C or better or demonstrated competency through placement testing and ENG 102.

    POLS208 - Contemporary International Relations

    Basic concepts and major contemporary problems of international relations are examined in this course. Topics include the Middle East, East-West relations, deterrence versus disarmament, human rights, and developing countries. Throughout the semester, the local impact of national issues are discussed.

    SOC102 - Women and Gender in Social Context(KP)

    This course is designed to help students develop a critical framework for examining feminist thought and gender-related social processes. Through the lens of the Sociological Imagination the course examines the ways in which sex and gender are socially constructed, how that shapes group and individual behavior and the ways in which power manifests in inequality and exploitation, as well as the agency of individuals and groups to bring about change.

    SOC212 - Wellness & Society

    Wellness is seen as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.”* This course explores the social dimension to wellness (or health and illness). Both health and illness vary across times and cultures – and are related to how we define “normal”.? Wellness is also closely related to our position in society; social identities such as socio-economic status, race and ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation impact our life chances, lifestyles, access to care, and attitudes towards health and illness. In other words, this course approaches health and illness from a sociological (rather than philosophical or ethical) perspective.??*?Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization as adopted by the International Health Conference, New York, 19-22 June, 1946; signed on 22 July 1946 by the representatives of 61 States (Official Records of the World Health Organization, no. 2, p. 100) and entered into force on 7 April 1948. The definition has not been amended since 1948.