Global Studies

When UCSB’s pioneering Global & International Studies Program was established in early 1999, it was widely recognized as one of the nation's first interdisciplinary undergraduate majors in international studies to focus on globalization. The GISP Program has now expanded to become the Department of Global Studies and has added a highly successful Masters Program in Global Studies, an influential PhD in Global Studies, and a PhD Emphasis for students in other departments. Global Studies is an interdisciplinary field dedicated to understanding globalization as a multidimensional, multi-level and historical process. Global Studies bridges social science and humanistic approaches to analyze the social, cultural, political, environmental, and economic consequences of global flows, institutions, and processes. Global Studies scholarship is motivated by engagement with contemporary transnational social problems across multiple theoretical perspectives and methodologies.