Minor with Comparative Culture Concentration:

Degree Requirements:

The course will examine global theories that explain patterns of world interaction, cooperation and conflict, and the process of globalization. It places international events into historical context and emphasizes the interrelationships among global institutions and culture. Citizenship at the global, national, and local levels will be emphasized.
Examination of major philosophical issues and the ways major philosophers have dealt with them.
This course examines the beliefs and practices of some of the world's major religious traditions and significant religious movements, focusing predominantly on non-Christian or non-European traditions. The course will be oriented topically (ritual, theology, etc.), geographically (India, the Middle East, etc.), or thematically (religion in the modern world, religious encounters in history, etc.)
An introduction to the sociological perspective with a focus on how individual behavior is shaped by the social context. The nature and characteristics of human societies and social life are examined from a perspective known as the "sociological imagination". Topics range from the influence of culture on human behavior, the development of the self, group dynamics, deviance, population, and social inequality.
Introduction to both physical and cultural anthropology including human evolution, human variation, and cross-cultural analysis and comparison.
† indicates a required course

One course from the following:

Beginning with the rediscovery of antiquity and concluding with rise of modernity, this course examines the rapid transformation of Western art and architecture. Key stylistics movements include the Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Romanticism, Neoclassicism, Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Cubism, Dada and Surrealism. Each artwork and architectural structure is situated within its historical, social, economic, religious, and cultural context.
Focusing on the late thirteenth to the end of the sixteenth century, this course offers a comprehensive survey of the major monuments, themes, and developments of Renaissance art in Europe. Works by Giotto, Van Eyck, Brunelleschi, Botticelli, D rer, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian, among others, are examined.
Karl Marx is among the most influential thinkers in the modern world, and the ideology of Marxism has helped shape the cultural, religious, economic, and political history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This course will examine Marx and Marxism(s) from an interdisciplinary perspective, first by exploring the life and word of Marx, and Marxist parties and movements, and then by examining the effects Marx's thinking has had on global politics, economic theory, religion, and philosophy. By examining the historical and philosophical roots and continuing significance of Marx and Marxism, students will have an occasion to practice a multidisciplinary study of a historical figure and movement and become better informed about intellectual and political history and how those continue to shape the world around us.
Survey of selected major writers from earliest literate history to about A.D. 1000. This includes literature from western Europe and non-western cultures. Usually offered fall semester.
Survey of selected major writers from about A.D. 1000 until about 1800. This course includes literature from western Europe and non-western cultures. Usually offered spring semester.
A general introduction to musical styles, compositional practices, and aesthetics of specific people groups within the Americas, Asia, and Africa. It discusses traditional, popular, and art music styles, and presents music intimately tied to value systems and social practice.
An inquiry into the central problems of values applied to human conduct, with an examination of the responses of major ethical theories to those problems.
An examination of major periods in the history of philosophy, this requirement for the major will introduce students to both the figures and the methodology of each time period. The specific focus of the course will vary from semester to semester, rotating through the various historical periods. Seminars will include: Ancient Philosophy, Modern Philosophy, the Enlightenment, 19th Century, 20th Century.
This course examines the moral responsibility of institutions in German society, 1939-1945, for acquiescing to and perpetrating the state- sanctioned killing of European Jews and others.
Students in this course study the development of Western political thought from Classical Greece to modern times, examining the conceptual evolution of citizenship, civic obligation, and the nature of justice and exploring the connection between moral and positive law in the western tradition.
A survey of the development of Judaism and its contemporary teachings and practices.
An examination of the major religious tradition of India, through its historical development from the oldest culture extent on the subcontinent to the modern world. Students will engage a variety of materials, texts, archaeology, images, and anthropological descriptions, in order to gain a broad understanding of the tradition.
A study of the development of Buddhism, including its teaching, practice and influence as one of the great missionary religions.
This course will introduce students to the historical origins and development of Islam.
The major objective of this course is to help students become aware of the degree to which behavior (including one's own) is culturally determined. As we continue to move toward a global society with increasingly frequent intercultural contacts, we need more than simple factual knowledge about cultural differences; we need a framework for understanding inter-cultural communication and cross-cultural human relations. Through lecture, discussion, simulations, case- studies, role-plays and games, students will learn the inter-cultural communication framework and the skills necessary to make them feel comfortable and communicate effectively with people of any culture and in any situation involving a group of diverse backgrounds.

One advanced-level foreign language course at the 300 level or above.

Completion of a study abroad program and internship or research track, as described below is also required.

Majors must also complete either an internship or research track:

  • Internship Track: earn at least 6 internship credits. This can be accomplished with an international/foreign policy-related internship in the Washington Center program, in a Study Abroad program, or in any other LVC-approved internship program (INT 400).
  • Research Track: students can earn at least 6 credits of undergraduate research. This includes PSC 370 (Research Methods in Political Science) or SOC 311 (Research Methods in Sociology) and at least 3 credits of INT 460 (undergraduate research) in order to meet the requirements of the research component. INT 460 requires students to collaborate with a professor on a research project and is designed so students can hone their research skills in collecting, analyzing, and interpreting information. The purpose of the research option is to assure that students develop research methodologies in line with research objectives.

Study Abroad Requirement:

International Studies majors and minors are required to participate in at least one approved off-campus program offered by the Study Abroad office. This may include a semester of study abroad or an approved alternative program, such as exchange programs, mini-terms, short-term or summer programs. Courses taken in off-campus programs can be accepted for credit to the International Studies major, but approval for such credit is contingent on equivalent courses in the catalog. For a list of approved off-campus programs, please see the study abroad section.