Global Studies B.A. ~ Degree Requirements
Total semester credits: 120
Semester credits in the major: 48
You officially begin the major by enrolling in GS 300 where you work with the instructor to create or revise your Individual Learning Plan. That ILP maps out how you will achieve each of the Major Learning Outcomes designated below by successfully completing the listed courses or alternative assessment options. You conclude the major by completing the GS 400 Capstone Seminar, which involves producing a publicly presented project that displays your cumulative learning in the major. [Learn more at http://CSUMB.EDU/capstone].
GS MLO 1 Planning for global learning and careers ~ ability to assess aptitude for pursuing a career in global affairs, identify career options, formulate career goals, comprehend Major Learning Outcomes of the Global Studies Program, and develop a comprehensive learning plan that fulfills the requirements for a career in global affairs ~ ability to demonstrate an understanding of research methods and skills needed for research design, data collection, information retrieval, and analysis and reporting of research in Global Studies
GS MLO 2 Understanding of globalization ~ ability to comprehend and apply various concepts, sources of information, and perspectives in the analysis and evaluation of the historical context, dimensions, contemporary conditions, and effects of globalization as well as the alternatives proposed by the opposing global struggle for social and environmental justice ~ ability to comprehend, analyze, and reflect critically upon the development, nature, and effects of the contemporary global system of economic, political, and social relations
GS MLO 3 Understanding of major worldviews ~ ability to analyze, compare, evaluate, and appreciate a wide array of different philosophical, religious, ethical, political, economic, and social views held by people around the world ~ ability to comprehend and evaluate the adverse effects of ethnocentrism upon intercultural communications and relations ~ ability to reflect critically upon own worldview and to empathize with people who hold worldviews that are different
GS MLO 4 Understanding of gender and violence in global life ~ ability to comprehend, analyze, and evaluate the role of gender and violence in global life, especially in politics, war, peace, crime, economic inequality, environmental degradation, and ethical practices
GS MLO 5 Language competency ~ intermediate level competency in a language other than English
GS MLO 6 Understanding of global political economy ~ ability to comprehend, analyze, and evaluate the origins and workings of the global economy, including the gendered and informal sectors of this economy ~ ability to demonstrate understanding of major structures, processes, and effects of the evolving global economy ~ understanding of the global economy's historical development, patterns of change, effects on the quality of life, and solutions and alternatives to economic inequity ~ ability to locate one's own place in the global economy
GS MLO 7 International Organizations and Service Learning ~ ability to critically examine the structure, workings, and politics of global governance and global civil society ~ ability to explore interactions between intergovernmental organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and grassroots organizations working locally and across borders on current issues of local and global import ~ ability to complete upper division service learning requirement at local organizations and map activities in and through networks while engaging network analysis
GS MLO 8 Global politics ~ ability to comprehend and apply key concepts and theories in the analysis and critical evaluation of the historical development, structure, and transformation of international politics, and in the analysis and evaluation of the nature and effects of contemporary global political processes and issues ~ ability to comprehend, analyze, and evaluate gendered, radical, and non-Western perspectives on the politics of North-South relations, global environmental issues, intergovernmental organizations, and global security issues ~ ability to comprehend, analyze and evaluate policy-making and implementation
GS MLO 9 Understanding of earth, social systems, and global life ~ ability to comprehend, analyze, and evaluate the effects of human activities on the planet (both its geosphere and biosphere) ~ ability to analyze global environmental problems from various political, economic, and ecological perspectives ~ ability to critically evaluate the interrelationships between the planet's natural and social systems and their global effects
GS MLO 10 Synthesis and evaluation of Global Studies learning ~ ability to synthesize and evaluate the learning experiences associated with the Global Studies program and demonstrate through a cumulative portfolio that these experiences as well as the program's Major Learning Outcomes have been successfully completed in accordance with an approved learning plan ~ ability to design, undertake, and present a research and writing project that demonstrates a firm grasp of the theoretical, methodological, and philosophical aspects of critical intellectual inquiry
GS MLO 11 and MLO 12 Electives (choose two elective learning outcomes below)
There are many facets to the Global Studies mosaic. We've designed the Global Studies curriculum so that you can learn more about those aspects of global affairs that interest you most. The program allows you to choose an area of emphasis through the completion of two elective learning outcomes.
The elective courses and associated course learning outcomes offered by Global Studies are:
GS 311 ~ ability to comprehend, analyze, and reflect critically on the foreign policy of the United States of America, particularly the objectives of U.S. foreign policy, the interests behind it, the international and domestic effects of U.S. foreign policy, and the alternative policies that could be pursued to achieve more desirable results ~ ability to explain and critically evaluate the foreign relations of the United States in specific countries and regions, and the effects of U.S. foreign policy on these countries, regions, and international relations in general
GS 315 ~ ability to evaluate and understand world history during the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries ~ ability to identify and evaluate, through historical methods, a broad range of global economic, political, technological, social, and environmental concerns and events during this period of time
GS 320 ~ ability to comprehend, analyze, and evaluate important global issues that have particularly adverse effects on the Global South countries ~ ability to comprehend, analyze, and evaluate the role played in the Third World or Global South by the more powerful states, corporations, and civil society of the First World or Global North
GS 326 ~ability to comprehend, analyze, and evaluate U.S. foreign policy and politics of empire ~ ability to analyze, understand, and evaluate declared and undeclared policy goals ~ ability to understand and evaluate effects of civilizing American empire, benign conquest, humanitarian interventions and regime change
GS 335 ~ ability to comprehend, analyze, and evaluate comparatively the various forms of government and political ideologies in the world today ~ ability to understand the contemporary contest over emerging forms of global governance and the growing global network of civil society alliances
GS 340 ~ability to comprehend, analyze, and evaluate the role and effects of the major information technologies and communications media on global affairs ~ ability to apply the basic tools of information technology in global communications and global information gathering and analysis
GS 345 ~ ability to comprehend, analyze, and apply political theories and philosophies, and evaluate their influence on politics, intellectual thought, and cultural practices in the past and present ~ ability to critically evaluate the relationship between political thought and the major problems of politics and society
GS 360 ~ ability to analyze religious violence and peacemaking through various social theories ~ ability to comprehend the sociopolitical history of selected interreligious conflicts and the emergence of religious extremism ~ ability to comprehend and compare different religious tenets for nonviolence and reconciliation ~ ability to analyze contemporary contexts of religious violence and identify avenues for peacemaking
GS 362 ~ ability to examine intercultural communications through a global and historical lens that encompasses encounters in colonial, post-colonial, and global contexts ~ ability to critically evaluate how actors in a given text interrelate in ways influenced by historical, cultural, and individual forces ~ ability to comprehend and analyze the relationship between author/audience and reader/text in cross-cultural dialogue
GS 375 ~ ability to explain and use concepts, terms, and theories of global ecology and issues of distribution, allocation, concentration and consumption ~ ability to comprehend and analyze perspectives on conservation of global commons that are beyond the jurisdiction of nation-states, international agreements, and institutions ~ ability to analyze alternative accounts of Northern ecological debt and Southern ecological credit
GS 376 ~ ability to comprehend, analyze, and evaluate major structures, processes, and effects of the evolving U.S. economy ~ ability to comprehend, analyze, and evaluate the interrelationships between global political and economic conditions with those of the U.S. ~ ability to comprehend the gendered, environmental, and informal aspects of the U.S. political economy