University of California, Irvine, Global & International Studies Department

Global Studies is a fast-growing field of inquiry dedicated to understanding pressing global issues such as rising authoritarianism, climate change, human rights, ethnic conflict, inequality, immigration, global health, global governance, and more. Scholars of global studies explore and develop theoretical and empirical models with the aim of analyzing and critiquing process of globalization in social, cultural, economic, political, legal and historical contexts. While the nation-state undoubtedly remains a crucial terrain of political, economic and cultural contestation, global studies seeks to move beyond methodological nationalism, deploying a multi-scalar lens to examine social relations across a local-global continuum. Because the "global turn" emerged out of a transdisciplinary conversation exceeding the focus of any single discipline or methodology, we engage a holistic approach and pluralist analytical framework. As scholars and teachers, we interrogate taken-for-granted concepts and relations of power while foregrounding the deep historical legacies of colonialism and imperialism.