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Overview
[International
Studies Philosophy] [SIS
Core Program] [Program Outline]
[Senior
Capstone and Honors Research]
[Learning
Objectives]
[The Study Abroad Component] [History
of the School] [Apply
Online]
The SIS Core
Program
You will find that the SIS
core program differs in important ways from other international
programs you have read about. Everyone goes abroad, our classes are
smaller, we do far more team teaching, and our emphasis is on career
training through multidisciplinary coursework. Here is a brief sketch
of what all SIS students do, regardless of their individual
concentrations.
 Starting
the very first semester, we examine the challenges facing the world of
the 21st century. In a four course introductory sequence—Dean’s
Seminar, Contemporary World Issues, Perspectives on World History and
International Research Methods, we explore issues of economic and
cultural globalization, war and peace, the problems of the global
environment, and other factors that will shape the world of the future.
All students, with their varied career objectives and regional
interests, share in this common experience. All learn the basic world
history and geography necessary for international “literacy.” In each
course, you will be in a discussion group of about 20 students, led by
one of the professors in these multidisciplinary, team taught courses.
We have recently added three new core courses-in Globalization the U.S.
and the World, International Development and Cultural Change, and a
Capstone course for seniors that integrates student’s interdisciplinary
education. All of these core courses are team taught by a group of
economists, political scientists, anthropologists and historians.
We team-teach these core
courses with professors from different disciplines because it is
important that you understand the world from more than one point of
view. It is extraordinarily difficult to get a grasp on the whole
world. We have a saying here as SIS: We teach “the duck.” Most schools
are content to teach you “Introduction to Bills,” “Webbed Feet 101” and
“Elementary Wings.” But how do you put that into a coherent picture of
a duck? By having different specialists teaching together in the same
small courses, we hope that you will not only understand bill, webbed
feet and wings, but the duck itself as a integrated whole.
All students, regardless of
their major, study a foreign language. At Pacific we offer French,
Spanish, German, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Italian and Arabic; many
students learn other languages while abroad. We also require a basic
knowledge of politics, economics, anthropology and cross-cultural
skills. Many of our students also do career-related internships.
At the end of your
undergraduate education, you will participate in our Capstone course or
an honors seminar, experiences that sum up, in a public presentation,
the skills you have learned at SIS. You also choose a concentration
that allows you to explore some more advanced topics. We have recently
added new concentrations in International Law that includes courses
co-taught by faculty at our law school and Cross Cultural Studies that
allows student to take courses in our graduate program in Intercultural
Relations. Students can also concentrate in: Global Economics and
Business, International Politics, Conflict Resolution, or another field
of concentration which you develop with your faculty advisor.
Click here to go to Program
Outline
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