Global Studies Department

Global studies provides a sound liberal education, grounded in an interdisciplinary approach, for students interested in the complex political, cultural, social, ecological, and economic connections and interrelationships that exist among peoples of the world. Through its focus on global issues as they play out in varied local settings (both domestic and international), the major seeks to overcome provincialism and to further the college’s promise of preparing compassionate citizens of the world. The program provides background for graduate study, professional studies, and careers in the public and private sectors wherever there is a need for international and intercultural expertise.

Faculty

Kate Bjork, professor. AB 1985, University of California-Berkeley; AM 1989, PhD 1998, University of Chicago. Latin American history, comparative history, colonial societies, early modern trade and world systems theory, slavery and emancipation, disease in history. She also teaches in the history department and the Latin American Studies program.

Veena Deo, professor. BA 1969, Fergusson College; MA 1971, University of Poona; PhD 1989, University of Kentucky. Literary and cultural studies; transnational and diaspora studies. She also teaches in the English department and the African American studies program.

Leila DeVriese, associate professor. MA 1996, University of Toronto; PhD 2002, Concordia University, Montreal. Transnational social movements, activism, globalization, human rights and women’s rights, international political economy, Middle East. She also teaches in the social justice and Middle East studies programs.

Van Dusenbery, professor, chair. AB 1973, Stanford University; AM 1975, PhD 1989, University of Chicago. Social theory, global/transnational/diaspora studies. He also teaches in the anthropology department.

Kathryn Geurts, professor. BA 1984 Sarah Lawrence College; MA 1991, PhD 1998, University of Pennsylvania. Cultural/medical/psychological/sensorial anthropology; African studies and disability studies; health and human rights; theory of ethnography; feminist theory. She also teaches in the public health sciences and social justice programs, and the anthropology department.