As a Global Liberal Studies (GLS) major, you will complete a liberal arts core curriculum with a global focus, and an upper division curriculum that builds your expertise in a particular area of global studies.
GLS is a four-year, 128-credit degree program. As a GLS student, you are also eligible to pursue cross-school minors, second majors, or accelerated B.A./M.A. degree programs using your elective credits.
You will take courses that examine the world’s major cultural traditions and how they are connected. Progressing from ancient world traditions to the present, these courses ground your learning in foundational great works of arts, politics, religion, science, and more. You also learn sophisticated methods of cultural analysis and prepare for the junior year of international study.
Beginning sophomore year, deepen your cultural analysis by choosing a concentration that centers your studies on a specific theme in global studies.
During your junior year of international study, you will be immersed in a foreign culture and language, providing a lens through which you will consider issues of global significance.
Senior year coursework focuses on particular issues in global study, as well as on supporting independent research leading to your thesis.
*Unless you are already proficient in the language of your junior year host country, you will prepare for the international experience by taking at least one semester of intensive work in the language spoken at the site, usually in the spring of sophomore year. Learn more about the GLS language study requirement.
†Choose Advanced Writing Studio, Global Topics, Arts and Cultures of Modernity, or Global Works and Society: Modernity
GLS students may choose to spend their first year away in New York or at NYU in Florence, London, or Washington, DC. Courses available at each site align with the core curriculum and build toward graduation requirements.
