School of Arts&Sciences - University of Pennsylvania

Global Studies at SAS

International studies are a vibrant enterprise at the School of Arts and Sciences, with a vast array of centers, programs and institutes dedicated to the study of world regions and contemporary global issues and conflicts. Internationally renowned scholars from academic departments across the School contribute research and teaching about virtually every facet of the world at large. Students at both the graduate and undergraduate level come to Penn to situate their studies in a global context, studying diverse languages and cultures, enrolling in international coursework offered by traditional academic departments and interdisciplinary centers, and attending lectures, workshops, and conferences that draw on Penn’s expertise and connections to the international community. For example, Penn is a member of 13 Council of American Overseas Research Centers.

International studies at SAS are distinguished by several key strengths:

Language training opportunities are broad, with all world regions well-represented. From Arabic to Zulu, German to Japanese, SAS meets the linguistic challenges of our global village.
Four of the School’s area studies centers – covering Africa, South Asia, East Asia, and the Middle East – are federally designated National Resource Centers.
The School has expertise in the movement of populations across national borders, continents and oceans, with centers dedicated to the study of the African, Latino and Asian diasporas.

SAS also serves as a resource for the study of ethnopolitical conflict, the global environment, and the international political and economic processes that are continually transforming the global system. The following links provide ways to explore and learn more about international studies at SAS, along with related initiatives across the Penn campus: