Major
Students must apply and be accepted into the IS Program in order to become an IS major. Once accepted into the program, majors should use the Major Course Plan to plan their curriculum.
There are five components to the IS major:
- Taking the IS major core courses
- Selecting a concentration
- Learning a language (or two)
- Studying abroad
- Completing a senior seminar or thesis
Admission
The application will ask you to choose one of our four concentrations; to list your primary thematic and/or geographic interests, and the languages you speak and/or intend to study; and to write two short essays, one about an urgent global issue and one about why you want to be an IS major.
The responses you give on your IS major application are the most important factor we use to admit students into the major, but your grades and the courses taken your first semester play a role as well. To prepare for your application, we encourage students to read about the IS major requirements and talk with current IS majors; you might consider starting with our Peer Advisors, or with members of the International Studies Student Association. Be sure you understand the major’s requirements for coursework and language proficiency.
We encourage freshmen to enroll in a first-semester class or two that takes up international issues and/or is taught by an IS faculty member. Your application will ask you to list a faculty member who can give you a reference, so we encourage you to get to know a faculty member, rather than simply list the professor who gave you the best grade of the semester. There are no specific courses you need to have taken to apply for the IS major, but there are some introductory courses you will need to complete it that also count for the University Core requirements, and others that will give you a good foundation for our program. Some examples of courses we recommend for first-year students:
- A full year of language study
- A comparative politics course in the political science department (this will count toward your IS major);
- Principles of Economics (this will count toward your IS major);
- An interdisciplinary "Complex Problems" or "Enduring Questions" course in the BC Core that has a strong international dimension; some Fall 2020 examples include "Geographies of Imperialism"; "Planet in Peril"; "Violence and Representation in the African Diaspora"; "Beyond Price: Markets, Cultures, Values"; "Making the Modern World"; "Environmental Migrations."
- Other courses that inspire you!
Remember that the IS major is just one part of your university experience; we understand that your first semester may not put primary focus on IS-related courses, but taking some of the above will help you determine if you are interested in these topics and if you're ready to flourish in the rigorous academic program we offer.
Core Courses
Where on Earth? Foundations in Global History
INTL 2202 + discussion section
3 credits; fall semester of sophomore year
Where on Earth? Foundations in Global Culture and Political Geography
INTL 2204 + Geography studio/lab
3 credits; fall semester of sophomore year
Introduction to International Relations
INTL 2501 + discussion section
4 credits; spring semester of sophomore year
One designated Comparative Politics course
POLI x4xx
3 credits; any semester
Principles of Economics
ECON 1101 + discussion section
4 credits; any semester
Students with a score of 5 on both Microeconomics and Macroeconomics AP exams may skip ECON 1101, but they are required to take another Economics elective (ECON 2xxx) in its place. Students with a score of 5 on either AP Microeconomics or Macroeconmics, but not both, are required to complete the IS core Economic requirement through Principles of Economics (ECON 1101).
An approved Economics elective
ECON 2xxx or, with proper Econonmics pre-requisites, ECON 3xxx
3 credits; any semester after Principles of Economics. If you'd like to apply a 3000-level Econ course to this IS major requirement, please confirm with Prof. Nakazato
Ethics, Religion, and International Politics
INTL 5563 + discussion section
4 credits; usually taken after studying abroad
Concentrations
IS majors focus their interests in one of four interdisciplinary concentrations, in which they will take two foundations courses and four electives from an approved list.
Cooperation and Conflict
This concentration considers fundamental theoretical and empirical questions about the study of cooperation and conflict in international affairs, including the causes of world wars, revolutions, and terrorism; the consequences of international and domestic actors’ attempts at reconciliation; the role of arms control, intelligence, international institutions, global governance, and grand strategy; and sources of state and individual security and insecurity. Every war is unique, every peace different, and students will have ample opportunity to study historic and contemporary cases from around the world. At the same time, students will approach war, peace, and security as general social phenomena and examine shared features and dynamics across cases and theoretical perspectives.
Ethics and Social Justice
This concentration considers religious and secular frameworks for relating ethics to contemporary international affairs, as well as specific areas of international politics where ethical questions are likely to arise, including sovereignty, terrorism, peacemaking, human rights, economic justice, and the use of force in war or humanitarian interventions. Students will have the opportunity to explore the role of religion and motivations of social justice in the interaction between state and non-state actors.
Global Cultures
This concentration considers two dimensions of culture-making and community in a globally connected world. In the “Cultures at Work” cluster, students examine professional cultural production, engaging with critical inquiry into culture as both a complex meaning-making activity and as commodities central to the global economy. In the “Cultures and Social Movements” cluster, students examine how communities and projects for change form through cultivating and deploying shared social, cultural, religious, political, and economic resources. Global Cultures concentrators may elect to complete a 1-credit elective internship either in the creation of a cultural product or in grassroots mobilization and other participatory approaches to issues of global importance and cultural representation.
Please note: Majors and minors who concentrate in Global Cultures should take only those electives that are pre-approved for their cluster ("Cultures at Work" or "Cultures and Social Movements"). Students can seek approval to count other courses -- including courses from the other cluster -- as electives by sending a course abstract and/or syllabus to the Director of Undergraduate Studies (Prof. Nakazato) before the first week of that class (and ideally during registration period).
Political Economy and Development Studies
This concentration considers the interplay between politics and economics in determining interactions among states, markets, and societies, both in the developed and developing world. Students will gain an understanding of the economic, political, and moral stakes in international public policy issues and develop the ability to analyze policy choices. A central focus of the concentration is improvement in human well-being, especially, though not exclusively, in the context of developing countries, including those in Africa, Asia, the Pacific and Latin America. Students choose a cluster within the concentration that emphasizes either political economy (PE) or development studies (DS).
Please note: Majors and minors who concentrate in Political Economy and Development Studies can take electives approved for EITHER the PE or DS cluster and count them for their own cluster. Students can seek approval to count other courses as electives by sending a course abstract and/or syllabus to the Director of Undergraduate Studies (Prof. Nakazato) before the first week of that class (and ideally during registration period).
Language Requirement
All students completing the IS major, regardless of school (MCAS, CSOM, Lynch, etc.) must demonstrate advanced proficiency in one modern foreign language or intermediate proficiency in two modern foreign languages. This is a more strenuous requirement than the MCAS minimum, and it must be met by all majors.
Advanced proficiency can be demonstrated in several ways:
- Successful completion (with a passing letter grade) of the second semester of the third-year sequence of a modern foreign language (e.g. Spanish or French CCRII, or Third Year Russian part II.)
Exceptions: Arabic and Chinese courses have 2x the credits as others, so the IS Program considers advanced proficiency to be reached after the Intermediate I course is completed.
- Successful completion (with a passing letter grade) of one semester of a modern foreign language course beyond the advanced level, taught in that language (e.g. French courses in the 3000 level or above)
- Earning a 5 on an AP exam, or a 700+ on an SAT subject test, in a modern foreign language;
- demonstrating advanced proficiency to a faculty member in one of BC’s language departments. (That faculty member must certify a student's advanced language proficiency in an email to Ms. Patricia Joyce in the IS Program office.)
Note: Language courses that count in any way toward your IS major or minor language proficiency requirements must be taken for a grade, and cannot be taken pass/fail. (Such courses taken pass/fail through Spring 2020 will be honored.)
Intermediate proficiency can be demonstrated in several ways:
- Successful completion (with a passing letter grade) of the second semester of the intermediate-level sequence of a modern foreign language course.
- Earning the following minimum scores on an AP language exam or SAT Subject Test:
Chinese (AP4/SAT650) French (AP3/SAT550)
German (AP4/SAT600) Italian (AP3/SAT550)
Japanese (AP4/SAT650) Korean (AP4/SAT650)
Modern Hebrew (AP4/SAT650) Spanish (AP3/550)
- Demonstrating intermediate proficiency to a faculty member in one of BC’s language departments. (That faculty member must certify a student's intermediate language proficiency in an email to Ms. Patricia Joyce [patricia.joyce@bc.edu] in the IS Program office.)
Note: Language courses that count in any way toward your IS major or minor language proficiency requirements must be taken for a grade, and cannot be taken pass/fail. (Such courses taken pass/fail through Spring 2020 will be honored.)
Note: Language instruction courses beyond Intermediate II, such as CCR, may not be used as IS electives; but subject courses taught in a foreign language may be used as electives where applicable, if approved by the DUS/Director.
Also note: Effective after the end of the spring 2020 semester, language courses that count in any way toward your IS major or minor language proficiency requirements must be taken for a grade, and cannot be taken pass/fail. Pass/Fail arrangements with faculty made before summer 2020 will be honored.
If your situation is not covered by the above rules, please contact Prof. Hiroshi Nakazato, Director of Undergraduate Studies in the IS Program.
Senior Seminar/Thesis
Seniors complete their IS major by choosing either to take a one-semester senior research seminar or to write a year-long senior thesis with a faculty member.
IS majors are expected to study abroad for a semester, but are not required to do so. Nearly 90% of our majors study abroad for a summer, semester, or year. Those who do not—either because they are international students at BC, or for economic, personal, or athletic reasons—can take advantage of other opportunities to engage with international students, use their language skills, and meet people and groups from around the world (through the Global Engagement Portal, for example).