Minor
All undergraduate students are invited to declare an International Studies minor. There is no application to be an IS minor (unlike the major); you need only submit a course plan as noted below.
Overview
- IS minors take two foundation courses and four electives in one of four concentrations, for a total of 18 credits (15 of which must be unique to the IS minor). Students may need to use the new digital course substitution form to ensure that your approved elective is counted toward your minor on your academic audit/transcript.
- Minors must demonstrate intermediate proficiency in one modern language in addition to English (even if their BC school, such as CSOM, does not require it), and they are encouraged to study abroad.
- To declare an IS minor, students must downolad and fill out the IS Minor Course Plan, save it to your computer, and email it to Ms. Patricia Joyce (patricia.joyce@bc.edu), Assistant Director of Interdisciplinary Programs. Please develop your course plan in consultation with IS Program Peer Advisors, IS faculty members, or the Director of Undergraduate Studies.
- There is no formal deadline, but we encourage you to declare your minor as soon as you think you'd like to pursure it, so that you can take advantage of the many IS Program activites/events and meet other IS minors and majors.
Becoming an IS Minor
The IS minor is open to all BC undergraduates who submit an acceptable course of study, ideally by October of their junior year, before the last day of drop/add.
Our minors must earn 18 credits from six courses (including two foundations courses and four electives in one of four concentrations); they must demonstrate intermediate proficiency in one modern foreign language (even if their home school at BC doesn’t require it); and they usually study abroad. Please note that the Carroll School of Management no longer offers its own International Studies minor for its students, but CSOM freshmen are welcome to apply to the IS Program minor in the Morrrissey College.
To declare your IS minor, download and fill out the IS Minor Course Plan, and submit it to Ms. Joyce via email (patricia.joyce@bc.edu) or in print to Gasson 104.
Courses
Foundation 1 Courses
IS minors must choose one of the following approved Foundation 1 courses:
- Globalization (INTL 3510 /POLI 3510)
Note: This is NOT the History core sequence(s) with the same name.
- World Politics (INTL 2546)
- Introduction to International Politics (POLI 1081)
Note: This course is only for POLI majors; it may be a double-count for IS minor purposes only. It cannot be taken by IS minors with other majors (e.g., a HIST major/IS minor may not take POLI 1081).
Foundation 2 Courses
Foundation 2 courses for minors are specific to each concentration
Concentrations
IS minors focus their interests in one of four interdisciplinary concentrations, in which they will take one foundation course (which we name as “Foundation 2,” because it builds on the Foundation 1 course) and four electives from an approved list of courses.
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 minor must demonstrate intermediate-level proficiency in a modern foreign language as required by the Morrissey College, even if you are a student outside the Morrissey College.
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 minors are encouraged, but not required, to study abroad for a semester, summer term, 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).