HWS News
17 December 2025 HWS Announces Global Studies Minor
New program promotes collaboration and builds cultural and language competencies.
Hobart and William Smith announces the creation of a new global studies minor, further preparing students to engage as informed and effective global citizens.
Housed within the Institute for Global Studies, the interdisciplinary minor brings together coursework in global literature, languages and cultures, emphasizing communication and collaboration across national and cultural boundaries.
“In today’s global world, students need to be competent in communicating across cultures to become true global citizens,” says Professor of Anthropology Jeffrey Anderson, director of the Institute for Global Studies. “By taking an interdisciplinary approach, this minor will provide students with the confidence and skills to engage in that work.”
Launching in the spring semester, the global studies minor begins with an introductory course followed by a 200-level core course. Students then complete two courses in one global area, two courses in a second global area and one language course, building both cultural understanding and language proficiency.
Core courses offered this spring include “Introduction to Global Studies,” which draws on the humanities and social sciences to examine global issues, and “Writing the World: Creative Writing from Global Inspiration,” in which students engage with poetry and fiction from regions such as Africa, Asia, Europe and South America while producing their own creative work. Topics for core courses will rotate; this spring, the introductory course focuses on “The Poetics of Water,” exploring oceans in a global context, while “Writing the World” examines the role of food in Russian culture.
Anderson notes that the new minor, and the Institute more broadly, emerged from renewed global interconnectedness following the COVID-19 pandemic. While shutdowns initially narrowed students’ focus to local and national concerns, interest in studying abroad and global engagement has since rebounded.
“There’s a new interest in studying abroad and in global studies,” Anderson says.
He also points to the growing presence of global studies programs at colleges and universities worldwide.
“The problems facing the world are too large to be addressed within individual programs,” he says. “We need conversations across disciplines. Collaboration across boundaries allows us to solve problems more effectively.”
The Institute for Global Studies includes nine programs, among them Africana studies; anthropology; international relations; French, Francophone and Italian studies and German area studies.
For more information about the global studies minor, contact Jeffrey Anderson.
Top: While studying abroad in Galway, Ireland under the direction of Professor of Anthropology Jeffrey Anderson, students visit Newgrange, a 5,000-year-old passage tomb.
