Since 2017, the Department of Global and International Studies at UCI has grown its faculty count to six professors strong with research interests spanning the globe on topics from law, political economy and environment to media, ideology, health, gender and sexuality.
 
Each year, the department hosts a mentoring conference that pairs graduate students and young career faculty from institutions around the world with established UC scholars who in turn advise on research strategies for publishing and new methods for teaching in a global era.
 
Graduate students in the department have ample opportunity to publish alongside prolific professors in top ranked journals.

 
Global studies is a fast-growing field of inquiry dedicated to understanding pressing global issues such as conflict, inequality, migration, human rights, climate change, health, racial formations, global cultures, diasporas, and development from an interdisciplinary perspective. Global scholars analyze the social, cultural, political, environmental, legal and economic consequences of these issues, understanding them as multidimensional, multi-level and historical processes.
 
Developed with the inclusive aspirations of a liberal education minus Western assumptions that prioritize American and European values, global studies explains concepts – such as democracy – from local perspectives where the idea can take on vastly different meanings. This foundation gives students a more nuanced understanding of taken-for-granted ideas such as justice, human rights and development and helps open their imagination to thinking globally.
 
And if that wasn’t enough, the UCI campus is located less than 10 miles from Newport Beach, is the #1 university doing the most for the American dream (New York Times College Access Index), and the #6 ranked best college in the U.S. (Money Magazine).