Program Requirements
This concentration focuses on the social, cultural, and economic interconnections among the peoples of Eurasia. We define Eurasia as the vast landmass stretching east to west from China to Europe and north to south from Siberia into the Caucasus, the Crimean Peninsula, Central Asia, and the Himalayas. Ancient trade routes that crisscrossed the interior spaces of Europe and Asia, known collectively as the Silk Road, served as a globalizing thoroughfare for the movement of peoples, cultural practices, religious values, and commodities. Recent infrastructural improvements in these areas — as well as international economic, environmental, and political concerns — have once again opened up transnational economic networks and cross-cultural exchange along these "new silk roads."
Concentration Objectives
For the Eurasian Studies concentration, students draw from a variety of disciplines to study not only specific geographical regions but also vital intersections and interrelationships among regions and peoples.
General Requirements
One semester of language must be completed before declaring the major.
- Students must complete a minimum of 36 units in Global Studies, including at least three courses focused on a world area.
- Students must complete at least 24 units at the 300 level or above, including courses across a minimum of three academic disciplines.
- Students must complete at least 6 units at the 400 level, no more than 3 of which may be directed research or independent study.
- In addition to the 36 units, students must complete a four-semester sequence of courses in one modern language appropriate to their concentration.
These requirements may be fulfilled only with college-level course work undertaken during a student's undergraduate enrollment. Courses must be taken for a grade, and a student must receive a grade of C+ or higher in all courses.
This concentration requires 36 units of course work:
- 3 units of core course work: GS 3020 Global Futures
- 6 units of introductory course work (100-200 level)
- 27 units of advanced Eurasian studies course work (300-400 level) dealing with three different regions (e.g., Eastern, Western, and Central Eurasia) or with a transregional focus
- Students must fulfill the standard Global Studies language requirement with Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Hindi, Persian, Russian, or another Eurasian language as determined in consultation with their Global Studies advisor.
- The study abroad location must be in a country relevant to this concentration area. Otherwise, the student will not meet the study abroad requirement and will need to complete an additional 300- or 400-level course on campus.
Note: A single course may satisfy more than one of the distribution requirements (i.e., disciplinary or regional). Some of these requirements may be completed while abroad.
Advanced Courses
Students choose nine courses from current, relevant, internationally focused course offerings in the following areas of study.* All courses must be approved by the student's Global Studies advisor in order to count for the major. Visit the concentration webpage and concentration course list for the full list of options.
Course List
Code |
Title |
Units |
Anthro 3053 | Nomadic Strategies and Extreme Ecologies | 3 |
Anthro 3617 | Past and Present Cultural Environments | 3 |
Anthro 374 | Social Landscapes in Global View | 3 |
Anthro 376 | Warriors, Merchants, Monks, and Courtesans: Ancient Narratives of Globalization in Google Earth | 3 |
Anthro 3775 | Ancient Eurasia and the New Silk Roads | 3 |
Anthro 4033 | Culture, Illness, and Healing in Asia | 3 |
Anthro 4041 | Islam and Politics | 3 |
Anthro 4455 | Ethnographic Fieldwork: The Politics of Schooling | 3 |
Anthro 4761 | The Pleistocene Peopling of Eurasia | 3 |
Anthro 4803 | Advanced GIS Modeling and Landscape Analysis | 3 |
Course List
Code |
Title |
Units |
APL 4023 | Second-Language Acquisition and Technology | 3 |
APL 4111 | Linguistics and Language Learning | 3 |
APL 4692 | Reading Across Languages and Cultures: Theory, Research and Practice | 3 |
Course List
Code |
Title |
Units |
Arab 352 | Iraqi Literature | 3 |
Course List
Code |
Title |
Units |
Art-Arch 3415 | Early Chinese Art: From Human Sacrifice to the Silk Road | 3 |
Art-Arch 4924 | 1968 and Its Legacy | 3 |
Course List
Code |
Title |
Units |
Chinese 341 | Early and Imperial Chinese Literature | 3 |
Chinese 342 | Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature | 3 |
Course List
Code |
Title |
Units |
Comp Lit 394 | Worldwide Translation: Language, Culture, Technology | 3 |
- East Asian Languages and Cultures
Course List
Code |
Title |
Units |
EALC 3250 | Topics in Early Modern Korea: Guns, Tobacco, and Sweet Potato: A History of Material Culture | 3 |
EALC 340 | Writing New Horizons: Explorers, Envoys, and Other Encounters in Korean Travel Narratives | 3 |
EALC 4242 | Culture and Politics in the People's Republic of China: New Approaches | 3 |
EALC 4710 | Topics in Japanese Culture | 3 |
Course List
Code |
Title |
Units |
EnSt 380 | Applications in GIS | 3 |
Course List
Code |
Title |
Units |
Film 475 | Screening the Holocaust | 3 |
Film 485 | Visualizing Orientalism: Art, Cinema and the Imaginary East 1850-2000 | 3 |
Film 507 | The 007 Saga: James Bond and The Modern Media Franchise | 3 |
Course List
Code |
Title |
Units |
GS 3006 | Global Health and Language | 3 |
GS 3008 | Topics in Global Studies | 3 |
GS 3020 | Global Futures | 3 |
GS 318 | Learning to Use GIS in Development, Area Studies and International Affairs | 3 |
GS 3248 | Intercultural Communication | 3 |
GS 3512 | "Model Minority": The Asian American Experience | 3 |
GS 364 | Anarchism: History, Theory, and Praxis | 3 |
| | 3 |
GS 374 | Russian Literature at the Borders: Multiculturalism and Ethnic Conflict | 3 |
GS 3750 | Topics in Russian Literature and Culture (WI) | 3 |
GS 3822 | From McDonald's to K-pop: New Movements in East Asia | 3 |
GS 384 | Migration and Modernity in Russia and the (Former) Soviet Union | 3 |
GS 386 | Empire in East Asia: Theory and History (WI) | 3 |
GS 3866 | Interrogating "Crime and Punishment" | 3 |
GS 389 | Furies and Die-Hards: Women in Rebellion and War | 3 |
GS 4007 | Global Studies Research Methods Proseminar and Assistantship | 3 |
GS 4036 | Children of Immigrants: Identity and Acculturation | 3 |
GS 4246 | State Failure, State Success and Development | 3 |
GS 4414 | Gender Analysis for International Affairs | 3 |
GS 4622 | Labor and Labor Movements in Global History | 3 |
GS 4761 | Politics of Global Finance | 3 |
GS 4868 | Russia and the West: Creating and Representing Identity | 3 |
GS 4869 | Reading War and Peace | 3 |
GS 4976 | Global Asias | 3 |
Course List
Code |
Title |
Units |
Hindi 353 | Understanding Indian (Hindi/Urdu) Literature: Through Text and Images (Visual) | 3 |
Course List
Code |
Title |
Units |
History 301T | Historical Methods-Transregional History | 3 |
History 3045 | Hot Peace: U.S.-Russia Relations Since the Cold War | 3 |
History 3073 | The Global War on Terrorism | 3 |
History 313C | Islamic History: 600-1200 | 3 |
History 335C | Becoming "Modern": Emancipation, Antisemitism and Nationalism in Modern Jewish History | 3 |
History 3350 | Out of the Shtetl: Jewish Life in Central and Eastern Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries | 3 |
History 3354 | Vienna, Prague, Budapest: Politics, Culture and Identity in Central Europe | 3 |
History 3416 | War, Genocide and Gender in Modern Europe | 3 |
History 3455 | Cultural Encounters: China and Eurasia Since the Middle Ages | 3 |
History 3548 | Gender, Sexuality and Communism in 20th-Century Europe | 3 |
History 3559 | Socialist and Secular? A Social History of the Soviet Union | 3 |
History 357 | All Measures Short of War | 3 |
History 3598 | The First World War and the Making of Modern Europe | 3 |
History 3680 | The Cold War, 1945-1991 | 3 |
History 3681 | The U.S. War in Iraq, 2003-2011 | 3 |
History 3810 | Between Sand and Sea: History, Environment, and Politics in the Arabian Peninsula | 3 |
History 39SC | Imperialism and Sexuality: India, South Asia and the World: Writing-Intensive Seminar | 3 |
History 4154 | Decolonization to Globalization: How to End an Empire | 3 |
History 4274 | Palestine, Israel, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict | 3 |
History 49SC | Advanced Seminar: Inventing India | 3 |
- Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies
Course List
Code |
Title |
Units |
JIMES 3030 | Topics in JIMES: Education in Divided Societies - the Israeli Case | 3 |
JIMES 3035 | Antisemitism: History, Causes, Consequences | 3 |
JIMES 3520 | Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi: Genre-Fiction in Arabic Literature | 3 |
JIMES 354 | Anthropological and Sociological Study of Muslim Societies | 3 |
JIMES 3622 | Topics in Islam | 3 |
JIMES 373 | Topics in Near Eastern Cultures: | 3 |
JIMES 4043 | Race and Ethnicity in the Middle East and North Africa | 3 |
JIMES 442 | Empire and Memory: Approaches to Islamic Historiography (ca. 800-1250) | 3 |
JIMES 445 | Topics in Islam | 3 |
JIMES 446 | History of Political Thought in the Middle East | 3 |
Course List
Code |
Title |
Units |
Pol Sci 372 | Topics in International Politics | 3 |
Pol Sci 393 | History of Political Thought III: Liberty, Democracy, and Revolution | 3 |
- Psychological and Brain Sciences
Course List
Code |
Title |
Units |
Psych 413 | Contemporary Topics in Social Psychology | 3 |
Course List
Code |
Title |
Units |
Re St 311 | Buddhist Traditions | 3 |
Re St 3392 | Topics in South Asian Religions | 3 |
- Russian Language and Literature
Course List
Code |
Title |
Units |
Russ 332 | Russian Theater, Drama and Performance: From Swan Lake to Punk Prayer | 3 |
Russ 350C | The 19th-Century Russian Novel (WI) | 3 |
Russ 372 | Dostoevsky's Novels | 3 |
Course List
Code |
Title |
Units |
SOC 3710 | Sociology of Immigration | 3 |
Additional Requirements and Information
Study Abroad
- We strongly encourage students to study abroad. For those who do not study abroad and receive credit toward the Global Studies General Requirements, an additional 3-unit course at the 300 or 400 level is required.
- We strongly prefer students to select a study abroad location and regional specialization consistent with their chosen language of study (e.g., if a student wishes to study in Latin America, they must satisfy their language requirement with either Portuguese or Spanish).
- Students may receive a maximum of 6 credits from a single semester, 12 credits from a year, or 3 credits from a summer term of study abroad.
- Study abroad credit only counts at the 300 level.
- Students may apply no more than 12 total credits to the Global Studies major from study abroad, the School of Continuing & Professional Studies, summer school at other U.S. universities, or any combination thereof.
- To receive credit for a summer course completed at another institution, a student should fill out the Approval for Non-WashU Course Credit form with Arts & Sciences to take the course for "general credit" and then petition to have the course count as an elective toward their Global Studies major.
- Students may not receive credit for January Intensive Term (J-Term) study abroad programs; these programs are too short in duration.
Latin Honors
- Students must confidently expect to graduate with an overall grade point average of 3.65 or higher to qualify for Latin Honors.
- Students should enroll in GS 485 Preparation for Global Studies Honors Thesis during the fall of senior year and in GS 486 Global Studies Senior Honors Thesis during the spring of senior year (under the corresponding section number of the faculty member overseeing the student's thesis).
Language Requirement
All Global Studies majors must satisfy a language requirement that entails both the successful completion of four semesters of a modern language for a letter grade and placement into the third year of that language.
Available modern languages include Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swahili.
Students should consult the course listings for details about the language sequences. (On the "A&S IQ" tab, click on "Courses," and then toggle "Area Requirement" to "LS Language & Cultural Diversity-Language." Click "Search" to see a list of available language courses.)
Please see the FAQs on the Global Studies website for more information.