Global Citizenship

In the early 21st century, the concept of “global citizenship” has (re)emerged as an important framework for addressing the age-old (and fundamental) liberal arts questions “how should I lead my life?” and “how should we lead our lives together?” Put simply, this framework entails three core elements. First, it is based on an ethical claim that all human beings are ultimately members of a single moral community and that, as such, they have certain rights, responsibilities and duties. Second, it involves a judgment that this community faces a number of challenges that are increasingly global in character (including, but not limited to, environmental degradation, human rights violations, migration, poverty, social exclusion, economic exploitation, political violence, disease, humanitarian emergencies, and various “democratic deficits”), but that manifest themselves in distinctive ways in specific national/local contexts. Finally, it entails a conviction that addressing these challenges will ultimately require both an acceptance of our global ethical responsibilities and the development of institutional structures through which these responsibilities can be exercised at the transnational, national and local levels.

The objective of this concentration is to provide students with an integrated curricular/co-curricular “pathway” (involving both course-work and experiential learning opportunities) that will allow them to explore/interrogate these claims – as well as what it means to be an ethical and effective “global citizen-leader” – in a structured, yet open-ended, way. The program is based on two premises. The first is that, at the most fundamental level, the education of global citizen-leaders necessarily begins with a strong liberal arts education that emphasizes critical thinking, self-examination, multiculturalism, internationalism and civic engagement. The second is that, for some students, going beyond this foundational level to engage in a more in-depth study of the “big questions” related to civic life, engagement and leadership at the local, national and international levels would be highly beneficial. To this end, this concentration threads together:

Required courses that provide a framework for thinking about fundamental philosophical issues raised by the questions (a)“How should we live together under conditions of sometimes radical difference in a multicultural and globalizing world?’ and (b) “how should we conceptualize and practice effective and ethical ‘leadership’ in such a world”?
Integrative courses that explore/interrogate (a) the particularities of civic life in the United States, (b) approaches to civic life beyond the US, (c) the intersection of science and civic life;
Supporting courses that purposefully explore/interrogate key concepts related to civic life from an additional (inter)disciplinary perspective;
Community-based learning experiences that provide practical experience with civic life on the local level; and,
Study Away experiences that provide additional intellectual and/or experiential engagement with the big issues of civic life, leadership and engagement in settings beyond the Twin Cities.

About the Concentration