About the Program

International education should encourage students to transcend the confines of their own backgrounds and upbringing, apprehend the world through others' eyes, and in the process achieve a deeper understanding of themselves and their place within their own cultures. These transformations are prerequisites for living and working effectively in an increasingly interdependent world.

Mission

To achieve this goal, the International Studies Program has three components:

1. advanced competency in one of the 10 languages taught at Middlebury, sufficient to read scholarly materials and engage in complex interactions with native-speaking professionals in their field of concentration;
2. broad exposure to the historical, political, economic, artistic and cultural heritage of their chosen region of focus;
3. solid grounding in one or more of the liberal arts disciplines other than language

These three components offer an understanding of the transnational and global context that affects all regions. Students become experts in a region, getting to understand it using multiple tools. The majority of students fulfill the study-abroad requirement by staying overseas for a full year. They attend one of our schools abroad, which are located in 33 cities in 12 countries.

Participating Departments and Programs

The faculty for the international studies major is drawn from the following departments and programs: Arabic, Chinese, classics, economics, film and media culture, French, geography, German, history, history of art and architecture, Italian, Japanese, philosophy, political science, religion, Russian, sociology/anthropology, and Spanish.

Director of the Program in International Studies

Jeffrey Cason (political science)

Program Directors

• African Studies: Armelle Crouzieres-Ingenthron (French)
• East Asian Studies: Don Wyatt (history)
• European Studies: Sandra Carletti (Italian)
• Latin American Studies: Darién Davis (history)
• Middle East Studies: Tamar Mayer (geography)
• Russian and East European Studies: Kevin Moss (Russian)
• South Asian Studies: Ian Barrow (history)

Program Coordinator

Martha Baldwin.