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COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF GLOBAL INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES

Mural painted by Alloyius Mcilwaine outside of the GIS office in Garey Hall.

The Department of Global Interdisciplinary Studies (GIS) provides students with skills, knowledge and values that foster critical thinking, problem solving and preparation for responsible global citizenship.

Our students gain an understanding of global and digital literacy, cultural diversity and intercultural competences, interdisciplinary research, and a passion for social justice, nurtured in experiential learning.

The department is comprised of three majors: GlS (with 10 specializations), Gender and Women's Studies (GWS), and Peace and Justice Studies (PJ). Students in the GIS major are required to declare a specialization in one of the following interdisciplinary area studies: Africana Studies, Arab and Islamic Studies, Asian Studies, Chinese Studies, Cultural Studies, Irish Studies, Japanese Studies, Latin American Studies or Russian Area Studies. A student may also opt for an Individually Designed Specialization after meeting the requirements. We also offer four Critical Language and Cultural Studies minors in Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Russian and a minor in Sustainability Studies.

Spring 2025 Courses

Travel Assistance Fund Application

"Writing in Tongues" Journal

 

Chiji Akoma, PhD
Associate Professor
Chair, Department of Global Interdisciplinary Studies
chiji.akoma@villanova.edu
(610) 519-6967

Andra Cain
Senior Administrative Assistant
andra.cain@villanova.edu

(610)-519-6302

WHO WE ARE

Lezlie Hilario ’25 CLAS

Lezlie Hilario ’25 CLAS, a Global Interdisciplinary Studies and Political Science double major, was named the recipient of the Truman Scholarship. She is the seventh Villanova University student to receive the prestigious scholarship, and she shares her future plans for how she would utilize her scholarship: "I have a couple of different career goals. I'm kind of indecisive in general so I just want to do a little bit of everything. During grad school, ideally, I would like to serve on my city's Board of Education and help lead some education reform efforts within our public school system. This summer I was an intern on the Hill in the House of Representatives, and I enjoyed my experience so I would be interested in working in the government sector as well. However, ultimately, I see myself in the non-profit sector for the majority of my career. I would like to work in a nonprofit that focuses on the progression of Latinos or Black Americans, perhaps for organizations such as the National Urban League, VotoLatino, or UnidosUS who have this mission as their focus." MORE...

ATAMINI AKOMA '25 CLAS

Atamini Akoma '25 CLAS Psychology and GIS: Japanese double major studied a semester in Japan in fall 2023. She shared her thoughts on her experience: "My GIS Japanese education helped me to further explore and understand beliefs and values outside of my own while seeing how they influence the world around us. The Travel Assistance Fund enabled me to buy a plane ticket, travel across the country, and provide for my everyday expenses. In Japan, I learned that I was capable of a lot more than I thought I was, and I apply that to my everyday life at Villanova by stepping outside of my comfort zone and advocating for myself."

WELCOME ANUSHA HARIHARAN, PHD

Anusha Hariharan, PhD., joined Villanova University as assistant professor of Global Interdisciplinary Studies in fall 2024. Trained as a Cultural Anthropologist, her research to date has engaged feminist activism and solidarity-building in South Asia and its transnational connections, through the intertwined lenses of memory, ethical life, care and global Christianities. Anusha's current book project, tentatively titled “In Solidarity”: Feminist memory, ethical life and care in Southern India, examines how feminists forge and sustain solidarity across social differences of caste, class, ethnicity and faith across time, and the material forms of care that fuel these solidarities. She draws on a combination of ethnography, oral histories and archival analysis to demonstrate that postcolonial feminist political memory is entwined with intimate and embodied labors of care that are the tangible and material evidence of friendship and solidarity as feminists’ everyday ethical commitments to transform caste society. Her work examines this in the specific context of Tamil Nadu in southern India where the social justice landscape has historically emerged through Liberation Theology-inspired global Christian networks, just as much as Leftist and anti-caste liberatory movements for social change. My research has been funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation and the Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation.

Alumni Spotlight: IFUNANYA NWANONYIRI UGWU '14 CLAS

"I am currently a Doctor of Physical therapy and the founder of both Ọjị Abịala: An Igbo Podcast and Obodo, a language learning app. I am forever grateful for the experience and lessons I learned as a GIS major that taught me to be limitless with my definition of a career and also reminded me of the importance of being a global agent in all that I do! GIS empowered me to not only think critically about the issues in my immediate community but in the world at large and equipped me with the skills to contribute meaningfully to efforts towards solutions to those problems."

STEPHEN J. SCHEIDLY '21 CLAS

Stephen J. Scheidly ’21 CLAS earned the Alexander Pushkin Medallion Award. Scheidly majored in GIS: Russian Area Studies and minored in Naval Science. He studied abroad in Prague, Czech Republic.

EDUCATION WITH IMPACT

 

AN EDUCATION IN THE LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES promotes intellectual curiosity and rigor; instills the fundamentals of critical insight, mature judgment and independent thinking; and strengthens students’ sense of their moral responsibility for others and for the betterment of society.