About

The Bachelors of Arts in International Studies provides students with the knowledge and tools to study regional topics, developments and phenomena from a humanities perspective, and put them in a global context.

They study these topics through the prism of four disciplinary perspectives: culture, history, politics and economics, coupled with in-depth knowledge of one of eight world regions. The humanities perspective is ensured by placing an understanding of the historic and cultural context centre stage in the programme, and linking this directly to the political and economic conditions present at the global and regional levels. Students learn to apply the acquired knowledge of the four disciplinary approaches in the analysis of a geographical area of their choice. Students also acquire knowledge of one of the languages attached to their chosen region.

The programme’s combination of multidisciplinary knowledge, geographical specialisation, language training, and a global perspective, provides students with a unique understanding of the interactions of global, transnational, national, and subnational conditions and developments. Disciplinary understanding is introduced in three stages. The programme starts with a general introduction of the relevant theoretical and methodological approaches. It goes on to provide students with practical knowledge of the historical, cultural, political and economic conditions in a specific geographical area, and completes the disciplinary understanding by placing these conditions in their international context.

The areas offered in the degree, and their corresponding languages are:
* Africa: Arabic, French, Portuguese, Swahili
* East Asia: Japanese, Korean, Mandarin
* Europe: Dutch, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish
* Latin America: Portuguese, Spanish
* Middle East: Arabic, Modern Hebrew, Persian, Turkish
* North America: French, Spanish
* Russia and Eurasia: Russian
* South Asia and Southeast Asia: Hindi, Indonesian