In the late spring of 2023, I was just wrapping up a wonderful and relaxing semester teaching history in CUA’s Rome program. I was feeling great: my classes had gone well, Rome was incredible, I’d managed to convert my Spanish into passable Italian (or at least, Italian-ish), and my kids and I had happily developed a daily gelato habit.
Little did I know that my professional life was about to swerve in a very different direction.
One hot May night, while sitting by a floor fan in my sweltering apartment in Trastevere, I got an e-mail from Vice Dean Caroline Sherman asking me to talk about the future of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures (MLL) with her and Dean Tom Smith. When we connected over the shaky wi-fi (200-year-old stone walls aren’t so great for internet speed), Tom and Caroline informed me that MLL was looking for help developing a new program that would be more attractive to undergraduates than the current language majors, whose enrollments were dwindling - not just at Catholic, but nationwide (Lusin et al., 2023).
As a scholar of migration and Latin America, I have long been really interested in Global Studies, an undergraduate major that allows students to learn foreign languages, study global regions outside of the United States, and develop expertise on pressing global issues (such as environment, politics, migration, poverty, economics, and so on). Upon consultation with MLL’s faculty, I formally came on board in August 2023, with the goal of helping the department to fold its existing language majors and minors into a new Global Studies program.
Designing Global Studies for Catholic University
As we began our work, we asked ourselves a critical question: what would a Global Studies program look like at The Catholic University of America? We’re a very different university than many others: smaller, private, and, most importantly, Catholic. And, I believe, it’s precisely our Catholic identity that makes global education so imperative: Global studies – and global service – are central to the mission and structure of the Catholic Church.
As an inherently global institution with members in nearly every country in the world, the Church maintains a robust diplomatic service in the Vatican and negotiates directly with multiple governments worldwide. It is also deeply engaged with global issues: in 2016, the Vatican created the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, which focuses on ecology, economy, migrants and refugees, health, and security “in light of the Gospel and in line with the social teachings of the Church.” Moreover, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops articulates that a central component of its mission is “to organize and conduct religious, charitable and social welfare work at home and abroad” on issues including cultural diversity and cultural competence, human rights, immigration, poverty, and global solidarity.
As I soon discovered, MLL was perfectly positioned to offer a distinct Global Studies major that incorporates Catholic teachings, especially those articulated in the University’s mission as a Catholic university “to serve the nation and the world.” With 20 full-time and part-time faculty members in MLL able to teach courses in the languages and cultures of every region of the globe, the Department has the existing expertise to provide a comprehensive education in global languages and cultures, with a focus on Catholic social teaching, service to humanity, and the central concerns of the Enduring Questions of the liberal arts curriculum.
Launching a New Major and Minor
Over 2023-2024, the MLL team worked hard and with dedication, and we were able to design and get official approval for a new major and minor in Global Studies in under a year. Now, we’re so excited to offer a way for students to internationalize their degree through the study of a language, a region of the world where that language is spoken, and global issues relevant to that region of the world. (For example, students can combine the study of Spanish with courses on Latin America and migration; Chinese classes with courses on Asia and international business; French classes with courses on Europe and religious studies; and the list goes on.)
What’s more, the Global Studies major is inherently interdisciplinary - we strongly encourage students to take relevant courses outside the department, and we work with faculty and programs across the University to help students find global classes and build upon their existing degrees and certificates, such as Theology, Politics, and International Business.
The major is also flexible: we kept it lean (at only 11 courses, two of which can count for the Intermediate Language requirement) so that students can easily add it as a second major. Naturally, we strongly encourage our majors to study abroad, although we don’t require it: thanks to our amazing location in Washington, D.C., students can study and work locally and still encounter global languages, issues, and communities. A capstone course invites students to use their language skills and global knowledge by proposing policy solutions to issues in the regions they have chosen to study.
Today, we’re still a new program, but we’re also growing fast. Almost as soon as the word got out, students began approaching us to inquire and sign up. In September, we held a Global Studies launch party for undergraduates, which was festive, fun - and full! We are thrilled to be meeting students’ desire for global education.
Global Careers, International Skills
We’re also incredibly excited to meet employers’ demands for students with second-language skills and cultural competence (Wells, 2023). One of the requirements for the Global Studies B.A. is an internship course in which students must work at an organization whose mission centers on global issues and global service. Many of those organizations are Catholic: we are currently developing partnerships with entities such as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic Charities, Catholic Relief Services, and the Vatican. We are also working in consultation with the Center for Academic and Career Success to connect students to internships - and ultimately, careers - at places like the U.S. Department of State, the World Bank, private-sector international corporations and organizations, and innumerable other global organizations that seek to hire students with international skills and expertise.
A little over a year after I got that email from Dean Sherman, I feel so grateful that she and Dean Smith called upon me to work with MLL. It’s definitely been a tremendous amount of work (and those relaxing days of gelato in Rome seem very far away). Still, it’s also been so exciting to build something new: something that meets the needs of students, helps them build the skills they need for exciting global careers, and aligns so well with the mission of the University and the Church.
We welcome interested students to contact us, either by dropping by our offices in McMahon 208 (where we have delicious international candy to give away) or by setting up an advising appointment.
References
Lusin, N., Peterson, T., Sulewski, C., & Zafer, R. (2023). Enrollments in languages other than English in US institutions of higher education, fall 2021. Modern Language Association of America.
Wells, R. (2023, October 16). Multilingual speakers wanted: Job demand surges for the next 5 years. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelwells/2023/10/16/multilingual-speakers-wanted-job-demand-surges-for-the-next-5-years/
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Julia G. Young, Ph. D., is an Associate Professor of History and Interim Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at The Catholic University of America. She is a historian of migration, Mexico, and Catholicism and is currently teaching a class on crime and justice at the U.S.-Mexico border.