Global Curriculum
Long recognized as a leader in international education, Smith is a world college for the world’s women. Since the early 1900s, the college has had an international emphasis in its curriculum and was a pioneer in the field of study abroad when it established its Smith in Paris Program in 1925. Thirteen different languages are currently taught at Smith. Additionally, 33 departments across the curriculum offer more than 200 courses that have been designated by faculty as relating to global issues, with many more that examine different cultures within the United States. Each year, hundreds of Smith students study abroad, while the Smith campus welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 70 countries.
A Window to the World: Global Courses at Smith
Smith’s academic program is designed to empower students to be ready to live, work and lead across borders. With faculty of varied international backgrounds and interests, courses on distinct cultures of the world and many languages spoken on campus, Smith is committed to making global learning an essential part of women’s education. The study of other countries and cultures—and the complex interactions among them—is featured throughout the curriculum, indeed throughout the college.
Africana Studies
- AFR 110 Intro to Africana Studies
Art
- ARH 110 Art and Its Histories
- ARH 204 Art and Architecture of the Ancient Americas
- ARH 233 Medieval Art on the Move: Pilgrimages and Crusade
- ARH 265 Transnational Histories of American Art and Identity, 1860-1950
- ARH 280 Collecting and Display in Europe and North America, 1400-1900
- ARH 280 Topic: Playing with Ink and Brush 900CE to Present
Buddhist Studies
- BUS 253 Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Phil and Hermeneutics
Dance
- DAN 142 Dance Forms of the African Diaspora
- DAN 149 Salsa
- DAN 272 Dance Anthropology: Performed Identities and Embodied Cultures
- DAN 377 Advanced Studies in History and Aesthetics. Topic: Salsa in Theory and Practice
East Asian Languages and Literatures
- CHI 352 Food For Thought: Chinese Language, Culture, Environment, and Health
- EAL 232/WLT Modern Chinese Literature
- EAL 239/WLT Intimacy in Contemporary Chinese Women's Fiction
- EAL 242 Modern Japanese Literature
- EAL 253 Korean Cinema: Cinema and the Masses
- EAL 292 Topic: The Shojo
- EAL 360 Topic: Book History and Print Culture in China and Japan
- JPN350/351 Japanese Contemporary Texts
East Asian Studies
- EAL 291 Writing Empire
- HST 200 Modern East Asia
- HST 217 World War Two in East Asia
- HST 313 Remembering the Asia-Pacific War
- (was EAS 375, will be GOV if re-offered) Dimensions in East Asia-US Relations
English Language & Literature
- ENG 171: Composing a Self: Chinese and English Voices
- ENG 236 Environmental Poetry and Ecological Thought
- ENG 241 The Empire Writes Back: Postcolonial Literature
- ENG 334 Servants in Literature and Film
First-Year Seminars
- FYS 127 Cuba and U.S. Embargo
- FYS 167 Viking Diaspora: The First "New World" of the North Atlantic
- FYS 172 (Dis)Obedient Daughters
- FYS 174 Merging and Converging Cultures: What is gained and lost in translation?
- FYS 175 Love Stories
- FYS 184 Educating Women:A History and Sociology at Home and Abroad
- FYS 187 The Temptations of Knowledge
- FYS 199 Re-Membering Marie Antoinette
Film & Media Studies
- FMS 250 Global Cinema after World War II
- FMS 251 A Global History of Television
French Studies
- FRN 230 Banlieue Lit
- FRN 230 Women Writers of Africa and the Caribbean
- FRN 250 Skyping with the French: Cross-Cultural Connections
- FRN 251 The French Press Online
- FRN 252 Cities of Light: Urban Space in Francophone Film
- FRN 253 The Lady, the Knight, the King
- FRN 264 Encountering Others in Ancien Régime France
- FRN 265 Les Années noires: Paris during the Occupation, 1939-45
- FRN 270 Language and Identity
- FRN 282 From the Personal to the Political: Stories About Moral Dilemmas
- FRN 295 French Translation in Practice
- FRN 320 Women Writers of the Middle Ages
- FRN 340 Changing Family Values in the French Enlightenment
- FRN 343 Cultural Wars at the Theatre in the French Long Eighteenth Century
- FRN 363 Crossing the Divide: Love, Ambition, and the Exploration of Social Difference
- FRN 365 Food, Hunger, Memory: Literature of the Caribbean
- FRN 380 France in America
- FRN 380 Immigration and Sexuality
- FRN 385 Global French: The Language of Business and International Trade
- FRN 392 Stereotypes in French Cinema
German Studies
- GER 114 Intensive Elementary German for the Arts and Sciences
- GER 161 The Cultures of German-Speaking Europe (in English)
- GER 161 231: Nazi Cinema (in English)
- GER 260 German All Over Campus
- GER 300 German Songs, Language and History
- GER 300 Heimat: What is home?
- GER 360 Seminar: Ingeborg Bachmann's Vienna
Italian Language and Literature
- ITL 200 Made in Italy: Italian Design and World Culture
- ITL 205 Savoring Italy: Recipes and Thoughts on Italian Cuisine and Culture
- ITL 245 Culture in Context: An Italian Immersion
- ITL 250 Survey of Italian Literature I
- ITL 281 Italian Cinema Looks East
- ITL 299 Teaching Romance Languages: Theories and Techniques on Second Language Acquisition
- ITL 332 Finding Dante: A Reader's Guide to Getting out of Hell
- ITL 340 The Theory and Practice of Translation
- ITL/RES/WLT 341 (Calderwood Seminar) Mobilities: How People, Goods and Information Cross Borders
- ITL 344 Senior Seminar: Italian Women Writers
Jewish Studies
- JUD 110 Introduction to Yiddish Culture
- JUD 125/REL 125 The Jewish Tradition
- JUD 229 Judaism and Environmentalism
- JUD 235 Perspectives on the Arab-Israeli Conflict
- JUD 235/MES 235 Perspectives on the Arab-Israel Conflict
- JUD 260 Yiddish Literature and Culture
- JUD 284 The Jews of Eastern Europe 1750-1945
- JUD 287 The Holocaust
- JUD 288 History of Israel
Middle East Studies
- MES 100 Introduction to Middle East Studies
- MES 203 Introduction to Middle East Comparative Politics
- MES 210 Modern Middle Eastern Cinema
- MES 217 International Relations and Regional Order in the Middle East
- MES 220 The Arab Spring
- MES 222 Islam and Democracy in the Middle East
- MES 230 Society and Development in the Middle East
- MES 235 Perspectives on the Arab-Israeli Conflict
- MES 240 Encounters with Unjust Authority: Political Fiction of the Arab World
- MES 380 Seminar: Authoritarianism in the Middle East
Music
- MUS 101: World Music
- MUS 220: Topics in World Music, topics include: Popular Music of the Islamic World (Sarkissian), The Music of Japan (Sarkissian), African Popular Music (Omojola), Women in African Music (Omojola), Master Musicians of Africa (Omojola).
- MUS/REL 249: Islamic Popular Music
- MUS 955: Central Javanese Gamelan
- MUS 958: Irish Music Ensemble: The Wailing Banshees
Philosophy
- PHI/REL 108 The Meaning of Life, Translation and Cross-Cultural Interpretation; and our seminars frequently
- PHIL 112 Intro to Chinese Phil
- PHIL 127 Indian Philosophy
- PHI 215 African-American Phil
- PHI 236 Linguistic Structures
- PHI 246 Race Matters
- PHI 252 Buddhist Philosophy: Madhyamaka and Yogācāra
- PHI 254 African Philosophy
- PHI 260 Hermeneutics
Portuguese-Brazilian Studies
- POR 125 Elementary Portuguese for Spanish-Speakers
- POR 200 Intermediate Portuguese
- POR/ARH 201 Brazilian Art Inside and Out
- POR 202 Barriers to Belonging: Youth in Brazilian Film
- POR 228 Indigenous Brazil: Past, Present, Future
- POR 381 Place, Space and Identity in the Portuguese-Speaking World
Religion
- REL 105 Introduction to World Religions
- REL/PHI 108 The Meaning of life
- REL 201 Ritual: Performance and Paradoxes
- REL 206 Heaven, Hell, and Other Worlds: The Afterlife in World Religions
- REL 223 The Modern Jewish Experience
- REL 227 Women and Gender in Jewish History
- REL 264 Buddhist Meditation Traditions
- REL 270 Zen Buddhism and Japanese Culture
Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies
- RES 100Y Elementary Russian
- RES 105 St. Petersburg: History, Politics and Culture: Interterm in Russia
- RES 126 Nineteenth-Century Russian Literature:Madmen, Conmen and Government Clerks
- RES/REL 140 Putin's Russia: After Communism, After Atheism
- RES 210 Environment and Ecology in Russian Culture
- RES 221 Intermediate Russian
- RES 222 Intermediate Russian II
- WLT 240 Childhood and the Literatures of Africa and the African Diaspora
Spanish
- SPN 230 topic Maghribi Jewish Women: Cordoba, Casablanca, Tel Aviv
- SPN 246 Through the Jewish Lens: A Latin American Story
Women’s Studies
- SWG 150 Introduction to the Study of Women and Gender
- SWG 235 Gender, Land and Food Movements
- SWG 236 International Feminist Political Economy
- SWG 316 Feminist Theories of Cross-Border Organizing
- SWG 318 Women Against Empire
- SWG 3xx Marxist Feminism
World Literatures
- WLT 100 Introduction to Comparative Literature: The Pleasures of Reading; Topic: Islands, Real and Imaginary
- WLT 150 The Art of Translation
- WLT 170 Journeys in World Literature
- WLT 218 Holocaust Literature
- WLT/EAL 232 Modern Chinese Literature
- WLT/EAL 239 Intimacy in Contemporary Chinese Women's Literature
- WLT 270 Health and Illness: Literary Explorations
- WLT 271 Writing in Translation: Bilingualism in the Postcolonial Novel
- WLT 272 Composing a Self: Chinese and English Voices
- WLT 276 #MeToo: Sex, Gender and Power across Cultures
- WLT/TSX 330 Translating Across Borders
- WLT 340 Narrating the Anthropocene (senior seminar)
- WLT 341 Mobilities: How People, Goods and Information Cross Borders
Astronomy
- AST 214 Astronomy and Public Policy
Biochemistry
- BCH 352 Biochemical Dynamics
Biological Sciences
- BIO 100 Human Origins: Disentangling the myths and facts that surround the evolution of our species
- BIO 130 Biodiversity, Ecology and Conservation
- BIO 321 Molecular Pathogenesis of Emerging Infectious Diseases
Computer Science
- CSC 325 Seminar: Responsible Computing
Environmental Science & Policy
- ENV 101 Sustainability and Social-Ecological Systems
- ENV 201/202 Researching Environmental Problems
- ENV 230 Environment and Society in China
- ENV 326 Natural Resource Management and Environmental Justice
Geosciences
- GEO 104 Global Climate Change
- GEO 106 Extraordinary Events in the History of Earth, Life and Climate
- GEO 108 Oceanography
- GEO 112 Archaeological Geology of Rock Art and Stone Artifacts
- GEO 334 Carbonate Sedimentology
- GEO 361 Tectonics and Earth History
Mathematics & Statistics
- MTH 105 Inequalities: Numbers, Data, and Justice
For more detailed information on course offerings, search the Smith College Course Catalog.
COURSE SEARCH
Global Experiences
Watch the following videos from the Global Encounters 2020 winners: Esther Ishimwe ’22, Malaika Kironde ’23 and Simin Saba Royesh ’21J. Learn more about our annual Global Encounters photo and video contests.
