Thirteenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

The objective of this presentation is to place the ongoing debates regarding the migration of US-style liberal learning around the world within a Global Studies framework. After a brief review of the current state of US-, US-accredited, and US-style undergraduate degree programs during the last quarter century, I interrogate the emic idealism attendant on the globalization of this institutional form. What could be more valuable–it is often asked–than equipping the world´s future leaders with the tools to tackle the world´s problems, including a broad range of scientific and humanistic lenses for viewing humanity´s collective challenges? I offer, as a supplement to this marketing copy, a proposal that suggests that the only way globally disperse US-style liberal education will be able to become more than a rite de passage pastiche masquerading as knowledge would be to redefine liberal learning as global studies.