International Studies Minor

www.smu.edu/internationalstudies

Professor Stephen K. Wegren, Director

General Information

To succeed in an international career, students need expertise in the politics, economics, history, language and cultures of societies other than their own. The curricula for the International and Area Studies Program are designed to provide students with a foundation for this expertise, requiring coursework in the social sciences, business, language and humanities. A student majoring in international studies also chooses a region in which to specialize: Africa/Middle East, Asia, Europe, or Latin America.

As an alternative to the international studies minor or major , a student may choose the area studies minor . These minors include Africa/Middle East studies , Asian studies , European studies  and Latin American and Iberian studies .

International Studies Minor Rules for SMU Abroad Credit

To maximize the educational experience in these degree programs, all international studies minors are strongly encouraged to spend at least one term or summer studying abroad. The University offers numerous study abroad opportunities around the world; most of these courses may be applied to the international studies minor. The following policies apply to the International Studies Program:

For the International Studies Minor

• Up to six credit hours of world language study may be taken in an SMU-approved study abroad program and counted toward the language requirement for the minor.
• Of the 15 credit hours required from the basic curriculum, 12 hours must be taken on an SMU campus (Dallas, Taos or Plano). Three hours of transfer credit (not an SMU-approved study abroad program) may be counted toward fulfillment of the basic curriculum requirement.

Minor Information 

The minor in international studies requires 15 credit hours of coursework from the basic curriculum , nine hours of which must be in courses at the 3000 level or above. The first six hours (two courses) must be chosen from the three categories of the basic curriculum; each of the two courses must be from a separate category: “World Cultures,” “International Economics,” or “International Politics.” The next nine hours (three courses) must be chosen from “The Global Perspective.”

A cocurricular requirement is one year of college-level study or equivalent of a world language. Note: Latin does not count as a second language. Courses taken in language study do not count toward the 15 credit hours of required coursework.