Stanford Global Studies Celebrates 20 Years

On any given day, Stanford students might be taking a course on Iranian cooking, practicing Portuguese before embarking on fieldwork in Brazil, or conducting AI and robotics research in Japan. These moments of global engagement, scattered across classrooms, language tables, and laboratories, reflect a 20-year effort by the Stanford Global Studies Division (SGS) to make learning about the world a central feature of a Stanford education.

“SGS plays a critical role in preparing students across the university for leadership in the 21st century,” said Jisha Menon, Fisher Family Director of Stanford Global Studies. “Through our degree programs, research initiatives, language study grants, and global internships, we prepare graduates who are equipped to engage the world with depth, agility, and a genuinely global perspective—regardless of the professional paths they ultimately pursue.”

SGS marked the start of its 20th anniversary year with an event featuring three graduates who shared how their degree programs shaped their worldviews and influenced their career trajectories. Their reflections highlighted the enduring value of global education in fostering critical thinking, cross-cultural understanding, and engagement with global issues.

Building a global academic community

Established in 2005, SGS was created to bring together Stanford’s diverse international and area studies centers under one umbrella. The move reflected the university’s goal of becoming a more global institution—one committed to addressing global challenges and cultivating in students the skills required to succeed in an increasingly interconnected world.

At SGS’ inception, some centers, such as the Center for Latin American Studies, had already been around for more than 40 years, while others were newly founded. Today, the division encompasses 14 regional and transnational centers, uniting 344 affiliated faculty, 40 staff members, and 385 students across its interdisciplinary degree programs. 

“What began as a constellation of independent units has grown into a vibrant, collaborative hub for global research, teaching, and community engagement,” said Norman Naimark, who served as director of Stanford Global Studies from 2012 to 2016. “I am truly proud of the lasting impact our 14 centers and programs have had on generations of students and the campus as a whole.”

“Our efforts to more deeply interconnect these centers have been profoundly generative,” added Menon. “We’ve been able to cultivate cross-center programs that illuminate a world understood not as static, but as dynamic—shaped by movement, exchange, and continual transformation.”

Integrating global perspectives into the curriculum

From the outset, SGS has played a crucial role in ensuring that all undergraduates, regardless of their major, leave Stanford with a substantive understanding of the world beyond the United States.

Through various academic offerings and co-curricular programs, SGS has helped embed global learning into the fabric of a Stanford education. The division offers majors and minors in inter­national relations and Jewish studies, minors in human rights and global studies, and master’s programs in East Asian studies, Latin American studies, and Russian, East European and Eurasian studies. SGS was also instrumental in shaping the Civic, Liberal and Global Education (COLLEGE) requirement, ensuring that all first-year students have the opportunity to engage early with global issues.

“I don’t think we can graduate students today without fostering a deep sense of what it means to be a cosmopolitan citizen—someone who conceives of their obligations in global rather than narrowly national terms,” explained Menon. “Such a perspective engenders deeper understanding and promotes a genuine capacity for intercultural communication and international collaboration.”

Across its centers and programs, the division offers hundreds of foreign language and globally focused courses. More than 25 have been funded through SGS Course Innovation Awards, which support the development of innovative courses that creatively engage students in learning about critical topics through a global lens—from AI governance and populism to queer cinema. Through partnerships with the Bing Overseas Studies Program and Stanford Humanities Center, SGS has also broadened the diversity and accessibility of global experiences for students across campus.

Supporting transformative experiences abroad

At the heart of SGS’ work to deepen students’ global engagement is the Global Studies Internship Program, which connects undergraduates from every major with hands-on experiences across the globe. What began in 2010 as a small, East Asia-focused initiative has expanded into a global network of opportunities. In summer 2025, the program sent 80 students representing 29 majors to internships in dozens of cities worldwide, from Cape Town to Mumbai.

These internships often serve as inflection points for students, influencing their academic interests and career goals. For computer science major Lisa Ing, her internship with Youth Global Network, a nonprofit in Hong Kong, provided clarity during a moment of uncertainty.

“For the past couple of years, I’ve been at a loss at what direction I wanted my career to take,” said Ing. “After numerous career fairs, summer classes, and extracurriculars, none of them have impacted my career trajectory more than this internship. I learned that I want to work in an industry that resonates deeply with me as a first-generation college student and that I want to leave a positive social impact no matter where I go.”

Advancing interdisciplinary international research

Beyond internships, SGS also provides funding to support research, fieldwork, and intensive language study in locations across the globe, deepening the understanding of key regions and global issues.

With support from SGS, Stella Webster, a master’s student in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, conducted archival research in Italy for her thesis on Anna Ivanovna Abrikosova, a Russian Catholic writer who was persecuted by the Soviets in the 1920s. “My entire research trip in Rome, including the process of planning my travel and accommodations, as well as establishing connections with archivists, was a great learning experience for me,” Webster shared. “Overall, it was the highlight of my time at Stanford and has left me excited to pursue more archival research abroad in the future.”

Not only has SGS sent students abroad for research and learning, but it has also led the way in bringing faculty and scholars with global expertise to campus. Through a series of faculty appointments, the division has grown Stanford’s intellectual communities in South Asian and Islamic studies. And in 2022, the division helped establish a Scholar Rescue Fund at Stanford, which offers residencies to academics facing persecution or severe hardship in countries including Ukraine, Venezuela, Uganda, and Afghanistan. Their unique perspectives enrich the campus community, connecting students to real issues outside of the classroom.

Extending global learning beyond Stanford

SGS is equally committed to advancing global education beyond the Farm. Through more than 400 public events each year, its centers and programs foster curiosity and understanding about other peoples, regions, and cultures. In 2021, the division introduced a Global Dialogues Series, which convenes scholars to examine pressing topics such as the politics of solidarity and Indigenous data sovereignty.

In addition, through the work of its four U.S. Department of Education Title VI National Resource Centers, SGS supports global learning and workforce development at schools and community colleges nationwide. Programs include a year-long fellowship program for community college faculty, an international career fair for community college students, and professional development workshops—all designed to integrate global perspectives into classrooms and local communities.

Jeniffer Peralta Jimenez, a Spanish major at the City College of San Francisco, said attending the international career fair was a transformative experience. “The fair opened my eyes to a world of possibilities I hadn’t fully considered before,” she shared. “It helped me see how my studies in Spanish can intersect with meaningful careers in advocacy, education, and diplomacy. Being in that space—surrounded by students like me and professionals doing the work I dream about—was empowering. It reminded me that my voice, my story, and my heritage have a place in global conversations.”

Deepening cross-campus collaborations

Looking ahead, Menon hopes SGS will continue to strengthen its position as a hub for interdisciplinary, transregional collaboration, convening students and scholars from across the humanities, social and natural sciences, medicine, engineering, and beyond to study global topics. These kinds of cross-campus partnerships, she believes, are essential for developing solutions to the century’s most pressing challenges.

“From armed conflict and geopolitical upheavals to global migration and climate change, the defining challenges of our time resist analysis within an insular or nationalistic framework,” said Menon. “In this rapidly evolving, deeply connected world, the role of global studies has never been more important.”