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A Home Within the SIS Community

The SIS faculty includes more than 120 scholars. Our faculty are multidisciplinary, including political scientists, economists, geographers, historians, sociologists, anthropologists, and practitioners with deep experience in all aspects of diplomacy, policymaking, and peacebuilding around the world. Focused on building knowledge, developing solutions to the world's biggest challenges, and expanding the boundaries of how international affairs is taught and practiced, they all share a commitment to equity, justice, and ethical approaches to problems. 

Our SIS departments are intellectual homes for both faculty and our students. More than just an organizational administrative structure, each department has been constructed with an eye toward building synergies among scholars who want to examine problems and identify workable solutions. Our departments have been specifically designed to be "department without walls": each department is multidisciplinary; about half of the courses "housed" in a specific department are taught by faculty from other SIS departments; and cross-departmental research collaborations abound.

Students can make the most of our "departments without walls," exploring interests across SIS. As an undergraduate student, you may find your departmental "home" based on your thematic area. As a graduate student, you may easily identify your department based on your degree program. Or you may connect with faculty, projects, and thought leadership in another department entirely. And as a member of the SIS community, you can look to departments as a place to gather, whether digitally or in person, with people who share your interests in specific ways to promote positive change in our world.  

The Department of Environment, Development, and Health (EDH) defends and cares for life on Earth through research, teaching, advocacy, and policy. We work on justice- and equity-informed approaches to climate change, environmental degradation, poverty, migration, urbanization, emerging technologies, governance, and global health. 

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Resolving today’s transnational crises requires a global perspective that unites pioneering research with a foundational understanding of economics, politics, and governance. In SIS’s Politics, Governance, and Economics (PGE) department, our faculty of political scientists, economists, and top regional specialists investigate longstanding and emerging questions related to power, identity, and institutions. Our courses train students with the foundational knowledge and data analysis skills to resolve pressing international, regional, and local issues. 

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Through ethical engagement, the SIS Department of Peace, Human Rights & Cultural Relations (PHRCR) seeks to eliminate violence, from war and genocide to interpersonal and structural violence. We work to achieve this through theoretical, policy-oriented, and ethical research and by educating our students in conflict resolution, human rights, international and intercultural communication, economic justice, and the role local, national, transnational, and international actors play. 

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The Department of Foreign Policy and Global Security (FPGS) produces new knowledge on international policy and security challenges and trains the next generation of leaders to navigate those challenges effectively. We are a multidisciplinary hub for research and teaching, comprised of a diverse group of renowned scholars and practitioners. In our community, we examine the policies of the United States, other countries, and global and transnational actors, as well as the determinants of security at all levels. 

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The Department of Global Inquiry (DGI) is engaged in producing knowledge and educating students in ways that contribute to the overall transformation of the world. We equip students with the skills they will need to keep up with our rapidly changing world order. With an emphasis on theory and history, DGI courses focus on how and why international relations change over time, allowing students to forecast and envision future change.

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