International studies majors must have an adventurous spirit and a high level of personal motivation. They study in distant countries, learn foreign languages, carry out independent research, and develop individual curricula to meet their own intellectual interests. Majors study in and learn about at least one of these world areas: Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East, and Russia and the former Soviet bloc.

The major has three complementary goals. It asks students: (1) to specialize in a particular place and study its language, history, culture, and society; (2) to understand that place in the larger context of global society; and (3) to learn the tools of at least one discipline, while engaging in interdisciplinary studies.