About the Center for International Studies

Created in 1968 and directed since 2004 by Professor Kathleen Morrison, the Center for International Studies (CIS) sponsors and coordinates a wide variety of activities related to research, teaching, curriculum, and public outreach on global and international topics. The Center, which has been designated a Title VI National Resource Center by the U.S. Department of Education, hosts the Program on the Global Environment, the Joint Threat Anticipation Center (with Argonne National Laboratories), and the undergraduate International Studies Program.

  • The new Program on the Global Environment (PGE) was officially launched in 2007-08. The program integrates perspectives on key environmental issues coming from the sciences, social sciences, and the policy community. The program includes an undergraduate major and minor in Environmental Studies and a faculty and graduate workshop on the global environment as well as support for internships, research, conferences and other events. With support from Title VI and the Donnelley Foundation, PGE hosted a major international conference, The Social Life of Forests: New Frameworks for Studying Change, on May 30-31, 2008.
  • Together with Argonne National Laboratories, CIS co-sponsors the Joint Threat Anticipation Center (JTAC). JTAC brings experts in computational modeling and social sciences together with scholars whose deep understandings of critical world regions can contribute to more reliable and powerful tools to anticipate threats to national security. JTAC supports basic research, modeling, and training of advanced graduate students.
  • The undergraduate program in International Studies is coordinated through CIS. Chicago’s innovative and rigorous curriculum was developed with support from a UISFLP grant (2002-2005). In addition to core and other thematic and area-focused courses, major requirements include foreign language proficiency and study abroad as well as a BA thesis. The major enables undergraduates to take maximum advantage of the impressive range of international studies faculty and resources across departments and divisions of the university.

In addition to these established programs, CIS is supporting new research initiatives on violence, conflict, and security.

CIS also serves as an umbrella and coordinator of activities among Chicago’s other Title VI National Resource Centers: the Centers for East Asian Studies; East European and Russian/Eurasian Studies; Latin American Studies; Middle Eastern Studies, and the South Asian Language and Area Center. The CIS NRC provides support for the development of African Studies and (with the Centers for Middle East Studies and East European and Russian/Eurasian Studies), Central Eurasian Studies. CIS’s coordinating role facilitates collaboration across area centers on educational outreach and other Title VI-supported programming.

Through its Norman Wait Harris fund, CIS sponsors supports a wide range of conferences, lectures, invited speakers, and other events on international topics aimed at both university and broader audiences. Sponsored events include the successful World Beyond the Headlines series, which is co-sponsored with the International House and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and features scholars and journalists speaking on critical contemporary global issues. CIS maintains an active program of public events and outreach, including an extensive program of K-12 teacher outreach. In recent years, the Center has utilized new technologies to increase the reach and impact of its programming through its online CHIASMOS multimedia content delivery site featuring podcasts and other audio and video feeds of public lectures and other events.