Global Studies is an interdisciplinary and emergent field of study that focuses on issues related to cultural and economic globalization, global power structures, and transnational activities. There is ongoing debate regarding how to best define Global Studies with the general consensus that Global Studies represents a interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary field of research and study that is dedicated to critical examination of the many dimensions of globalization and other transnational phenomena. Global Studies differs from International Relations and International Studies by taking a focus outside of the nation state as a natural unit of analysis. In doing so, the analytic unit of global studies often emphasizes transnationality with a focus on global processes rather than relations between and comparisons of nation states or national societies. The field thus revolves around the impacts of globalization and the growing interdependence of states, economies, societies, cultures, and peoples. As an interdisciplinary field, global studies draws upon fields such as but not limited to anthropology, ecology, geography, economics, political science, and sociology.
As such, Global Studies does not have a collection in the traditional sense but rather serves to strengthen the library’s overall ability to support research, teaching, and engagement activities related to global processes, transnational phenomena, the critical examination of globalization, and global governance as a process that involves actors at the state and non-state levels. The Global Studies Librarian works within the International and Area Studies Library and is embedded in the Center for Global Studies, a unit of the Illinois Global Institute. With a modest collection budget funded primarily through US Department of Education Title VI NRC funding, global studies collections enrich the collections of related library units and provide access to serials and other works specifically related to global studies.
