Welcome to the Department of Global & Sociocultural Studies! GSS provides a unique opportunity to integrate the disciplinary approaches of anthropology, geography, and sociology with cross-disciplinary theorizing and research.
Our BA, MA, and Ph.D. programs focus on four overlapping themes:
We study the challenges of local and global environmental change for communities and societies, as well as patterns and strategies of resilience in confronting those challenges.
We use the tools of interdisciplinary social science to study the social and environmental factors affecting the health of individuals, groups, and communities, with a critical focus on disparities and injustices in health outcomes.
Recognizing the increasing scale and significance of migration and refugee movements worldwide, we investigate the conditions and issues facing migratory, refugee, and diasporic populations at the local, societal and global levels.
From rural villages and rapidly expanding cities across the world, to the diverse urban and suburban landscapes of South Florida, we investigate a wide range of topics at the intersection of community and social change. with an eye towards how groups of people are working to make a fairer, better world.
Utilizing comparative, transnational, diasporic, and global perspectives, GSS pursues research on these themes through a variety of theoretical approaches and by utilizing qualitative, quantitative, and applied research methods. The program’s research and teaching themes reflect and resonate with FIU’s location in one of the world’s most dynamic regions: the greater metropolitan area of Miami—a hemispheric crossroads of sociocultural, political, economic, and environmental forces bridging the United States with the Caribbean and Latin America, the Atlantic region, and the world at large.
The program’s inclusion within the Green School of International and Public Affairs affords students a wealth of research and educational opportunities through FIU’s Global Indigenous Forum, the Latin American and Caribbean Center; the Program in African and African Diaspora Studies; the Institute for Asian Studies; the European Union Center; and the Center for Labor Research and Studies, among others. GSS also collaborates closely with its sister departments within the Green School, as well as with various departments in the College of Arts, Sciences and Education, the Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work, the College of Law, and the College of Business.
For further information about GSS’s programs, activities, and community, please click our web site’s links to the department’s Undergraduate Programs and Graduate Programs. In addition, we cordially invite you to inquire about us by contacting our department chair, program directors, and the presidents of our student associations.