Program Director: Nathan Badenoch, Ph.D.
Office Location: Gary Hall 34A
Telephone: (610) 519-6996
Website
About
Asia is a dynamic world region and its cultures and societies are a complex mix of both ancient traditions and modern ideas. Asia has the fastest growing economy in the world and is the birthplace of many of our new technologies. Asia is rapidly changing, democratizing, and internationalizing in ways that present both perils and possibilities for people across the globe.
In the Villanova Asian Studies Program, we offer a Major in Asian Studies as Global Interdisciplinary Studies specialization as a way for undergraduates to learn to examine the world — and themselves — through the lens of another language and culture.
The Asian Studies program offers a major and minor within the Department of Global Interdisciplinary Studies (GIS) that helps students understand the diverse histories, politics, economies, cultures, religions, arts and literatures of Asia. The program encourages in-depth study while also promoting more general inquiry into fundamental issues, such as cultural differences among Asian nations and their social and political implications, as well as learning critical thinking and problem solving to prepare students to be responsible global citizens. The program offers them not only specialized knowledge and appreciation of a region that has had, and will undoubtedly continue to have, a profound impact on the material and spiritual well-being of humanity, but also prepares them to play their own roles in a globalized world in the “Asian Century.”