Community
 |
| MELA, the annual, campus- wide event celebrating the heritage, dance and culture of eight South Asian countries. |
Bringing people together is the hallmark of global Brandeis. The rhythms of the world’s music and languages echo across our campus in Waltham. And our sustained relationships with people and institutions abroad bring the Brandeis spirit of excellence and justice to every corner of the world.
Brandeis University has welcomed students and scholars from around the world since classes were first taught on its campus. Today, close to 1,000 international students and scholars study, research and teach at Brandeis. In addition, the campus each year hosts dozens of scholars, artists and leaders from around the world for one-time lectures, extended residencies and visiting faculty appointments.
Undergraduate and graduate students band together to bring global Brandeis to life through the promotion of cultures, working for social justice, and political engagement.
Brandeis faculty, staff and students work collaboratively with people and institutions overseas to produce and disseminate knowledge and use that knowledge to advance social change. What makes Brandeis global is the understanding that every community is just a microcosm of the global community.
OPPORTUNITY
 |
| For Eliana Dotan ’09, the key to immersion in Ugandan life while studying abroad was learning cultural cues. |
A 21st-century education means not just the study of places, languages and cultures. It means a renewed look at the self in a diverse society. And it means the opportunity to pursue that introspection in the quiet corners of a library or the far corners of the earth.
At Brandeis, you’ll find students and faculty engaged in these explorations everywhere committed women and men are changing the world, whether they are repairing a solar-energy cell on the edge of the Kenyan rain forest, engaging in dialogue with policymakers from Israel and the Arab world at a retreat in Cypress, or joining fellow international students in a community housing project in Waltham.
Brandeis offers more than 250 choices to combine intense academic study with experience, and to match each sojourn with personal reflection. Study-abroad programs, funded internships and research fellowships are all options students can pursue. On campus, student organizations and experiential learning offer chances to tackle issues ranging from eradicating poverty to navigating new cultures.
Brandeis' new Justice Brandeis Semester also offers students the chance to participate in inquiry-based courses linked to real-world experiential opportunities such as internships, field-based research, creative work or community-engaged learning.
JUSTICE
 |
| Liana Langdon-Embry '11 created her own internship with a Venezuela-based NGO, and spent her summer bringing education directly to street children. |
Action built on knowledge and experience is the Brandeis ideal. Rigorous analysis in the classroom, combined with humility gained from experience, mean that Brandeis students, faculty and alumni can help bring about change, from the remotest village in the developing world to the centers of power in London, Washington and Beijing. For members of the Brandeis community, the pursuit of solutions to the world’s most pressing problems is a lifelong habit. The Brandeis way is idealism challenged and deepened by close and respectful consideration of facts, motives and the opinions of others.
Global studies at Brandeis reflects and intensifies the university’s commitment to social justice at home and in the world. Students learn to address issues of poverty, health, the environment and human rights, one person and one community at a time. Yet they also learn to place this concern for individual human life and dignity in the context of history, culture and the analysis of the largest social and political currents.