Global Curriculum

Drake offers a variety of academic majors, minors, and concentrations related to international topics.

These programs provide a curriculum that prepares students for a breadth of careers while deeply instilling the value of responsible global citizenship. And in a world where more than 95 percent of the world’s consumers live outside the United States, intercultural competence and global knowledge are more important than ever.

International Business Major

The International Business program includes undergraduate, graduate and executive students who seek specialized training in the operations of international enterprises, international banks, and government agencies.  The curriculum emphasizes the fundamentals of global business but also ensures that students leave Drake with a solid knowledge of world culture, history, and society that is crucial to commercial success today. 

International Relations Major

Offered through the College of Arts and Sciences, the International Relations program is designed to prepare students to take part in the global community and enter a career in international affairs. With emphases on political, economic, and security affairs, the curriculum offers students an opportunity to explore both the sources of international conflict and the necessary conditions for enhanced peace and cooperation among nations. 

Anthropology/Sociology

The major in Anthropology and Sociology (ANSO) offers an international perspective on self and society. These fields—concerned as they are with meaning, difference, and power—cultivate reflexive, interpretive, and empathetic forms of cultural analysis. Drawing together biography, history, and ethnography, the major encourages students to critically reflect on the cultural and social diversity of human experience and to seriously engage social problems. Students who choose ANSO will benefit from the related yet distinct foci of the disciplines so as to better facilitate their understanding of a 21st-century world that is internationally and multi-culturally linked.

World Languages and Cultures

Drake’s Department of World Languages and Cultures offers programs in several languages, emphasizing not only language learning, but also a deeper understanding of the culture linked to that language. Options include a Spanish minor or a Certificate of Competence in Arabic, Chinese, French, Japanese, and German. Courses in American Sign Language are also available.

Concentration in Global and Comparative Public Health

A concentration in Global and Comparative Public Health prepares students to be active participants in improving the health of their own and other communities worldwide. Students will gain an understanding of the determinants of public health, the available options to improve the wellbeing for various populations, and the evidence demonstrating the efficacy of such options.

Human Rights Studies Minor

The Human Rights Studies minor at Drake University emerges out of a vision of human rights focused on everyday life. Consistent with perspectives calling for the localization of global initiatives, the Human Rights Studies minor emphasizes the role that individual citizens and civil society can play in transforming institutions and advancing global human rights in domestic political and professional spaces where they live, study, and work. By encouraging deep engagement with diverse perspectives on questions related to human rights, Drake's Human Rights Studies minor is designed to deepen students’ comprehension of various dimensions of difference and will contribute to their development of global and intercultural understanding.