Internationalizing the Undergraduate Curriculum in Political Science

Ad Hoc Committee on Internationalizing the Undergraduate Curriculum

  • Christine Ingebritsen (Chair), University of Washington
  • Mark Cassell, Kent State University
  • Steven Lamy, University of Southern California
  • David Mason, Butler University
  • Pamela Martin, Coastal Carolina University
  • Deborah Ward, Seton Hall University

In 2005, The American Council on Education (ACE) asked the American Political Science Association to join a project geared towards internationalization of the undergraduate curricula in American universities. APSA responded by requesting that the Teaching and Learning Committee and the ad hoc Committee on Internationalizing the Undergraduate Curriculum direct an initiative to increase cross-cultural awareness in the discipline and collect "best practices" for teaching sensitivity to the demands of the global context. 

The APSA Committees gathered best practices for internationalized curricula from administrators and faculty across subfields.  The committees' research suggests that the most effective practices are those that that emphasize learning outcomes, motivate students by means of active learning strategies, motivate faculty with incentive and award programs, and seek to build complex communities of students, administrations, faculty, government and the private sector.  Best practices build curricula, have institution and department-wide visions, and are responsive to the specific concerns of individual students and faculty.

Several other associations also responded to this transdisciplinary call, including the American Association of Geographers, the American Sociological Association, the American Historical Association, and the American Psychological Association.  

To Review APSA's Committee Report Click Here

Working Papers

As part of this initiative, several members of the committee and other scholars developed papers for a plenary presentation at the 2006 APSA Annual Meeting entitled "Internationalizing the Undergraduate Curriculum across the Discipline" in which they proposed specific strategies for internationalizing the curriculum in various fields in political science. The papers discussed in the plenary were collected into a symposium published in the January 2007 issue of PS: Political Science and Politics:

Founded in 1918, the American Council on Education (ACE) is the nation's unifying voice for higher education. ACE serves as a consensus leader on key higher education issues and seeks to influence public policy through advocacy, research, and program initiatives.

A Handbook for Advancing Comprehensive Internationalization: What Institutions Can Do and What Students Should Learn (2006)


APSA staff support provided by Michael Brintnall, Linda Lopez, and Isis Leslie. Direct inquiries to Michael Brintnall.