Frederick S. Pardee has given $25 million for a new school pursuing his dream of improving humanity’s condition. Photo by Fred Sway

This year, thanks to a generous gift from Frederick S. Pardee (SMG’54, GSM’54, Hon.’06), we laid the groundwork for the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, launched in September 2014 and reporting to CAS. The Pardee School is dedicated to advancing human progress and improving the human condition through rigorous and creative undergraduate, graduate, and professional education; path-breaking research; and active engagement in innovative initiatives that apply this education and knowledge to make a real-world difference in the critical challenges humanity faces.

The Pardee School builds on the substantial success CAS has had in creating strong global and international studies programs through the former Department of International Relations and our various area studies programs and centers. The new School brings these faculties and units together and serves as the center of gravity for BU’s global mission in research and education. The ultimate vision is creating peace that lasts, development that works, and knowledge that transforms.

Although the Pardee School will assume responsibility for this new approach, this is a good opportunity to look back and reflect on the successes of CAS in advancing the mission of global and international research and education and its continuing future in CAS, along with the Pardee School. All of CAS’s humanities and social science departments have taken strong responsibility for an academic focus on global and international studies, and so have the natural science programs focusing on ecology in Biology and environmental studies and earth systems in Earth & Environment. The backbone of these efforts can be seen in three directions:

  • Core disciplines (the core disciplines that focus on the global, international, and comparative): The former International Relations Department housed one of CAS’s largest majors and its very important portfolio of professional master’s degrees. But there are many other departments that provide the core scholars and teachers in global and international studies and will continue to do so in the future. These include the cultural and social anthropologists of the Department of Anthropology, as well as the many area and comparative scholars of the departments of History, History of Art & Architecture, Political Science, and the literature departments, among others.
  • Language/Culture Education and Research: Competence in at least one foreign language remains one of the core accomplishments CAS requires of all of its undergraduates, regardless of their major. Meanwhile, research and education in languages and literatures is one of the critical parts of the College. In an era in which some universities have dropped languages, in CAS in recent years we have developed a strong and focused approach to defining which language/culture areas we will pursue. For inclusion in our portfolio, we incorporate both language and culture study (not just language courses) and both teaching and research. Each language/culture area we include must also be tied to a broader interdisciplinary area focus and, if possible, an excellent study abroad option. We have emphasized the addition of critical and lesser-taught languages. With an assistant dean of language study to oversee our progress, in 2013/14 we launched a collaboration with Boston area schools that includes developing a proposal for online teaching of Korean and Zulu.
  • Area Studies: With the addition of the new program in Middle East & North Africa Studies (MENA), CAS developed seven area studies programs: African Studies Center (1953), a Title VI Program; American & New England Studies (1970); Latin American Studies (1991); Institute for the Study of Muslim Societies & Civilizations (2006); the Center for the Study of Asia (2008); the Center for the Study of Europe (2011); and now, the Middle East & North Africa Studies program (2013). These programs, except the American & New England Studies program, will now together form the Division of Regional Studies in the Pardee School, but the majority of the faculty associated with these programs will be based in CAS departments.

CAS looks forward to continuing to pursue its global and international academic mission through our academic programs, and associations with the Pardee School and with Study Abroad.

Annual Report 2013/2014

  • From the DeanFrom the Dean
    From recruiting ever-better faculty and students to surging ahead in our capital campaign, academic year 2013/2014 was a year of great accomplishments.
  • New Structures for Organizing Discovery and EducationImproving Undergraduate Education
    CAS once again attracted our most talented class of undergraduates ever. And we laid the groundwork to serve them even better, offering expanded academic opportunities and a comprehensive first-year experience program with over 500 first-year student participants.
  • Enhancing a World-Class FacultyStrengthening Graduate Education
    BU and the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences saw immediate, strong results from our new five-year PhD funding model that has increased the attractiveness of doctoral programs.
  • Strengthening the Quality of Undergraduate EducationEnhancing a World-Class Faculty
    The quality of a university depends on the quality of its faculty, and hiring the best and giving them a strong start is crucial. In 2013/14, CAS hired 17 new assistant professors and 3 senior professors across the humanities and social, natural, and computational sciences.
  • Strengthening the Quality of Graduate EducationConducting Path-Breaking Research
    As the academic heart of BU and its biggest school, CAS’s dynamism is helping propel BU’s recognition as one of the finest research universities in the country. New initiatives including the Center for Systems Neuroscience, BU Initiative on Cities, and Center for Autism Research Excellence are taking our research to new heights.
  • Strengthening Our Research and ScholarshipDeepening Our Global Mission
    This year, thanks to a generous gift from Frederick S. Pardee (SMG’54, GSM’54, Hon.’06), we laid the groundwork for the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, launched in September 2014 and reporting to CAS. The Pardee School builds on the substantial success CAS has had in creating strong global and international studies programs.
  • Finances and DevelopmentStewarding Our Resources
    Boston University is financially healthy, although it faces the challenges of a continuing weak economy and many other issues that require skilled and careful management in higher education today. CAS is fortunate to benefit from BU’s wise management and our own diligent stewardship of our resources.
  • The Class of 2012Nurturing Connections with Alumni and Friends
    Boston University and the College of Arts & Sciences have made significant steps in building a framework for alumni to engage with faculty, other alumni, and current students in ongoing learning, discussion, and inquiry. Over 6,000 of the alumni attending BU Alumni Association events around the world were CAS alumni (up 11% over the previous year).
  • AppendixGrowing Our Capacity: The Campaign for CAS
    BU is in the midst of our first-ever capital campaign, and CAS is well ahead in its progress toward our original goal of raising $100 million. More than 4,300 alumni and many other friends of CAS contributed during the past fiscal year. By the end of the 2014 fiscal year, CAS had received $83.2 million in gift funds through the campaign.
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