The depth and breadth of our international affairs programs, projects and research in Asia and Oceania is outstanding. From Engineers Without Borders to HIV research studies to dental health clinics in India, Tufts is engaged in projects designed to enrich your educational experience as well as benefit those associated with them.
On campus, both academic and cultural activities enrich our understanding of the region. The Center for South Asian and Indian Ocean Studies in the Department of History promotes interdisciplinary approaches to the study of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives and the Asian American Center at Tufts coordinates interdisciplinary educational and cultural programs focusing on Asians and Southeast Asians in the U.S. and the Diaspora. For students wishing to study in China, we offer the Consortium of China Cooperative Language and Study Programs in Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai and Taipei. Tufts is also a member of the Chinese Studies Cooperative Program administered by University of Massachusetts at Amherst with year-long programs in Xian and Taichung.
Regional Programs
Anthropology
Anthropology at Tufts provides students not only with a strong background in critical thinking, analysis, and writing, but also with first-hand experience through original field research. The combination of intellectual community, disciplinary breadth, global and local understanding, hands-on research and public engagement makes anthropology a strong liberal arts major and an excellent preparation for both graduate school and a wide range of careers.
Art and Art History
The wide range of courses offered by the department is designed to familiarize students with important artists, traditions and themes in world art and visual culture. Some courses focus on individual achievements, great artists and schools, while others explore significant periods, such as the Renaissance or the 1960s, or themes that cross time and cultures, such as the treatment of nature or the fear and destruction of images (inconoclasm and iconophobia). Artistic style and culture from a number of regions are explored, with course offerings such as Japanese Architecture, Contemporary Art in Africa, and Latin American Cinema.
Asian American Center
The Asian American Center, founded in 1983, is a resource for the university and the Asian American/Asian communities at Tufts. The Center fosters a supportive environment for the academic and personal development of students by offering educational and cultural programs. The Center recognizes the distinct East Asian, Southeast Asian, and South Asian cultures and identities present in the Tufts community and strives to create a successful college experience for people in these communities.
Asian Community at Tufts
The goal of Asian Community at Tufts (ACT) is to unify the Asian groups on campus by raising political awareness about Asian/Asian-American issues. To this end, ACT provides various political, educational, and social events that serve to educate and unite the Tufts community.
Asian Studies
The Asian Studies major provides students with a strong foundation in an Asian language and expertise drawn from a variety of disciplines. Tufts students who have majored in Asian Studies have pursued careers in international organization, government, business, and teaching.
Borghesani Memorial Prize
This prize is awarded to second-semester sophomores and juniors who undertake a research project, internship, volunteer activity, or plan of study in any field involving international issues. The prize encourages personal growth and independence, while increasing one's understanding of all peoples and encouraging a commitment to the world community. Past recipients of the prize have traveled abroad in order to study, conduct research, participate in international internships, and become involved in social change movements.
Center for International Environmental and Resource Policy (CIERP)
Established in 1990 to support the growing demand for international environmental leaders, the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy's mission is to educate students to become policy and decision-makers who will keep environmental concerns at the forefront of the national agenda. Through the Center, students develop the skills necessary to formulate effective environmental strategies and solutions.
Center for South Asian and Indian Ocean Studies
Established in 1989, The Center for South Asian and Indian Ocean Studies has since served as New England's focal point for scholarship on the South Asian subcontinent and the Indian Ocean rim. With an emphasis on history, culture, literature, religion, politics, economics and diplomacy, it is committed to promoting interdisciplinary approaches to the study of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives, which together make up the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.
Chinese Students Association
The Chinese Students Association (CSA) brings Chinese culture to Tufts through cultural festivals and other activities relating to Chinese culture. Typically, the association holds annual Chinese New Year celebrations and introduces various types of Chinese food and games to the Tufts community. The CSA also publishes the newsletter Resonance, which discusses current issues and events in the local Chinese community and in Asia. The goal of the CSA is to convey to all Tufts students the significance of being Chinese.
Comparative Religion
The Department of Comparative Religion investigates the various expressions of religion encountered in human experience around the world. Students study the field of religion in both its functional and theoretical aspects. Courses explore the Western religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as well as the Eastern religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and others. Courses are designed to give a broad cultural appreciation of religion in accordance with the principles of a liberal arts education.
Drama and Dance
The Department of Drama and Dance provides a liberal arts approach to the creative, historical, and aesthetic dimensions of the theater arts. It fosters critical thinking and challenges the imagination in the study and performance of theater arts. Drama and dance have forever been powerful forces in the world, an imaginative mirror through which we can better understand psychology, politics, religion, and gender. The Drama and Dance department offers many study abroad opportunities, such as the British American Dramatic Academy, the London College of Fashion Design, and Tufts-in-Madrid, a strong theater program for students fluent in Spanish.
Economics
The mission of the department is to teach students to be critical thinkers and to use the discipline of economics to analyze important economic, political and social issues, ranging from international economic relations, development, growth, and income inequality, to education, housing and competition policy. Department courses, with continuing interaction with other scholars at Tufts and elsewhere, help mold future community leaders. Classes, collaborations, faculty research, and other study opportunities are available for students in the area of international economics.
EPIIC
The Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) program is a carefully integrated multidisciplinary program which, through its innovative and rigorous curricula and projects, prepares undergraduates to lead their communities -- local, national and global. Each year, EPIIC explores one broad global dilemma and provokes students to explore its complexity. High intellectual engagement, passion, and genuine objectivity have been the standard of EPIIC: the cornerstone of Tufts University's international relations education for the 21st century.
EXPOSURE
EXPOSURE is the Institute for Global Leadership's photojournalism, documentary studies and human rights program, dedicated to mentoring and developing young, knowledgeable photojournalists and documentary filmmakers. EXPOSURE's instructors include preeminent photographers from VII Photo Agency and other distinguished journalists who help run the program's hands-on workshops in Kosovo, Argentina and Philadelphia. These workshops are designed to examine the media's role in exposing the public to important social and international issues.
Filipino Cultural Society
The purpose of the Filipino Cultural Club is to promote awareness of Filipino issues and culture, to create a network of Filipinos on the Tufts campus, to open the lines of communication with Filipino clubs at other schools and, finally, to support Tufts in promoting diversity.
German, Russian and Asian Languages and Literature
The department offers graduate and undergraduate courses in German, Russian, Japanese and Chinese, as well as Hebrew and Arabic language classes. Courses in literature and programs in Judaic Studies, Asian Studies, and Eastern European Studies are also offered.
Global Health Framework Interdisciplinary MPH
This three-year program funded by the National Institutes of Health links all the Tufts graduate schools around the topic of Global Health. The program, which was first held in September of 2006, promotes interdisciplinary education and research at Tufts through a series of workshops. It is designed to integrate Tufts courses with those of institutions in East Africa, and soon in South Africa, India, and other sites, using the curriculum co-development model.
Global Health Interest Group
The premise behind this Tufts University School of Medicine student organization is that students who have a positive experience abroad early in their training are likely to be more sensitive to issues of international health and to engage in such work in the future. The Global Health Interest Group strives to provide a monthly international health series seminar, help students engage in international work after their first year, establish an international summer selective program for first-year students, and encourage students to spend a fourth year rotation abroad.
Global Health Internship at Father Muller Medical College
Father Muller Medical College and the Public Health & Family Medicine Department at TUSM offer Tufts medical and public health students two-month summer fellowships in Mangalore, India. Each summer since 2005, six Tufts students have participated in a rich didactic and clinical program taught by Father Muller faculty. In addition, students visit local hospitals, community health centers, homeopathy clinics and other medical facilities including uniquely Indian health settings such as ashrams and ayurvedic medicine centers.
Innovative Curricula in Water & International Research
The Innovative Curricula in Water & International Research is a five-year NIH-funded "Roadmap" program. Its goal is twofold: to develop and implement a health and water curriculum in the new Tufts University Water: Systems, Science, and Society interdisciplinary program, and to create novel interdisciplinary Internet-based curricula linking Tufts University with East African public health educators, researchers, and institutions.
Institute for Global Leadership
The mission of the Institute for Global Leadership (IGL) is to prepare new generations of critical thinkers for effective and ethical leadership, ready to act as global citizens in addressing international and national issues across cultures. The Institute emphasizes rigorous academic preparation and experiential learning. Students learn through intensive engagement in classes, global research, internships, workshops, simulations and international symposia -- all involving national and international leaders from the public and private sectors.
International Food & Nutrition Center
Established in 1993 by nutrition professor Marian Zeitlin, the International Food and Nutrition Center has been under the leadership of Professor F. James Levinson since 1995. The Center focuses on addressing malnutrition in women and children, encouraging existing strengths in communities, and investigating the effects of agriculture policies and programs on food consumption and nutrition.
International Marine Shrimp Environmental Genomics Initiative (IMSEGI): Monitoring Ecosystems, Animal and Public Health
This initiative at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine conducts research designed to monitor the structure of the meta-population of wild penaeid shrimp species, the levels of genetic diversity and differentiation of selected species, and the presence of pollutants such as pathogens, heavy metals, pesticides and antibiotics in penaeid shrimp populations along their natural range in Asia and Latin America.
International Nutrition and HIV Project in Hanoi, Buenos Aires, and Chennai
The Tufts University School of Medicine has established an HIV-related project in Argentina that studies the nutritional and metabolic status of intravenous cocaine users, as well as their co-infection status (i.e., hepatitis B, hepatitis C). This project is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Another project that examines the risk of HIV in non-injecting cocaine users is also submitted.
Japanese Culture Club
The purpose of the Japanese Culture Club is to educate the Tufts community on cultural, political and economic issues about Japan. This is done through organized events and social gatherings that incorporate Japanese food, ceremonies, games, films, and much more. Past efforts have also included a dance to raise awareness and money for victims of the Kobe Japan earthquake.
Korean Students Association
The Korean Students Association was formed with the intent to enhance the awareness of the distinct culture and history of Korea. It also seeks to promote unity among Tufts University's Korean students. It achieves these goals by sponsoring a number of dances, culture nights, and sporting events throughout the year.
Music
The Tufts Department of Music is committed to a vision of musical studies that recognizes the increasing globalization of music. In all of its activities -- graduate and undergraduate curricula in western music, world music, and composition; performing ensembles and its new community music programs -- the department seeks to create an environment in which the vast diversity of musical cultures in the United States and around the world is appreciated and valued.
Office of Programs Abroad
Tufts University has been offering foreign study programs to undergraduates for four decades, and at present runs its own programs for juniors and seniors to study in Chile, China, Ghana, Hong Kong, Japan, London, Madrid, Oxford, Paris, and Tübingen. Students may also choose from hundreds of approved programs run by non-Tufts providers.
Pan-Asian Council
The Pan-Asian Council (PAC), a group of representatives from all the recognized Asian student organizations on campus, promotes unity by supporting collaboration among the organizations and increasing awareness of the organizations in the Tufts community. PAC facilitates weekly meetings in which club representatives share information about their club's events and other campus programs, and discuss co-sponsored activities. Last year, PAC sponsored the Asian American Month Kick-off Rally, the Pan-Asian Fashion Show, Games Night, and the Pan-Asian Volleyball Tournament.
Pharmacology, interactions between HIV and TB Medications
Led by program investigators Christine Wanke, MD, and David Greenblatt, MD, the program trains individuals in pharamacologic techniques to look at interaction of antiretrovirals with TB therapy. It relies on collaborations with the ICMR TB research institute in Chennai, India.
Probiotics in Growth Faltering in Pakistan
This National Institutes of Health grant to Dr. Christine Wanke supports a collaborative research project examining the feasibility and efficacy of a probiotic intervention to prevent growth faltering in a birth cohort in Karachi, Pakistan. Malnutrition is associated with more than half of the 10 million deaths per year in children under the age of five in the developing world. In areas where breast-feeding is supplemented by additional foods, there is an increased risk of exposure to contaminants that cause diarrheal disease. Many communities in the developing world lack the resources for controlling such illnesses. The project studies the feasibility of using probiotic Lactobacillus GG (LGG) to break the cycle of malnutrition and diarrheal disease in these areas.
Singapore Students Association
The Tufts Singaporean Students Association (SSA) was established with the goal of promoting the unique Singaporean culture on and around the Tufts Campus. Each year SSA sponsors several events at Tufts, including informational meetings, food gatherings, movie nights, and their biggest annual celebration, Kopitiam. SSA has also been an active participant in the Tufts Tsunami Relief Fund, established to raise funds following the disaster in Southeast Asia.
Taiwanese Association of Students at Tufts
The Taiwanese Association of Students at Tufts (TAST) is dedicated to bringing together students interested in the history and culture of the region as well as the experiences of Taiwanese people living at home and abroad. TAST's activities include lantern-painting nights, movie nights, Taiwan Week, Nightmarket, and much more.
Thai Club
The Thai Club seeks to represent the Thai population at Tufts and to promote Thailand's culture throughout the entire student body. The club puts on events each year such as film screenings, field trips, and its annual Thai Night, which recreates the atmosphere of a marketplace and provides authentic Thai food.
Thermo-stable Measles Vaccine Research
In Sub-Saharan Africa, where measles is one of the top killers of children, vaccines are often rendered useless by lack of refrigeration. Led by Dr. Jeffrey Griffiths, an interdisciplinary team from the Famine Center, the School of Veterinary Medicine and the School of Medicine seeks to reverse that trend by developing a heat-resistant measles vaccine.
Tufts Association of South Asians
The Tufts Association of South Asians (TASA) is open to all members of the Tufts community. TASA hopes to educate the Tufts community about South Asia and explore the heritage and experiences of its members. Not only is South Asian culture explored and celebrated, such as the ethnic dancing featured in TASA's annual culture show, but political events are discussed and debated as well.
Tufts-in-China
The Tufts-in-China program offers undergraduates (usually juniors) with at least four semesters of Chinese classes the chance to spend the fall semester in Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China, one of the top universities in China. There is a saying in Chinese: "In heaven there is paradise; on earth there are Suzhou and Hangzhou." The combination of the city of Hangzhou and the renowned Zhejiang University makes Tufts in China a unique program for students of Chinese language and culture.
Tufts-in-Hong Kong
The Tufts-in-Hong Kong program is affiliated with the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and offered to undergraduates (usually juniors) in the spring semester. HKU evolved from the former Hong Kong College of Medicine, founded in 1887. No language experience is needed to apply.
Tufts-in-Japan
Tufts-in-Japan offers undergraduates (usually juniors) with at least two semesters of Japanese classes the chance to spend the spring semester or a full academic year in Kanazawa, one of the most beautiful cities in Japan. Located on the Japan Sea (facing Korea and China), Kanazawa is an ancient castle town that was the administrative center of the Kaga Domain, the largest and most affluent in the entire country, during the Tokugawa Period (1600-1868). Students take classes at the newly rebuilt Kanazawa University, one of the leading national universities. By night, students are able to enjoy Korinbo's colorful nightlife.
Tufts in the World
The provost and the International Board of Overseers collaborate on this program that enables Tufts to cultivate important relationships within nations of strategic importance. Since 2004, delegations of administrators, faculty and International Overseers have made trips to Mexico, India and China to explore academic partnerships at the student and faculty level, and to strengthen Tufts University's commitment to an international perspective.
Tufts in the World - India
The provost and the International Board of Overseers collaborate on this program that enables Tufts to cultivate important relationships within nations of strategic importance. Since 2004, delegations of administrators, faculty and International Overseers have made trips to Mexico, India and China to explore academic partnerships at the student and faculty level, and to strengthen Tufts University's commitment to an international perspective.
Water: Systems, Science, and Society
Water: Systems, Science, and Society (WSSS) is an integrated, multi-disciplinary approach to managing and understanding the complexity of water issues worldwide. Students who elect to enroll in the program to complement their graduate studies in a related field emerge with both their degree and a WSSS certificate. Students in the WSSS program conduct research and plan projects related to global water issues, take courses and seminars, and undertake a field internship, learning on-site skills from professionals.
