The Global Affairs major prepares Yale undergraduates to solve today’s most pressing global challenges.
The Global Affairs major gives students multidisciplinary training to understand and address challenges that we confront as concerned citizens of the world. By their nature, these challenges demand fluency in the approaches and frameworks from multiple disciplines in the social sciences and humanities as well as an ability to translate between scholarship and practice.
It is a truly multidisciplinary program with courses in nearly all departments at Yale. Students are selected into the major by competitive admissions during the fall of their sophomore year.
The major requirements have been updated and will apply only to students accepted into the major during the fall of 2025 and after; students accepted into the major before fall 2025 must fulfill the requirements that were in place at the time of their acceptance. Students can see details of the traditional major requirements (for students accepted before fall 2025) and the updated major requirements (for students accepted during or after fall 2025) on the Courses page.
Advanced Global Affairs majors have options unique to the major; in addition to a senior thesis, students may also complete the Capstone Course, a unique policy project on behalf of an external partner, supervised by a faculty member. Students may also conduct independent research projects and have the opportunity to present their work to peers during the bi-weekly Student Academic Workshop Series. Research opportunities
Many Jackson undergraduates spend their summers abroad. The school provides fellowships for student projects including internships and independent research projects related to international affairs. Learn more
Hear from Alumni
Gaëlle Conille '18
“My time at Jackson was formative in so many ways. It shaped my interest in evidence-based policymaking — using rigorous economic analysis to evaluate and design social programs and policies. At the same time, the interdisciplinary nature of the program made me a more well-rounded thinker and development practitioner. Outside of economics and econometrics, I completed coursework in history, political science and ethnicity, race, and migration. I was able to think about how power and politics shape the development process and how to apply an intersectional lens to my work. In my career, I’ve found myself constantly drawing from this interdisciplinary toolbox, in both big and small ways.”
Mason Ji '16
“I often tell others that majoring in Global Affairs at Jackson was foundational to my career interests. I was a delegate to the United Nations when I was an undergraduate at Yale, where I negotiated nuclear disarmament, climate change, and human rights resolutions and treaties. I was there when the sustainable development goals were negotiated in 2015. But I was literally learning on the job; had it not been for the amazing professors and practitioners at Jackson, who guided me and taught me about diplomacy, I would not have succeeded in my role at the United Nations.
After graduating from Yale, I studied global governance and diplomacy and public policy at the University of Oxford, directly informed by my time at Jackson. I then went on to law school to study international law and now practice in the international law space. Jackson has played an important role in shaping my career interests in the international space.”