The Globalization Program is the core academic offering of Venice International University. Courses are designed around themes that are globally significant and locally relevant to Venice, its lagoon, and hinterland.
Multicultural, International & Interdisciplinary
Today’s interconnected world needs flexible minds capable of crossing disciplines, approaching challenges with creativity and critical thought, and balancing humanistic, environmental, cultural and economic perspectives.
The Globalization Program unites talented students and faculty from member universities in a truly multicultural and interdisciplinary environment. Together they engage in collaborative learning that fosters intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, and innovative approaches to global issues.
Learning Experience
Courses are taught by faculty from the member institutions and attended by students representing diverse cultural and academic backgrounds. This exchange of perspectives creates an enriching educational setting that encourages dialogue, collegiality, and new forms of collaboration.
Students may participate for a semester, a full academic year, or a summer session, earning credits toward bachelor’s or master’s degrees. Exposure to different teaching methods and learning styles challenges assumptions, strengthens adaptability, and deepens analytical skills.
Through peer-to-peer engagement, students develop intercultural competence, learning to communicate across languages and cultures while embracing diversity with openness and curiosity. Studying at VIU is a transformative experience that prepares graduates to become thoughtful, globally minded leaders.
Semester or Academic Year
Courses on the three core topics are offered every semester, with six specialization tracks available on a rotating basis.
Summer Session
The summer sessions of the Globalization Program place particular emphasis on engaging students and scholars in the sciences.
CORE TOPICS
Italy
courses that critically analyze Venetian and Italian life, culture, art, and history
- History of Venice
- Italian Contemporary History in Films
- Art and Architecture in Renaissance Venice
Cultures of the World
courses that examine the cultures of the world; courses that make the most of the intercultural classroom
- Intercultural Communication
- Gender Studies
- Comparing East and West
Global Challenges
courses that address current, global issues, preferably from an interdisciplinary perspective
- Identity, Heritage and Globalization
- Globalization, Ethics, Welfare and Human Rights
- Global Governance for Peace and Security, Cooperation and Development
SPECIALIZATION TRACKS 1st semester
3-6 courses will be available in each track and will vary each semester.
Economics, Management and Digital Technologies applied to Cultural Heritage
The aim of this specialization track is to introduce students to concepts such as Natural and Cultural Heritage, both tangible and intangible; to the challenges posed by their management, preservation and development, in relation to development policies and/or citizenship issues. 3-5 courses are typically offered in this track.
Science and Society
The aim is to explore critically the role and impact of science, technology and innovation within society, and conversely how society, politics and culture affect scientific research and innovation. Courses may examine Science as a profession and the role of scientists as stakeholders within society, or may scrutinize the ethics of science, and explore the many relevant societal issues including science and education, science communication and civic engagement; the economics, sociology and anthropology of science; representation of science in literature and the arts; citizen science and open science; responsible research and innovation.
History and Memory
This specialization track is intended to offer opportunities to develop an up-to-date understanding of history, historical research and consciousness, Collective and individual memory and forgetting, with their ethical and political implications, in their micro and macro dimensions.
SPECIALIZATION TRACKS 2nd Semester
3-6 courses will be available in each track and will vary each semester.
Environmental Management and Sustainable Development
The aim of this specialization track is to develop awareness of Sustainability concepts and issues, applied to the Environment and the Economy, learning about sustainable practices and management, adopting ethical and cultural approaches. Courses may provide tools of analysis of Environmental changes and of impact valuation (including digital tools), knowledge about policies, law and governance; climate change; sustainable energy; food and water security; corporate social responsibility and industrial ecology; the role of lead firms in fostering environmental innovation; justice and development.
Cities and Global Change
This specialization track focuses on the cities as places where human activities are concentrated, as the chief causes of, and solutions to, anthropogenic global change, providing students with a critical view on the nature of cities and social, economic, political, cultural global change, their interrelation, the way in which cities address problems and opportunities emerging from such change (climate change, transport and mobility, democracy and participation, education, multiculturalism, migration and population trends, tourism, land use, urban poverty) and the tools available for governance of change.
Environmental Humanities
This track aims to capture existing conjunctions across environmental philosophy, environmental history, ecocriticism, cultural geography, cultural anthropology, and political ecology, while also seeking to integrate debates thus far largely shaped by different disciplinary contexts. Environmental Humanities can help to organize humanistic research, to open up new forms of interdisciplinarity, both within the humanities and in collaboration with the
social and natural sciences, and to shape public debate and policies on environmental issues.
