“Rather than simply offering parallel courses from each school, the IBLC program ensures courses in language and culture and international business work together to emphasize the centrality of cultural and linguistic competency to the business sector, as well as the ways that language study can effect change and innovation in the world,” said Deans Rosario Ceballo and Paul Almeida in a joint statement. “Students will explore vital global topics including inequality, labor and human dignity, and issues related to technology, ethics, and the environment.” 

The şŁ˝ÇÂŰ̳’s Faculty of Language and Linguistics, which comprises a slew of language and cultural programs, is essential to the school’s interdisciplinary, intercultural approach to education. Playing to these strengths, the program combines the resources of these global programs with the pragmatic, business-forward approach of the McDonough School of Business. 

Students who pursue the IBLC degree will be advised by their respective schools, while the overarching program is managed by a collaborative committee with members from both schools. They will graduate with a deep expertise in the business and culture of a specific region of the world.

“We are excited that the IBLC degree will build upon the numerous long-standing collaborations between our two schools, while at the same time enhance Georgetown University’s distinctiveness and growing portfolio of interdisciplinary programs including the B.S. in Business and Global Affairs and the şŁ˝ÇÂŰ̳’s numerous interdisciplinary majors and minors,” said Ceballo and Almeida. “We look forward to formally launching this program and providing our students with a uniquely Georgetown experience that will equip them for personal success and impactful careers.”

The program promises to embody Georgetown’s commitment to cura personalis, or care of the whole person, by educating students fully, through an interdisciplinary, holistic approach. 

Formally approved by the Georgetown Board of Directors in April, Hoyas can now pursue the IBLC degree. 

Adapting to Change

As the university moved to a virtual learning environment to halt the spread of COVID-19, students were asked to return to their permanent residences, including those 300 students who were studying abroad. 

Amid the rush to return home from locations all over the world, several Georgetown students found that the courses they were enrolled in abroad were canceled or greatly amended by their host institutions. This could have caused them to lose all of the credit they would normally have earned for that semester.

Vice Dean of Georgetown şŁ˝ÇÂŰĚł and Vice Provost for Education chose to combat this by creating the 

Students self-registered for this amended semester, selecting their classes from a list of 15 courses after consulting with their dean. Some of these classes fulfilled core requirements, while others were more specialized. COVID-19: Theory and Action in a Time of Pandemic (GUGC-0321) however, was an entirely new course created just for these students.

About the Course

professor, director of the Regents Science Scholars Program, created the new course.

“In our planning, we conceived of a team-taught, interdisciplinary course that would speak to this moment by focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic through multiple perspectives,” says Lorenson. “Professor Elmendorf pulled together an all-star cast of faculty from a myriad of disciplines and designed a spectacular curriculum for our students.”

Elmendorf assembled 18 different faculty members from nine different areas of study to take turns teaching the students individually or in pairs through modules that cover a variety of different subjects related to COVID-19. 

The modules cover topics such as the science of the virus and our responses to it, public health strategies, the lessons of history, the role of government, cultural perceptions and behaviors of people that produce risk and transmission. The course also looks at the political consequences of delaying action or ignoring public health.

Lemonade From Lemons

Georgetown şŁ˝ÇÂŰĚł Assistant Dean Mike Parker, who leads one of the modules on immunology, said he hopes the course will be “a synthesis of technical knowledge development, acquisition of multi-disciplinary perspective toward international crises, and self-reflection toward coming to terms with ongoing personal and collective pandemic predicaments.”

“Our new course, COVID-19: Theory and Action in a Time of Pandemic, is a prime example of making lemonade from the lemons our students have been given,” Parker says. “Giving these students the knowledge of how pandemics start, how we can resolve the issues that arise during pandemics and what we can do to prevent the next pandemic, should not only help them frame their current experiences within a broader worldview but also empower them to meet these challenges head-on in the future.”

There are currently 12 students enrolled in the course, which takes place every week through virtual Zoom meetings. The students have met with several of the professors in the few weeks since the start of the course and say they can already see the positive impact that it has had.

“I feel like I am being an informed citizen and also learning about something pertinent,” says Ryley Zapien (C’21) who just returned from studying abroad in Australia. “If this happens again, I feel like I could help based off the knowledge I have acquired in this course. I am grateful to Georgetown for giving us these wonderful online classes that have made it is easy to transition in such a chaotic time.”