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Our Rationale for Founding the GSA
Championing a multi-disciplinary approach...The Global Studies Association (GSA) is a new and multi-disciplinary scholarly association.
This venture is supported by a group of scholars world-wide who wish to collaborate in order to better understand the vast transformations which are sweeping across our world.
Accordingly, the GSA was inaugurated and an executive committee was elected on July 6th, 2000 during an international conference organized by the Institute for Global Studies and the Department of Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University.
The North American branch of the GSA was established at our first international conference at Loyola University, Chicago in May of 2002. Membership includes academics and activists from Canada, the United States, Mexico and Central America.
Bringing together scholars from across the world...Scholars worldwide are already served by a number of successful and prestigious academic associations concerned with the study of international and world affairs.
However, GSA members believe that there is a need for a new association for the following reasons:
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Globalization processes are inherently multidimensional. Their study demands a central and unambiguous commitment to materials and investigations drawn from a number of disciplines along with an interest in a wide range of themes.
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Understanding globalization demands new insights. Existing associations have tried to accommodate people from other disciplines, but their members tend to remain fundamentally committed to the insights provided by particular disciplines that predate globalization.
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Thematic concerns are as valid a basis for intellectual activity as the big social science disciplines. Individuals with an interest in global issues, including scholars in ethics, art, history, communication studies, management and business, media studies and many more, can find a home in the GSA.
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By placing global theorizing and issues first, a new global studies association will be able to make a fresh beginning, unencumbered by dominant perspectives and academic loyalties, helping to create a new transnational network of scholars.
GSA members share the following aims:
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Without regard to nationality, the GSA will seek to advance the work of scholars and others who are interested in promoting the creation and dissemination of multi- and interdisciplinary knowledge in the social and human sciences concerning global affairs, problems and changes.
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To encourage world-wide exchanges between people working in all fields of research related to global studies, by organizing regular conferences, setting up thematic, national and regional study sub-groupings and operating in close association with Global Networks: A Journal of Transnational Affairs, published by Blackwell.
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Ultimately to facilitate the emergence of a worldwide federation of quasi-independent academic groupings held together by the GSA as an umbrella organization and by its shared concerns.