The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale, commonly known as the MacMillan Center, is a research and educational center for international affairs and

area studies Area studies (also known as regional studies) are interdisciplinary fields of research and scholarship pertaining to particular geographical, national/ federal, or cultural regions. The term exists primarily as a general description for what ...

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

Academics

As of 2021, the Macmillan Center currently offers degrees for both undergraduate and graduate levels.

Undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-le ...

degrees include African Studies, East Asian Studies, Latin American Studies, Modern Middle East Studies, Russian and East European Studies, and South Asian Studies. Graduate degrees offered at the center include African Studies, East Asian Studies, and European and Russian Studies. Similarly, it is possible for graduating students to partake in a joint-degree program, where they can receive a

master's A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

. and an equivalent professional degree from one of four partnered Yale professional schools, with those being the Law School, the School of Management, the School of Public Health, and the School of the Environment. It is also possible for those to pursue a graduate certificate of concentration through the Councils on African, European, Latin American and Iberian, or Middle East Studies in conjunction with graduate-degree programs at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences or the professional schools.

History

The MacMillan Center was created in the 1960s as the Concilium on International and Area Studies and later renamed in the 1980s as the Yale Center for International and Area Studies (YCIAS). In April 2006, YCIAS was renamed as The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale. As of 2021, the center is currently chaired by Dirk Bergemann, Douglass and Marion Campbell Professor of Economics at

Jackson Institute for Global Affairs

In April 2009, Yale announced it had received a $50 million gift to create the

Jackson Institute for Global Affairs The Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs (formerly the Yale University Jackson Institute for Global Affairs) is a professional school of Yale University that specializes in global affairs. Based in New Haven, Connecticut, the school's mission ...

as a part of the MacMillan Center. The institute opened during the 2010 fall semester and, as of 2021, offers an undergraduate major in Global Affairs, a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...

in Global Affairs, a one year

Master of Advanced Studies A Master of Advanced Studies or Master of Advanced Study (MAS, M.A.S., or MASt) is a postgraduate degree awarded in various countries. Master of Advanced Studies programs may be non-consecutive programs tailored for "specific groups of working pro ...

in Global Affairs for mid-career professionals, and a Multidisciplinary Academic Program (MAP) for Global Health Studies. The Jackson Institute began operating separately from the Macmillan Center in July 2015 and is planned to become a professional school by 2022.

Affiliated centers and institutes

Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition

The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition was founded in November 1998 by

David Brion Davis David Brion Davis (February 16, 1927 – April 14, 2019) was an American intellectual and cultural historian, and a leading authority on slavery and abolition in the Western world. He was a Sterling Professor of History at Yale University, ...

and funded by

Richard Gilder Richard Gilder Jr. (May 31, 1932 – May 12, 2020), was an American philanthropist and co-founder of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. He also headed the brokerage firm Gilder, Gagnon, Howe & Co., whose specialty is tradi ...

and Lewis Lehrman, founders of the

Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History was founded in New York City by businessmen-philanthropists Richard Gilder and Lewis E. Lehrman in 1994 to promote the study and interest in American history. The Institute serves teachers, studen ...

. Davis served as director till June 2004, when historian David. W. Blight, Sterling Professor of American History at Yale University, succeeded him as current director as of 2021. The center's mission is to promote the study of all aspects of

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

and its legacy, with focus on the chattel slave system and its destruction. The center seeks to foster an improved understanding of the role of slavery, slave resistance, and abolition in the

Western world The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania.

by promoting interaction and exchange between scholars, teachers, and public historians through publications, educational outreach, and other programs and events. In addition, the center offers postdoctoral and faculty fellowships and summer graduate research fellowships, and also sponsors the Frederick Douglass Book prize, an award for most outstanding non-fiction book in English on the subject of slavery, resistance, and/or abolition for the year it is given.

Center for Historical Enquiry & the Social Sciences

The Center for Historical Enquiry & the Social Sciences provides insight on the interplay between history and the present, focusing on large-scale social transformations and solutions to difficult social crises and problems. The center serves as a bridge between the humanities and social sciences in order to "better understand the world we live in."

Center for the Study of Globalization

Founded in 2001, the Center for the Study of Globalization concentrates on issues of global development, financial globalization, multilateral trade, and global public goods, with priority for issues relating to global coordination and cooperation on climate change mitigation and global peace and security.

Center for the Study of Representative Institutions

The Yale Center for the Study of Representative Institutions serves as an interdisciplinary pilot program with the intention of developing the study of the theory and practice of representative government in the Anglo-American tradition. It is supported by the Thomas W. Smith fund and the Jack Miller Center's Commercial Republic Initiative, sponsored by the

John Templeton Foundation The John Templeton Foundation (Templeton Foundation) is a philanthropic organization that reflects the ideas of its founder, John Templeton, who became wealthy via a career as a contrarian investor, and wanted to support progress in religious a ...

Notable alumni

The following alumni received either a B.A., M.A. or a Ph.D. in international relations. It is to note that the degree has been phased out and replaced by the master's degree in global affairs in 2013, which is also now provided by the Jackson Institute. *

Eric Alterman Eric Alterman (born January 14, 1960) is an American historian, journalist, author, media critic, blogger, and educator. He is a CUNY Distinguished Professor of English and Journalism at Brooklyn College and the author of eleven books. From 1 ...

(MA) – political

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...

ger, commentator on

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and politi ...

, Professor of English at Brooklyn College *

A. Doak Barnett Arthur Doak Barnett (8 October 1921, Shanghai – 17 March 1999 Washington, D.C.), known as A. Doak Barnett, was an American journalist, political scientist, and public figure who wrote about the domestic politics and the foreign relations of China ...

(MA '47) – scholar of

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

foreign relations, Professor at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and fellow at the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in e ...

Janet Beer Dame Janet Patricia Beer, (born 1 August 1956) is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpool. She took over from Howard Newby in February 2015, having previously been Vice-Chancellor at Oxford Brookes University and Pro-Vice Chancellor ...

(MA '95) – vice-chancellor of Oxford Brookes University * Kenneth Brown (MA '60) – former U.S. ambassador to Republic of Congo,

Cote d'Ivoire Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre i ...

, and

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

; President of the

Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST) is a United States non-profit organization established in 1986 by retired Foreign Service officers. It produces and shares oral histories by American diplomats and facilitates the publica ...

at the Foreign Service Institute *

Randy Charles Epping Randy Charles Epping is an American author based in Switzerland, perhaps best known for his ''A Beginner's Guide to the World Economy'', which has been translated into 14 languages, and the follow-up ''The 21st Century Economy-A Beginnger's Guide'' ...

(MA) – author a nd economist * James H. Fowler (MA '97) –

political scientist Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

specializing in social networks, cooperation, political participation, and genopolitics; coiner of the term Colbert Bump * Morton Halperin (PhD '67) – expert on foreign policy and civil liberties; served in the Johnson, Nixon, and Clinton administrations and then as Director of Policy Planning at the State Department * Peter Hart (historian), Peter Hart (MA) – Canadian historian specializing in Irish history * Heyward Isham (BA '47) – American diplomat, negotiator in 1973 Peace Accord with North Vietnam * Scott Kleeb (MA) – Democratic United States Senate election in Nebraska, 2008, candidate for U.S. Senate in Nebraska, 2008 * Michael Lind (MA '85) – writer, historian, and Policy Director of the Economic Growth Program at the New America Foundation * Barry Naughton (MA '79) – Sokwanlok Chair of Chinese International Affairs at the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego * Richard Nolte (MA '47) – American diplomat, Middle East expert * Matthew Parris (MA) – England, English journalist and former Conservative Party (UK), Conservative UK politics, politician * Thomas Palley (MA) – Post-Keynesian economist * Michael Rothschild (MA '65) – economist, William Stuart Tod Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs * Pedro Moreira Salles (MA) – Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors for Unibanco *Marcel Theroux (MA) – British novelist and broadcaster * J. Ann Tickner (MA '60) – feminist international relations theorist * Sergio Troncoso (MA '92) – short story author * William Wohlforth (MA '84) – Daniel Webster Professor of Government at Dartmouth College

References

External links

*
Councils, Institutes, and Centers of the Macmillan Center website