The John Sloan Dickey Center For International Understanding
Director: Victoria K. Holt
The John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding unites the many strengths of Dartmouth — its students, faculty, undergraduate and professional schools — in addressing the world’s challenges, ensuring that a rigorous understanding of the world is an essential part of the Dartmouth experience. The Center honors the commitment to international understanding and social responsibility exemplified by President John Sloan Dickey’s lifetime devotion to liberal arts education, scholarship and values.
The Dickey Center offers students opportunities to expand their knowledge of international issues, through international internships, research grants, and the opportunity to join student organizations and publications focused on foreign affairs. Students may choose to pursue the International Studies Minor (ISM) supported by the Dickey Center and/or further refine their international studies with courses and activities in global security and conflict (Initiative for Global Security), polar science, cultures, and climate change (Institute of Arctic Studies), and global health (the Global Health Initiative). A focus on global issues of gender and human development are cross-cutting throughout these activities.
Through symposia, conferences, public events, the Rosenwald Fellows program in US Foreign Policy and International Security, and extended visits by practitioners and scholars in the Dickey Visiting Fellows Program, the Center brings the vital issues of the day to campus. It enhances the intellectual life of the faculty through its support of faculty research and publications, and brings new opportunities to students through international studies.
The Center’s multidisciplinary approach to complex issues is exemplified by its research areas. The Institute of Arctic Studies promotes interdisciplinary scholarship in polar environmental science and engages the work of scientists, humanists, Indigenous communities, and policy makers. The Global Health Initiative, where students can work toward a Global Health Certificate, is a collaborative enterprise with Geisel School of Medicine that marshals the talents of the entire campus and international partners to address global health concerns. In its quest to understand the phenomenon of collective violence, the Initiative for Global Security, focusing on issues of global security, incorporates the study of both the global state system as well as the varieties of human conflict, drawing on a range of fields and disciplines. The Center also promotes the study of gender and human development across all these fields.
The Center benefits from the advice of a distinguished Board of Visitors. The offices of the Dickey Center are located on the first and third floors of the Haldeman Center.