The Doyle Engaging Difference Program - Georgetown University

Why study abroad? There are many cliché reasons: to broaden your perspective, to experience a new culture, to step out of your comfort zone, to gain a global point of view. As Georgetown students, we hone our capacity to be members of a global community. Even Socrates wrote, “I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.” So what better way to become a citizen of the world than by studying abroad?

But I would consider these ideals somewhat vague, and perhaps idealistic. How do I know if I’ve gained a global point of view? What does it mean to be a citizen of the world, anyway?

By studying in Belgrade, Serbia for three and a half months, I believe I got a little bit closer to some answers, but not in any way I would have expected.

I took my courses in Belgrade with the United States-based School for International Training (SIT), which selected local professors, class topics, and course requirements for my program. As a result, the professors were sympathetic to Western academia, values, and political orientations. Moreover, the course topics and structure echoed what I am used to at Georgetown. I cannot say the classes and their content—though taking place almost 5,000 miles away from Washington, D.C.—exposed me to a completely new perspective or forced me to step too far out of my comfort zone.

My real learning came from living with a host family. I lived with a single mom who shared with me her cozy apartment in the city center. Books framed the small entrance to her home, which encompassed a bathroom, modest kitchen/dining area, and two bedrooms, one for each of us.

My first night in Belgrade, my host mom and I walked around the neighborhood and the nearby Belgrade Fortress as we got to know each other. We talked about her life in Belgrade, my family back home, and what we do for fun, but easily veered into Serbian politics and international affairs. By this point, I already had taken a week of classes, but had not yet heard the kind of perspective my host mom shared. 

She told me about her virulent dislike for the anti-democratic practices of Serbia’s ruling party, but not necessarily its policies. She explained how she had been protesting on the streets of Belgrade since her young adult years—for government reform, for climate justice, and more. She justified Serbian sovereignty over Kosovo as necessary for the administration of the region. She discussed the war in Ukraine, framing Russia’s aggression as a response to NATO encroachment. She expressed frustration with United States involvement in global conflicts. And she repeated again and again her base world view: that political crookedness stems from monetary greed. 

Her thought-provoking perspectives, her willingness to share…I felt pleasantly refreshed, and honestly at a loss for words as I struggled to connect her viewpoints to what was already familiar inside my United States-centric brain. It was challenging. In this moment, I understood palpably what it means to gain a global perspective. It is to gain a perspective so different from your own, that you didn’t even know it existed. It is not to give up your own point of view in favor of someone else’s, but rather to embrace difference and grapple with it in good faith. To revel in the novelty of new perspectives, and to be curious about their origins and implications.

Throughout the semester, I found myself becoming a citizen of the world precisely by seeking out ideological differences. I spoke with my host cousin and my host mom’s friends, who each brought a unique point of view for me to contend with. Hearing their perspectives confirmed that there exists much ideological diversity beyond what I am exposed to in the United States. Even vast ideological schisms between the core of Europe and its periphery, where Serbia finds itself—or as Serbians would say, to which Serbia was relegated when the West turned its back—present important challenges for global governance. For example, how to counter the rise of authoritarianism when some believe that imposed democracy itself is authoritarian.

Gaining perspectives from the periphery, from the fringes, and from the margins forces us as global citizens to critically examine the assumptions that shape our beliefs and perspectives. Gaining diverse and vast perspectives is important for creating and enacting policy in a democratic society. If policymakers and political leaders remain stuck in echo chambers that reinforce existing beliefs and ways of thinking and acting, methods of governance and policy approaches will fail to generate innovative solutions to the global challenges of conflict, inequality, and autocracy.

The antidote to entrenched, hostile relationships is to hone our ability to seek out and contend with vastly different perspectives and beliefs with an eye towards effective policy that acknowledges and accommodates difference. In other words, honing our ability to be citizens of the world.

Returning to the United States from Belgrade, I can say with confidence that the clichés about studying abroad are true—in the most tangible way. Studying abroad can help you become a citizen of the world who does not adopt a set of universal beliefs or abandons your own identity, but recognizes the value of diverse perspectives for creating a world with more understanding, communication, and progress towards cooperation.