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Description of the video:

Welcome to the Global and International Studies Building, home of the Hamilton Lugar School. My name is Nikhil Jain and I’m going to be showing you around my favorite building at IU. Inaugurated in 2015 by former Secretary of State John F. Kerry, our building was designed by the same architects as the Newseum and the Clinton Library. It’s also LEED gold certified, making it one of the greenest buildings on campus. Located in the fine arts plaza, it sits right at the heart of the IU campus and overlooks the arboretum, making it easy to get to and beautiful to study in.

Coming up the stairs from the bottom floor, you’ll see our global student lounge. The screen you see on the right side features a rotating set of world news outlets and the lounge itself is a great place to study, catch up with friends, or just relax. To the left of the lounge is our beautiful atrium, complete with LED blades that feature welcome messages and farewell messages for incoming freshmen and recent graduates, as well as graphics and photos from around the world.

Our classrooms are state-of-the-art, complete with numerous monitors and wall-to-wall whiteboards for a modern, functional study environment. They’re also equipped with cameras and screens that allow our students to speak virtually with language and regional experts in real time around the world. Each of the hallways on our first floor wings features more whiteboard spaces, usually filled by flyers for classes, internships, and scholarships, the halls themselves have many spaces to sit, study, and meet with friends.

Coming back into the atrium, you’ll notice a colorful set of stones, each from a different corner of the world. Though the building is constructed of Indiana limestone, we like to say that this mix of building materials brings Indiana to the World and the World to Indiana.

Welcome to the East Wing of the second floor. To the right of the stairs, you’ll find various area and language study departments including East Asian Cultures and Languages, the Dhar India Studies Program, and the Institute for Korean Studies.

HLS has 4 departments that make up the school: Central Eurasian Studies, East Asian Languages and Cultures, International Studies, and Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures. There are more than 21 area studies institutes and centers in the school, so you can study practically any region of the globe you desire.

Each of these wings also features several quiet and semi-secret study spaces. This lounge is my personal favorite place to study and offers some great views of campus. Back down the hallway, you may notice some more conference rooms and quiet study spaces. You might take a meeting, attend a guest lecture, or just work on a group project in these kinds of spaces. One of the most interesting is the Korean Studies Conference Room. Most of our rooms are open to study in as long as no one else is using them but if not, they can easily be reserved.

In these wings, you’ll also find faculty offices and graduate student workspaces. This will probably be the place where you meet with graduate assistants and professors during their office hours. Our professors love chatting with students and can offer some great advice for careers and classes, so don’t miss those. Coming up the stairs to the third floor, take in the views of campus from the atrium again.

On the third floor, you’ll find the African Studies Program, Center for the Study of the Middle East, and the Central Eurasian Studies department among others. In this hall, you can find the office for Professor Feisal al-Istrabadi, a former Iraqi Ambassador to the United Nations. He was also one of the principal drafters of the interim Iraqi constitution.

Each of our wings are decorated with artwork and cultural artifacts from regions around the world. I personally love walking around and taking in the new artifacts whenever they’re displayed. These are part of a collection of IU pieces and rotate often, so don’t miss seeing them!

If you’re looking to collect your own world souvenirs, consider studying abroad! 70% of our students will study abroad during their time here. Aside from the normal international programs, we also host a Peace Corps Prep Certificate program, available to all HLS students. It’s a great way to get started in the Peace Corps and see the world. You could also study abroad through our Department of Defense-sponsored language flagship programs. We are fortunate enough to host 3 language flagship programs: Chinese, Russian, and Arabic, the most of any university.

Finally, on the fourth floor you’ll find the office of our Dean Lee Feinstein and administrative offices. Prior to becoming the inaugural dean of HLS, Dean Feinstein was the US Ambassador to Poland. On this floor is also a full broadcasting studio, where faculty frequently conduct interviews with national news and media outlets. Around the building, you can always find information about new classes, study abroad opportunities, scholarships, and events posted on the walls, and usually some free buttons, stickers, and more on various tables.

On the bottom floor, you’ll find several more classrooms, a prayer space, and the beautiful Shreve auditorium, where we host foreign dignitaries, guest speakers as well as our annual America’s Role in the World Conference.

The halls may be quiet today, but I can promise that there is rarely a dull moment in the Global and International Studies Building. We hope you'll visit soon!