Humanities and Languages

Humanities & Communication majors gain broad knowledge, multicultural communication skills, creative talents, and outstanding writing and critical thinking abilities for the 21st-century workplace. Our major integrates traditional disciplines within humanities and communication with contemporary fields and explores how these fields interrelate.

You will study across the various disciplines in order to gain an integrated understanding of world issues and problems, and you will apply your knowledge ethically, critically, and creatively toward the fulfillment of concrete personal and social goals and needs.

Ethnic and Gender Studies is a major that gives you the intellectual knowledge and tools to be an agent of social change, to thrive professionally, and to flourish as a critic of social structures in the United States. Students in this major learn how multiple social identities – including ethnicity, race, class, gender, sexuality, and/or ability – intersect and shape our lives, contributing to our life experiences, our opportunities, and the challenges faced by members of our communities. Students also learn how communities can engage in collective action to resist and address oppression by affirming their agency and humanity. Students completing this major would be prepared to take what they learn and apply it to work as educators, community organizers, policy makers, advocates, and leaders, and are prepared to pursue many professions where knowledge of diverse communities is essential for success. Students in this major can also pursue law degrees, graduate studies in many fields including ethnic studies, feminist and gender studies, cultural studies, and American Studies.

The Global Studies program will guide you in the critical analysis of complex and interdependent global systems.  Through interdisciplinary learning–including socio-cultural, political, economic, spiritual/religious, ecological topics–you will become an engaged global citizen who contributes solutions to the world’s most pressing issues.

The B.A. in Japanese Language and Culture prepares you to be an active participant in an ever-shrinking and increasingly interdependent world society by developing your literacy in global matters, multiculturalism and cultural diversity, as well as guiding you to achieve a higher level of language proficiency (Intermediate-High level according to the ACTFL guidelines). You will be able to communicate effectively in Japanese with well-rounded Japanese cultural knowledge in such areas as arts, history, humanities, literature, and social sciences.

The ability to communicate with Spanish speakers and appreciate Hispanic cultures gives you a tremendous advantage in a wide range of careers. Whether on the job or in your community, your Spanish language competency and cultural understanding can help you establish valuable connections in the inter-dependent global community.

Our global society presents a complex picture of human conditions that can be examined politically, economically, culturally, historically, socially, technologically, and behaviorally. In the Social & Behavioral Sciences major, you will gain knowledge and skills that are necessary for solving many of the world’s most pressing social problems.

Are you looking for a major that will help you understand the social forces shaping our lives: our friendships, family relationships, workplaces, religious institutions, political systems, and much more? Do you want to gain the communication, critical thinking, ethical reasoning, research, and interpersonal skills that employers and graduate schools are looking for? As a Sociology major, you’ll learn how and why humans interact as they do, examine your own relationship to the broader social world, and apply that knowledge to today’s most pressing social issues. You will graduate with the preparation to achieve a wide range of educational, career, civic, and personal goals.