Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Africana Studies

Africana Studies Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• Foster a sense of belonging to an affirming community.
• An understanding of the historical legacies of enslavement, colonialism, and the post-colony.
• Develop an understanding of how race intersects with class, sexuality, and gender.
• Develop an understanding of the ongoing cultural expressions of the African Diaspora.
• Understand the historical contributions within the sweep of African and Diasporic cultures.
• Experience different modes of learning within and external to the classroom.

American Studies

American Studies Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives: 

• Synthesize, analyze, and interpret a wide range of evidence of U.S. beliefs and practices while attending to patterns, absences, and differing interpretative strategies.
• Apply their growing and deepening understanding of the diversity of American life to advance the critical creation of new knowledge in various forms of communication. 
• Describe how power and difference (race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, citizenship) have interacted at specific moments in time to shape subjectivities, groups, and a wide variety of political, economic, and cultural institutions.
• Work collaboratively with others to understand difficult issues and problems of American life.
• Conduct research in US history and life using appropriate methods and protocols.

Anthropology

Anthropology Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize and understand human cultural diversity.
• Comprehend evolutionary, biological, cultural, and social characteristics common to all humanity as a single species.
• Conduct ethnographic and/or archaeological fieldwork and integrate it into anthropological analysis.
• Recognize how human cultural knowledge, biology, and intercultural communication relate to human social behavior, including perceptions of race, class, ethnicity, sex, gender, and spirituality.
• Connect global and local sociocultural and human biological processes, including how these scales are interconnected in both space and time.
• Examine and understand the conditions and effects of inequalities in power, wealth, and privilege in contemporary and past societies.

Anthropology/Sociology Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• Examine and understand the reciprocal relationship between individuals, small groups, social processes, and social structures. 
• Conduct anthropological and sociological research using appropriate methodology, including but not limited to ethnographic fieldwork and quantitative analyses, and integrate this research into anthropological and/or sociological analysis.
• Interrogate how dimensions of difference (e.g., race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, ability) intersect to produce disparate experiences of power, belonging, and inequality in the social world.
• Recognize how human cultural knowledge relates to human social behavior, including perceptions of race, class, and ethnicity.
• Read, write, communicate, and apply sociological and anthropological ideas verbally and visually, explaining social patterns and societal issues.
• Interpret, clarify, and assess major theoretical platforms in anthropological and sociological thought.

Art and Architecture

Art History Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• Students will be able to complete a formal or visual analysis of works representing a diverse and inclusive range of visual and material culture.
• Identify the formal and material particularities of various media.
• Explain the impact of historical context, sociopolitical context, and cultural context on the production, display, and circulation of art as well as processes of meaning-making.
• Develop research and writing skills that are relevant to the discipline, including crafting and arguing a thesis, as well as drafting catalog essays and wall texts appropriate for museums and galleries.
• Recognize and explain significant themes, stylistic features, and genre conventions associated with art over a range of historical periods and geographical regions, including the artwork of historically underrepresented groups within the US and global areas outside of North America and Europe.

Studio Art Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• Produce work that demonstrates an ability to take creative and intellectual risks.
• Develop a sensitivity to visual relationships in the pursuit of effective formal and expressive coherence.
• Demonstrate a high degree of technical competency in studio art media.
• Integrate the ways in which materials, techniques, and subjects generate meaning.
• Differentiate between artistic styles and the diverse populations and communities from which works of art are made.
• Apply critical thinking to analyze and contextualize their artistic intentions in group critiques, written assignments, and through artworks.

Architectural Studies Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• To support the development of critical thinkers who engage in the design process as an investigative, iterative and layered activity that works toward identifying conceptual and formal approaches to guide creative problem solving.
• To engage with a broad and inclusive range of histories and theories of design and other forms of cultural production to inform and support the design process.
• To build a foundation of skills necessary for contemporary design practice in areas including research, analog and digital representation and fabrication, and written and oral communication.
• To emphasize the importance of knowledge-building through public engagement and community outreach.
• To engage in the design of creative and informed responses to critical contemporary issues—especially the complex and interrelated challenges of climate change and social justice.
• To interrogate the potential for design to create spaces that support social diversity, equity and inclusion.

Asian Studies Department

Asian Studies Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• Demonstrate a multidisciplinary perspective centered on Asia.
• Demonstrate foundational abilities in one or more Asian languages, including appropriate proficiencies in reading, writing, listening and speaking.
• Demonstrate an understanding of current and historical cultural, social, geographical and political diversity within Asia.
• Demonstrate the ability to plan and carry out scholarly research and give a scholarly presentation on an Asian topic in English.

Biochemistry

Biochemistry Major (B.S.)

Learning Objectives:

• Apply core chemical principles underlying molecular biology to explain biological processes at the atomic, molecular, and macroscopic levels.
• Engage in experiential learning.
• Develop transferable quantitative skills.
• Understand and engage in the scientific process and experimental design, including hypothesis generation, methods development, laboratory skill acquisition, and data analysis and interpretation. 
• Communicate, both orally and in written form, the results, conclusions, and relevance of scientific experiments to a specific audience.
• Communicate, both orally and in written form, the results, conclusions, and relevance of scientific experiments to a specific audience.

Biology

Biology Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• Describe core concepts of biology and explain how these concepts are interconnected, including evolution; information flow, exchange and storage; the relationship between structure and function; and pathways of energy and matter.
• Recognize that a complete understanding of a biological trait requires integrating four complementary approaches, including understanding the trait’s structure and function, development, adaptive significance and phylogenetic history.
• Engage in scientific inquiry by asking biological questions, designing experimental and observational studies, collecting and analyzing data and drawing conclusions.
• Effectively communicate about science and biology in oral and written formats.
• Describe how biology can inform current societal issues, such as environmental issues and conservation, human health, disease transmission or social diversity.

Biology Major (B.S.)

Learning Objectives:

• Describe core concepts of biology and explain how these concepts are interconnected, including evolution; information flow, exchange, and storage; the relationship between structure and function; and pathways of energy and matter.
• Recognize that a complete understanding of a biological trait requires integrating four complementary approaches, including understanding the trait’s structure and function, development, adaptive significance, and phylogenetic history.
• Engage in scientific inquiry by asking biological questions, designing experimental and observational studies, collecting and analyzing data, and drawing conclusions.
• Effectively communicate about science and biology in oral and written formats.
• Describe how biology can inform current societal issues, such as environmental issues and conservation, human health, disease transmission, or social diversity.

Business Management and Entrepreneurship

Business Management and Entrepreneurship Major (B.S.) 

Learning Objectives:

• Demonstrate knowledge of the theoretical foundation necessary for managerial and entrepreneurial leadership and strategies across multiple disciplines.
• Apply ethical, data-driven decision-making skills in both real-world and simulated contexts.
• Develop and demonstrate an understanding of importance of stakeholder involvement in the decision process.
• Consistently craft and entrepreneurial strategies that incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusivity principles in a meaningful way.
• Demonstrate the ability to construct and interpret financial statements, including sensitivity analysis.
• Apply historical and contemporary theories of management to analyze real-world management scenarios.

Chemistry

Chemistry Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• Communicate effectively, both orally and in written form, the results, conclusions, and relevance of scientific experiments to a specific audience.
• Understand disciplinary material and have familiarity with the subdisciplines: inorganic, organic, analytical, and physical chemistry.
• Apply fundamental content knowledge and core chemical principles to solve unfamiliar problems and applications.
• Design and perform experiments safely, collect data, and analyze those data to answer chemical questions.
• Collaborate with a diverse team of students and faculty to answer scientific questions.

Chemistry Major (B.S.)

Learning Objectives:

• Communicate effectively, both orally and in written form, the results, conclusions, and relevance of scientific experiments to a specific audience.
• Understand disciplinary material and have familiarity with the subdisciplines: inorganic, organic, analytical, and physical chemistry.
• Apply fundamental content knowledge and core chemical principles to solve unfamiliar problems and applications.
• Design and perform experiments safely, collect data, and analyze those data to answer chemical questions.
• Collaborate with a diverse team of students and faculty to answer scientific questions.

Chemistry Major (ACS B.S.)

Learning Objectives:

• Communicate effectively, both orally and in written form, the results, conclusions, and relevance of scientific experiments to a specific audience.
• Understand disciplinary material and have familiarity with the subdisciplines: inorganic, organic, analytical, and physical chemistry.
• Apply fundamental content knowledge and core chemical principles to solve unfamiliar problems and applications.
• Design and perform experiments safely, collect data, and analyze those data to answer chemical questions.
• Collaborate with a diverse team of students and faculty to answer scientific questions.

Computer Science

COMPUTER SCIENCE Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• Demonstrate both a theoretical and technical understanding of the core body of knowledge in computer science as well as several application areas.
• Analyze computational problems and design correct and efficient algorithms to solve them.
• Design and implement efficient, well-constructed, and well-documented software solutions.
• Explain their work both verbally and in writing, and work effectively as a member of a team.
• Continue learning and adapting their skills throughout their careers as technologies change.
• Recognize the broad applicability and ethics of computing, and appreciate the need for collaboration with experts in other domains.

COMPUTER SCIENCE MAJOR (B.S.)

Learning Objectives:

• Demonstrate both a theoretical and technical understanding of the core body of knowledge in computer science as well as several application areas.
• Analyze computational problems and design correct and efficient algorithms to solve them.
• Design and implement efficient, well-constructed, and well-documented software solutions.
• Explain their work both verbally and in writing, and work effectively as a member of a team.
• Continue learning and adapting their skills throughout their careers as technologies change.
• Recognize the broad applicability and ethics of computing, and appreciate the need for collaboration with experts in other domains.

Dance and Movement Studies 

Dance Major (B.A.) in Performance & Choreography

Learning Objectives:
A major focus of this track is movement research as embodiment and performance. Students who pursue this major are expected to:

• Locate themselves in the matrix of identities that dance studies encompass to demonstrate respect for the diverse ways that dance is manifest in the world.
• Engage with dance as a cultural art form.
• Demonstrate the ability to develop and communicate one’s creative voice as a composer and movement artist.
• Demonstrate an understanding of dance performance and the craft of choreography as embodied history, theory, practice, and production.

Dance Major (B.A.) in Dance Education

Learning Objectives:
The interdisciplinary major in Dance Education is designed for students who seek sophisticated knowledge in pedagogical and curricular aspects of Dance as informed by dance cultures, histories, and artistic practices. Students who pursue this major are expected to:

• Locate themselves in the matrix of identities that dance studies encompass to demonstrate respect for the diverse ways that dance is manifest in the world.
• Demonstrate competency and potential as a dance teacher or movement educator, grounded in empathy, curiosity, and ethical behavior.
• Embody content knowledge related to dance pedagogy, cultural relevancy, dance education curriculum, and inclusive teaching methods, including interdisciplinary coursework.
• Speak and write analytically and reflectively about the fundamental experience of dance as education.
• Develop proficiency in such areas as dance production, community engagement, and educational/arts administration.

Dance Major (B.A.) in Movement Studies

Learning Objectives:
This major, grounded in Dance, emphasizes theoretical integration and embodied practice through core courses in movement sciences, somatic practices, and movement analysis for enhanced movement performance. Students who pursue this major are expected to:

• Locate themselves in the matrix of identities that dance studies encompass to demonstrate respect for the diverse ways that dance is manifest in the world.
• Analyze and describe movement through multiple theoretical perspectives.
• Integrate multiple movement perspectives into physical practice.
• Design and guide relevant movement experiences for a range of individual participants.
• Articulate interdisciplinary relationships between movement practices and other such fields as Biology, Education, Physics, and Psychology.

Dance Major (B.A.) in Theory and Performance Studies

Learning Objectives:
A key aspect of this major is interdisciplinary integration of theoretical concepts—making connections across fields, incorporating dance as an anchor. Students who pursue this major are expected to:

• Locate themselves in the matrix of identities that dance studies encompass to demonstrate respect for the diverse ways that dance is manifest in the world.
• Demonstrate an embodied understanding of dance as a movement practice in one or more movement forms.
• Demonstrate a theoretical understanding of movement as an expressive artistic discipline that is reflective of cultural, historical, social, and physical influences.
• Demonstrate a functional knowledge of the physical body, as understood through an anatomical lens, a somatic lens, or a movement lens.
• Articulate the ways in which dance specifically connects to (an) other academic field(s), as for example dance and aesthetics, dance and the environment, dance and gender studies, or dance and social justice.

Economics

Economics Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• Use mainstream economic models to analyze individual decision-making, the functioning of markets, market flaws, market power, income distribution, inequality, and the macroeconomy, as well as recognize their limitations.
• Evaluate the impact of public policy changes in the situations above.
• Understand some important heterodox economists and schools of thought such as Keynes, Marx, Original Institutional economics, and Feminist economics, as well as recognize their limitations.
• Use statistical/econometric tools to analyze data and correctly interpret the results.
• Identify reliable and relevant sources of data and evidence appropriate to the question being asked or the argument being made.
• Communicate ideas and arguments effectively, in both papers and presentations, to the intended audience. This may include the use of graphs, tables, and mathematics, as well as words.

Educational Studies

Educational Studies Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• Apply specific analytical frameworks to educational situations, ranging from case-studies to educational policy, in a specific area of concentration.
• Articulate the cultural and historical bases of structural inequalities in contemporary schooling and suggest evidenced-based and contextually appropriate solutions.
• Take intellectual risks and critically analyze information as they develop expertise in a particular area of educational inquiry.
• Contribute to just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive educational environments and to recognize structural inequalities in contemporary schooling.

English and Creative Writing

English Major (B.A.) – English Track

Learning Objectives: 

• Develop rigorous critical thinking skills, especially skills related to close reading and to rhetorical and narrative analysis.
• Become eloquent and versatile writers, adept at presenting complex arguments, while also developing their own distinctive voices and creative talents.
• Encounter both historically important texts and also powerful contemporary literary works, situating these texts within their own literary and cultural contexts as well as engaging them in dialogue from our current critical perspectives.
• Undertake substantial research, produce significant writing projects, and collaborate effectively with their peers.
• Engage with a broad diversity of perspectives, reflecting on the ways in which all our experiences are shaped by issues of culture, race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, and identity.
• Become familiar with the central concepts at stake in contemporary critical theory and cultural studies.

English Major (B.A.) – Creative Writing Track

Learning Objectives: 

• Become eloquent and versatile writers, both critical and creative, adept at presenting complex arguments, while also developing distinctive voices and creative talents.   
• Develop rigorous critical thinking skills, especially skills related to close reading and to rhetorical and narrative analysis.   
• Encounter both historically important texts and also powerful contemporary literary works, situating these texts within their own literary and cultural contexts as well as engaging them in dialogue from our current critical perspectives.   
• Produce significant writing projects, undertake substantial research, and collaborate effectively with peers.   
• Engage with a broad diversity of perspectives, reflecting on the ways in which all our experiences are shaped by issues of culture, race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, and identity.   
• Become familiar with the central concepts at stake in contemporary critical theory and cultural studies.

Environmental Science

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE Major (B.S.)

Learning Objectives:

• Demonstrate an understanding of the influences that abiotic (climate, energy, geology, water) and biotic environmental factors have on creating and altering ecosystems.
• Think critically about scientific problems using previous work and applying this knowledge to a new place or topic.
• Design and complete a scientific study by creating unique scientific questions and collecting, analyzing, synthesizing, and interpreting data.  
• Effectively communicate science in a variety of venues used by scientists, in oral, written, and visual formats. 
• Articulate an understanding of the world’s most challenging environmental problems, along with potential solutions, to diverse audiences using credible, evidenced-based arguments.
• Relate insights from the social sciences and humanities towards addressing equity, justice, and ethics issues with regards to human-environment interactions.

Environmental Studies

Environmental Studies Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• Articulate and apply an understanding of the natural sciences and scientific literacy in order to analyze environmental problems.
• Articulate and apply insights from economic, political, social, and cultural institutions in order to analyze human-environmental interactions.
• Situate environmental issues and the links between human and natural systems in ethical, cross-cultural, and historical contexts, as expressed through the arts, literature, music, and film.
• Communicate the world’s most challenging environmental problems, along with potential solutions, to diverse audiences using credible, evidenced-based arguments.
• Identify appropriate methods of inquiry to address research questions in the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities, and apply methodological skills to environmental problem solving.
• Engage critically with questions of justice and equity in human-environment interactions.

European Studies

EUROPEAN STUDIES MAJOR (B.A.)

Learning Objectives

• Analyze the historical and cultural developments of Europe from the Ancient World to the present day, and assess the cultural, historical and aesthetic contexts that have influenced the development of these traditions.
• Develop a nuanced understanding of the diversity of European cultures and societies, including their languages, religions, arts and values, and critically evaluate the impact of globalization on these communities.
• Develop skills in close reading, critical analysis and interdisciplinary awareness of issues facing European cultures over time.
• Engage in interdisciplinary research and creative projects that explore the intersections of literature, art, and history in Europe, and develop innovative approaches to understanding the cultural and intellectual diversity of the region. 
• Develop effective communication skills in written and oral formats, using appropriate evidence, argumentation and documentation to articulate ideas and perspectives about Europe to diverse audiences.

French, Francophone and Italian Studies

French and Francophone Studies Major (B.A.) – Disciplinary

Learning Objectives:

• Perfect their reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills in French in order to communicate successfully with native speakers in diverse communicative situations.
• Employ the cultural, linguistic, and literary knowledge they have acquired of the French and Francophone world to conduct research (both remotely and in the cultures studied) and to advance and support a persuasive argument, both in papers and in oral presentations.
• Articulate the role of issues of race, language, power, gender, and class in the constitution and expression of identity in French and Francophone literature, film, and art.
• Use their linguistic competencies to navigate all types of daily communicative situations.
• Identify and analyze the components of a literary or cinematic text and employ the appropriate vocabulary to explain how their authors use theme, genre, form, and other techniques to express and reconfigure our perspectives on memory, exile, love, death, and loss.

French and Francophone Studies Major (B.A.) – Interdisciplinary

Learning Objectives:

• Perfect their skills in reading and listening, and demonstrate advanced proficiency in spoken and written French in diverse communicative contexts.
• Use their linguistic competencies to navigate all types of daily communicative situations.
• Use knowledge of literary, cinematic, and cultural traditions of the French-speaking world to actively engage in complex conversations and discussions with French speakers, and conduct research for papers and effective oral presentations.
• Critically analyze and discuss ways in which questions of race, and diversity, language, and power, gender, and class shape the issue of identity in French and Francophone literature, film, and art.
• Employ their interdisciplinary knowledge to make connections across cultures through exploring relevant links between French and Francophone Studies and other disciplines in the general curriculum that deal with key social issues relative to memory, exile, love, death, and loss.

GENDER, SEXUALITY AND INTERSECTIONAL JUSTICE

Gender and Feminist Studies Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:
Majors in the Gender and Feminist Studies Program will be able to:

• Inquire into how knowledge is produced, for whom and in what ways.
• Locate the interconnections amongst social and political movements (locally and globally) and their capacity to transform how we come to know and reimagine the world.
• Raise and explore questions about practices of how to live well together.
• Tackle contemporary issues with contemporary tools and practices.
• Explore the historical making and remaking of gender, race and sexuality, and implications of these historical shift-changes in institutions (e.g., law, medicine, environment).
• Understand relations of power in gender, race, and sexuality and workings of colonialism.
• Experiment with voice, in writing, speaking and debating.
• Undertake written critical analyses of topics and issues.
• Engage diverse scholars’ intellectual work.
• Identify one’s own unique interests and begin to chart one’s own role in making change.

LGBTQ+ Studies Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:
Majors in the LGBTQ+ Studies Program will be able to:

• Explore the history of LGBTQ+ social justice and political movements across the globe, including their erasure in traditional historical accounts.
• Critically examine the role of sexuality and gender within an intersectional framework in historical and contemporary representations of marginalized groups.
• Analyze the intersectional forces at work in systems of power and privilege that impact LGBTQ+ individuals and communities.
• Interrogate the ways in which feminist, queer, and trans theories have been invoked across academic disciplines to deepen our understanding of human experience.
• Engage collectively with LGBTQ+ activist traditions and contemporary efforts of social transformation.
• Develop lines of inquiry which provoke new understandings of the phenomena of gender and sexuality through emerging scholarship and fields of study.
• Understand how heteronormativity shapes historical and contemporary societies and how queer activists and theorists have combatted this legacy.
• Critique social justice movements’ inclusion or erasure of LGBTQ+ identities, needs, and advocacy.
• Consider our location in the Finger Lakes as both a historical and contemporary hub of abolition, social justice, and revolution as well as the site of injustice and oppression.
• Examine the role of the body and embodied learning in working towards a more just and equitable world.
• Applying queer theoretical approaches across the curriculum.

Bodies, Disability, and Justice Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:
Majors in the Bodies, Disability and Justice Program will be able to:

• Understand how social norms about bodies shape understandings of difference.
• Apply interdisciplinary analytic tools for evaluating representations of bodies in a range of cultural texts.
• Articulate the ways that material bodies are socially constructed and contested.
• Critically examine ideas and practices of bodily health and wellness.
• Understand how structural inequities produce uneven experiences of body and health.
• Theorize the body in its discursive and material complexity.
• Recognize the self as a contextual and relational phenomenon.
• Attend to the critical importance of racial and transnational perspectives to the promotion of embodied justice.
• Explore the linkages and synergies between the fields of disability studies, queer and trans studies, and embodiment studies.
• Explore the role of disability activism and advocacy in shaping alternative futures.
• Appreciate the interdisciplinary nature of body-centered scholarship.
• Build body literacy through embodied theory and praxis.
• Understand and engage the body as an important, intersectional location for justice.
• Develop informed, creative approaches to advocacy.

Geoscience

Geoscience Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• The ability to demonstrate breadth in the field of Geoscience and depth in a subfield within Geoscience.
• The ability to collect, analyze, synthesize, judge the quality of, and interpret data.
• The ability to separate observations from interpretations.
• The ability to communicate effectively in the variety of venues used by scientists: oral, written, and graphic.
• A particular mastery of the mechanics, narrative, and analysis of scientific writing, integrating the proper use of the scientific literature and citations thereof.
• The ability to conduct scholarly research and think critically about scientific problems using previous work and applying this knowledge to a new place or topic.
• The ability to work effectively both independently and within diverse teams.
• The ability to work collaboratively with colleagues by supporting each other and practicing skills important for successful teamwork.

Geoscience (B.S.)

Learning Objectives:

• The ability to demonstrate breadth in the field of Geoscience and depth in a subfield within Geoscience.
• The ability to collect, analyze, synthesize, judge the quality of, and interpret data.
• The ability to separate observations from interpretations.
• The ability to communicate effectively in the variety of venues used by scientists: oral, written, and graphic.
• A particular mastery of the mechanics, narrative, and analysis of scientific writing, integrating the proper use of the scientific literature and citations thereof.
• The ability to conduct scholarly research and think critically about scientific problems using previous work and applying this knowledge to a new place or topic.
• The ability to work effectively both independently and within diverse teams.
• The ability to work collaboratively with colleagues by supporting each other and practicing skills important for successful teamwork.

Greek and Roman Studies

Students in Greek and Roman Studies develop significant skills in:

• close reading
• analytical and critical thinking
• foundational skills in foreign languages
• the ability to pursue independent research
• the ability to identify and to disentangle assumptions — their own or another’s — as they interpret data
• how to assess and use different types of sources to formulate cogent arguments
• how to understand and contextualize information both culturally and historically. 

Institute for Global Studies

Global Studies in Culture Minor

Learning Objectives:

• Show understanding of different cultural perspectives by reading, writing, and speaking about culturally authentic material reflecting lived experiences from a variety of different social and historical contexts. 
• Demonstrate engagement with foundational global topics – migration, imperialism and colonialism, nationalism and globalization –  by working to improve the frequency and quality of their written and oral work. 
• Locate sites of inequity and interdependence, reflecting the many ways in which relations of power shape lives, ideas and identities at global and local scales.  
• Identify and evaluate the normative logics guiding the creation, implementation and maintenance of global cultural practices

History

History Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• The ability to describe and discuss historical facts, themes, and ideas, and analyze them within their historical context.
• The ability to identify, analyze, and evaluate primary and secondary source evidence, to conduct research independently using either or both, and to synthesize evidence into a coherent argument.
• The ability to think historically about the present, to appreciate the importance of historical knowledge for understanding our present world, and to recognize that our current realities are neither natural nor inevitable, but the product of relations of power.
• An understanding of the importance of the creation and distribution of knowledge in informing how different communities have experienced the world at different times.

International Relations

International Relations (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• Understand and be able to summarize arguments by scholars and experts who address questions from a range of analytic and theoretical perspectives; identify and critically evaluate the evidence offered in support of these arguments.
• Identify and analyze a range of factors that generate prosperity, inequality, entrenched poverty, and externalities at various scales.
• Identify and analyze the complex forces that contribute to insecurity, contention, and solidarity at various scales. 
• Design original research projects using relevant primary and/or secondary sources, utilizing appropriately formatted citations and bibliographies.
• Communicate effectively and formally in the written and spoken word through individual and collective assignments. 
• Effectively communicate in a global language other than English.

Master of Arts in Higher Education Leadership

Master in Higher Education Leadership

Learning Objectives:

• Support a contemporary generation of college students within a rapidly changing social, cultural, political and economic landscape.
• Analyze and critique the history and politics of higher education in ways that reflect their lived experiences, best-practices and professional aspirations.
• Advocate for students in ways that demonstrate a thorough understanding of diversity, equity and inclusion and foster student success.
• Contribute to higher education as emerging practitioners who can act on their personal commitments, skills and abilities.
• Demonstrate effective and creative leadership as they advocate for positive personal, inter-personal, structural and institutional change to promote inclusive and innovative organizations and programs.

Mathematics

MATHEMATICS MAJOR (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• Construct valid logical arguments and analyze the reasoning of others.
• Implement a variety of mathematical structures to model and analyze complex problems.
• Communicate mathematical ideas clearly, in verbal and visual form, by using appropriate mathematical terminology and notation.
• Develop the ability to independently read and understand written mathematics. 

MATHEMATICS MAJOR (B.S.)

Learning Objectives:

• Construct valid logical arguments and analyze the reasoning of others.
• Implement a variety of mathematical structures to model and analyze complex problems.
• Communicate mathematical ideas clearly, in verbal and visual form, by using appropriate mathematical terminology and notation.
• Develop the ability to independently read and understand written mathematics.

Media and Society

Media and Society Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• Deploy key media studies vocabularies, theories, and methodologies in order to analyze media objects within their aesthetic, material, socio-political, and cultural contexts.
• Critically reflect upon their own encounters with media and power.
• Produce persuasive critical arguments in written, visual, oral, and interactive formats.
• Design engaging media texts in print and digital formats, including articles, films, photographs, podcasts, games, and websites.
• Encode and decode media messages, drawing on robust digital media and information literacy skills to navigate an increasingly complex information ecosystem.
• Serve their communities as informed citizens by producing and promoting media that advance public discourse.

Music

Music Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• Describe how music works unto itself; how it works on us as listeners and humans; and how it works on communities and cultures.
• Employ practical skills in the service of making music with and for others.
• Identify music as a carrier of stories and attune oneself to stories of power, privilege, identity, and oppression.
• Support a lifelong relationship with music as a practitioner, collaborator, listener, and creator.

Philosophy

Philosophy Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• Express complex ideas in speech and in writing in a way that is clear, logical and coherent, thereby preparing students for innumerable careers;
• Recognize diversity in systems of thought and belief, discover the underlying assumptions of these systems, and deepen their own sensitivity to opposing points of view;
• Identify and formulate philosophical questions, and explore answers to them;
• Articulate and critique the role of ethical issues in public and academic debates, and thereby develop an increased moral sensibility;
• Recognize and analyze the historical origins of the modern versions of enduring philosophical questions;
• Perceive and appreciate the connections between knowledge, reality and what is good.

Physics

PHYSICS MAJOR (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• Develop an understanding of fundamental concepts of physics.
• Develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills through the application of physics concepts to problems.
• Learn analytical, experimental, and mathematical skills and techniques that can be applied to analyze physical phenomena and solve problems.
• Develop strong communication skills to effectively convey scientific ideas and findings.

PHYSICS MAJOR (B.S.)

Learning Objectives:

• Develop an understanding of fundamental concepts of physics.
• Develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills through the application of physics concepts to problems.
• Learn analytical, experimental, and mathematical skills and techniques that can be applied to analyze physical phenomena and solve problems.
• Develop strong communication skills to effectively convey scientific ideas and findings.

Politics

Politics Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• Articulate and explain key concepts, processes, and issues of politics, institutions, and civil society.
• Be able to communicate thoughts and ideas in a clear, professional, and coherent manner.
• Investigate and examine contemporary and historical political topics and controversies from multiple perspectives.
• Understand how citizens, including themselves, engage in political action in both formal (legalistic) and informal (advocacy and activist) public spheres.
• Develop an understanding and awareness of the racial, gender, and cultural divisions that shape all aspects of politics in the United States and everywhere else.
• Keep the issues of class and cultural inequalities central to their understanding of politics and their comportment in the world.

Psychological Science

Psychological Science Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• Demonstrate fundamental knowledge and comprehension of concepts and principles, theoretical perspectives, empirical findings and historical trends of major areas in psychology. 
• Apply the scientific method to acquire knowledge and to think critically about psychological phenomena.
• Abide by high ethical standards and engage in behavior that reflects an understanding of and respect for the complexity of sociocultural and international diversity.
• Produce completed research projects and communicate their results in a variety of formats including oral presentations and scholarly papers appropriate for professional psychology audiences.
• Develop and refine skills (e.g., project-management, teamwork skills) that will prepare them for future professional and personal aspirations.

Psychological Science Major (B.S.)

Learning Objectives:

• Demonstrate fundamental knowledge and comprehension of concepts and principles, theoretical perspectives, empirical findings, and historical trends of major areas in psychology. 
• Apply the scientific method to acquire knowledge and to think critically about psychological phenomena.
• Abide by high ethical standards and engage in behavior that reflects an understanding of and respect for the complexity of sociocultural and international diversity.
• Produce completed research projects and communicate their results in a variety of formats including oral presentations and scholarly papers appropriate for professional psychology audiences.
• Develop and refine skills (e.g., project-management, teamwork skills) that will prepare them for future professional and personal aspirations, especially in careers in STEM-focused fields.
• Provide additional focus on material from other natural sciences that complement material in Psychological Science.

Public Health

Public Health Studies Major (B.A.) 

Learning Objectives:

• To enable students to study important issues of human health and health care in the United States and abroad.
• To teach students to recognize the varied social, cultural, economic, biological and ecological determinants of health.
• To allow students to think critically, creatively and expansively about what it means to study and intervene in human health at both the clinical and population level.
• To allow students to gain auxiliary skills vital to public health professionals in the 21st century.
• To encourage students to improve communication skills and to consider ethical foundations essential for health professionals.
• To enable students to pursue an area of concentration that deepens their knowledge of human health in ways specific to their career aspirations.

Religious Studies

Religious Studies Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• Understand and be able to summarize the fundamental questions and controversies concerning what is religion and be able to identify and critically evaluate theories that purport to answer that question.
• Generate new questions concerning religion and the issues that religions address, research those questions using relevant methods and primary and/or secondary sources (with appropriate citation and formatting styles) and communicate them effectively in both written and spoken formats.
• Understand and assess the social, historical, and contemporary contexts of religious phenomena and religious identities locally, nationally, and globally.
• Understand, identify, compare, and summarize some of the narratives, rituals, ethics, and doctrines of some major world religious traditions.
• Recognize the way religions intersect with human rights, social justice, the environment, gender, race, class, violence, and other issues.
• Identify and analyze religious dimensions of a purportedly secular world.

Sociology

Sociology Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• Define and use foundational concepts of sociology, such as: the self, culture, status, crime, roles, norms, globalization, organization, stratification, deviance, social class, gender, race, sexuality, community, space, power, ethnicity, social change, urban, family, labor, and place
• Examine and understand the reciprocal relationship between individuals, small groups, social processes, and social structures.
• Interrogate how dimensions of difference (e.g., race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, ability) intersect to produce disparate experiences of power, belonging, and inequality in the social world.
• Interpret, clarify, and assess major theoretical platforms in sociological thought.
• Read, write, communicate, and apply sociological ideas verbally, graphically, and statistically explaining social patterns and social issues
• Understand, analyze, evaluate, and produce sociological research using appropriate quantitative and qualitative methodologies and, when applicable, testable hypotheses.

Anthropology/Sociology Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• Examine and understand the reciprocal relationship between individuals, small groups, social processes, and social structures.
• Conduct anthropological and sociological research using appropriate methodology, including but not limited to ethnographic fieldwork and quantitative analyses, and integrate this research into anthropological and/or sociological analysis.
• Interrogate how dimensions of difference (e.g., race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, ability) intersect to produce disparate experiences of power, belonging, and inequality in the social world.
• Recognize how human cultural knowledge relates to human social behavior, including perceptions of race, class, and ethnicity.
• Read, write, communicate, and apply sociological and anthropological ideas verbally and visually, explaining social patterns and societal issues.
• Interpret, clarify, and assess major theoretical platforms in anthropological and sociological thought.

Spanish, Latin American, and Bilingual Studies

Spanish and Hispanic Studies Major (B.A.) 

Learning Objectives:

• Present ideas and arguments, read, and write in Spanish at the advanced proficiency level, with enough accuracy that Spanish speakers, including those unfamiliar with language teaching, will be able to understand.
• Exhibit comprehension of essential meaning when listening to native speakers from a variety of Spanish-speaking countries in authentic contexts.
• Describe cultural products and practices, analyze literary materials and explain fundamental features of the language.
• Demonstrate cultural competency related to the Spanish-speaking world.
• Apply language and cross-cultural skills to graduate study and/or other professional settings.

Latin American Studies Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• Develop a basic understanding about society in Latin America that accounts for differences in geography, politics, economics, and culture, and examines the historical origins of social inequality.
• Build the ability to think critically about culture, history, politics, and language in Latin America.
• Develop language proficiency.

Theatre

Theatre Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• Make theatre through collaborative processes that bring together production elements including acting, directing, design and technical production.
• Connect theatre to the world through community engagement, inclusivity, embodiment and social justice.
• Analyze and interpret texts in preparation for theatrical production.
• Explore the interrelationship between theatre and society in respective cultural contexts and across time.
• Develop empathy, critical thinking, problem-solving and collaborative skills in and beyond theatre.

Writing and Rhetoric 

Writing and Rhetoric Major (B.A.)

Learning Objectives:

• Initiate and execute projects of their own design through a process-based approach to writing. 
• Construct arguments that matter in the world using multiple forms of analysis including grammatical, discourse, and rhetorical analysis.
• Produce texts through a process of inquiry involving multiple research methods and theorize and explain their research choices. 
• Collaborate with others at all stages of a writing project, deepening their understanding of the relationship between collaboration and the writing process. 
• Understand language and writing as forms of social action that are shaped by—but can also intervene in—the production of social inequalities and social change.