Liberal Studies Major

The Liberal Studies Major (LSM) is an optional double major program that sharpens your competitive edge by enhancing your ability to think analytically, critically, and creatively.

You will pair the LSM with a primary major in a business discipline or one of the arts and sciences majors requiring a significant business component; you will be able to earn both majors in the same four years. The LSM helps you increase the value of and create meaning from your liberal arts education by combining required courses in the general education curriculum with arts and science electives, as well as some business electives under specific themes or concentrations.

The major differs significantly from traditional liberal arts majors — such as history, philosophy, or political science — that drill deep within a particular field of study. Instead, the LSM explores important themes that cut across many disciplines of the arts and sciences, such as ethics and social responsibility, global perspectives, media arts and society, and issues related to the environment. It offers breadth with coherence.

Goals and Objectives

One of the central goals of the LSM is that, by pursuing this course of study, you will be able to make connections across courses and disciplines that are relevant to your chosen concentration. In addition, you will be able to analytically reflect on and meaningfully discuss choices and insights within the LSM. You also will be able to write coherently about your choices and insights within the program, as well as articulate connections between the LSM and your primary major or co-curricular activities.

Concentrations

The LSM encompasses seven distinct concentrations:

American Studies

A concentration in American Studies offers students the opportunity to explore the cultural, historical, and political life of the United States and its place in the world through a multidisciplinary program of study. American Studies complements a major in business by providing the context needed to make informed decisions and exercise effective leadership in a complex global environment. In addition to the intellectual breadth that it adds to a business education, a concentration in American Studies prepares students for a variety of careers (e.g., law, public relations, government and public policy, nonprofit administration, journalism, teaching, school administration, etc.) and provides a solid foundation for graduate study in business, law, political science, public policy, history and many other fields in the arts and sciences.

Earth, Environment and Global Sustainability

Our Earth’s environmental issues and the sustainability of its resources provide one of the biggest challenges for the foreseeable future. Scientific and technological solutions to environmental problems will be dependent on economic, political, and social constructs that will require global cooperation. This concentration provides you with a background in Earth or environmental systems, together with global perspectives on the challenges of sustainable development.

Ethics and Social Responsibility

As a future business professional, you will have to understand and be prepared to deal with many issues concerning ethics and social responsibility in both work and life. The Ethics and Social Responsibility concentration is grounded in philosophy and designed to give you the opportunity for in-depth study of these issues from theoretical, practical, and cross-disciplinary perspectives.

Global Perspectives

Success in today’s interconnected society requires that you have a firm understanding of the global economy, as well as the distinct regions and cultures of the world. You also must understand diverse ways of thinking, communicating, acting, doing business, and governing. This concentration gives you a foundation in global perspectives that has the potential to cut across an array of disciplines and/or geographic areas.

Health and Industry

This concentration allows you to explore the broad implications of health from a core course in human biology through its multifaceted applications to individuals, industry, and society. You will explore scientific and humanistic aspects of human biology, psychology, health and disease that impact personal development, health, and wellness.

In this concentration, you will develop interdisciplinary skills that can help you in careers such as biopharmaceutical development, health care product or service marketing, health plan or benefit administration, management of health care providers and institutions, and finance of health care and biopharmaceutical companies.

Media Arts and Society

Grounded in English study with a cultural studies approach, the Media Arts and Society concentration aims to engage you in critical discourse about the uses and effects of modern media, increase knowledge about media technology, and encourage creative thinking through the use of such media. This concentration’s hands-on component allows you to work with video, graphic design, digital photography, and sound design in creative ways.

Quantitative Perspectives

The liberally educated person knows how to be a critical thinker, and a critical thinker asks good questions. To take a quantitative perspective on the world means that the questions we form can be best be answered with some analytical thinking about real data or theoretical models. This concentration emphasizes ways to make connections between quantitative analysis and other disciplines, which differs significantly from a traditional math major or minor.