Anthropology / Sociology Department Minors

Anthropology / Sociology Minor

PEAKS | Social Science & History |

The Anthropology / Sociology minor enables students to understand culture and society as a mosaic of diverse, overlapping groups, memberships, values and traditions, each contributing to a larger global matrix that is continuously being reformulated.

The minor consists of 15 credits, to be approved in consultation with the Anthropology/Sociology department and the major advisor, and must include:

Student Learning Outcomes:

  • Critical Thinking
  • Analytical Reasoning
  • Problem Solving
  • Understand major historical developments, theoretical approaches, substantive fields, methods, and bodies of research in Anthropology and/or Sociology
  • Express orally and in writing complex ideas and positions from the Anthropological and/or Sociological perspectives
  • Prepare each student to be an informed, involved citizen and to work successfully with culturally and socially diverse local, regional, national and international groups.

Human Services Minor

PEAKS | Professional Studies & Enhancements |

The Anthropology/Sociology Department offers the Human Services minor in the Professional Enhancement PEAK to help students, along with their major, prepare for a career in the human, or social, services.

The Human Service Minor consists of 15 credits, to be approved in consultation with the Anthropology/Sociology department and the major advisor, and must include:

Student Learning Outcomes

  • Critical Thinking
  • Analytical Reasoning
  • Problem Solving
  • Written Communication
  • Prepare each student to be an informed, involved citizern and to work successfully with culturally and socially diverse local, regional, national and international groups
    to assist students to prepare for a career, if they so desire, in the human, or social, services

Associated Minors

Criminal Justice Studies Minor

PEAKS | Humanities & Fine Arts | Social Science & History | Professional Studies & Enhancements |

The Criminal Justice Studies (CJS) minor offers a distinctly liberal arts approach to the burgeoning field of criminal justice studies. This program offers students the opportunity to investigate the field from a number of disciplinary perspectives. The Prison Experience capstone course, during which students visit a variety of adult and juvenile facilities, provides direct contact with prisons, insights into prison life, and the means by which students can enter the field. The internship option provides additional valuable experience in regional facilities, forging connections for future employment

This minor requires 17 credits.

Social Science & History PEAK

Humanities & Fine Arts PEAK

 

Professional Studies & Enhancement PEAK

*Six weeks before graduation, students will submit a portfolio of relevant work completed for the minor, such as exams and papers, including a two-page essay describing important academic lessons and skills acquired in this minor.

Student Learning Outcomes

  • Critical thinking about the field from a number of disciplinary perspectives
  • Analytical reasoning applied to crime- and prison-related arguments
  • Problem solving in regards to social, political economy, and humanitarian issues
  • Written communication through intensive journals, research and response papers
  • First-hand experience visiting adult & juvenile correctional facilities
  • Opportunities to explore criminal justice-related professions

International Development Minor

PEAKS | Social Science & History |

The International Development minor is designed for students interested in development and related issues such as economic growth, poverty, globalization, culture change, and political order. Grounded in the discipline of Political Economy, this minor is an excellent field for students interested in how society organizes itself through government, the market, and non-governmental actors. As a minor program, it is a useful complement to other major and minors in the Humanities, Natural Sciences, and Professional Studies. Students with primary interests in this topic should consider the International Political Economy major. The minor consists of 16 credits, inclusive of a 1 credit Independent Study course in ATH-494 or POE-494 in which students complete a starred paper.

This minor consists of:

*To complete the minor students must also revise a paper written in one of the minor courses as a starred paper and submit it to all faculty members who service the minor. This non-credit requirement is to demonstrate satisfactory research and writing abilities within the minor.

Student Learning Outcomes:

  • Critical Thinking
  • Analytical Reasoning
  • Problem Solving
  • Written Communication
  • Assist students to distinguish development from economic growth and to appreciate its conceptual and theoretical complexity. Assist students to understand the political-economic and cultural dimensions of development approaches and policies.
  • Assist students to understand development through cross-cultural comparison.

Latin American Studies Minor

PEAKS | Social Science & History |

Latin America is a region composed of over twenty nations that have played a critical role in shaping the history of the modern world. Today, the region is home to over half a billion people who are the descendents of American Indians, Europeans, Africans, Asians, and Middle-Easterners. Economically and politically, Latin America is intimately tied to the United States and is significant to contemporary global society. The Latin American Studies program in the Social Sciences and History PEAK encourages students to broaden their knowledge of the complex and diverse cultures and history of Latin America through an interdisciplinary approach that integrates Anthropology and History. This approach allows students to examine various themes that encompass and expand upon these disciplines and encourages the exploration of contemporary and historical social, cultural, economic, and political trends.

Although it is not required, students are encouraged to select an advisor who will guide the student's choice of courses toward a diverse experience in the minor. Overseas study immersion experiences are strongly encouraged, as is involvement in the local Latino/a community through internships or volunteer experiences. Students are strongly encouraged to complete 12 of the 16 credits required before the semester of their graduation.

*Six weeks before graduation, students will submit a portfolio of relevant work completed, such as exams and papers. In around 1000, but no more than 1500 words, students will complete an assessment of the most important academic lessons learned and skills acquired during their course of study. The evaluation must also provide an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of the LAS PEAK. The portfolio will not be graded but it is required for completion of the minor.

Student Learning Outcomes

  • Critical Thinking
  • Analytical Reasoning
  • Problem Solving
  • Written Communication
  • Additionally, students completing the Latin American Studies Minor will:
    • Develop broad knowledge of the diverse cultures and history of Latin America
    • Have opportunities to explore contemporary and historical social, cultural, economic, and political trends of Latin America
    • Familiarize themselves with basic anthropological and historical approaches and methods regarding the study of Latin America

Visual Studies Minor

PEAKS | Humanities & Fine Arts | Social Science & History |

Visual studies, sometimes also known as visual culture studies, seeks to understand the many ways that we see, and are made to see, the world, and the role that visual images play. While such imagery includes works of art, it also encompasses the imagery of movies, plays, advertisements, scientific illustrations, political posters, fashion, pornography, comics, graphic novels, WebPages, YouTube and many other areas of visual culture.

Students of visual studies analyze how the design of images (that is, their use of formal elements such as line, shape, value, texture and color), the combinations of text and image, how the media disseminates them, their sequential arrangements (in the case of narrative imagery), their choice of foci, affects our interpretation of them.

Understanding iconography--that is, the set of symbolic meanings that we attach to images-- is also important as this frequently reflects socio-political dynamics, religious beliefs, gender norms, ideals of morality etc. The latter point relates to the very important question that students of visual studies ask: For whom was the image made and why? That is, when someone makes an image they invariably do so, either consciously or not, with assumptions about the social, gender or cultural identity of the viewer. This vital point unites the study of visual imagery in art, theatre and movie history, and in the fields of psychology and anthropology.

The minor consists of 16 credits. The minor must include courses drawn from the social sciences and the arts and humanities, but students may take it as an Humanities & Fine Arts PEAK or a Social Science & History PEAK, depending on the relative weighting of the courses chosen.

Humanities & Fine Arts PEAK

Social Science & History PEAK

*ART-494 / MUS-494 / THE-494 to be undertaken at the conclusion of the student's coursework for the minor. It is to consist of an exemplary paper/project produced for a course making up the minor, a self-assessment of that paper, and an essay that pulls together the common threads linking all the courses taken, reflecting on the insights generated during the completion of the minor. While it is an account of the student's personal intellectual and emotional growth, it must conform to the accepted standards of academic writing. The essay should be submitted to the designated Visual Studies Minor advisor who will assign the grade. In the event that some of the material is outside the expertise of the advisor, he or she may consult colleagues who teach courses fulfilling the visual studies requirement.

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