The College of Arts & Sciences has added six new undergraduate majors to its catalog of nearly one hundred degree programs across the humanities, mathematical and computational sciences, natural sciences, and social sciences, creating even more opportunities for CAS undergraduates to find a program of study that caters to their individual intellectual interests and passions.
The new degree programs include:
- African American & Black Diaspora Studies
- Archaeological & Environmental Sciences
- Chemical Biology
- Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Studies
- Mathematics and Physics
- Science Education
“This year was a boom year. There was a lot of pent-up demand for new programs and revisions to existing ones,” said Joseph Bizup, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Academic Programs and Policies. “With the University graduating its first class to complete their degrees under the BU Hub, and with the pandemic thankfully receding, departments and programs had an opportunity to turn their attention to their majors and minors.”
The College of Arts and Sciences offers nearly 100 BA degree programs, along with 25 BA/Masters programs (BA/MA or BA/MS), and over 60 minors. The College continually creates new majors and minors—and also revises and sometimes retires existing ones—in response to the evolving interests of faculty and students, as well as in response to the changes within and among academic fields themselves.
Bizup said that several new majors—including the major in African American & Black Diaspora Studies and the major in Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Studies—reflect the maturation of programs that have long offered successful minors. Others—such as Archaeological & Environmental Sciences, Mathematics & Physics, and Chemical Biology—respond to the desire of faculty and students to explore interdisciplinary connections among established fields. Still others, such as the new major in Science Education, stem from the College’s efforts to understand and foster the interests and ambitions of its students.
Bizup said that several existing majors have also innovated in recent years, rethinking and revising their curricula in response to changing understandings of these fields. These include English, the History of Art and Architecture, Mathematics, and Religion, among others.
“The number and variety of our programs reflects not just our College’s scale and breadth but also the intellectual vibrancy of its faculty and students,” Bizup said. “Recognizing that some students studying biology, chemistry, or physics were attracted to careers in teaching, we collaborated with the Wheelock College of Education & Human Development to build a program to serve those students…. I’m very excited about all of these innovations, as are our faculty, and I expect that students will be excited and energized by them as well.”
African American & Black Diaspora Studies
The African American Studies Program at Boston University is more than 50 years old, but this will be the first year of the African American & Black Diaspora Studies major. Over the past five years, the African American Studies program has grown in its number of classes, faculty, and students. Now, thanks in large part to the leadership of Louis Chude-Sokei, Professor of English, George and Joyce Wein Chair In African American Studies, the program will offer a new major, in addition to an established minor.
“One of the things that I was focused on when I got here was to make it clear that African American studies has become one of the most influential disciplines in the humanities. Everything from issues of race and gender to immigration, sexuality, critical race theory, and antiracism—all of that was influenced by African American studies,” Chude-Sokei told BU Today. “It’s always been interested in Black peoples all over the world. But now the program is much more formally comparative, looking at different racial formations and experiences across the world. It’s also more interested in issues of gender, sexuality, and immigration.”
Archaeology & Environmental Science
The new interdisciplinary major in Archaeological and Environmental Sciences, the first of its kind in the United States, offers an “interdisciplinary toolkit for the study of human interactions with environments in the past,” said John Marston, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Archaeology Program. The major will encouarge students to examine the historical and ecological past to inspire new ways of thinking about the future of the planet, allowing students to “explore the origins of many of the environmental challenges faced by societies today and both successes and failures of people to address those challenges in the past and “delve into the study of both human and environmental history with the aim of gaining knowledge to improve the human condition,” Marston said.
Marston said the Archaeological & Environmental Sciences major grew out of an increasing student interest double majoring in the social and natural sciences. A large number of students who have recently completed degrees in Archaeology have second majors or minors in the natural and/or computational sciences, while a significant number of Earth & Environmental Sciences majors seek second majors or minors in the social sciences, including archaeology. There is also significant student interest across campus in questions of sustainability and the human role in environmental change.
For those students interested in biological phenomena at the molecular level who wish to pursue a BA in Chemistry, Arts & Sciences is launching a new specialization in Chemical Biology this fall. Students specializing in Chemical Biology will familiarize themselves with the fundamentals of chemistry before pursuing advanced courses in biophysical chemistry. The new major will offer students increased flexibility in their advanced coursework, allowing many course choices to complete the major. The chemical biology major at BU will be a unique opportunity for chemistry students, as many schools do not offer degrees in Chemical Biology. Graduates will also qualify for certification by the American Chemical Society.
Holocaust, Genocide & Human Rights Studies
This new major, offered through the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies, encourages students to examine writings by Holocaust survivors, while also focusing on other historical events since 1900, including the Armenian genocide of 1915, the Cambodian genocide, the 1994 Rwandan genocide and this century’s Sudan state-sanctioned murder of Darfurian civilians. The Holocaust & Genocide Studies minor originally launched in 2016 with an emphasis on studying human rights violations and historical atrocities as mirrors to present-day rights violations and conflicts.
Students interested in exploring the intersection of mathematics and physics can now pursue a BA in mathematics and physics focused on the application of mathematical tools to physical problems. Students will explore the interaction between the theoretical and the physical, taking classes in both the mathematics and physics departments. The Studies will focus on the core principles of each subject, as well as the interplay between theory and experimentation throughout history. The combination of these two majors will create an option accessible to a wide group of students with both mathematical and physical leanings. As new fields of mathematics draw heavily from theoretical physics, this overlap will allow students to apply physical concepts to new mathematical problems.
The College of Arts and Sciences’ new major in science education allows students to specialize in chemistry, biology, or physics while also taking classes in Wheelock and doing a practicum in a high school classroom, enabling them to graduate licensed to teach in Massachusetts. Binyomin Abrams, Research Associate Professor and Director of General Chemistry, said this major emerged out of interest from students hoping to become teachers, as well as from students looking for a short-term career before going to medical school or dental school. Many students interested in the program are learning assistants or peer plus mentors who discovered a passion for teaching.
“Having a very strongly scientifically literate populace is an incredibly important need in America today. The first line of defense is having great science teachers who will capture the imagination and interest of the next generation,” Abrams said. “What we’re trying to do is develop excited science teachers who will make excited science students who will make science part of their career path…. Whatever they become, we need more of that.”