Student Learning Outcomes by Concentration

Africana Studies

Students Will Learn to:

• Apply at least two disciplinary lenses of analysis that focus on a specific aspect of the life experiences of people of African descent (for example in written/digital assignments, performative or oral presentations)
• Explain, verbally and/or in writing, the interrelationships among people from sub-Saharan Africa, the United States, the Caribbean, Latin America, or other parts of the African diaspora in two or more of the following areas: linguistic, intellectual, political, economic, or cultural
• Define and provide examples of colonization, decolonization, Black liberation/power movements and their legacies
• Explain, verbally and/or in writing, the concept of intersectionality via specific connections with race, ethnicity, class, and gender
• Explain the goals of one or more current social justice initiatives involving people of African descent in the United States and globally

American Studies

Students Will Learn to:

• Apply different approaches to the academic studies of the Americas
• Appraise diverse sets of evidence including both primary and secondary sources
• Communicate clearly, coherently, and effectively

Anthropology

Students Will Learn to:

• Identify disciplinary fundamentals from multiple sub-disciplinary perspectives
• Interpret anthropological themes from a critical perspective
• Combine practice and methodology through research design
• Apply disciplinary theoretical perspective(s) in an original research project
• Create anthropological knowledge for and with multiple communities

Art

Students Will Learn to:

• Construct meaning using visual information
• Demonstrate a knowledge of the basic tools and techniques of new and traditional media
• Analyze their studio processes by diagramming the stages in creative thinking
• Use critique to formulate and build personal direction
• Generate a public exhibition

Art History

Students Will Learn to:

• Analyze material and visual culture and/or the built environment as a form of visual literacy
• Apply art historical and interdisciplinary methods of analysis to the study of material and visual culture and/or the built environment
• Draw connections between the past and present to illuminate the relevance of both
• Identify how particular scholarly discourses and practices have contributed to social, structural, and institutional hierarchies in art history’s own history

Asian Studies

Students Will Learn to:

• Engage life world of an Asian culture (assessed during senior project oral presentation)
• Conduct multidisciplinary research on Asia (assessed during senior project oral presentation)
• Communicate research findings through oral expression (assessed during senior project oral presentation)

Biochemistry/Molecular Biology

Students Will Learn to:

• Evaluate the scientific literature and other forms of professional communications in biochemistry and molecular biology
• Solve problems at the interfaces of chemistry and biology using scientific reasoning
• Communicate fundamental concepts of biochemistry and molecular biology to both expert and layperson in writing and oral presentations

Biology

Students Will Learn to:

• Analyze and interpret original and published biological data
• Apply the scientific method in a way that demonstrates comprehension
• Communicate effectively about fundamental biological concepts using scientific language

Chemistry

Students Will Learn to:

• Apply scientific reasoning to explain chemical phenomena as evidenced by performance on a standardized exam (breadth of chemical reasoning)
• Demonstrate the ability to conduct a sustained research project (chemical research)
• Communicate chemistry’s impact on society with attention to ethics and inequities in science from which science policy decisions are made (impact of chemistry)

Cinema and Media Studies

Students Will Learn to:

• Analyze films and other media, regardless of genre, context, language, and geographical origin, for their structure, approach, goals, social and political implications, and aesthetics
• Apply knowledge of the overall development and history of cinema and media, from a global perspective, in written and spoken work
• Produce creative work in forms employed in cinema and media studies
• Demonstrate knowledge of contexts, outside of the specific focus of media, within which cinema and media studies play a role

Classics

Students Will Learn to:

• Analyze sources, whether textual or material, in their social and historical contexts
• Demonstrate comprehension of texts written in the target language (Ancient Greek or Latin)
• Compose original scholarly arguments using appropriate research methods and types of evidence
• Critically engage with the discipline's history
• Productively juxtapose the classical past with modernity

Computer Science

Dance and Movement Studies

Students will learn to:

• Learn the fundamentals of movement through coursework in technique 
• Develop a vocabulary enabling them to analyze, discuss, and write about a wide range of dance and movement practices 
• Apply these concepts and principles in performance and the creation of original work including in solo and group performance, choreography, and improvisation
• Develop an understanding of dance and movement in a broader cultural context

Data Science

Students will learn to:

• Gain proficiency in the data life cycle: creation, curation, documentation, analysis, and communication.
• Apply data science tools to real world problems and produce well documented and reproducible analyses.
• Understand the social and ethical impact of the tools used in data science.

East Asian Languages and Literatures

Students Will Learn to:

• Write in the target language at the academic level 
• Present ideas orally  in the target language at the academic level
• Discuss East Asian literature and culture in both English and the target language
• Analyze East Asian cultural production in both English and the target language

Economics

Students Will Learn to:

• Design a research plan to address an economic question
• Competently implement a research plan
• Communicate findings from the research plan

Environmental Studies

Students will learn to:

• Explain the causes of, impacts of, and potential solutions to climate change
• Analyze how history, power, and identity shape environmental justice
• Apply appropriate research methods to answer a research question about a pressing environmental problem

French and Francophone Studies

Students Will Learn to:

• Communicate effectively in oral and written French
• Construct interpretive arguments about a variety of works, and/or historical or contemporary events from areas of the world in which French is spoken
• Research and present clear results in written and spoken form

Geoarchaeology

Students Will Learn to:

• Engage with disciplinary fundamentals from anthropological archaeology
• Engage with disciplinary fundamentals from geosciences
• Combine practice and methodology through research design
• Apply disciplinary perspective(s) in an original research project

Geosciences

Students Will Learn to:

• Evaluate, using reliable sources, the current state of knowledge, major controversies, and unknowns about a geoscience topic
• Collect appropriate data to solve geologic problems 
• Defend arguments with evidence
• Effectively communicate to a variety of audiences the geological ideas and data that inform decision-making involving geoscience issues 

German, Russian, Italian, and Arabic

German Studies students will learn to:

• communicate effectively in written and oral German
• demonstrate understanding of the literary, historical, and political events and works that shape German culture and society 
• conduct multidisciplinary research in German Studies 

 

Russian Studies students will learn to:

• communicate, both orally and in writing, with native and near-native Russian speakers on a variety of non-technical topics
• paraphrase unabridged Russian texts, including internet sites 
• conduct multidisciplinary research in Russian Studies 
• lead a substantive conversation about the literary, historical, and political events and works that shape Russian culture  

Government

Students Will Learn to:

• Make reasonable inferences from data and evidence in order to draw logical conclusions about historical and contemporary political phenomena
• Effectively communicate ideas in clear writing
• Use foundational principles of political science to plan and carry out independent research
• Consider alternative perspectives in order to respond to counter-arguments

Hispanic Studies

Students will learn to:

• demonstrate oral proficiency in Spanish.
• demonstrate written proficiency in Spanish.
• utilize their curricular studies of the Spanish language and Hispanic cultures through experiential learning.
• demonstrate disciplinary practice by producing literary/film criticism that argues an original thesis.

History

Students Will Learn to:

• Summarize historiographical debates within and across disciplinary subfields
• Select and analyze historical evidence
• Create a clear, specific, coherent historical argument

Jewish Studies

• Students will learn to understand the breadth and variety of Jewish Culture and history across many cultures, from the Middle East and within the Islamicate, to Europe and the Americas, and as far afield as the Far East and South Asia as well as Oceania.
• Students will gain a foundational understanding of the ancient roots and sources of Jewish life and thought, and then of the Jewish people's dispersion across lands and continents, and their later development of a wide variety of cultural and linguistic expressions and worlds.
• Students will be able to take courses in a number of cultural expressions, including but not confined to Jewish literature and history, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, government, religion, and psychology.
• Students will have opportunities to pursue both breadth and depth by working with faculty on research projects as well as taking a variety of courses. They will become familiar with multiple methods and disciplines that address a wide variety of aspects of Jewish thought and history.

Literature and Creative Writing

Literature Students Will Learn to:

• Write clear and well supported arguments about literary and/or other cultural texts
• Demonstrate knowledge of diverse literary traditions across historical periods, geographic regions, and/or social contexts
• Analyze literary works compellingly in contexts informed by literary criticism and/or broader regions, and/or social contexts

Creative Writing Students Will Learn to:

• Write with an awareness of the literary traditions within which they are working
• Write with attentiveness to form and genre
• Write a sustained creative project that demonstrates originality and attention to language

Mathematics and Statistics

Students Will Learn to:

• Use mathematical and/or statistical tools to model real-world problems
• Construct mathematical proofs based on rules of logical inference
• Communicate complete mathematical and/or statistical arguments

Music

Students Will Learn to:

• Demonstrate active listening skills from among a wide variety of musical experiences and practices
• Make links between various musical styles and their historical and cultural contexts
• Demonstrate proficiency in various theories of music
• Display skills in making music through performance, composition, recording, or production

Neuroscience

Philosophy

Students Will Learn to:

• Explain a range of philosophical views, historical and contemporary
• Identify philosophical problems in philosophy, other academic disciplines, or outside the academy
• Formulate their own views about philosophical problems in conversation with other philosophical works
• Defend those views cogently in writing and in speech

Physics

Students Will Learn to:

• Exhibit broad understanding in foundational physics
• Use foundational physics to analyze a diverse set of complex problems
• Demonstrate skills for experimental physics
• Demonstrate skills in technical communication

Psychology

Students will learn to:

• Explain how behavior and the mind are shaped by a variety of factors (e.g., biological, sociocultural)
• Evaluate sources, evidence, and psychological theories critically
• Employ appropriate research methods and statistics to address novel psychological questions ethically
• Communicate ideas clearly and concisely, demonstrating awareness of both disciplinary conventions and the target audience

Public Policy

Students Will Learn to:

• Understand the ethical dimensions of policy decisions and the justice implications of policy research
• Communicate clearly and persuasively about public policy issues in their own research
• Engage with stakeholders and policy makers as interns and researchers
• Establish a foundation for professional work in policy science and policy making

Religious Studies

Sociology

Students Will Learn to:

• Apply core sociological concepts to explain/interrogate social phenomena
• Employ one or more sociological methods in hands-on independent research
• Describe an array of diverse human experiences

Theatre

Students Will Learn to:

• Exhibit competence in production/design of theatre
• Exhibit competence in acting/directing of theatrical performances
• Analyze plays/productions as aesthetic/cultural productions related to institutional and social hierarchies

Women's and Gender Studies

Students Will Learn to:

• Explain the connections between the pedagogy of feminism to the methodology and varying practices of the subject
• Demonstrate the connections between the history of feminism to contemporary theory, practice and activism
• Critique the use of contemporary theories of intersectionality, interdisciplinarity and transnationality in feminist studies
• Apply a range of feminist methodologies and theories in research and writing
• Demonstrate knowledge of theories in academic feminism with the social orders and structures in which we live