| POINT OF REFERENCE | VOLUME 2, ISSUE
2
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Don’t Just Survive, Thrive! |
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Parents pushing for a business degree but you really love sociology? Aching to provide hands-on care for survivors of catastrophes like Hurricane Katrina? Fascinated by philosophy but enjoy coaching? Worried you’ll regret the road not taken? An interdisciplinary major or minor just might provide the optimal means to explore many roads. This issue of Point of Reference introduces several interdisciplinary study program areas. For more information on these and other interdisciplinary programs, go to the Fredonia homepage and choose Browse programs. You may also contact the program coordinators directly (see the expanded online version for direct links or stop by the Learning Center, 4th Floor, Reed Library for further information. |
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Links to Majors: American Studies |
Students in the Interdisciplinary Studies programs are committed to exploring innovative connections and emerging relationships drawn from the traditional disciplines and those developing areas of overlap and interface. These students are typically explorers and creative problem solvers, and many Interdisciplinary Studies students construct their own topics of study (for either major or minor) using analytical approaches and tools from several fields. |
Links to Minors: African American
Studies |
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Women's Studies involves the interdisciplinary study of gender in its many manifestations. While most of our attention is focused on the way gender positions women in particular kinds of roles, we also explore how gender affects men since the two are so interrelated. Interdisciplinary courses of study are great opportunities for all students, since they enable them to analyze their subjects using a wide variety of academic interests. This is perfect for "experienced" students such as transfers, nontraditional and international students, since each of these kinds of students will bring to our classrooms a wide variety of interests and experiences. Women's Studies classrooms bring together questions that combine sociology, economics, history, psychology, political science, biology, the arts, literature, and cultural and media studies more generally, as we explore shifting ideas about gender and culture, both in the United States and transnationally. Our program is particularly concerned with how women's lives are connected across national boundaries and traditions. We analyze subjects such as women's representations in the media, how economic globalization affects women in particular, women's health options transnationally, women and politics, women in the arts, and how medical and social history have shaped women's relationships with their bodies. Women's Studies minors have found their academic experience useful in finding work in nonprofit organizations that combat domestic violence, women's health organizations, public research firms, and student personnel management. Our students have also gone on to graduate programs in history, law, literature and advanced work in gender and women's studies. |
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The African American Studies minor is a 21-credit program that provides an interdisciplinary investigation of the origins, experiences, conditions, accomplishments, and contributions of people of African ancestry in the Americas. The program is designed for all students who want to deepen their understanding of African Americans by studying their earlier history in Africa, their transition to the New World, and their diasporic experiences in the Americas. The program also seeks to promote new ways of thinking about race, culture and social representation from different perspectives–notably, historical, literary, sociological, anthropological, psychological and artistic. For more information, contact Dr. Saundra Liggins, 264 Fenton hall, 673-3858, AfricanAmerican.Studies@fredonia.edu. |
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