This comprehensive survey of American culture not only explores American history and literature, but also incorporates anthropology, political science, religion, and art. In the Junior Seminar, students gain highly transferable theoretical and methodological skills necessary for understanding American culture and conducting independent research. Majors complete an independent research project, assembled from at least two disciplines of their choosing, during the first semester of senior year. A track in Africana and African American studies provides a focused study of the importance of race and of the experiences of people of African descent in the development of American society.

In this program, students focus on cultures all over the world and throughout history in courses as varied as Human Evolution and Variation, the Anthropology of Gender, Medical Anthropology, and Power and Violence. During junior year, majors undertake the Junior Tutorial and are strongly encouraged to study abroad.

Archaeology students have identified more than 200 prehistoric and historic archaeological sites on the University’s Domain and have worked on digs in a number of other countries.

Arabic is offered for those who wish to acquire both a reading and a basic speaking knowledge of the language. Can fulfill the language requirement for International and Global Studies majors but does not count as one of the eight distributed electives needed for the major and not expected at this time to lead toward fulfillment of the general distribution requirement for foreign language study.

In a world increasingly shaped by images and the exchange of visual information, exploring art and art history can significantly enrich a liberal arts education. Art history majors study the major styles and periods of art from both social and aesthetic perspectives. Students receive a broad, chronological overview of Western art history and later choose an area of special interest: Ancient/Medieval, Renaissance/Baroque, or Modern/American.

The art major focuses on technical, aesthetic, and critical aspects of making and exhibiting art. As part of their comprehensive examination, art majors prepare and present a portfolio, show work in the senior exhibit, and compose an artist’s statement.

Focusing on both the traditional and the dynamic, students learn about Asia’s most historically relevant religions, customs, and schools of thought—Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, family structure, symbolism, language, and conventional ethics—in conjunction with Asia’s modern culture: economy, music, art, and film.

All Asian studies majors study abroad. Most attend institutions in Tokyo, Japan; Beijing, Harbin, Hangzhou, or Nanjing, China; or Hanoi, Vietnam.

Students in this interdisciplinary field explore life’s molecular building blocks and the intersections of biology and chemistry. Majors complete six required courses in biology and chemistry, then choose electives from such courses as Cell Biology, Organic Chemistry, Thermodynamics and Kinetics, Genetics, Immunology, Microbiology, Environmental Physiology and Biochemistry of Animals, Inorganic Chemistry, Chemical Analysis, and Advanced Biochemistry.

Science students pursue their work in Spencer Hall, Sewanee’s new, LEED-certified $22 million science facility.

Professors emphasize direct involvement in the scientific method, encouraging students to learn through experience and experiment. The program is classroom- and lab-intensive, combining a broad academic foundation in general biology with ample opportunities for research in specific areas of interest. Student research areas have included seasonal hormone cycles of the Eastern red-spotted newt, biodiversity changes in soil, and effects of herbicides on human cervical cells.

Because Sewanee focuses on undergraduates, biology majors have unmatched opportunities to collaborate with faculty researchers on projects. Each year, undergraduates present their research at conferences and publish in scientific journals. For example, Valerie Moye published “Habitat suitability analysis for mountain lions” in Southeastern Naturalist in collaboration with Dr. Jon Evans and Nick Hollingshead.

The William P. Carey Pre-Business Program believes a liberal arts education—fostering understanding of human behavior, cultures, and ethics—is an ideal foundation for a business career.

Business minors major in another field—such as economics, environmental studies, international and global studies, or theatre arts—to achieve a career objective. Those interested in a graduate business degree will be well prepared. Offerings drawn from several departments include an accounting sequence, microeconomic theory, money and banking, financial markets, industrial psychology, business
ethics, and several math and statistics courses.

Business minors choose one of three tracks: managerial, international, or finance. The finance track covers all topics on the Chartered Financial Analysts exam, making this concentration especially relevant for students who plan to take the exam or pursue graduate studies.

Chemistry is often called the “central science” because it interfaces with physics, biology, forestry, geology, and other fields, making instruction useful for both majors and nonmajors. Students explore the composition, structure, properties, and transformation of matter, as well as the major chemistry topics: physical chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, analytical chemistry, and inorganic chemistry.

To major in chemistry, students complete eight core courses in math, physics, and chemistry and choose electives from such courses as Environmental Chemistry, Chemistry and Art, the Science of Food and Cooking, Thermodynamics and Kinetics, and Quantum Chemistry and Spectroscopy.

Extensive off-campus opportunities enrich students’ course work. For example, Stephanie Owens spent six weeks at the Nuclear Summer Schools at Brookhaven National Lab in New York last summer; Dani Barker interned for Targacept in North Carolina; and a group of professors and students attended the 235th National American Chemical Society Meeting and Exposition in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The University offers four semesters of Chinese, sufficient to satisfy the college's foreign language requirement. Although a major or minor in Chinese  is not currently offered, students may participate in study-abroad programs in China to extend their study of Chinese and to explore Chinese society. Further study of topics bearing on Chinese culture and history can be undertaken through coursework offered in the Asian Studies Program.

Following the premise that a thorough and nuanced understanding of Greece and Rome and the formation of Western civilization can only be achieved through knowledge of the ancient languages, Sewanee offers a major in Greek, in Latin, and in classical languages.

Apart from the intellectual discipline, many students benefit from study of the foundational languages of the legal and medical professions and the hard sciences.

Students read ancient authors and modern works bearing on the languages, literatures, and civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome and are tested on those readings during the comprehensive examination.

The University is a member of the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome, and majors are encouraged to spend a semester studying there.

The world has come to depend on a rapid rate of technological evolution, and computer science majors are in great demand. This program instills a deep understanding of the science, mathematics, art, and social forces behind computer science, with electives as diverse as Graphics, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Networking, Functional Programming, and Programming Languages. Majors complete nine core courses and three electives and deliver a final presentation.

Cocurricular opportunities in the department include a National Science Foundation-sponsored initiative for undergraduate research in software development.

Any undergraduate, regardless of the major field of study, may earn a bachelor’s degree (B.A. or B.S.) with a Certificate in Creative Writing noted on the transcript by taking designated courses.

Students delve into all facets of economic activity: its development, problems and trends, and public and private institutions. Ten courses in economics, mathematics, and statistics form the core of the major, and students also choose five electives from such classes as Growth Theory and History of Economic Thought; Women, Family, and Work in the Muslim World; and Economics of Social Issues.

The program’s scope is broad to suit the needs of students with diverse career interests, and graduates go on to programs in economics, business administration, and law as well as careers in public administration, international relations, environmental protection, health care, social work, and education.

Students in the Education Department conduct research, tutor, practice teaching, and participate in schools in Franklin, Grundy, and Marion counties. Education courses are active learning and service experiences focused on human learning and development, various materials and methodologies, and the contexts, cultures, and purposes of education.

Working with a local teacher network, students also gain leadership experience through advocating for student and community development.

The minor in education is excellent preparation for post-baccalaureate and graduate programs. The minor includes 20 hours of course work in educational psychology, materials and methods, issues and innovations, anthropology, history, special education, children’s literature, and more.

An agreement with Peabody College of Education at Vanderbilt allows students to complete master’s degree and teaching licensure requirements in as little as three semesters.

Sewanee’s challenging pre-engineering curriculum provides students with a solid foundation in math and science and readies them for graduate work. The program produces students with the background, technical skills, social awareness, and discerning judgment necessary for advanced study in any engineering concentration.

The University collaborates with Columbia University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Vanderbilt University, and Washington University in St. Louis to combine the liberal arts and engineering curricula. In this track (called the 3/2 program), students end up receiving two baccalaureate degrees after studying for three years at Sewanee and two years in the engineering institution. Incoming students interested in the 3/2 program generally complete two semesters each of physics, chemistry, and mathematics during their freshman year.

With rich and varied literary and writing courses, this program transforms students into close readers, insightful critics, and superior writers. Students analyze classical, medieval, British, American, Irish, African American, and modern literature; may select from a range of courses in major authors, special topics, or the practice of journalism; and try their hands at composing plays, songs, poems, and short stories under the tutelage of regular professors as well as noted visiting writers.

English majors with an average of 3.5 or better in their final semester may, at the discretion of the chair, enroll in the English Tutorial, which culminates in a major essay that is a step toward departmental honors. Past English Tutorial essays have included such topics as the intersections of William Blake’s visual and literary aesthetics, the legacy of Ovid in Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor and Twelfth Night, and the poetry of mourning in the 17th century.

English majors are immersed in the University’s historic and esteemed literary tradition. Sewanee is home to both the Sewanee Review, the country’s oldest continuously published literary quarterly, and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, a yearly two-week gathering of writers that has included Pulitzer, Bollingen, and Nobel prize winners.

With the growing field of “green economy,” graduates versed in modern, environmentally friendly approaches to life and business are in great demand. Students in this program—which offers majors in environmental policy, ecology and biodiversity, natural resources and the environment, or environmental chemistry— examine environmental issues and conduct research at local, national, and international levels. Students draw on the unparalleled physical resources available in Sewanee’s living laboratory, which embraces 13,000 acres of forested landholdings.

Eleven courses are required for each major, including Introduction to Environmental Studies, a biology laboratory, an introductory forestry or geology course, and a senior capstone course.

Students begin the program with four weeks of intensive study at Sewanee in the summer, then two weeks in the north of England (York or Durham) and six weeks in Oxford. Subsequently, one group travels to a variety of medieval or Renaissance sites on the European continent, while the other focuses on the roots of classical civilization in Italy, Greece, and Turkey.

This program offers two tracks: film theory, which encompasses analysis of film history, genre, and national culture, as well as an appreciation for film production; and film production, which centers on film and video preparation but also covers film theory.

Six courses are completed for the minor, with such electives as Introduction to Three- and Four-Dimensional Media, Introduction to World Cinema, Reel Politics, American Animation, and The Films of Alfred Hitchcock.

Students—who can major in either forestry or geology—learn about forested ecosystems, geology, and how the two systems affect each other. Offerings available to both majors and nonmajors include environmentally applicable coursework in hydrology, forest ecology, tropical forestry, resource management, and natural resource policy.

Both majors emphasize an interdisciplinary study of the natural world and the interrelationships between geological and forest ecological processes.

Excellent forest and geological exposures on the University’s Domain and its environs are the focus of both lab and field study. Courses include Forestry Ecology, Natural Resource Management, Issues and Policies, and Physical Geology.

French majors take seven full upper-level French courses, including Introduction to Literature of the French Speaking World, and complete at least a semester in a French-speaking country.

French Studies majors complete six courses in the language, history, culture, and society of France and of other Francophone countries, including the senior research tutorial, and study abroad for at least a semester. In addition to advanced language classes, students can enroll in such courses as Medieval Europe, History of French Cinema, and Peoples and Cultures of Africa.

Students practice frequently: they speak French at the Table Française (lunch on Mondays at McClurg), in the Maison Français, at the SUT for French films, and in the hallways of Gailor Hall.

Students gain fluency and advanced reading comprehension; study prominent works of German literature in their original language; and examine Germany’s history, culture, politics, and contemporary society. Majors complete eight upper-level courses and study abroad in Germany, Austria, or Switzerland. Course offerings include Advanced Conversation and Problem Solving, Kafka and His Times, The Nazi Period, and Literature and Culture of Fairy Tales.

Students in the department have access to the German House—which offers housing and cultural events—exchange programs, scholarships through the Federation of German-American clubs, and internships in Germany.

Students choose one of four concentrations: United States, Europe, Great Britain, and Africa/Asia/Latin America. Majors complete five courses in the concentration, four courses outside the concentration (including one course in African, Asian, or Latin American history), and Junior Tutorial. Offerings include Early Modern Cities, History of Japan, Women in U.S. History, and The Art of War.

Sewanee’s history professors boast remarkably different purviews, with concentrations in the history of women, medieval Europe, Russia and the Far East, Southern Africa, Latin America and the colonization of the New World, 19th- and 20th-century pop culture, politics and the military, African Americans in America, and economics and society during and after the Reconstruction, among others.

The Interdisciplinary Humanities Program is a sequence of four chronologically arranged courses, ordinarily intended for freshmen and sophomores, which introduces the cultural history of the Western world. The program is team-taught, with joint lectures for all students and smaller discussion sections. It focuses on major phenomena in Western arts, literature, history, philosophy, and religion.

Students choose between an area studies concentration, which focuses on a particular region and its relationship to the rest of the world, and a global studies concentration, which focuses on the interconnection of different nations’ economic, political, and cultural systems.

The program features nine tracks: Africa, the Francophone World, Germany, the Hispanic World, Latin America, Russia, Asian Studies, Global Relations, and International Development.

Italian is offered for those who wish to acquire both a reading and a basic speaking knowledge of the language. In addition to being inherently interesting, the study of Italian language is excellent preparation for the popular study abroad programs in Italy. Only four semesters of Italian are offered; therefore, it is not possible to major or minor in Italian. It is, however, possible to satisfy the college's foreign language requirement with Italian 301.

The University offers four semesters of Japanese, sufficient to satisfy the college's foreign language requirement. Although a major or minor in Japanese is not currently offered, students may participate in study-abroad programs in Japan to extend their study of Japanese and to explore Japanese society. Further study of topics bearing on Japanese culture and history can be undertaken through coursework offered in the Asian Studies Program.

Sewanee—with its Writing Across the Curriculum program and broad liberal arts focus—produces sought-after law school candidates who can draw on an inclusive education, assemble ideas, prepare persuasive arguments, and express those arguments in writing with creativity and grace.

The Association of American Law Schools does not mandate specific undergraduate courses in preparation for graduate law study, but students interested in law are strongly urged to take courses in Anglo-American history and constitutional development, political theory, economics, and logic.

These courses introduce students to the organization, collections, and services of an academic library and enables them to become more competent in finding, evaluating, and using electronic and traditional print resources in the social sciences. The Internet, CD-ROMs, and various electronic databases are included.

This program graduates informed and discerning citizens, able to analyze information, weigh alternatives, and present reasoned arguments. A math major is vital for students who plan to pursue a career or advanced study in math, but the program, with its focus on abstraction and reasoning, is also relevant for students who plan to pursue fields as diverse as law, science, economics, and theology.

Majors take five foundational courses and six advanced courses in the areas of differential equations, algebra, analysis, topology, probability, and statistics and are encouraged to complete Introduction to Programming. During their senior year, majors deliver a public talk on an advanced mathematical topic.

A liberal arts foundation is an asset to a profession in health care. Because entrance requirements vary among schools, there are no formal pre-medical or pre-health programs. However, students can design competitive pre-medical, pre-dentistry, and pre-veterinary majors from Sewanee’s selection of undergraduate science classes. In the past 20 years, an average of 82 percent of Sewanee applicants each year have been accepted to professional schools of health, medicine, and veterinary science.

Students interested in medicine, dentistry, or veterinary medicine should register with the Health Professions Advisory Committee soon after matriculation to receive course selection advice and summer program recommendations.

Pre-medical students complete Sewanee’s general requirements and the requirements of their major.

This interdisciplinary program covers European civilizations from the fall of Rome in the fifth century to the Early Modern Period in the beginning of the 16th century. Students design their own majors by focusing on one aspect of medieval studies—such as literature, art, history, or philosophy. Recent research project topics have included the eucharistic theology of the laity in late medieval England and Chaucer’s translation of Boethius’ Consolatio Philosophiae.

The University hosts the Sewanee Medieval Colloquium, an annual conference attended by medievalists from all over the country who present papers and lectures on a different theme each year; in 2010, the theme was “Pilgrimage in the Middle Ages.”

This department provides instruction in music theory and performance for majors and minors, humanistically oriented music history and literature courses for the student body at large, and music ensemble opportunities.

Majors complete 10 full core courses in music, two semesters of advanced performance, one elective course in music history, and four semesters of participation in ensemble. Students with strong applied skills may be given consent to undertake a rigorous performance concentration. All majors must demonstrate keyboard proficiency, take a comprehensive examination on the history and theory of music, and attend musical events sponsored by the department and by the University Performing Arts Series.

Students and faculty showcase their talents at monthly recitals, and ensembles— including the University Orchestra—perform regularly on campus. The University Choir, which features repertoire from the Anglican choral tradition, performs every other summer in England. Music majors also enjoy visits from world-renowned performers—such as Frederica von Stade, The Vermeer String Quartet, Chanticleer, and the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra—who often offer master classes.

Students learn both historical and critical approaches to the discipline in this program, which introduces philosophy’s roots—the notions, arguments, and intellectual movements that influenced thought throughout history—and teaches students to think analytically, support their own ideas, and form defensible positions.

Majors complete at least 10½ courses in philosophy, junior and senior tutorials, and comprehensive examinations. Majors also write a 20–30-page senior essay for which they must make an effective oral presentation and defend their thesis.

The department’s popular Philosophy Club sponsors events including a screening and discussion of films that raise philosophical and moral questions. Recent selections have included Fight Club, Sling Blade, Pi, and American History X.

This program familiarizes students with basic principles of physics, experimental and measuring instruments, the math needed to apply physical principles, and the significance of physics in fields such as chemistry, biology, engineering, and medicine.

Physics majors have three options: an intensive major (for students who plan to pursue graduate work in the physical sciences), a broad major (for students who plan to pursue medicine, engineering, biophysics, environmental sciences, health physics, or teaching), and the 3/2 engineering program, for which students spend three years at Sewanee and two years at one of the following engineering schools: Columbia University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Vanderbilt University, and Washington University in St. Louis.

Physics majors have access to Sewanee’s Cordell-Lorenz Observatory, a facility for research and academic enrichment activities.

Students in this program are trained in the competing values and interests that guide politics. Topics include the nature of political change; the characteristics of different government institutions and leaders; conflict resolution between and within states; political ideas, culture, discourse, and economy; and the politics of gender, race, and class.

Majors take at least 10 courses, including Comparative Politics; at least one course each in political theory, American politics, and international politics; and an upper-level seminar. Comprehensive examinations are offered in three subfields: political theory, international politics/ comparative politics, and American politics/public law.

The Tonya Public Affairs Internship program grants stipends to students to take unpaid public affairs internships. Students work in state and local government and in Washington, D.C., on Capitol Hill and at the White House. Past placements include the Arkansas Supreme Court, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the National Women’s Business Council, and the Ecological Society of America.

This program provides a strong foundation in general psychology and offers opportunities for more in-depth exploration in specific areas, equipping students with the analytical skills, multiple perspectives, and research methods needed to fully understand and pursue a psychology career.

Survey, seminar, and upper-level courses are not predetermined—students choose these courses according to their individual interests, focusing on the type of psychology they find most intriguing. Course offerings include Psychology of Personality, Industrial Psychology, Infancy and Adulthood, Psychology of Human Diversity, Pseudopsychology, Animal Behavior, Cognitive Illusions, and Psychology of Gender, among many others.

Through course work, independent research, and extracurricular activities, religion majors investigate the central questions surrounding religion; explore history, culture, values, sacred texts, theology, and philosophical thought; and hone their methods of historical analysis, literary criticism, phenomenological description, and cross-cultural comparative study.

Five core courses (including The Responsible Self, Introduction to the Bible, and Philosophy of Religion) and five upper-level courses in religion are required for the major. For the upper-level course work, majors may focus on a particular subfield, such as ethics, Asian religions, American/ Southern religion, philosophical theology, scripture, or religion and culture. Students take a two-part comprehensive examination during their senior year.

The program features a number of cross-disciplinary courses, such as Feminist and Womanist Religious Ethics, Religious Environmentalism, Buddhism and Psychology, and a field-based study of rural religion.

The ways we interact with the natural world reflect the deep-seated values of the society to which we belong and the experiences of nature we have as individuals. Religion, and the spiritual experiences of individuals that inform religious thought, provide profound insights into how we perceive the world around us and guidance as to how to interact with it. The Minor in religion and environment encourages students to integrate religious insights and spiritual experience with the natural and social sciences to better understand how religion and the natural world affect one another. Accordingly, the Minor includes coursework in natural and social environmental science along with coursework in religion. Because the Minor encourages students to reflect on their own spiritual experience and beliefs as they relate to the environment, it culminates in a capstone experiential course involving environmentally related service or action along with reflection on the meaning of that engagement.

Students learn to speak, listen, read, and write in Russian; study Russian music, art, customs, literature, and cuisine; and develop their abilities to think comparatively and internationally.

Majors choose from such upper-level offerings as Advanced Russian, Russian Civilization, Russian Literature, Composition and Conversation, Tolstoy in English, and Dostoevsky in English. Cultural functions and conversation hours take place in the Russian House, a stately, historic, stone-faced dwelling where several Russian-language students live with a native Russian speaker.

Each semester, courses for undergraduate credit are offered by the School of Theology. Consult the Schedule of Classes to determine which classes are being offered in a particular semester.

The Shakespeare Studies minor is an interdisciplinary approach to Shakespeare in performance. Study in the minor is based on the convictions that the literary, historical, and philosophical study of Shakespeare’s text informs and enriches the production of his plays, and that the discipline and experience of performing his plays illuminates the academic study of his work. Core courses in the minor include two Shakespeare courses in the English Department and two in the Theatre Department.

Students gain fluency in the language, familiarity with Hispanic literature, and insight into the cultures of Spain and Latin America through in-depth study of essential literary texts and intensive writing and speaking practice.

Spanish majors complete a minimum of ten full language courses; upper-level courses in Spanish literature before 1700, after 1700, and Latin-American literature; and one class in each culture that of Spain and that of Latin America. The comprehensive examination is given in two parts: a written portion that tests students’ grasp of Spanish language, culture, and history; and an oral presentation on a topic approved by the department.

Majors are encouraged both to study abroad in a Spanish-speaking country and to study an additional foreign language for a year. Summer and semester programs include distinctive offerings on the Road to Santiago and the study of Muslim Spain.

Students in the program can live at Casa de España y las Américas, meet for Tertulia once a month, and socialize at the Spanish Table.

This program provides a strong foundation in acting, directing, design, history, literature, and theory. Majors complete six core courses, five upper-level classes in performance and design/production, six theatre practicums, and a two-part examination that includes a written test and a Senior Project.

Students can apply for an intensive theatre program in New York City, where they study voice and speech, acting, movement, playwriting, directing, design, dance, and stage management in one of the world’s most prominent theatre capitals.