Academic Quad

What is mathematics? What are its major methods and conclusions? How is it related to other subjects? What do modern mathematicians do? Several Pitzer courses specifically address these questions. Ones that have been taught in recent years include: The Mathematics of Gambling, Rubik’s Cube and Other Mathematical Puzzles, Doodling in Mathematics Class, 3D Printing, History of Algebra, and Philosophy of Mathematics. These courses cover mathematical material that is exciting and sophisticated and yet accessible to students with a standard high school education in mathematics. As such, they offer students an excellent opportunity to break fresh ground in kinds of mathematics they are not likely to have seen before.

The Intercollegiate Department of Africana Studies offers a multidisciplinary curriculum that examines the experiences of people of the African diaspora from a liberal arts perspective. Courses accommodate the needs of majors and nonmajors, providing significant preparation for careers in education, social work, public policy, law, medicine, business, international relations and advanced research.

The Intercollegiate Department of Asian American Studies of the Claremont Colleges (IDAAS) offers a rigorous, multidisciplinary major that emphasizes social justice, critical thinking, and innovative analysis of the history, society, and cultural production of Asians in the United States, within both multiracial American and transnational contexts. The curriculum provides students with a comprehensive grounding in a range of thematic, theoretical, and methodological approaches within Asian American Studies. The major integrates theory and practice through community work, and sustained and focused inquiry in the senior project or thesis. In consultation with an IDAAS adviser, students take core interdisciplinary courses in Asian American Studies and select appropriate courses in a range of disciplines throughout the five colleges.

This is a combined major at the interface of biology and chemistry which partially overlaps the requirements for those two individual majors. It is particularly appropriate for those going on to graduate work and also provides a strong background for those entering medical, dental and veterinary school.

The biophysics major integrates the physical principles that are part of the core material found in a traditional physics major with areas of interest in the life sciences. Offering many possible avenues via molecular/cellular, biomechanical, organismal and/or physiological sequences, the major is appropriate for students interested in attending graduate school in physics or biophysics and provides a solid background for students planning a career in the health fields.

Classics is an interdisciplinary and intercollegiate major. Courses are taught by faculty at Pitzer, Scripps, Pomona, and CMC. The Classics curriculum provides opportunities to study the diverse cultures of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East from the Bronze Age through late antiquity from multiple perspectives–through ancient literature (in the original languages and in English translation), art and material culture, philosophy, and history. Several courses also examine the “afterlife” of antiquity–its reception and reinterpretations in the modern world.

Economics is the study of how best to satisfy the wants and desires of all people given the limited resources available to us on this Earth. It concerns the wealth of nations, its origins in production and exchange, its allocation among competing uses, its distribution among individuals, its accumulation or decline. The approach is descriptive and analytical; many issues of national and international policy are considered; the focus is on social institutions and social outcomes rather than on personal financial success per se.

Through the aesthetic, historical, and theoretical dimensions of literature we learn to read other lives and our own. We learn those lessons best when the literature we study includes the voices of a diverse array of writers and when we are responsive to the ways in which such voices and texts change our conceptions of art, culture and society. Literature stirs us and is stirred by us; it is not something to be experienced at arm’s length. For this reason, we encourage our students to practice becoming engaged readers and writers of literature. We also encourage our students to explore other disciplines, in order to broaden the sources for developing their own writing and critical thinking skills. Abilities gained in coursework are essential for other academic disciplines, are indispensable for graduate study as well as for careers in many fields (for instance, art, law, journalism, education, nonprofit and non-governmental organizations, business, advertising, and creative and professional writing). Students may choose from two tracks: Literature or Creative Writing.

How many languages are there? What does knowing a language entail? How do people develop this ability? How is language stored in the brain? Why don’t we all speak the same? Why do languages change over time? How different is human language from forms of animal communication? Questions such as these are studied systematically in the field of linguistics. The linguistics major/minor allows students to study the mental structures of language (phonology, syntax, semantics) and how people use language in everyday life to organize their social worlds. In doing this, our major provides training in qualitative and quantitative data analysis, writing and argumentation, and a variety of methods for rigorous investigation. Students participate in research both inside and outside classes, including documentation and analysis of understudied and endangered languages, computational analysis of large data sets, and investigation of the social impacts of language use.

The Art Field Group offers a major that includes required courses in Studio Art and Art History, and an option for a combined major with Media Studies or with another Program of Study. More information about the programs can be found by following the links below.

Media Studies is an intercollegiate major offered jointly by Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, Pomona and Scripps Colleges, together forming Intercollegiate Media Studies (IMS). Media Studies is an inherently interdisciplinary field that emphasizes the cultural and historical importance of media and focuses on the production, circulation, and reception of texts and representations, which are analyzed in terms of aesthetics, meanings, and uses. IMS at the Claremont Colleges is one of the first undergraduate programs in the United States to combine theory, history, and practice, integrating critical studies and media production. IMS provides rigorous interdisciplinary training, enabling our students to learn how to analyze diverse media forms and the power relations that undergird them, and to ethically express their knowledge through critical scholarship, community-engagement, and creative media practice. The IMS major draws from anthropology, art history, cinema and film studies, communications, cultural studies, English, gender and feminist studies, performance studies, photography, postcolonial and transnational studies, queer studies, sound studies, and the visual arts. The major prepares students for graduate work and careers in teaching, art, entertainment, digital media, and the nonprofit sector. IMS offers abundant opportunities for hands-on learning in the form of independent multimodal research projects, off-campus internships throughout the Los Angeles region, as well as creative projects in the form of video art, documentary, photography and digital imaging, media installation and performance, web-based and interactive media, and community-based and activist media.

This interdisciplinary major is focused on biology and the physical sciences and incorporates a significant amount of mathematics. The major is research oriented and is designed to prepare students for graduate studies or medical school, as well as careers in biotechnology and the pharmaceutical industry. For further information, consult with the molecular biology faculty, Professors Armstrong, Edwalds-Gilbert, Tang, or Wiley.

The psychology curriculum is designed to encourage students to view psychology and human behavior across multiple levels, using a variety of theoretical and empirical models. We offer our students a solid foundation in methodology, history, traditional, and non-traditional approaches, and we urge critical thinking.

This major provides a research-and-field-oriented background for students interested in research careers in either physiology or ecology/evolution and their allied fields. The Organismal Biology major of the Keck Science Department provides students with the skills and knowledge to effectively engage and evaluate biological science issues and innovations in the wider world, and to take leadership roles in fields including research, health and veterinary professions, and environmental management.

Departments of the other Claremont Colleges and CGU are designed to cultivate critical thinking and to introduce the student to the history of philosophy, its traditional problems and subject areas and its connections with related subjects. In addition to preparing students for graduate work in philosophy, philosophy courses are a natural complement to the study of a wide variety of other subjects and can be relevant to preparation for careers in law, medicine and a number of fields involving the natural and social sciences and the humanities.

Physics explores the fundamental principles governing the behavior of our universe, from the subatomic scale to the cosmological scale. These principles underlie most modern technologies, and have direct applications to biology, chemistry, neuroscience, engineering, environmental analysis, etc., making physics a highly versatile undergraduate major. Physics majors work closely with faculty as they develop a broad range of highly flexible analytical and quantitative model-building and problem-solving skills. Our program places particular curricular emphasis on computational/numerical modeling techniques, so that our majors are well versed in tackling complex problems which are not readily solved by traditional methods. Physics alumni go on to a variety of positions, including industrial and academic research, biophysics, engineering, finance, law, medicine, mathematics. Course requirements for the physics major are kept relatively modest, allowing students with multiple interests to pursue double and dual majors and minors.

Religious Studies is a cooperative program offered jointly by Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, Pomona and Scripps Colleges. The program of study is designed to serve both as one focus of a liberal arts education and as a foundation for students planning to pursue the study of religion beyond the baccalaureate degree. Students may enroll in Religious Studies courses offered at any of the undergraduate colleges and advanced students may with permission, enroll in master’s-level courses in their area of specialization at Claremont Graduate University. While offering a broadly based and inclusive program in the study of religion for all liberal arts students, the Religious Studies major affords the opportunity for more specialized work at the intermediate and advanced levels in particular historic religious traditions, geographical areas, philosophical and critical approaches and thematic and comparative studies. The Religious Studies field group recognizes the importance and legitimacy of personal involvement in the study of religion, but it does not represent or advocate any particular religion as normative. Rather, the aim is to make possible an informed knowledge and awareness of the fundamental importance of the religious dimension in all human societies-globally and historically. In addition to preparing students for graduate study in religion, the multidisciplinary nature of the major affords students intellectual training to enter a variety of fields and careers. Recent graduates are, for example, in schools of law, medicine and business. Others have careers in management, journalism and the media, college administration, primary and secondary education, government, and health and social services.

This program is designed to provide students with a solid background in science, economics, and fundamental managerial skills. Majors complete a core program consisting of a minimum of fourteen courses in addition to a five-course area of concentration in science. In addition to those listed, students have the option of creating their own track in consultation with the Science Management advisor.

Science, technology and society (STS) is an interdisciplinary field that studies the conditions under which the production, distribution and utilization of scientific knowledge and technological systems occur and traces the consequences of these activities upon different groups of people. The intercollegiate program brings together courses taught in a variety of departments, and is divided into three principal disciplinary areas that are applied to science and technology: history, philosophy and social science (anthropology and public policy analysis). Courses explore the effects of science and technology on society and culture, and vice versa. General topics include the politics of socio-technical systems; analysis of scientific methodology in terms of objectivity and rationality; the social factors involved in producing scientific knowledge and technological change; moral and policy analysis of technological systems. More specifically, courses cover topics such as concepts of health, disease and disability; the political economy of pollution; the culture of the scientific laboratory; theories of race, eugenics and genetics engineering; and social networking and the Internet. Students majoring in STS are well prepared to pursue graduate study in related fields and also have a solid foundation for work as science journalists, policy researchers and advisers, science educators, design and business consultants, and advocates of change around issues such as gender and science, renewable energy and the social effects of the information revolution. In addition, STS is an excellent academic background for students intending to pursue careers in medicine, law, business and education.

A five-year program, offered in conjunction with other institutions, allows students to receive both a Bachelor of Arts degree in management engineering from Pitzer and a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from the second institution. The first three years of study are undertaken on the Pitzer campus. After this, students enroll in an engineering program at the other institution. Upon completion of the two-year engineering program, graduates simultaneously receive an engineering degree from the second institution and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pitzer.

Sponsored by the five undergraduate Claremont Colleges, American Studies is a multidisciplinary major that encourages students to think critically and creatively about culture in the United States. The American Studies Program is coordinated by an intercollegiate faculty whose aim is to introduce students to the complexity of the American experience. Majors take courses in a variety of disciplines such as literature, history, ethnic studies, sociology, anthropology, political science, music, and the visual arts. In addition, majors take multidisciplinary courses that use materials from different disciplines to explore a particular issue in American life. The interdisciplinary approach to this major affords the student many career choices. Some follow graduate study; other paths include the professions of law, library science, journalism, business and museum curatorship.

Biology entails the study of the entire process of life from its beginning, through its development, reproduction and to its cessation and decay. Many of the new developments and discoveries in this dynamic field are the result of interdisciplinary cooperation between biologists, chemists, physicists and computer scientists. These researchers have added considerably to our understanding of the basic principles and mechanisms of living systems at cellular, molecular, organismic, population and ecological levels. Career opportunities for those who major in biology are numerous. Besides being one of the traditional preparatory fields for those pursuing careers as health care professionals, biology is an excellent choice of major for those interested in secondary education, ecology, or the burgeoning genetic engineering industry. And, of course, the areas of academic and industrial research are open to those who pursue a PhD in the discipline.

The student of chemistry examines, describes and explores the composition, structure and properties of substances and the changes they undergo. This curriculum provides a firm foundation in the principles of chemistry as well as sufficient experience to prepare the student for basic research, secondary school teaching, the pursuit of a career in medicine, or graduate study in the field.

At Pitzer, history invites students to understand the contours of their world its political boundaries, its economic systems, its social structures and its cultural practices as historical products. It pushes them to question assumptions and to approach the present through the prism of a rich and variegated past. It uses investigation and interpretation, both to explore the unfamiliar and to reconsider what we think we already know. Thus, courses in history encourage students to analyze documents critically, to evaluate historical arguments thoughtfully and to examine theories of history and culture. Far from being a simple chronicle of facts, history demands that students consider how the past is used and remembered.

The Intercollegiate Department of Chicana/o Latina/o Studies of the Claremont Colleges is concurrently a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary field of academic inquiry broadly relating to people of Latin American descent within the hemisphere, particularly within the United States and the wider diaspora. Courses in Chicanx Latinx Studies take into account the intersection of race, ethnicity, class, culture, gender and sexuality. Chicanx Latinx Studies emerged in the academy as a product of education and social movements of the 1960s. These movements led to the initial creation of the program at the Claremont Colleges in 1969, making it the second oldest Chicano studies department in the nation. More recently, Chicanx Latinx Studies has emerged as a field of inquiry relating to Latin Americans in the hemisphere and has been the site for work seeking to transcend the gaps between area studies and ethnic studies.

Environmental Analysis (EA) is an interdisciplinary major focusing on the interaction between human and non-human components of the biosphere. The major applies approaches in the social sciences, arts and humanities, and natural sciences to understanding and solving environmental problems. Environmental Analysis offers an integrated, unifying perspective on life, as well as a program for creating positive change. The major prepares students for graduate work and careers in teaching, public policy and administration, law, environmental sciences, international affairs, environmental design, and the nonprofit sector. Developing sustainable ways of living is one of the greatest challenges of our time. The Environmental Analysis Program combines the strengths of the five Claremont Colleges to provide robust interdisciplinary training for students interested in environmental issues. Resources for field research, community-based research, internships, and service learning include the Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability, the Pitzer in Costa Rica Program, and the Firestone Center for Restoration Ecology, the Pitzer in Ontario Program, the John R. Rodman Arboretum, the Bernard Biological Field Station, and numerous local partnerships. The Environmental Analysis Program regards study abroad as a valuable, though not required, part of the curriculum, enabling students to secure deeper appreciation of the global dimensions of environmental challenges. Additionally, the Program encourages students to engage in internships and fieldwork that move them beyond the classroom and library to engage in research and action.

Scholarship on women and gender addresses three kinds of pressing intellectual needs. The first is to provide more information about women’s lives and contributions. The second is for the revision of existing theory that claims to speak for all human beings while it has been based almost exclusively on the experience of men. The third is for the integration of perspectives shaped by sensitivity to race, class, ethno-national origin and sexual orientation within the study of gender.Courses in Gender and Feminist Studies focus on the relations of power that have produced inequalities between genders. We consider gender inequality a human construction subject to change rather than an innate, ordained condition. In the classroom and in research, our critical perspective challenges conventional concepts and methods of analysis and encourages the formulation of new paradigms of teaching, learning and research that reflect the diversity of gender, sexuality, and women’s experience. Pitzer offers a major and a minor in Gender and Feminist Studies and combined majors with other disciplines in the social sciences, in the humanities and fine arts, in the natural sciences, as well as in interdisciplinary subjects, including Asian American, Africana, and Chicano/Latino/a Studies.

The Human Biology major studies the relevance of social conditions to the biological sciences. Biology courses in such areas as genetics, evolution, animal behavior, anatomy, and physiology complement courses in sociology, psychology, anthropology and public health to create a major that explores humans and humanity from a variety of perspectives. Human Biology majors complete the biology portion of the major and choose one of two options for the social science portion of the major. Option 1 exposes students to Anthropology, Sociology and Psychology and asks the student to choose one of those three fields as a focus. Option 2 is focused on cross-cultural health and healing from a wide range of viewpoints. Please note that this major does not include all of the courses required by medical schools or other pre-health programs. Students interested in pre-health programs should consult their advisor and the Keck Science pre-health advisor early in their college career to formulate a coherent four-year plan that meets their needs. This is a Pitzer major; CMC and Scripps students may choose this as an off-campus major.

The International Political Economy (IPE) major investigates the intersection between economics and politics in the global environment. It encourages the integrated analysis of global problems and issues using the tools and methods of political studies and economics. Students undertaking the IPE major are expected to: Gain an appreciation for competing theoretical perspectives; Learn to consider the multiple and overlapping economic and political linkages between and among global actors; Learn to engage in critical and creative thinking; Master the application of different methodological tools to analysis of IPE issues; Gain field experience abroad; and Apply these tools and develop expertise through senior year research on a particular IPE problem or issue.

The major in Neuroscience is an interdisciplinary program of 16 courses (maximum) designed to provide students with an appreciation of diverse approaches to understanding the function of nervous systems, as well as the ability to conduct investigations within a particular subfield of interest. Students majoring in Neuroscience complete: A common core program, A sequence of four electives determined in consultation with an adviser in Neuroscience, and A one- or two-semester thesis on a topic related to the four course sequence. The major provides good preparation for graduate work in biology, neuroscience, and a variety of other programs including medical school or other graduate health professions programs. Admission to particular advanced degree programs may require additional coursework.

Political Studies examines political values, interests, institutions, power and the processes of governing. Courses explore these questions using a variety of methodological approaches. Political Studies consists of four sub-fields: Political Philosophy examines the history of political concepts such as authority, law, freedom, rights, equality, justice, and the state; Comparative Politics develops criteria for comparing the domestic politics and policies of countries throughout the world, including the U.S.A.; Global Politics examines relationships between and among nation-states, as well as the emergence of transnational forces that increasingly give shape to a global political system; U.S. Politics examines politics and public policy in the U.S.A., including Latino, African American and Asian American politics.

The sociology major is designed to help students develop an understanding of and an appreciation for the principal sociological perspectives, theories and research methodologies of the discipline. Sociologists study people and their relationships in social and cultural contexts, as well as analyze those social institutions and structures of power involved in the shaping of human experience.

The major in Spanish is based on the concept that language is a social practice. It emphasizes the use of language to explore interdisciplinary content, affirms the intrinsic relationship between language and culture, and stresses the participation of three different tracks: one focuses on literature; the second focuses on the interplay between language and culture; and the third incorporates an additional area of study, for example, environmental or urban studies, health, education, art, gender, and feminist studies, or media.

This major is designed for students who arrive at Pitzer with a mid to high level of proficiency in Spanish or Portuguese and who are interested in learning either Spanish or Portuguese as a way to further enhance their studies of Latin American communities and cultures and their diasporas. In addition to coursework in both languages, an immersion experience in each one of the languages is required.

Students may wish to pursue a major that does not fit an established major. A special major proposal should be developed with and must be approved by a minimum of two faculty advisors in appropriate fields. When particular fields are highly represented in the special major, the advisor(s) must come from those fields. Students may, of course, have additional advisors that do not come from these fields. Students must have at least one Pitzer advisor, so if both special major advisors are from off-campus, the student must have a third Pitzer advisor. Students must attend the information meeting on Special Majors before they are allowed to submit a Special Major proposal. Proposals should be submitted to the Registrar’s Office to be forwarded to the Curriculum Committee for their review, comment and approval. The criteria detailed below will be used by the Curriculum Committee in evaluating proposals.