Shorelight Group Southwestern University

The Anthropology major is designed to develop a critical awareness and understanding of the diversity of peoples and cultures, and of the relevance and application of anthropological perspectives and methods to contemporary issues. The program specializes in the Caribbean, Latina/o’s in the U.S. and the U.S-Mexico Borderlands, and is anchored by a faculty member each in Anthropology and Feminist Studies. Courses cover issues central to our contemporary global society: questions of race, class and gender; environmental (in)justice; and the making of religious and spiritual forms and identities. Additionally, contributing courses from Political Science and Religion address politics and social change in Latin American and Caribbean societies, gender in/and religions, spiritual traditions in native America, pilgrimages and more. Anthropology majors acquire solid grounding in both the social and cultural theory employed and generated by anthropologists and the ethnographic methods that define our discipline and conduct and present a paper based upon their own independent research.

Students seeking a major in Anthropology complete the requirements for the BA degree. Students are required to complete a period of in-depth ethnographic research during which they collect data for their capstone. This research period must be completed by end of the fall semester of their senior year and must entail a minimum of four weeks of intensive research or its equivalent. Students are encouraged to conduct this research during a study abroad experience with an appropriate study abroad program (see approved list of study abroad providers). Students may also complete this research through extending a project begun in the Theory and Method course, or otherwise developing a project. 

Students must have completed at least 90 credits including the general education core courses and the courses required for the Applied Physics major before leaving Southwestern. After completing 30 credits of applicable coursework in an ABET engineering program, students must submit their transcript(s) to Southwestern for review by the Physics Department Chair. Upon the Chair’s approval and satisfactory completion of all BA Degree Requirements as outlined in Southwestern University’s Catalog, students may be awarded a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Applied Physics. The work submitted from the ABET-accredited school will be treated as “in residence” coursework. In order to participate in commencement at Southwestern, students in the Pre-Engineering program must complete an Application for Diploma by the date noted in the SU official calendar for their intended Southwestern graduation semester, and they must have submitted a transcript showing that they have successfully completed at least 15 hours of approved courses with the remainder of courses in-progress. The University degree will be conferred only after the final transcript is submitted and approved.

When you study business at Southwestern, you become a problem-solver and a decision-maker. You will be equipped to examine complex puzzles, analyze them from multiple perspectives, and develop effective solutions. In business courses, you will gain a systems-level view of how organizations operate: How do entrepreneurs build a business from concept to reality? What are the effects of miscommunication or informal group dynamics in the workplace? How do different types of businesses develop successful financial and marketing strategies?

In business major, you will learn and apply foundational concepts related to the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. But our award-winning faculty are also committed to updating the curriculum to keep pace with innovation, enabling you to think about, for example, the economic costs of pollution, how globalization affects business practices, and how technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain can help businesses obtain a competitive edge. You can also delve into data analysis, learning how to conduct cost–benefit analyses and make decisions about effective resource allocation.

While pursuing your degree, you will have a diverse range of opportunities to participate in relevant transformative experiences that enable you to bridge classroom discussion with real-world applications. Our students have studied abroad with the Southwestern London Program and have interned with the Federal Reserve Bank, Southwest Airlines, the Texas Bowl, Accenture, and the Smithsonian. Undergraduate research enables you  to push your understanding of the field, and our students regularly present at national meetings and publish their research in professional journals. In addition, in our groundbreaking Financial Analyst Program, you can gain invaluable experience in portfolio management by working with a team of students actively investing a portion of the University’s endowment.

The Classics major exposes students to both languages of the Graeco-Roman world, plus a range of courses in ancient history, philosophy, culture, art, and archaeology.

The major and minor in Latin enable students to study the literature and culture of the Roman world, from the formative years of the Republic to the expansion and power of the Empire.

At the head of Greek literature stand the Homeric epics, followed by equally fascinating literature of the archaic, classical, and Hellenistic periods.

The Classics Program has broad goals, embracing cultural and social issues, critical thinking, language skills, and advanced research skills. Classics majors also have the opportunity to conduct advanced research at the side of a professor. For example, one recent graduate, working in collaboration with Dr. Haskell, produced a paper on the topic of the arrival of Greeks on Crete (published in Athens the following year). Another student “read” and classified a sequence of pottery sherds at an archaeological site in Turkey.

All of the courses in the Communication Studies major involve a significant amount of writing, research, and creative work. Several courses engage in the teaching of writing, research, and creative methods and are designated as COM Writing Intensive Courses.