Achievements and Distinctive Features of Humanities Programs at UW-Parkside

At the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, a wide range of outstanding and diverse departments and interdisciplinary programs in the humanities provide curricular and extracurricular programs and opportunities for members of our campus and community. While encouraging us to explore and discuss complex questions regarding what it means to be human from a wide variety of cultures and traditions, these humanities programs have realized many accomplishments.

Communication Department

 

The Communication Department prepares students to live and work in the 21st century, a dynamic time shaped by new technologies, media and cultural convergence, a global economy, and a rich diversity of cultures. The program offers several different sequences of study, including contemporary media, human interaction, organizational communication, and public relations.

The Communication Department prepares students for the future by developing skills and competencies which apply to multiple work situations. These communication skills include writing, speaking, listening, and interacting across and within different cultures whether face-to-face or mediated. Inherent in these skills are analyzing, problem-solving, and self-reflecting.

English Department

The English Department provides a comprehensive degree in literary studies, along with popular high-demand concentrations in writing, language arts for teachers, and film studies.

The English major is designed to suit the needs of UW-Parkside's heterogeneous population of traditional and non-traditional-aged students and their varied career paths and goals. The major serves as a valuable tool for students to achieve a traditional liberal education, helping them acquire a broad view of human experience, a critical approach to cultural traditions, and critical communication skills.

Ethnic Studies Program

The Center for Ethnic Studies is an interdisciplinary program that places historically marginalized groups: American Indians, African Americans, Latino Americans, and Asian Americans, at the center of academic inquiry. Courses offered critically examine race and ethnic inequality and power relations in the United States, including institutional racism and white privilege.

At the very core of Ethnic Studies lies the question: In the context of historical and institutional realities of race and ethnicity, what does it really mean to be an U.S. American?

Liberal Studies Program

The UW-Parkside Liberal Studies Program offers an innovative major in which students choose an array of courses that best suit their interests in a broad array of interdisciplinary fields of study, while focusing on achieving high levels of competency in communication, ethics, critical thinking, aesthetics, history, and interdisciplinarity.

Liberal Studies graduates are well prepared for cutting-edge 21st century careers which require employees who must be able to understand complexity and diversity of humanity.

Modern Languages Department

The Modern Languages Department offers courses in the languages, literatures and cultures of the Pan-Hispanic, French and Francophone, German, Italian and Mandarin Chinese peoples. Students may pursue a major, minor or certificate in Spanish; minors in French and German; and introductory classes in Italian and Mandarin Chinese.

The Department encourages our student to enrich their study of language and culture by exploring the many multi-disciplinary programs that Parkside offers, including Ethnic and International Studies. As a part of our Modern Languages program, we also strongly encourage you to participate in one of the many study-abroad and travel-study programs coordinated by the Center for International Studies.

Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program

Women's and Gender Studies is a cutting-edge interdisciplinary major and minor program which draws upon all departments in the University to provide an array of courses which provide understanding and appreciation of historic and contemporary women's experiences, expressions of gender identities, and sexual diversities in a variety of cultures and communities.

Women's and Gender Studies provides a wide range courses and programs are relevant for individuals who are seeking a fuller understanding of gender roles and identities past, present, and future, as well as cultural, historical, public policy, and social trends which have emerged as a result.