Starting off our "New Major Blog Series" is Tzvia Berrin-Reinstein '13 of Newton, MA. She writes about taking advantage of the Rochester Curriculum and discovering a new major from that process.
Due to the flexible curriculum at the University of Rochester, I was immediately able to take classes that interested me and to play around with my course selections during the fall semester of my freshman year. Thinking that I wanted to major in Political Science, I took a few classes in that department—however, I quickly realized that what I wanted to study was far broader than what a degree in Political Science could provide. I found myself gravitating to not only courses in American politics, but also to courses in American history, English, and film and media studies. Often, the themes in each of my courses overlapped, despite all being from different departments. Aware that other top tier universities had American Studies programs which allow for interdepartmental study, I decided to switch from a major in Political Science to a minor, and to attempt to create my own American Studies major.
As it turned out, I wouldn’t have to create my own major because there was already a group of professors attempting to make a permanent American Studies major. Over the past year-and-a-half, I have been able to be a part of the process to introduce an American Studies program. My entire sophomore year, I carried around a copy of Professor Rubin’s proposal in my backpack, and the more I consulted it, the more tattered it became.
Though there are not yet any specific American Studies departmental courses, the freedom to select courses from up to ten departments affords a unique educational opportunity. The major is divided into three tracks which each represent a different specialization in American Studies: The Arts in American Culture, Identity and the American Nation, and American Though and Institutions. However, within these tracks there is still room for personal preference, which ensures that no American Studies major will be the same. Thinking that my Political Science minor might overlap with the third track, I decided to focus on Identity and the American Nation, for which I have taken an anthropology course on American Culture, a history course on Baseball in American Life, and a political science course on Religion and the First Amendment. The correlation between my courses is not always clear based on their home departments, but an American Studies degree affords this flexibility, and allows one to explore a vast array of interdepartmental offerings. Check out the American Studies major website to see if it’s right for you! http://www.rochester.edu/college/msc/americanstudies.html