Liberal Studies Major

Understand, analyze, appreciate, and affect your world.

An education in the liberal arts and sciences will enable you to understand your world, and it will equip you to analyze, appreciate, and affect that world. With these aims in mind, the faculty at Worcester State University have designed the university’s liberal arts and sciences curriculum to ensure breadth both in the range of subjects you will encounter and in the range of approaches to that material. In addition, the curriculum emphasizes the fundamental abilities and attitudes that make it possible to benefit fully from a liberal education. While the specialization provided by major and minor fields of study is essential to a college education, the breadth and integration provided by the liberal arts and sciences curriculum supply an invaluable context for understanding the wider world.

Given the crucial importance of languages other than English in today’s global society, the university strongly encourages the study of world languages through the majors and minors and through combining the requirements in global perspectives and thought, language, and culture. You may also choose to study languages through your elective courses.

What you will do:

Demonstrate effective oral and written communication
Employ quantitative and qualitative reasoning
Apply skills in critical thinking
Apply skills in information literacy
Display an appreciation for the interrelations among global and cross-cultural communities
Develop a critical understanding of the US experience
Understand the roles of science and technology in the modern world
Demonstrate and value personal creative expression
Understand how scholars in various disciplines approach problems and construct knowledge
Display socially responsible behavior and act as a socially responsible agent in the world
Make connections across courses and disciplines
Develop as a healthy individual—physically, emotionally, socially, ethically, and intellectually

Explore sample courses in this program.

LS-190 Introduction to Liberal Studies

A special topics course that introduces students to interdisciplinary scholarship and learning as well as student-initiated/directed learning.

3 to 4 credits

LS-490 Capstone/Senior Research in Liberal Studies

This course provides an opportunity for students to compile evidence and reflect on the courses and independent work comprising their liberal studies major. Students are expected to develop a cohesive narrative of their course of study.

3 credits

LS-290 Intermediate Liberal Studies

This course focuses on a particular area of study that requires students to show mastery of the topic and a critical understanding of interdisciplinary learning and research methods.

3 to 4 credits

LS-390 Advanced Liberal Studies

This course is organized around a particular subject area or research methodology problem. Students engage in joint or individual scholarship related to the course topic.

3 to 4 credits

EN-101 College Writing I

College Writing I focuses on writing as critical inquiry, reflection, and communication. Students practice the fundamentals of effective writing, emphasizing planning, drafting, revising, and editing.

3 credits

EN-102 College Writing II

Builds upon College Writing I and focuses on research writing, synthesizing sources, critical analysis, argumentation, and information literacies. Students practice the fundamentals of effective writing in collaborative and academic communities, while evaluating and using sources in different rhetorical situations. This course is designed to help students develop transferable skills and strategies that may be applied to a variety of audiences and in a range of situations.

3 credits

PO-318 Constitutional Law of Government Powers and Constraints

A critical analysis of key US Supreme Court decisions addressing the horizontal allocation of power among federal government branches and institutions and the vertical allocation of power between federal and state governments. Attention is also given to unresolved constitutional issues between the legislative and executive branches, the Massachusetts state constitution, and the theoretical foundations of the United States Constitution (such as Locke, Montesquieu, and the Federalist Papers).

3 credits

AR-118 Global Art History

Surveys the outstanding visual art from all cultures beginning in the prehistoric era to the late 19th century.

3 credits

EN-256 Creative Writing: Fiction

An opportunity to develop the student’s writing ability and critical sense; work of students and professional authors are analyzed.

3 credits

PH-242 Race, Nation, Class, Gender, and Sexuality

Examines these 5 important social categories that define the political, legal, economic, and cultural contexts in which we live.

3 credits

SO-425 Global Capitalism

This class looks at the development of capitalism from an historical, sociological, and critical perspective and considers the ways capitalism has made and unmade the world. Themes may include imperialism and the underdevelopment of the Global South, decolonization struggles, global urbanization, global financial institutions, global labor struggles, war and capitalism, global environmental crises and the struggle over resources, and market hegemony.

3 credits

PH-110 Critical Thinking

Critical thinking through informal logical identification, analysis, and evaluation of arguments, including identification of fallacious arguments, through engagement with rhetoric and public discourse.

3 credits

UR-285 Urban Anthropology

Students in this course become familiar with urban anthropology through an exploration of ethnography—the study of peoples, cultures, and power dynamics—from the perspective of an insider. By investigating ethnographic fieldwork and ethnographic writing from our globalizing world, students are introduced to a number of different accounts about peoples and cultures—some struggling and some thriving—in cities spanning the globe. Through this diverse sample of lived, urban environments, students become critical thinkers about the role of culture and society in the construction of the city.

3 credits

PY-217 General Astronomy

Algebra-based astronomy course covering a breadth of topics, primarily focusing outside of the solar system. Topics include nature and evolution of stars; supernova; white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes; galaxies, quasars, and dark matter; large scale structure of the universe; the Big Bang; and dark energy. Emphasis is on the physical principles underlying the astronomical phenomena.

3 credits

CS-135 Programming for Non-CS Majors

Introduction to programming. Emphasis on practical skills, working with data sets, doing analysis and visualization. No prior programming experience required.

3 credits

Requirements

Core Course Requirements

Core courses may not double with content area course requirements.

Writing (WR1, WR2)

Constitutions (CON)

First-Year Seminar (FYS)

Content Area Course Requirements

You will complete courses in nine content areas.

Creative Arts (CA)

Diversity (DIV)

Human Behavior and Social Processes (HBS)

Individual and Community Well-being (ICW)

Global Perspectives (GP)

Natural Systems and Processes (NSP)

Natural Systems and Processes (LAB)

Non-approved LASC lab (NLL) courses do not meet the requirement for a LASC LAB course

Quantitative Reasoning (QR)

Thought, Language, and Culture (TLC)

The United States and Its Role in the World (USW)
In addition to meeting the 40-credit liberal arts and sciences curriculum (LASC) requirements for all undergraduates, liberal studies majors complete a minimum of 39 credits from 2 areas of study.

The first area (18-27 credits) must be completed in an established minor at Worcester State University.

The second area (15 or more credits) may be another of the University’s established minors, a concentration, or a self-designed cluster of classes. A maximum of 18 credits may be transferred in to this second area of the major.

At least 9 credits in your 2 areas must be at the 300-level or above. The program of study plan must reflect that at least 51 percent of the major credits are taken at Worcester State University. To receive a baccalaureate degree from Worcester State University, you must complete 30 of the last 40 credits at Worcester State University.

Students who have completed 30 credits between areas 1 and 2 of their program of study may enroll in the capstone.

Each liberal studies major is required to maintain an e-portfolio of work produced in the student’s various courses, beginning in LS-190 and culminating in LS-490.

Evening students: Students wishing to declare a liberal studies major may, depending on the chosen areas of study, complete the required courses in the evening or during the summer.

Honors program: Liberal studies majors with a 3.3 GPA or higher who wish to graduate with honors may add a 3-credit research project, creative work/portfolio, or thesis to the individualized plan of study.

Students are required to meet with their academic advisor to review their courses for the upcoming semester. A minimum of 120 credits is required for graduation. First-year and transfer students with 45 or fewer credits at the time of admission shall complete 2 academic programs (a major/major or major/minor) to qualify for graduation. For more information, please view the MajorPlus section of the catalog.
The following are the default transfer equivalences. When courses transfer into specific Worcester State courses, they carry specific liberal arts and sciences curriculum (LASC) designations; however, the transferred courses will meet LASC requirements in the same way as the courses into which they have transferred.

Mathematics courses will be transferred as QR for maximum of 6 credits in LASC

Science courses in physics, chemistry, biology, and geosciences transfer as NSP for a maximum of 7 credits. A lab science course transfers as a NSP lab course

Psychology, economics, political science, anthropology, cultural geography, sociology, and education courses transfer as HBS for a maximum of 3 credits

Philosophy, literature, religion, communication (theory), and language courses transfer as TLC for a maximum of 3 credits

Art, communication (applied), music, and theatre courses transfer as CA for a maximum of 3 credits

Health and nutrition courses transfer as ICW for a maximum of 3 credits

History courses transfer as USW, GP or TLC for a maximum of 6 credits

All other transfer courses will be reviewed individually by the LASC program chair, in consultation with appropriate academic departments, the LASC Advisory Board, or the associate vice president for Academic Affairs

Major and Minor Courses Counting Toward LASC

For students who entered Worcester State prior to fall 2021, courses in the liberal arts and sciences curriculum may not be used to meet the primary requirements of a first major, but may be used to satisfy the requirements of a second major or a minor

Students who entered Worcester State in fall 2021 or later, that is, those under MajorPlus, may apply up to 3 courses approved for different LASC requirements from their first major toward LASC requirements. All courses in a second major or any minor that meet LASC requirements are eligible for LASC credit.

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