Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies

at Shorelight Group - Southwestern University USA

The Theatre Department provides academic, production and laboratory experiences designed to help students develop their artistic potential and to become well-rounded theatre artists. We work to educate students who are well prepared for graduate schools and advanced theatre training programs and for work in the professional theatre. We are also dedicated to empowering individuals who will use the analytical, critical, practical and artistic skills inherent in the theatre discipline to entertain, educate, enlighten and contribute to their communities and the world in insightful and celebratory ways.

The Theatre Department offers a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) The degree is designed to provide students with a solid grounding in all areas of theatre studies including history, dramatic literature, performance, design, management, and technical theatre. Students who choose the Bachelor of Arts option often combine their work in theatre with work in other disciplines, are interested in graduate education focusing on research and scholarship, or are certifying to teach.

For students who are Work Study eligible as part of their financial aid package, there are numerous jobs in the area of the theatre, such as faculty assistants, box office staff, and backstage crew. Students interested in these positions should inquire through department head of the desired area.

We form strong critical thinkers and writers who excel in their careers nationally and internationally thanks to the flexibility and quickness of mind gained from studying language, literature, culture and film.

The German Program also builds diverse perspectives through courses addressing historical contexts, the environment, transnational writing and the European Union. The Capstone experience encourages German majors to go into greater depth and prepare for sophisticated work in many fields. Alumni pursue Master’s and PhD degrees and careers in teaching, business, management, international affairs and public health. 

Together with its commitment to high-impact learning practices such as faculty-student research, study abroad, internships, and senior honors theses, the Department’s rigorous academic programs represent the best in liberal arts education. Featuring a global orientation and wide chronological scope, our curriculum offers students a wide array of approaches, methods, and themes in their courses while allowing them maximum flexibility to pursue their particular interests and concerns.

Students seeking a major in History must complete nine courses. The major is flexible to allow each student to follow their own interests and schedules while ensuring that all students gain chronological breadth, geographic diversity, and a shared set of historical tools and skills. 

The flexibility of the History major makes it ideal for students seeking a double major. Additionally, the History Department has paired major options with Art History, English, Feminist Studies, and Political Science. (Check your current course catalog for details.)

With its wide scope and its status as the foundation for many scientific disciplines, physics enables you to understand all forms of mass and energy and their interrelationships. You will explore how the universe works—from the subatomic and molecular levels to the scale of solar systems and galaxies—through systematic observation, theoretical modeling, and experimentation. And fulfilling Southwestern’s innovative Paideia approach to education, physics gives you the tools to make connections between seemingly unconnected phenomena in technologically innovative and artistically creative ways. How is DNA related to the dust swirling about a star? How does the strumming of a guitar or the darkly dramatic register of a tenor trombone behave like a wave traveling within the depths of the ocean or the tremors of an earthquake? You will develop the intellectual and philosophical curiosity to understand first physical principles—foundational concepts that lead to the scientific discoveries that shape our world and drive the technological advances that help improve our lives.

With specialties in geophysics, atmospheric physics, mathematics, and quantum physics, our award-winning faculty offer a rich array of courses, including earth and climate science, classical mechanics, and quantum physics. If your passion is for engineering, you can explore the field in our three-year, dual-degree Applied Physics Pre-Engineering Pathway. You will also have the remarkable opportunity to use the Fountainwood Observatory for research and coursework. Thanks to a generous gift by Max Allen, a local engineer, builder, and amateur astronomer, our observatory houses a research-quality reflecting telescope complete with a digital CCD camera that enables you to for view and process images on your computer.

Studying political science is crucial to understanding one of the most powerful institutions shaping our lives: government. By comparing how different ideologies and forms of government have developed and evolved, analyzing how power and resources are distributed throughout a society and the world, and examining the impact of political events and public policies throughout history and across countries, students of the discipline become more informed, engaged participants within the local, national, and global communities.

At Southwestern, majoring or minoring in political science will broaden your understanding of a range of fascinating topics:

• Campaigns and elections
• Domestic and foreign policy
• International politics
• Civil discourse
• The relationship between media and politics
• The relationship between politics and gender
• Models of political leadership
• Theories of revolution, conflict, and peace
• Ideologies and political philosophies

You’ll cultivate the analytical tools, creative thinking, and communication skills that will prepare you for effective critical engagement with many different kinds of power structures. Those skills will also help you develop a sound foundation for future study in  a wide variety of professions as well as graduate programs. Recent Southwestern political science alumni are currently pursuing careers in law, government, K–12 and higher education, nonprofits, urban planning, business, and international affairs.

The Computer Science Department provides an integrated approach to solving complex, open-ended problems—a skill necessary for succeeding in the digital age and beyond. When you major in computer science, you will be empowered to make a positive impact on the world. More than just learning how to code, you will theorize about systems while developing algorithms and gaining hands-on experiences with database management, taking advantage of the power of the cloud.

Beyond taking dynamic courses such as Artificial Intelligence and Operations Research, you can combine your interest in computer science with community engagement or your passion for the arts. Our recent students have

• Created computer systems that “breed” artistic animations
• Improved video game play using the generative adversarial network (GAN) machine learning model
• Partnered with Upward Bound and GirlStart to improve their websites and databases
• Analyzed users’ sincerity when using meeting scheduling apps, such as Doodle Poll

In addition to designing independent research with faculty, you will have the opportunity to present your work at regional, national, and international conferences and publish coauthored articles in peer-reviewed journals. You will also get support as you participate in national competitions, such as the Association for Computing Machinery’s International Collegiate Programming Contest. By graduation, you will be prepared to succeed in top-tier graduate programs as well as fulfilling careers, from network and test engineering to front- and back-end development.

French majors and minors tie their language studies to in-depth analysis of literature, culture and film. Our curriculum integrates speaking, writing and culture into all courses, enhanced by faculty mentoring and interdisciplinary opportunities. French students are strongly encouraged to study abroad. Several graduates have won scholarships to teach in France, through the French Embassy’s Teaching Assistant Program.

The French Program also builds diverse perspectives through course materials tailored to students’ needs.

The Capstone provides majors with training in independent research and prepares them for work in many fields. Alumni pursue Master’s and PhD degrees and careers in art, business, international affairs, law, management, public health, and teaching.

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. 

As an academic discipline, religious studies prepares students to better understand, compare, interpret, and analyze the diverse array of human expression known as “religious.” A guiding assumption in religious studies is that religion can and should be subjected to the types of critical analyses that are applied to other areas of the human social world. Religious studies is an inherently interdisciplinary field that utilizes the critical theories and tools from many other academic fields, such as: philosophy, art, history, sociology, anthropology, psychology, language studies, literature, politics, economics, cultural studies, gender studies and ethnic studies.

Education courses are designed to provide both a philosophical and theoretical basis for teaching and other education careers. We expose Education students to teaching methodology that is based on the latest research and emphasize developmental characteristics of the learner, learning theories, diverse learners, and assessment. Our professors teach and model analytic, creative and evaluative thinking skills in order to develop lifelong learners who are skilled in the problem solving necessary for the modern classroom. Strong, early field experiences and a closely supervised student teaching placement are integral components of the program.

After graduation, during the critical first year of teaching, the Education Department provides assistance through the Semester of Support (S.O.S.) program. Graduates return to campus to exchange ideas, receive technical assistance from the Department faculty, and engage in evaluation of the Teacher Certification Program. S.O.S. also provides on-site technical support to graduates during their first year of teaching.

Although Education Degrees are awarded by Southwestern University, certification is awarded by the State of Texas. In completing the requirements for their respective degree programs, students must meet the requirements necessary for Texas teacher certification as well as the requirements of Southwestern.