What’s the benefit of pursuing an interdisciplinary minor? Students get the chance to take classes that are applicable to their desired career path, setting them up to be more marketable for job offers.
Whitworth offers unique interdisciplinary studies that allow students to study multiple academic disciplines under a single minor. These minors pull courses from departments across campus, enhancing student’s education. It can be hard to keep track of what opportunities are out there. Don’t let these ones fly under the radar.
Film and Visual Narrative Minor
Are you looking to go into visual storytelling through mediums such as film, documentaries, photography or comics? The Film and Visual Narrative interdisciplinary is the perfect fit. This 18-20 credit minor consists of classes such as Introduction to Time-Based Art Making, Photojournalism, Acting: Fundamentals and more than 20 other courses to choose from.
Students in this minor spend their time analyzing different visual media, covering topics like history and aesthetics of different film cultures. Some courses under the Film and Visual Narrative minor allow students to dip their toes in the water of the production of visual narratives. The department includes an off-campus program opportunity to spend a semester at the Los Angeles Film Studies Center to experience filmmaking firsthand.
The Film and Visual Narrative minor is often paired with majors like Marketing, English, Art (Two-Dimensional Track and Three-Dimensional Track) and Communications.
Third-year English major, Samuel Ortega, explains, “I’m connecting my film minor with my English since I view film as another type of literature or piece of culture through a medium that is visual, instead of only written.”
Ortega’s creative writing skills now take the form of screenwriting. He hopes to build a career as a screenwriter in the film world and create documentaries.
He has taken classes like Introduction to Video and Audio Production, as well as a couple film studies. Ortega says this has got him “accustomed to how to talk about film and the way that filming works and the way that scripting works.”
Medieval and Early Modern Studies Minor
Maybe widening your understanding of history is more up your alley. The Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS) Minor is a 19 credit interdisciplinary that gives students a broadened perspective of the past.
Director of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, professor Bendi Schrambach, said that, “It’s an enriching way to learn about these periods on different continents and in different contexts and in different disciplines.”
This Interdisciplinary is made up of classes in departments such as English, Theology, History, Art, Music, World Languages and Theatre. The study covers all bases of humanities. History of Medieval Art, Shakespeare and a history class on Holy War in Europe are just a view of the many courses that can be taken to fulfill the minor’s requirements.
Students often take Medieval and Early Modern Studies with either a History, English, Theology or Art History major. Many students then go on to pursue jobs in teaching or writing.
Proving that there is various career paths connected to this minor, Professor Schrambach shares how graduate Hannah Charlton finished the MEMS minor a few years ago and is now an artist. She teaches workshops and retreats. Charlton recently published an illuminated manuscript on “The Book of the City of Ladies” by Christine De Pusan.
Schrambach believes that the Medieval and Early Modern Studies minor does more than just equip a person for a job, but also for life. She describes the goal of this study being “just to give a framework for seeing how the past has shaped our modern world and be better prepared to be citizens of this modern world.”
Whitworth provides students with these interdisciplinary minors to set them up for success. These pathways have the ability to connect concepts from a variety of subjects and create a unique learning experience. The opportunity is open to everyone.
