Undergraduates in the College of Letters and Science may choose from 80 majors and 38 minors. The most popular majors – including economics, psychology, and sociology  - give our students the chance to study with nationally ranked faculty and prepare for graduate school or the working world. Our science departments are home to Nobel Prize winners in physics and chemistry, as well as leading researchers in the biological, earth and marine sciences. Beyond these traditional strengths, however, the College offers a wealth of opportunities to students to discover new interests and nurture given talents while earning a top-class liberal arts degree.

Crossing Boundaries

Our Department of Film and Media Studies has one of the longest standing and most successful undergraduate majors in the country. Its multi-faceted curriculum covers the history and theory of film, television, and new media practices around the world. The department offers students a wide range of opportunities to explore potential future career paths, including the Media Internship Program sponsored by the Carsey-Wolf Center for Film, Television, and New Media.

The Carsey-Wolf Center’s  Environmental Media Initiative draws on faculty from the Film and Media Studies and Communication departments, as well as from the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. The Center sponsors Blue Horizons, an annual summer program that addresses media portrayals of the environment, as well as the biological, socio-economic, and political aspects of marine conservation; introduces students to scriptwriting; and covers the latest innovations in environmental filmmaking.  

Students majoring in the History of Art & Architecture may choose an optional emphasis in Architecture and Environment that looks at three core areas of architecture, urbanism, and cultural landscape. Students take elective courses that touch on the study of historic and contemporary architecture in its wider setting, in areas including anthropology, art, classics, environmental studies, film and media studies, geography, history, religious studies and sociology.

The Environmental Studies program was one of the first of its kind in the country, founded in 1970 in the wake of the January 1969 oil spill off Santa Barbara. The B.A. degree requires a wide breadth of introductory social science, natural science, and humanities courses to establish a fundamental understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of today’s environmental problems, followed by upper-division work through which students create their own unique environmental emphases from a wide range of disciplines. The B.S. degree focuses more on the natural and physical sciences. Another option is the B.S. in hydrologic sciences.

UC Santa Barbara is a leader in ethnic and area studies. The Black Studies and Chicana/Chicano Studies programs, which grew out of both student activism and new directions in scholarship in the late 1960s, as well as the Asian American Studies program, are nationally prominent departments that draw on experts in comparative literature, film studies, ethnomusicology, art, gender studies, history, linguistics, communication, political science, sociology, and other traditional disciplines. The Department of Feminist Studies also offers a major that enables students to choose from courses in anthropology, art history, classics, communication, language and literature, environmental studies, film studies, global studies, history, linguistics, political science, sociology, theater and dance, and writing.

Students of Religious Studies gain critical skills in history, sociology, philosophy and other relevant disciplines, with the option of designing concentrations in Buddhist Studies; South Asian or East Asian traditions; Jewish, Islamic, and Near Eastern traditions; Christian, Mediterranean, and European traditions; or traditions of the Americas. Students may also choose to minor in Jewish Studies or American Indian and Indigenous Studies. The Department is home to the nationally-renowned class on The Impact of the Vietnam War on American Religion and Culture, begun by the late Walter Capps, who was also a member of the U.S. Congress.

The B.A. in Geography is an interdisciplinary program in which students choose from various courses in the human, physical, and technical areas and then apply their geographic knowledge toward specific areas like archaeology, land use and planning law, plant ecology, or social change in developing nations. Undergraduates may also pursue an emphasis in Geographic Information Science or a B.S. degree with more specialized training in earth and environmental science.

One of the most challenging undergraduate majors is the B.S. in Financial Statistics and Mathematics. This joint major between the Departments of Statistics and Applied Probability, and Mathematics, as well as Economics, is for students interested in the applications of mathematics, probability, statistics, and modern finance.

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Going Global

The College’s program in Global and International Studies was one of the first interdisciplinary undergraduate majors in international studies in the country to focus on globalization. Students may concentrate on the socioeconomic and political aspects of globalization or the cultural and ideological side. The major combines global studies courses like Human Rights in World Affairs with classes in anthropology, economics, environmental studies, geography, political science, religious studies, sociology, art history, ethnic and area studies, linguistics and history. The Department of Global and International Studies also offers interdisciplinary minors in Women, Culture and Development and Global Peace and Security.

Other majors delve more deeply into specific areas, cultures and languages:

• Middle East Studies. Students can explore the myriad peoples, societies, languages, and cultures of the Middle East and North Africa from a variety of perspectives. The program brings under one roof studies on the languages, cultures, and history, politics and societies of the region in the ancient, medieval, and modern periods.

• Asian Studies. Students study an area (China, Japan, Korea, Tibet) through two or more academic disciplines and also have at least two years of training in a related language. The disciplines that contribute most to the Asian Studies major are  anthropology, art history, literature, history, political science, and religious studies. The Department of East Asian Studies also offers a 5-year B.A./M.A. program, which includes a year of study abroad.

• Latin American and Iberian Studies. The major examines the people and cultures of Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries throughout the world, encompassing not only Spain, Portugal, and Latin America, but also Angola, Mozambique, the Philippines, Macao, and the Chicano and Puerto Rican populations in the United States. The major draws on the social sciences, art history, music and film, history; literature and languages of Latin America, Spain and Portugal.
  

The College offers many opportunities to students of foreign languages and literature, increasingly important in our global society. Students may major in Chinese, French, German, Italian Studies, Japanese, Portuguese, Slavic Languages and Literature, and Spanish. In addition, undergraduate courses are offered in Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Latin, Persian, Russian, Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Yiddish.

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Majoring in the Arts

The College has a thriving performing arts program that allows undergraduates to earn a B.A. or B.F.A. in Theater and Dance, or a Bachelor of Music (B.M). The options include:

• a B.F.A. in Theater with an emphasis in Acting, a highly selective three-year program (students enter at the beginning of the sophomore year) which prepares majors for graduate conservatory training programs, internships with regional theatres, and professional theater. 

• a B.A. in Theater, specializing in Theatrical Design, Directing, Playwriting, or Theater Studies (advanced study of drama in its literary, aesthetic, social, and historical contexts).

• a B.F.A. in Dance, specifically oriented toward training for a professional career in performance and/or choreography.

• a B.A. in Dance prepares students for alternative dance careers such as dance therapy, dance administration, dance history and dance education.

• a B.M. in Music Performance, with emphases in most instruments and voice.

• a B.A. in Music, including an emphasis in ethnomusicology.

Our performing arts students have the added benefit of the many master classes taught by visiting artists. Working closely with UCSB Arts & Lectures, our arts departments have featured residencies and classes with Yo-Yo Ma, Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Anne Bogart, the Miami City Ballet, and the Guarneri String Quartet. The Michael Douglas Visiting Artists Series has sponsored residencies with Paula Vogel and Steven Berkoff, the Juilliard Quartet and Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, Tony Kushner.

The Department of Art is designed to provide students with thorough and comprehensive training, and an understanding of art as a humanistic activity. Students who wish to become practicing artists receive a foundation that will prepare them for graduate work and professional school. Within the art major, students may choose to emphasize painting, drawing, print and book arts, ceramics, sculpture, photography, performance and video, electronic arts, computer arts and digital media with interdisciplinary forms.

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What about more “traditional” majors?