New Programs

Special Topics courses

Summer 2025 Special Topics courses  

These courses are available in July-August. For the most current course information, please refer to the Academic Calendar and Banner. Courses are in person on campus, unless otherwise noted.  

Fall/Winter 2025 Special Topics courses

New Arts programs launched in 2023-2024  

Major in Public Humanities and Heritage 
The new Public Humanities and Heritage program gives students a foundational understanding of theory and practice in the core areas of public humanities (archaeology, archive and museum studies, public history, tourism, digital humanities and collections management). Students gain valuable critical thinking, research and writing skills, and historical and cultural literacy, alongside hands-on, practical work experience in field placements. Students may choose to major in Public Humanities and Heritage or add it as a second major.

Major in Law and Ethics
Available as a major, this new program offers the opportunity for diverse disciplinary perspectives on the law and on ethics. It will give students the chance to think critically about the law and legal institutions, as well as a wide range of moral and legal issues. Studying law and ethics together makes it possible to raise fundamental questions about the ethics of various social practices, and about how laws can function to make a society more (or sometimes less) just.

Minor in Climate Change Studies
Climate change is one of the defining environmental and social problems of our lifetime. As a student pursuing a Minor in Climate Change Studies, you will engage in an interdisciplinary program of study that will prepare you for an understanding of climate change from diverse perspectives, examining scientific, political, psychological, economic and ethical dimensions of the problem and its solutions. The new minor is housed within the Bachelor of Environmental Studies program, but it’s open to students in all programs across Saint Mary’s.