Majors in women's studies, peace and justice studies, and Middle Eastern studies were all added to the Tufts curriculum over the past two years. The new programs have not enjoyed immense popularity, but because they are interdisciplinary in nature, interested students are able to participate at little cost to the University.
The addition of these three majors demonstrates how existing resources can be pooled together to strengthen Tufts' academic offerings. The Committee on Curricula approved the majors, and committee Chair Martin Guterman said that proposals for new majors are selected only if they do not require a lot of funding.
"We don't want any faculty-heavy new majors [without student interest], so sometimes the majors do not even require us to hire any new faculty. We need the support of the administration so the recent majors have all had a lot of things already in place," Guterman said. "It causes me to ask questions of what would happen if a proposed curriculum needed lots support from the administration."
Without a major, it is difficult for students to gain in-depth knowledge about their specific academic interests. Many of the courses that comprise the three new majors existed prior to the creation of the official degree notation, but students could not afford to focus on their area of interest while still completing requirements for their major.
The women's studies program came about after an external review three years ago discovered that Tufts was one of the few major universities in the country that did not have a women's studies major.
"During the '80s the idea of making women's studies was resisted because there was a lot of challenging the academic structure, but it has a become a real program in the world," Director Sonia Hofkosh said.
Course work in women's studies has existed at Tufts since the early 1980s, prior to its implementation as a major last year. Only two classes were created to complete the program: "Introduction to Women's Studies," and WS 190, a feminist research seminar.
The fact that only two classes had to be added made implementing the program an easy task. It currently has no full-time director and shares much of its faculty with other departments.
"We were in a strong position, so it was a matter of conceptualizing what a strong program would look like," Hofkosh said.
Two students declared a major in women's studies during their senior year and have since graduated. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the program, most people double major.
"We are not looking to replace, but enrich disciplinary knowledge," Hofkosh said.
"I think [the Women's Studies major] is one of the best things that could have happened to Tufts and the enthusiasm with which it has been greeted is proof," said professor Modhumita Roy, who currently teaches the introduction course.
The peace and justice studies major, which started last year, was even simpler to implement because an eight-class certificate program was already in place. Constructing the major was just a matter of extending the requirements by two classes.
Out of 130 peace and justice studies programs in the country, only 30 of them allow students to major. Tufts is one of the few non-faith based schools to have the peace and justice studies major.
"It is an interdisciplinary field, the premise of which is that negative peace, or the absence of war is an inadequate condition for peace - peace is more than just the absence of war," director Paul Joseph said. "So far the major has been well received, but it will never be a huge major: maybe 12 or 13 students will graduate with the major a year."
There are currently half a dozen students in the program.
Peace and justice studies encourages students to learn by experience by requiring a full internship in peace activism. It prepares students for a number of fields such as working with non-governmental organizations to do things like campaign against anti-personal land mines and issues of social development
"It's a great major," junior Jennika Arkell said. "I chose it because the intro. class was so amazing. It crosses over well with international relations, and it will give me a good base to work with the UN."
Students are also an integral part of planning and overseeing the major and are even included on the executive board. "I really like the engagement of students on the board. In general, our students have a high level commitment and motivation," Joseph said.
Unlike women's studies and peace and justice studies, it took a great deal of work to implement the Middle Eastern studies major. There was a push for the major in 1986 and 1987, but there was not enough tenured faculty to make it feasible.
"We can do this now because the University is very strong in this area," said director Beatrice Manz. "We have four faculty members just in the history department."
The creation of a Middle Eastern studies major allowed for greater programming on the issue to take place on campus, which means that non-majors benefit as well. Events currently being planned include a program such as a film series and a speaker early next semester.
Students in the program come from a wide variety of backgrounds. So, the program curriculum itself allows students to focus on areas of special interest such as Judaic Studies.
"What it allows you to do is get the breath of the issues. If you are in another major it is difficult to get this fine-tuned expertise and depth of understanding," Manz said. "For the fact that it has existed for two months the reception has been great. There are two seniors interested and two sophomores."
Students said that the creation of new interdisciplinary majors such as this one give them the chance to focus their academics on nontraditional subjects.
"This is a growing field of study that is vital to our generation, especially given what is going on in the Middle East right now," said senior Meaghan Akman. "I am happy to be the first to graduate with the major."
