All Programs and Descriptions
Biotech Explorers Pathway
This two-year program explores the science of biotechnology and how discoveries move from the lab into the real world. The Biotech Explorers Pathway (BEP) aims to build connections between science, business, technology, and engineering at the start of undergraduate studies; to highlight how scientific discoveries lead to useful applications; and to guide students from examples toward idea generation and project development.
Encountering Chinese Culture
*This program is canceled for 2021
Building bridges of understanding between the United States and the Republic of China in Taiwan, this course will introduce students to the variety and rich history of Chinese visual and performance cultures on the Chinese mainland, in Taiwan, and throughout the Chinese diaspora. A collaboration between the East Asian Languages and Cultures and Performing Arts departments, this course explores Chinese cultural narratives in relation to how they have been performed--on stage in traditional forms of dance-drama, on screen in film, and as lived in the practice of everyday life--from the late Imperial period to the present. Combining creative and critical assignments, the course invites students to conduct interviews, stage plays, rehearse dance forms, and make videos that demonstrate their developing knowledge of historical and contemporary Chinese-language literature, dance-drama, and film. Students may participate in a culminating spring break trip to Taiwan.
Examining America
Examining America is a two-semester course sequence that introduces students to the multidisciplinary and critical study of American culture, history, politics, and society. In both semesters students gain a foundational understanding of course concepts, frameworks, and topics related to the formation of identities in the United States and across American imperialism, including issues of race and ethnicity, arts and performance, media and popular culture, and inequalities that shape the experiences, works, and lives of diverse populations.
Global Citizenship Program
In this yearlong program led by three instructors from different disciplines, students explore how their own mental maps compare to the realities of a globalized world, as well as how language plays a role in refugee resettlement within the legal, healthcare, and educational systems. Through thoughtful class discussions and a community-based learning project with local organizations, students develop a critical consciousness and collaboration skills that will serve them throughout college and their future career. Joining the Global Citizenship Program provides participants with a community that starts in the classroom and extends to our global St. Louis community and beyond.
Literary Culture of Modern Ireland
This two-semester program will examine the literature of Ireland from 1890 to the present. This is the period a great efflorescence of literature in many genres, occurring alongside some of the most important political, social, and military events in modern Irish history.
Medicine and Society
The foundation of this multi-year program is medical anthropology—the study of human health and illness across culture, time, and location—and we tackle wide-ranging issues like the ethics of genetic engineering, social and behavioral factors affecting infectious diseases, and the causes of health disparities. The program also emphasizes service and research at health-related sites throughout St. Louis, and the curriculum is fully coordinated with pre-medical course requirements.
Mind, Brain, Behavior
How do we think, remember, and process language? What is human consciousness? In this two-year program, you will investigate exciting new theories, problems, and empirical studies in the areas of attention, memory, and language. First-year MBB students take two core courses that provide an introduction to the mind-brain from three different cognitive science perspectives; Psychology, Neuroscience, and Philosophy. In the second year, MBB students can undertake research under the supervision of a participating MBB faculty mentor.
Pathfinder Fellows in Environmental Leadership
Pathfinder Fellows in Environmental Leadership is a four-year, interdisciplinary cohort-based undergraduate program providing the academic rigor and field experience needed to deeply understand, respect and respond to a place and its people in light of environmental challenges. Integrated around the rich themes of environmental studies, including environmental science, policy, humanities and sustainability, the program welcomes students from all four undergraduate schools with a yearly cohort of 12-16 students.
Phage Hunters
This two-semester program engages you in a national research project to isolate and analyze bacteriophage (bacterial viruses) that infect mycobacteria. The course is part of a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) initiative, in which we partner with more than 50 other colleges and universities across the nation. The program is designed to provide first-year students with an opportunity to participate in scientific research from their first day on campus.
Safe Asylum: Refugee Politics and Pathways
How do people whose lives have been disrupted by trauma – often by war, but also other forms of state violence – make a new home? Join other students who want to understand the politics and lived experiences of refugees seeking safe asylum. The end-of-year study trip will illuminate the global challenges we study through first-hand experiences in Morocco and Germany.
Rethinking WashU’s Relation to Enslavement
Explore Washington University’s entanglement with the institution of slavery over its 168-year history. This program guides you into independent research that engages the distortions, erasures, and silences of the "slavery archive," especially as they pertain to Black lives in St. Louis whose stories shape the University’s long and important tradition. Use textual and digital methods in an endeavor to understand this past, learn how it shapes our present, and consider how it ought to shape our institutional future.
Text and Traditions
There are many ways for you to begin a serious engagement with literature, philosophy, history, art, and critical thinking at WashU. One of the best is to enroll in the Text and Traditions program. In “T&T,” students explore the texts and intellectual traditions upon which modern culture has been built—from ancient Mediterranean thought to the modern novel. The goal of the program is to provide a serious foundation in the humanities, a foundation in content and in methods of inquiry. Each fall, the program accepts 50 first-year students to embark together on a semester-long journey through the classics.
The History of Culture of the Venetian Republic
Wade into Venice, the most envied and dazzling city in Europe, and discover how it lost it all.
Theater as a Living Art
This program allows you to become intimately involved in theater at WashU. Covering a range of historical and contemporary performance experiences and techniques, the two-course program culminates with a class trip to Chicago to attend performances at the Steppenwolf Theater, the Goodman Theater, and the Chicago Shakespeare Festival.
Programs with Travel
These programs typically have an international and/or domestic travel component, which could be affected by federal and local guidelines related to health, safety, and security considerations. These programs main academic components will not be affected.
Encountering Chinese Culture
* This program is canceled for 2021
Building bridges of understanding between the United States and the Republic of China in Taiwan, this course will introduce students to the variety and rich history of Chinese visual and performance cultures on the Chinese mainland, in Taiwan, and throughout the Chinese diaspora. A collaboration between the East Asian Languages and Cultures and Performing Arts departments, this course explores Chinese cultural narratives in relation to how they have been performed--on stage in traditional forms of dance-drama, on screen in film, and as lived in the practice of everyday life--from the late Imperial period to the present. Combining creative and critical assignments, the course invites students to conduct interviews, stage plays, rehearse dance forms, and make videos that demonstrate their developing knowledge of historical and contemporary Chinese-language literature, dance-drama, and film. Students may participate in a culminating spring break trip to Taiwan.
Global Citizenship Program
In this yearlong program led by three instructors from different disciplines, students explore how their own mental maps compare to the realities of a globalized world, as well as how language plays a role in refugee resettlement within the legal, healthcare, and educational systems. Through thoughtful class discussions and a community-based learning project with local organizations, students develop a critical consciousness and collaboration skills that will serve them throughout college and their future career. Joining the Global Citizenship Program provides participants with a community that starts in the classroom and extends to our global St. Louis community and beyond.
Literary Culture of Modern Ireland
This two-semester program will examine the literature of Ireland from 1890 to the present. This is the period a great efflorescence of literature in many genres, occurring alongside some of the most important political, social, and military events in modern Irish history.
Safe Asylum: Refugee Politics and Pathways
How do people whose lives have been disrupted by trauma – often by war, but also other forms of state violence – make a new home? Join other students who want to understand the politics and lived experiences of refugees seeking safe asylum. The end-of-year study trip will illuminate the global challenges we study through first-hand experiences in Morocco and Germany.
Programs with Research
BioTech Explorers Pathway
This two-year program explores the science of biotechnology and how discoveries move from the lab into the real world. The Biotech Explorers Pathway (BEP) aims to build connections between science, business, technology, and engineering at the start of undergraduate studies; to highlight how scientific discoveries lead to useful applications; and to guide students from examples toward idea generation and project development.
Mind, Brain, Behavior
How do we think, remember, and process language? What is human consciousness? In this two-year program, you will investigate exciting new theories, problems, and empirical studies in the areas of attention, memory, and language. First-year MBB students take two core courses that provide an introduction to the mind-brain from three different cognitive science perspectives; Psychology, Neuroscience, and Philosophy. In the second year, MBB students can undertake research under the supervision of a participating MBB faculty mentor.
Phage Hunters and Bioinformatics
This two-semester program engages you in a national research project to isolate and analyze bacteriophage (bacterial viruses) that infect mycobacteria. The course is part of a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) initiative, in which we partner with more than 50 other colleges and universities across the nation. The program is designed to provide first-year students with an opportunity to participate in scientific research from their first day on campus.
Rethinking WashU’s Relation to Enslavement
Explore Washington University’s entanglement with the institution of slavery over its 168-year history. This program guides you into independent research that engages the distortions, erasures, and silences of the "slavery archive," especially as they pertain to Black lives in St. Louis whose stories shape the University’s long and important tradition. Use textual and digital methods in an endeavor to understand this past, learn how it shapes our present, and consider how it ought to shape our institutional future.
Programs with In-the-Field or Service
Global Citizenship Program
In this yearlong program led by three instructors from different disciplines, students explore how their own mental maps compare to the realities of a globalized world, as well as how language plays a role in refugee resettlement within the legal, healthcare, and educational systems. Through thoughtful class discussions and a community-based learning project with local organizations, students develop a critical consciousness and collaboration skills that will serve them throughout college and their future career. Joining the Global Citizenship Program provides participants with a community that starts in the classroom and extends to our global St. Louis community and beyond.
Medicine and Society
The foundation of this multi-year program is medical anthropology—the study of human health and illness across culture, time, and location—and we tackle wide-ranging issues like the ethics of genetic engineering, social and behavioral factors affecting infectious diseases, and the causes of health disparities. The program also emphasizes service and research at health-related sites throughout St. Louis, and the curriculum is fully coordinated with pre-medical course requirements.
Pathfinder Fellows in Environmental Leadership
Pathfinder Fellows in Environmental Leadership is a four-year, interdisciplinary cohort-based undergraduate program providing the academic rigor and field experience needed to deeply understand, respect and respond to a place and its people in light of environmental challenges. Integrated around the rich themes of environmental studies, including environmental science, policy, humanities and sustainability, the program welcomes students from all four undergraduate schools with a yearly cohort of 12-16 students.
Rethinking WashU’s Relation to Enslavement
Explore Washington University’s entanglement with the institution of slavery over its 168-year history. This program guides you into independent research that engages the distortions, erasures, and silences of the "slavery archive," especially as they pertain to Black lives in St. Louis whose stories shape the University’s long and important tradition. Use textual and digital methods in an endeavor to understand this past, learn how it shapes our present, and consider how it ought to shape our institutional future.