Majors & Minors

The Environmental Studies Program offers two undergraduate majors, Environmental Studies (ENVS) and Environmental Science and Health (ENSH). Each of these majors leads to either a BA or BS degree. The environmental studies degrees are built on specialized natural science and social science courses and a set of interdisciplinary courses focusing on sustainability. The social science core courses focus on environmental problems from political, legal, economic and international perspectives. Specially designed one-semester surveys of biology, earth science and chemistry provide the natural science competency for subsequent policy or science advanced course work in environmental studies. Two concentrations are available in the BA in Environmental Studies degree: science and management and policy and management. Four concentrations are available in the BS in Environmental Studies degree: sustainability and society; oceans and people; climate and environment; and environmental policy. Both the Environmental Studies BA and BS culminate in the capstone experience of a senior seminar focusing on environmental problem-solving by interdisciplinary teams. A single 24-unit environmental studies minor is derived from the core major curriculum. 

The environmental science and health degrees combine the interdisciplinary courses on sustainability described above and some of the environmental social science content with traditional biology and chemistry content to provide options for students preparing for one of the health professions with an undergraduate emphasis on environmental sustainability. The BS in Environmental Science and Health incorporates recommended preparation for medical schools. The BA in Environmental Science and Health may be appropriate for students preparing for other graduate or professional training as well as students pursuing double majors. The environmental studies courses common to both majors emphasize the interdisciplinary nature of environmental problems. A number of opportunities are provided for field studies from the urban Los Angeles environment to marine protected areas on the coasts of the California Channel Islands. More intensive field study opportunities include “Problems Without Passports” courses with international components. Note that some of the field studies opportunities require travel to remote, rural locations and study under sometimes physically and mentally demanding conditions. These trips require a willingness to conform to the announced guidelines for conduct and safety.

The Environmental Studies Program offers two undergraduate majors, Environmental Studies (ENVS) and Environmental Science and Health (ENSH). Each of these majors leads to either a BA or BS degree. The environmental studies degrees are built on specialized natural science and social science courses and a set of interdisciplinary courses focusing on sustainability. The social science core courses focus on environmental problems from political, legal, economic and international perspectives. Specially designed one-semester surveys of biology, earth science and chemistry provide the natural science competency for subsequent policy or science advanced course work in environmental studies. Two concentrations are available in the BA in Environmental Studies degree: science and management and policy and management. Four concentrations are available in the BS in Environmental Studies degree: sustainability and society; oceans and people; climate and environment; and environmental policy. Both the Environmental Studies BA and BS culminate in the capstone experience of a senior seminar focusing on environmental problem-solving by interdisciplinary teams. A single 24-unit environmental studies minor is derived from the core major curriculum. 

The environmental science and health degrees combine the interdisciplinary courses on sustainability described above and some of the environmental social science content with traditional biology and chemistry content to provide options for students preparing for one of the health professions with an undergraduate emphasis on environmental sustainability. The BS in Environmental Science and Health incorporates recommended preparation for medical schools. The BA in Environmental Science and Health may be appropriate for students preparing for other graduate or professional training as well as students pursuing double majors. The environmental studies courses common to both majors emphasize the interdisciplinary nature of environmental problems. A number of opportunities are provided for field studies from the urban Los Angeles environment to marine protected areas on the coasts of the California Channel Islands. More intensive field study opportunities include "Problems Without Passports" courses with international components. Note that some of the field studies opportunities require travel to remote, rural locations and study under sometimes physically and mentally demanding conditions. These trips require a willingness to conform to the announced guidelines for conduct and safety.

Extended Reality (XR) focuses on the intersection of our physical and digital lives as experienced with our bodies and senses, using multimodal digital tools and participatory narrative processes. It encompasses augmented and virtual reality, spatial computing, as well as hardware that enables new kinds of  context-specific interactions realized through custom arrays of sensing and multimodal displays. Modular and multimodal narrative components flow into extended reality experiences with active user participation through use of their vision, hands and eye-tracking. Extended reality also necessitates novel intellectual property, marketing and distribution techniques. The minor looks at the potential of XR wearables to gradually replace activities and content dominant on smartphones for 15 years.  Applications of XR range from entertainment to commerce, communication, learning, fashion, mobility, health, productivity and social applications. Through the minor in Extended Reality Design and Development, designers, entrepreneurs and developers will explore the interconnection of narrative, space construction, software development, hardware engineering and user experience. The minor provides a robust core foundation combined with bespoke learning experiences and industry insights to help students chart new paths in creating diverse experiences and careers that are immersive, future-facing with significant potential for societal impact. It also helps innovators create groundbreaking impact in areas including med-tech, collective decision making systems, augmented intelligence, product design, augmented manufacturing, hybrid learning, brand marketing, and new areas that are yet to be defined.

Information on how to apply to the minor can be found at: iovine-young.usc.edu.

The combined minor in Fashion recontextualizes the idea of fashion in an interdisciplinary and collaborative manner with elective options in fashion studies, wearable production, smart fabrics, costuming, dance and movement, media and culture, business entrepreneurship and marketing.

• ACAD courses introduce students to the ideas of extended reality and interactive design with leading-edge technologies using smart fabrics and wearable electronics; IDSN courses further explore areas of the global fashion system via business design, market research and ambient computing.
• ART, DES and FDN courses ground students in art and design foundations, allowing advanced focus on fashion design theory, issues of identity and visual representation.
• BAEP and BUAD courses provide students with tools to create new products, new business ventures and new worlds.
• DANC courses allow students to dive deeper into the relationship between fashion and performance, including points of intersection with choreography, corporeality, identity and theatricality. Grounded in embodied experimentation, students in these courses will be encouraged to experiment with fashion as the critical site at which the body meets world.
• THTR classes teach students to build personal brands using the principles of costuming and the hands-on fabrication methods of a theatrical costume shop that span the worlds of musical theatre, superheroes, sports and fashion influencers, shaping identity and creating characters.

The minor also serves as a gateway to two progressive degree options, Roski's MFA in Fashion and Iovine and Young Academy's MS in Fashion Innovation For more information about these options, please consult with the appropriate departmental adviser. The total number of units for the minor is 24.

The BFA is a four-year studio intensive program in preparation for a career in the fine arts, design and/or related fields or pursuit of a master of fine arts degree. With few required courses or electives and a wide variety of media from which to choose, the BFA provides ample opportunity to explore and develop a strong personal vision in art.

Introductory courses focus on technique and conceptual context while building a solid grounding in critical theory. Advanced students work on self-generated independent projects under the guidance and mentoring of individual faculty members. Emphasis in the last year is on the production of a major body of work and professional quality portfolio.

The minor in folklore and popular culture provides an academic foundation for students interested in the many genres in the field including folktales, myths, legends, proverbs, jokes, games, folk medicine, and folk and indigenous musical traditions, from around the world. Through interdisciplinary course work, stu​dents will learn techniques of collecting, analyzing and interpreting the traditional expressive culture of diverse groups. Students will analyze the interrelationships of folklore and national, regional and ethnic identities. After becoming acquainted with methods of interpreting different forms of folklore, students will see how value systems are reflected in the data, so that students understand the ideological underpinnings of group formation, group identity, conflict and strategies for resolution. By focusing on the individual, informal culture, and the tension between the individual and myriad groups to which they belong, folklore provides yet another window into understanding how individuals function in complex societies. Since the field is historically grounded and culturally comparative, folklore provides important perspectives on the human condition.

Course Requirements

For the minor in folklore and popular culture, students must complete five courses, as distributed below.

The interdisciplinary minor in Food and Society at USC explores food as a complex social phenomenon, shaped by human knowledges, practices and ecologies. Grounded in Anthropology, the minor in Food and Society examines the diversity that characterizes human relationships to food, and learn to apply the tools of social analysis to gain critical insight into the complex social forces that shape food systems.