Popular Culture Studies*
The Popular Culture Studies major, the second of its kind in the country, provides WKU undergraduates with a broad understanding of the arts and culture of everyday life and its multiple uses and meanings. Through innovative interdisciplinary coursework and community events, the major helps students critically analyze the wide range of cultural productions and practices they encounter daily including in such areas as television, film, music, sports, advertising, customs, and rituals.
Specific objectives of the Popular Culture Studies major are:
- To provide a thorough and rigorous grounding in the study of popular culture from a variety of disciplinary perspectives (including but not limited to Art History, English, Film Studies, Folk Studies and Anthropology, History, Journalism and Broadcast Communications, Philosophy and Religion, Political Science, and Sociology).
- To help students make connections between everyday popular culture and cultural forms more traditionally studied in these and other liberal arts disciplines.
- To develop the skills essential for students to become informed consumers and engaged participants in the global community in an age in which cultural industries play a central role in shaping the international social, political, and economic landscape.
- To prepare students for a wide variety of careers in media and culture industries, in the analysis, promotion, or preservation of these productions, or for graduate studies in a range of liberal arts disciplines, business, or law.
- To promote students’ international engagement by studying and reporting on the ways popular culture shapes and is shaped by communities on the local, national, and global level.
Current Popular Culture Studies Major Requirements
Previous Popular Culture Studies Major Requirements
*No new program enrollment starting Fall 2019.
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