HANNAH KUBBINS
News Editor
Denisonians have a whole new world in front of them. Well, not a world, but they do have five new majors and concentrations to choose from.
Last year, The Denisonian featured one of the new majors: global commerce.
At the time there were several other programs waiting to be approved, but they are now being offered to students this semester.
The new majors include global commerce, data analytics and health, exercise and sports studies.
The new concentrations will be financial economics, to be paired with an economics major and narrative nonfiction writing concentration, which can be paired with any major.
According to Dr. Brian Hortz, the health, exercise and sports studies major is “especially apt for students who are interested in careers in allied health fields such as physical therapy, sports medicine, public health and exercise science. They will learn how exercise impacts health and well-being in addition to exploring the social contexts of competition within sport.”
The major was changed from the old athletic training major.
“While similar to that old major, it is broader major now encompassing more population-based health and global health issues. This increased breadth allows students more ways to interact with health and exercise and its various forms,” Hortz says.
For those that missed the article on global commerce, this new major aims to provide a cohesive program that explores the nature of commerce in a globalized society.
Some students confused this major with a business program, but Associate Provost Catherine Dollard, who was also part of the team to develop the major, said “This is not a business major. A business major would have courses in marketing and sequences of courses in accounting. This is an interdisciplinary exploration of globalization and its relationship to markets and exchange.”
Emerging from a discussion between faculty of sociology/anthropology, history, modern language and economics, global commerce is truly coming out of the liberal arts.
A new humanities-based concentration, narrative nonfiction writing, can be paired with any major.
According to the degree requirements page, this concentration combines literary attention to storytelling with sound, fact-based research. It offers students from all majors an opportunity to learn how to write for an expansive readership across a variety of media platforms.
Shifting away from the humanities, data analytics, extends beyond just mathematics and computer sciences according to Jessen Havill.
Havill is a professor of mathematics and computer science as well as director of the new interdisciplinary program.
According to the major’s home page, data analytics will enable students to take huge amounts of information, interpret it and wrestle it into effective solutions to the world’s most urgent problems.
The second new concentration, financial economics, was developed for economics majors.
According to a press release from April 7, this course of study is designed for economic majors who are interested in studying business, finance, real estate and insurance and preparing for careers in those fields.
The press release also states that two new economics courses, “Financial Markets” and “Organizational Finance” as well as a new mathematics course titled “Risk Analysis and Financial Mathematics” will be coupled with the economics major to build a strong foundation.
Susanna Meza ‘19 is currently undeclared, but plans to explore the data analytics major because she said “it seems to be a blend of a lot of communication and computer science skills. I can apply it to a wide variety of professions.”
Students interested in learning more about these new fields of study are encouraged to reach out to faculty in charge of the respective department, or check out the requirements for each new concentration or major on Denison’s website.