Many of tomorrow’s innovations in fields such as fast computing, renewable energy generation, batteries, plastics, textiles, and transportation will rely on the unique and novel properties of materials. The development of such materials requires integrated knowledge in physics, chemistry, and biology, along with advanced mathematics and computation. The Materials Science major introduces students to the interdisciplinary study in materials science, which includes atomic and molecular structure, mechanical and thermodynamic properties, electric and magnetic properties, and fabrication methods and applications, together with disciplinary training in either physics or chemistry.

The Institutions and Governance major enables students to study the formal and informal rules that societies use to govern themselves at the local, national, and global levels. By focusing on institutions and governance as a guiding framework, students can better understand the dynamics of wealth and poverty, innovation versus technological/economic stagnation, and stability versus turmoil in different states and societies, as well as exploring the dilemmas and questions raised by different conceptions of a just society. Students in this major will be exposed to the deep political science, economic, sociological, historical, anthropological, and normative explorations of institutional designs in a variety of constructs, such as governments, interest groups and social movements, media, and religion, among others.

The global health major introduces students to global health as an area of study, research, and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide. A synthesis of population-based prevention with individual-level clinical care, global health aims to reduce health disparities through attention to modifiable determinants of health and provision of sustainable health services and human development. As a field of study, global health has emerged from tropical medicine, public health, and international health to encompass the complex transactions between societies that are a defining feature of globalization. Because many global health problems stem from economic, social, environmental, political, and healthcare inequalities, defining these problems and designing solutions is highly interdisciplinary and involves fields that span across health sciences, medicine, and public health, but also that bridge to a broad range of other academic fields, including biology, agriculture, anthropology, business, computer science, engineering, environmental sciences, economics, history, law, psychology, public policy, and sociology, among others. To introduce students to this interdisciplinary field, the global health major integrates courses in the natural and social sciences and encourages students to take relevant electives in the humanities.

Cultural Studies is an interdisciplinary field that investigates the forms of social life and culture produced in today’s interconnected world. Understanding the complexity of global culture requires mastery over the tools of interpretation and knowledge production. It requires students to “read, write, and translate the world.” Global Cultural Studies courses combine the strengths of the social sciences, the humanities, and creative practice, by drawing on interpretive methods and theories from literary and translation studies, cultural anthropology, history, sociology, media studies, film studies, journalism, communications, economics, and more.

Is China a state? Is it a nation? Is it a culture defined by a language? Or is it still something else? What do teenagers practicing tai ji quan at American schools and Chinese Christians have in common? How is the Belt and Road initiative reshaping our world? This major invites you to ask and attempt to answer questions like this. If you think you know what Chinese history, politics and religion are, the Global China Studies curriculum is aimed at making you question your previous assumptions. Our interdisciplinary core starts from the assumption that “China” has a lot of meanings. Because of this, you can decide how you approach the interdisciplinary core, choosing from courses divided into 4 core themes: statehood, visual culture and history, economy and trade, and language. Whatever path through the core you chart though, you will gain a broad and interdisciplinary understanding of China.

The Ethics and Leadership major meets a critical need to integrate expertise from the human sciences with the best of thought from philosophy and political theory about the ultimate ends of human life, about right and wrong, rights, duties and the common good. Leaders need the ability to see, frame, and think wisely about the ethical issues that confront them. The major is not just for those who aspire to hold political office or high-ranking positions within various organizations. People often serve as leaders or co-leaders in smaller groups within their organizations or find themselves in social contexts where they may be called upon to lead. Citizens or members of organizations should have thoughtful and informed conceptions of what makes a good leader, so that they may choose wisely or be prepared to become one.

The pressing needs for sustainable development, acceptable environmental quality, and the urgency to address climate change are placing increasing demands upon governments and industries locally, nationally, and worldwide. To help meet those demands, the Environmental Science major provides training for students intending to enter environmental professions or to pursue graduate study in environmental science and related fields such as biology, chemistry, public health, law, and policy. The major offers an interdisciplinary course of study that combines elements of the natural and social sciences relevant to understanding the biosphere and its interaction with human society.

The field of Data Science deals with the theories, methodologies and tools of applying statistical concepts and computational techniques to various data analysis problems related to science, engineering, medicine, business, etc. The objective is to inspect, clean, transform and model data in order to discover useful information, suggest conclusions and support decision-making. It is an emerging topic that plays a critical role in almost every discipline of today’s science and technology and has become an indispensable component of any business, industry, enterprise, etc.

Culture and movements are interdependent areas of inquiry studied across the social sciences and humanities that are relevant for understanding current events, the drivers of and possibilities for change in the world. Culture refers to the ways people imagine and construct their worlds, make and experience meaning, act and interact with each other and the material objects that shape their lives. Movements refer to the ways in which people conceive and contribute to societal change. The study of cultures and movements engages the question of what sustains socio-cultural orders, including those relating to gender, religion, racial and economic inequalities, and how do these systems change? Studies in cultures and movements include analysis of the ways that values and ethical norms, knowledge, economic and political systems and institutions emerge and evolve. By adding a temporal dimension to the study of culture and society, the Cultures and Movements stream reflects on where a society has been and where it may go in the future.

The field of political economy examines the many intersections of politics and markets, within and between countries. While applying a broad array of approaches, political economy emphasizes empirical analysis, while attending also to the context of history and theoretically and normatively significant claims about the way in which politics and markets work. Substantively, the field concerns interactions between economic and political development (does prosperity fuel democracy?); cooperation and conflict among nations, groups, and individuals (what causes civil war?); the distribution and redistribution of material resources and economic power (who gets what?); the effects of political actors and political structures upon economic outcomes (how do autocracies promote growth?); the effects of economic actors and economic structures upon political outcomes (how does inequality foster corruption?); the political causes and consequences of technological and structural change, growth, and globalization (how do party systems integrate new issues?); and the politics of regulation, market interventions, and global governance (how can policy address climate change?). Students can choose among three disciplinary tracks: Economics, Political Science, or Public Policy.

All biological sciences rest on two central principles – all organisms and their characteristics are the product of evolution, and all life processes have a physical and chemical basis. Simply put, at the most fundamental level, there is a shared molecular basis of life. Despite the astonishing diversity of living organisms, from bacteria living in deep ocean hydrothermal vents to cherry trees flowering in the spring to complex modern humans shaping the world around us, many features of all organisms at the cellular and molecular levels are fundamentally similar because of shared evolutionary history. Discoveries of fundamental molecular mechanisms in one species – a bacteria or fungus or fruit fly, for example – often apply to other distantly related organisms like humans. Solving many of the most perplexing and challenging biological, agricultural, medical, societal, and environmental problems in today’s world requires a broad and deep understanding of the molecular basis of life.

Do you think Chinese is a difficult language to learn? At Mandarin House, we are certainly aware of the challenges our students may face, from our experience, then through our unmatched teaching staff and updated learning materials, you will find Mandarin is not so difficult and you will be speaking Chinese before you know it! Our intensive courses have been carefully designed from the ground-up, basing the curriculum and personal teaching approach around modern pedagogy methods and the valuable feedback received from our countless students, teachers and education department.

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The United States of America is a nation of paradoxes best understood through seeing its place in the world. Born in the era of transatlantic revolutions beginning in the late eighteenth century, the US was founded on ideals of individual liberty, yet has had to grapple with its other undemocratic foundation in African slavery and Indigenous dispossession. As a nation that, on principle, has eschewed and isolated itself from the empire-building practices of other great powers, the US sometimes implicated itself, in those very same practices, eventually becoming itself a global power.

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