Welcome to the Liberal Studies Department, a place for ideas for a better world
When you want to combine your creative thinking with skills that bring ideas to life, choose APU’s Liberal Studies Department for programs at the bachelor’s or master’s levels – as well as academic concentrations in medicine and law – to put your talent to work.
Whether your outlet is in music, poetry or visual media – whether you aim to improve the planet or enhance well-being one person at a time – Liberal Studies offers you challenging coursework that helps you meet your goals:
- Choose the BA in Sustainability Studies when you want a flexible program that emphasizes problem-solving and how it’s applied to challenges and opportunities confronting people and planet.
- The BA in Liberal Studies focuses your studies to advance professional skills in one of six academic concentrations: philosophy, pre-law, literature, religion studies, writing and pre-med.
- The Master of Arts Program combines theory, practice and project-based learning for a curriculum that’s custom designed for each student.
- Consider a Liberal Studies minor to add context to any other APU degree. The Liberal Studies minor broadens your knowledge by incorporating study of the classics, music, art and communication.
In each program, you’ll work with your LS academic adviser to develop an individualized degree plan, including making the most of transfer credits you’ve earned at other schools.
Degree programs and academic concentrations within the Liberal Studies Department educate you to communicate clearly, research thoroughly and analyze strategically. Your BA, MA and academic concentrations are foundations for careers as diverse as marketing, law, public relations, health care, sciences, finances and educational outreach, among others
Your LS faculty is committed to student success. We take time to know you and understand your ambitions. Our travel courses are extensions of classroom learning. And our seminars are intentionally small, offering plenty of opportunity for you to work one-on-one with LS faculty who double as mentors and academic advisers in BA and MA programs.
In each degree and in each concentration you’ll take part in project-based learning. You’ll graduate with demonstrated ability in writing, speaking, logical thinking and problem solving –competencies needed today more than ever in an era of global challenges and opportunities. Liberal Studies students not only earn degrees, they build resumes of professional skills.
We trace our commitment to the humanities to the Rev. Gordon Gould, the Aleut minister who founded Alaska Pacific University with a goal of sharing the pragmatic enrichment inherent in the liberal arts. We honor Gould’s legacy – and the Alaska Native communities that shaped it – by helping develop resilient students committed to lifelong learning.
Today, APU’s Liberal Studies Department is a close-knit group of peers and mentors who value your ideas and the perseverance it takes to bring them to life. Welcome!
–Dr. Esther Beth Sullivan, Chairperson
Liberal Studies Department
