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Liberal Studies Department

Liberal Studies is an interdisciplinary program designed for self-directed learners who are interested in exploring a particular interest or range of interests that span the traditional disciplines of history, social sciences, and the arts. Rather than majoring in a traditional discipline or subject, you will plan an interdisciplinary program combining courses, directed studies, internships, and projects that reflect your own personal and professional goals. Areas of possible study include creative writing, writing for theater or film, comparative literature, religious studies, environmental studies, Pacific Rim studies, women’s studies, multicultural studies, and many others.

Because the Liberal Studies major is for self-directed learners, prospective students make application to the department in their sophomore year. Once you are accepted into the major, a faculty advisor and a degree committee will be assigned to you to assist you in planning your personal program. To assist students with specific areas of study or topics not covered by faculty in the department or other APU departments, the Liberal Studies Program makes use of experts within the greater Anchorage community on a contractual basis.

If you earn a degree in Liberal Studies at APU you can expect to be well-prepared for any profession that calls for computer literacy, writing, critical thinking, and research.

The Liberal Studies degree is also excellent preparation for Law School, particularly when combined with other APU majors, like Environmental Science.

Upon graduating with a degree in Liberal Studies, a student should demonstrate:

1. Understanding of the distinctive ways in which the Social Sciences and Humanities approach knowledge.
2. Appreciation of the Liberal Arts and Sciences as liberators of the mind and spirit for narrow thinking and ignorance.
3. Self-Understanding and Self-Direction that encourages postgraduate pursuits in one's interests and values.
4. Activism/Community Service that recognizes the interrelations of education and citizenship.

Alaska Pacific University's Liberal Studies Department

Beyond the Classroom

Inlet/Outlet Series

A reading and lecture series created to provide a forum for sharing original works by members of the Alaska Pacific University and Anchorage communities, as well as by writers of national reputation.

Student Showcase

A once-a-year opportunity for students to present their creative work in the plastic, visual, written, or performing arts, to a university-wide audience.

University Singers

Students join faculty and staff to rehearse and perform a wide variety of choral, traditional, and contemporary music for university events.

The APU Journal

The APU Journal(the student newspaper) is an opportunity for all students to gain valuable experience in writing, editing, and producing a high-quality publication for the Anchorage community.

Active Learning

Liberal Studies Education Strategies and Key Goals

Active Learning Statement: Our courses will encourage your active participation in its development. The learning style will be preponderantly Socratic, with the major emphasis on your personal engagement in discovering relationships inherent in the content. There will also be experiential and pragmatic demands, as you will be expected to apply the theoretical constructs developed within the frameworks of both works from literature and life activities.

• Engaged Learning:
  1. Encourage students to critically explore challenging texts and discussions in understanding diverse viewpoints, cultures, values, and philosophies:
     1. Teach skills of criticism and analysis and apply them through a culturally diverse course content.
  2. Emphasize creative avenues of verbal and written expression to develop novel forms of understanding and interacting:
     1. With writing for discourse, critical thinking, and diverse literary discourses.
  3. Provide opportunities for students to apply classroom theories in a variety of frameworks to better grasp the practical scope of their learning:
     1. In debates, public colloquia, Socrates’Cafes and practice trials.
  4. Expose student to the most diverse styles and techniques of teaching excellence so that they might begin to develop a conscious awareness of their own limits and possibilities as life-long learners:
     1. Both utilize and discuss different learning styles with some feedback on their strengths and weaknesses.
  5. Promote multicultural and international education while welcoming learners of all ages:
     1. Continue to build the RANA program model as an internationally applicable model of low residency distance education.
• Experiential Learning:
  1. Emphasize personal growth through increased opportunities to utilize Alaska, the Arctic, and the Pacific Rim as laboratories for learning:
     1. Integrate field trips to Alaska wilderness sites, as well as incorporate course content with Alaska and wilderness themes.
  2. Strengthen Block Course offerings in all disciplines through strategic partnerships:
     1. Develop ties to the Eco League and other alliances with institutions outside Alaska.
  3. Develop the Kellogg Campus as an ideal site for experiential learning projects such as social ecology and sustainable energy:
     1. Continue to offer courses at the farm such as sustainability and creative writing.
  4. Continue to provide diverse opportunities for project learning:
     1. Utilize field study, literary and dramatic performance, service learning, and original research, such as the opera and symphony.
• Student Centered Learning:
  1. Develop leadership for voluntary service to society by encouraging openness to positive change, innovation, and individual initiative:
     1. Give students the opportunity to shape the course content and evaluation by encouraging democratic initiative and open feedback.
  2. Strengthen the role of directed study action projects throughout the university:
     1. Develop opportunities with the graduate level education and RANA
  3. Provide an environment that empowers students to fully participate in democratically deciding those policies that affect their social and academic life. Students will be encouraged to aspire to activist values of social justice and included on all major policy making bodies and committees.