Majors & Minors

The interdisciplinary minor in American Popular Culture helps students to assess from a variety of perspectives the icons and ideas they encounter every day, to think critically about the images and assertions of the mass media and commercial culture, and to see the experience of popular culture as it interacts with questions of gender and ethnicity in the American context. Students choose five classes, including one upper-division elective, from a curriculum organized to explore: critical approaches to popular culture; gender and ethnicity in American popular culture; and popular culture in the arts. Twenty units are required, four at the lower-division and 16 at the upper-division level.

African American Studies is a multidisciplinary program designed to provide students with a critical understanding of the historical, cultural, social and political experience of African Americans, with a particular emphasis on the development and culture of the African American communities in California and the West as well as on both historical and contemporary effects of global issues on African American communities. By drawing upon courses in American Studies and Ethnicity and by emphasizing comparative as well as interdisciplinary study, this program offers training in the analytic tools and methods of interpretation appropriate for studying the African American experience in its particularity and ethnic and cultural study in general. The program is particularly appropriate for students interested in ​integrating studies in the humanities and social sciences and for students preparing to work and interact with diverse communities and cultures in the United States and abroad in such fields as education, human services, business, journalism and public administration.

Program Major Requirements

Ten courses in African American Studies, or courses certified for African American Studies credit, are required. The 10 courses must be distributed as follows: the three core requirement courses of AMST 200gm or AMST 230g, AMST 350 and AMST 492 or AMST 493 or AMST 498; one course from each of the following three lists: History, Literature and Culture, and ​Social and ​Political Issues; and additional elective courses for a total of 16 units chosen from the courses certified in African American Studies at the 300 level or above.

Asian American Studies is a multidisciplinary program designed to provide students with a critical understanding of the historical, cultural, social and political experience of Asian Pacific Americans, with a particular emphasis on the development and culture of the Asian American communities in California and the West as well as on both historical and contemporary effects of global issues on Asian American communities. By drawing upon courses in American Studies and Ethnicity and by emphasizing comparative as well as interdisciplinary study, this program offers training in the analytic tools and methods of interpretation appropriate for studying the Asian American experience in its particularity and ethnic and cultural study in general. The program is particularly appropriate for students interested in integrating studies in the humanities and social sciences and for students preparing to work and interact with diverse communities and cultures in the United States and abroad in such fields as education, human services, business, journalism and public administration.

Program Major Requirements

Ten courses in Asian American Studies, or courses certified for Asian American Studies credit, are required. The 10 courses must be distributed as follows: the three core requirement courses of AMST 200gm, AMST 350 and one from AMST 492, AMST 493 or AMST 498; one course from each of the following three lists: History, Literature and Culture, and Social and ​Political Issues; and additional elective courses for a total of 16 units chosen from the courses certified in Asian American Studies at the 300 level or above.

Program Major Requirements

Ten courses in American Studies and Ethnicity or courses certified for American Studies and Ethnicity credit are required. The 10 courses must be distributed as follows: the three core requirement courses of AMST 200; AMST 350; and AMST 492 or AMST 493 or AMST 498; one course from each of the following three lists: History, Literature and Culture, and Social and Political Issues; and additional elective courses for a total of 16 units chosen from the courses certified in American Studies and Ethnicity at the 300 level or above.

Chicano/Latino Studies is a multidisciplinary program designed to provide students with a critical understanding of the historical, cultural, social and political experience of Chicanos and Latinos, with a particular emphasis on the development and culture of the ​Chicano/Latino communities in California and the West as well as on both historical and contemporary effects of global issues on Chicano/Latino communities. By drawing upon courses in American Studies and Ethnicity and by emphasizing comparative as well as interdisciplinary study, this program offers training in the analytic tools and methods of interpretation appropriate for studying the Chicano/Latino experience in its particularity and ethnic and cultural study in general. The program is particularly appropriate for students interested in integrating studies in the humanities and social sciences and for students preparing to work and interact with diverse communities and cultures in the United States and abroad in such fields as education, human services, business, journalism and public administration.

Program Major Requirements

Ten courses in Chicano/Latino Studies, or courses certified for Chicano/Latino Studies credit, are required. The 10 courses must be distributed as follows: the three core requirement courses of AMST 200; AMST 350; and AMST 492, or AMST 493, or AMST 498; one course from each of the following three lists: History, Literature and Culture, and Social and ​Political Issues; and additional elective courses for a total of 16 units chosen from the courses certified in Chicano/Latino Studies at the 300 level or above.

Course Requirements

For the minor in American Studies and Ethnicity, five courses in American Studies and Ethnicity, or courses certified for American Studies and Ethnicity credit, are required. The five courses must be distributed as follows: two core requirement courses and three additional elective courses chosen from the courses certified in American Studies and Ethnicity at the 300 level or above.

The Bachelor of Fine Arts in Animation and Digital Arts is a unique four-year program, offered by the School of Cinematic Arts that combines a liberal arts background with the practice of animation to prepare students for a professional career in this field. Areas of concentration might include character animation, experimental animation, visual effects, 3-D computer animation, motion graphics, immersive media, interactive animation, documentary animation and science visualization.

Each fall, a class of 16 undergraduate animation and digital arts students is selected to begin the program. A total of 128 units is required for the completion of the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree; 59 of these units taken in a prescribed sequential order. There are no spring admissions.

Applicants must submit a supplemental application and materials to the Undergraduate Animation and Digital Arts Program in Slideroom via the Common Application. For specific instructions, contact the Cinematic Arts Office of Admission, University Park, Los Angeles, CA 90089-2211, (213) 740-8358 or online at cinema.usc.edu.

General Education Requirements

The university's general education program provides a coherent, integrated introduction to the breadth of knowledge you will need to consider yourself (and to be considered by other people) a generally well-educated person. This program is effective for all students entering USC in fall 2015 or later, or transfer students beginning college elsewhere at that time and subsequently transferring to USC. It requires eight courses in six Core Literacies, plus two courses in Global Perspectives (which may double-count with courses in the Core Literacies) and two courses in writing. For more information about USC's general education requirements, see General Education .

Anthropology brings a holistic and comparative perspective to the study of human life and culture. By providing students with tools for better understanding human diversity and complexity, anthropology prepares students for careers in global health and medicine, museums, law, government, environmental management, entrepreneurship and international business education, and the arts.

The Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology has three tracks: sociocultural anthropology, medical anthropology and biological anthropology. Department majors are required to take ten courses (40 units) in Anthropology. 

In addition to the general education requirements, the following courses are required.

The minor in Applied Analytics prepares undergraduate students in the field of data analytics as applied to real-world problems. Applications vary from business to health care, social media to sports. The goal is to educate students to become data analysts. Students in the minor will learn all aspects of analytics: technology infrastructure to stage data, techniques to analyze data, tools to visualize results, and systems to publish and share the findings.

Requirements for minor completion: Minimum units 18 - 20