Undergraduate Minors

Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance Studies

The Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance Studies minor offers a culturally comparative program in which the distance of time lends profound diversity from present experience. The minor allows students to explore the origins and development of Western culture as defined across continents, religions and civilizations, through a range of disciplines (anthropology, architecture, art, fashion, history, language, literature, music, philosophy and theatre). The program’s flexibility encourages students to pursue specific interests, for example, early religion, high medieval culture, classical influences upon the Renaissance or Byzantine culture.

History and Philosophy of Science

Science is arguably the supreme intellectual enterprise of our species. It pervades nearly every aspect of modern society. Scientific research is heavily funded by governments and private institutions; courses in science are requirements at every level of education; scientific accomplishments are honored with awards and prizes; museums display scientific achievements and inventions. Moreover, the sheer depth and breadth of scientific progress through human history is monumental. All of this raises questions about what science is, how it works, and how it manages to be as successful as it is. These questions define the discipline known as the history and philosophy of science, which aims to study science, to understand its goals and methods, its principles and practices, and its failures and triumphs. This minor will prepare students from a variety of related disciplines to think about science as a social, historical, and philosophical enterprise. It will also prepare students for graduate work in history of science, philosophy of science, and science and technology studies as well as for careers in areas of public and educational policy related to science.

Jewish Studies

The Jewish Studies Minor enables students enrolled in any major to become acquainted with the culture, language, literature, history, philosophy and religious customs of the Jewish people from antiquity to the present. Special events held throughout each semester, including lectures, films and art exhibitions, complement and enrich Jewish studies courses. Scholarships are offered to Jewish or non-Jewish students who are actively pursuing this minor, and also to any student of Jewish heritage showing financial need. For more information, contact the program director or the Office of Student Financial Aid.

Latin American Studies

The Latin American Studies minor is interdisciplinary and allows students to explore the region from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. It complements a number of programs, including history, geography, Spanish, political science and international relations.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies

The LGBT Studies Program is an academic minor program that explores a scholarly understanding and academic exploration of sexual orientation and gender identity from an interdisciplinary perspective. The program includes courses from the College of Arts and Sciences. Program faculty come from four campuses and fourteen separate disciplines, providing students with a range of scholarly approaches and methodological styles. Students are required to take 21 hours of courses to complete the minor, but are able to customize their coursework to better fit their majors and career goals.

Paralegal Studies

Approved by the American Bar Association, Kent State University’s Kent Campus offers a Bachelor of Arts degree in Paralegal Studies. Students also have the option to minor in Paralegal Studies in conjunction with a four-year baccalaureate degree (Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science). The interdisciplinary Paralegal Studies program is housed in the College of Arts and Sciences, and combines a liberal arts background with legal specialty courses to provide the graduate with analytical skills, the ability to conduct legal research, knowledge of the legal system, communication skills, and practical hands-on-experience.

Pre-Law

The pre-law minor is designed to provide a background for the study of law through challenging coursework that reinforces and extends the liberal arts foundation gained through the Kent Core Requirements, provides advanced analytical and writing skills, and introduces the student to the social and governmental structures that underlie the law. This minor may be combined with any major field of concentration.

Religion Studies

The Religion Studies minor provides students the opportunity to study religion by means of a diversity of academic disciplinary approaches in relation to religious thought and practice evident in the diversity of religions and religious phenomena in the world. The curriculum prepares students for critical inquiry in religion with advanced course work drawn from a variety of disciplines in the humanities, social sciences and the arts.

Studies in Globalization, Identity and Space

The interdisciplinary program in Globalization, Identity and Space is intended to promote students' awareness of the differences and similarities that characterize the world's increasingly interconnected communities. It is a cooperative endeavor of the Anthropology, Geography and Pan-African Studies departments. The program requires successful completion of at least 21 semester hours of coursework selected from the participating departments.

Women's Studies

Women's Studies is an interdisciplinary minor program requiring 21 credit hours; its coursework is flexible and diverse enough that students can, in large part, shape it to meet their individual needs. 

Like programs worldwide in Women's Studies, ours has been evolving from its very start, moving through necessary stages: 1) introducing the subject of women into serious academic inquiry; 2) engaging very basic questions (some already answered in dubious ways, some unasked) about gender, its very definitions and where/when/how/why they've been constructed and loaded with meaning, power, consequence; 3) understanding contexts -- structures, precedents, ongoing dynamics and overlays of patterned thought and image -- contexts no less influential than ecosystems -- in which men's and women's lives unfold; understanding our gendered existence-in-context ... and in clear-headed ways; 4) growing with our growing, changing world -- its technological advances, its political shifts, globalization, etc. 5) anticipating the great unknown.

No more than 6 hours counted toward the student's major may also be counted toward the Women's Studies minor. Selected or special topics or variable content courses with Women's Studies topics may 
also be counted as long as they are approved by the director. A minimum grade point average of 2.00 is required for successful completion of the minor in Women's Studies.

World Literature and Cultures

The World Literature and Cultures minor is dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of historical and contemporary literature which is representative of a diversity of the world's cultures. Students will explore world literature and cultures with the aid of a variety of disciplinary methods of analysis and interpretation in the study of cultural texts and artifacts, as well as the interactions of the political, economic, cultural and social complexities with literature. The study of world literature and cultures is devoted to promoting a central trend among major research universities in the United States to engage in the critical integration of knowledge that cuts across the different disciplines, with sustained focus on the global study of cultures and literature, past and present.