BA in Liberal Studies, Arts and Literature

Develop the skills for meaningful creative expression.

Grasp a substantial understanding of an array of cross-disciplinary studies by harnessing your inner creativity and learning how to express yourself orally and physically. Whether it be through the performing arts, writing, film or another creative discipline, you will gain a critical understanding of creative expression in a historical, societal, cultural and contemporary context. We give our adult learners the tools and confidence to expand their creative capacity while also encouraging hands-on experience through internships, collaborations with local businesses, community art, and history or literary organizations

This degree is offered by AU Seattle.

Program Overview

The goal of the BA in Arts and Literature concentration is to prepare students to work in fields such as writing, publishing, film, visual and performing arts, curating, and arts management. This concentration allows students flexibility to take courses within other area of concentrations and to tailor their plans of study classes to particular interests. It also prepares students for graduate studies in a variety of fields.

Arts and Literature is defined broadly to include art, theater, fiction and nonfiction writing and other forms of creative expression. While they often choose to focus on either creative writing or the visual and performing arts, students are required to engage in cross-disciplinary studies, including a critical understanding of creative expression across and within cultures, and in historical and contemporary contexts.

Degree Requirements

An Arts and Literature concentration requires a minimum of 45 credits. Students take at least one class in each of the six areas of learning listed below. Electives, at least 2 credits of internship/field-based learning, and a senior synthesis project round out the concentration.

1. Writing Workshop

This area of learning emphasizes peer and instructor feedback on original creative writing and performance in a variety of genres, including poetry, fiction, play/screenwriting and nonfiction. Critical reading complements the creative work. Sample courses that meet this requirement:

•    Writing Creative Non-Fiction
•    Technical and Professional Writing
•    Media Writing
•    Poetry

2. Art Studio

Art Studio requires students to gain experience through hands-on experiential learning in the creation of art projects. It emphasizes peer and instructor feedback as students create original visual, performance or multi-media art such as painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, theatre, photography, dance and music. Possible courses that fulfill this requirement include:

•    Ceramics
•    Documentary Film
•    Digital Storytelling
•    Books By Hand
•    Photography
•    Socially Engaged Art

3 & 4. Art, Literature and Humanities Seminars

Arts, Literature and Humanities Seminars are cross-disciplinary seminars that combine critical, contextual and creative study from a variety of methodological approaches. Seminars cover a wide range of inquiry, including history and historiography, intellectual and social movements, regional studies and multicultural perspectives. The goal is to develop critical thinking and to create a rich foundation for cultural practice and an appreciation for the role of arts and literature in history. Students take at least two learning activities in this area. Among the possibilities:

• LGBTQ Literature
• The Body in Context
• The American Family in Literature and Film
• Gender, Danger and Desire
• A Literary History of Seattle
• Literature of the Wounded Healer
• Birds in the Imagination and in the Field

5. Theorizing Culture and Difference

Courses that fulfill this requirement analyze culture and difference as reflections of a people’s collective history as well as their respective aspirations for the future within hierarchical structures of inequality and oppression. Courses sharpen theoretical and practical understanding of unjust power relations in areas such as race, gender, class, and/or sexuality. It is recommended that students enroll or have already completed Diversity, Power, and Privilege (DPP) before completing this particular concentration requirement. Courses that fulfill this subject area include:

•    Intercultural Communication
•    Narrating Change: Stories for Collective Action
•    Translating Gender
•    Wealth and Poverty

6. Professional Development

The purpose of this area is to provide students with a course to build their particular skill sets in the field of arts, literature and the humanities. Options include:

•     Digital Marketing
•    Designing Communication
•    Documentary Film
•    The Power of Engaging: Listening, Collaborating, Facilitating
•    Nonprofit Management
•    Triple Bottom Line Accounting

Sample Antioch Electives:

• Here Be Monsters
• Heaven and Hell
• Literature of the Wounded Healer
• Civil Rights Tour

Sample Transfer Electives:

• Philosophy 101
• Introduction to Literature
• Drawing
• Collage
• Painting
• Modern Dance

Sample Community/Field-Based Learning Experiences:

• Designed original logos and set up a website for a start-up
• Collaborated with artists and community groups to create a public art project
• Work with nonprofits to create art, theatre and dance programs in local schools.

Sample Synthesis Projects:

• Curated an art show
• Completed the first draft of a science fiction novel
• Scripted a pilot for a children’s television show
• Staged a reading of one act of an original play
• Painted a series of integrative autobiographical works

For detailed curriculum, degree requirements, and course descriptions, please visit the AUS catalog