Following core courses in neuroscience, students explore subdisciplines such as cognitive neuroscience, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, learning and behavior, and perception. All neuroscience students engage in experiential learning in research or community settings and learn how to effectively write about and present their neuroscience findings.

Rehearse for your life. Studying theater and dance prepares performers, directors, choreographers, designers, researchers, technicians, and playwrights for careers in the arts, but that’s not all. By taking our courses and working closely with classmates on all aspects of productions, students also learn valuable skills of collaboration, teamwork, listening, and observation that can be applied to many different careers and professions.

Studying history develops critical thinking and teaches innovative ways of examining the past. It provides great preparation for careers in policy, government, business, teaching, law, medicine, and information and cultural resource management. In your courses you will gain skills and perspectives that will be invaluable in your professional career and will help you become an informed citizen of the world.

Our liberal arts approach to Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science (MSCS) means you don’t have to give up other aspects of yourself to succeed. Our faculty make connections with a broad range of fields across the liberal arts, so our courses connect different disciplinary perspectives. MSCS students can major in mathematics, applied math and statistics, or computer science. We also offer a minor in data science. Our forward-looking, innovative curriculum is project-based, so you’ll collaborate on real, fun, projects on small teams, gaining critical-thinking and problem-solving skills that apply to any career.

We don’t just talk about farming. Our interdisciplinary approach to agriculture sets us apart from other liberal arts colleges. You’ll take courses that examine food from the lenses of geography, economics, geology, political science, religion, history, and international studies, to name a few. You might look at the history and effectiveness of food stamps in the United States; or study how food is central to religious practices; or travel to Botswana to conduct research with your professor—and then write and publish articles together. This interdisciplinary perspective of food and agriculture is crucial to developing more sustainable and equitable food systems. Our students go on to change the face of agriculture, both in the United States and abroad.

English majors and minors are equally valued in the department and form a community that fosters creative, engaged, meaningful experiences. You’ll write (a lot) and revise (a lot), thanks to plentiful feedback from your professors, who are committed to craft in their own writing. You’ll dive into ambitious writing projects and have the chance to build on that work in subsequent semesters. Throughout our courses, we pay attention to whose voices have been at the center of public conversations and whose have been at the margins. Whether seeking models to inspire our own work or critically examining how literature shapes and reflects cultures, we try not to lose sight of the fact that what “counts” as literature is a question with a complicated history that is worth exploring.

If you’re looking for a model for your own political and social activism, there’s much to be learned from your peers in Cape Town or Cairo. If your passion is economics or business development, look to urban Nigeria, where the film and fashion industries are booming. Considering the Peace Corp or USAID? The study of Africa will help inform your decision. No matter what you’re interested in—from immigration to infectious disease—African studies has never been more relevant.

Whose story is being told, ignored, modified, marginalized, reimagined? American studies provides an interdisciplinary approach to the study of racial categories and racialized experiences in the United States by encouraging close and systematic examination of a wide range of cultural and political narratives, and by creating structured opportunities to apply theory in real-life community settings.

Our interdisciplinary field covers a broad range of subjects, from refugees and migration to global health and environmental issues, from human rights to human origins, and from museum studies to the study of development. Rather than skimming the surface, you will have many opportunities to dive deeply into topics that you care about. Our faculty members’ diverse interests are reflected in their research and teaching, and we welcome who you are, and what you bring, into all of our classes.

The Art and Art History Department offers majors and minors in art history and studio art. Artmaking involves examining, transforming, and communicating individual and collective human experiences into visual form. Art history studies the tangible documentation of culture, and it provides a window into the history and philosophy of many societies, past and present.

Choose from a major or minor in Japanese Language and Culture, Chinese Language and Culture, or Asian Studies, and you'll learn about the cultural, political, economic, and historical forces that have shaped Asia. From ancient poetry to Weibo and anime, our coursework connects the past with the future. Our professors push beyond an “East” versus “West” binary and guide students to develop a transnational perspective with which to examine race, gender, language, and aesthetics. Learning how this region’s politics have shaped international relations will change your lens. Becoming proficient in these languages will open doors for you in the globe’s second- and third-largest economies.

Asia is the heart of a global system of commerce that tied the Old World together, and which brought Arabs, Europeans, Africans, and Chinese to the ports of the Indian Ocean to trade. Asia gave the world everything from yoga to gunpowder, from cinnamon to the printing press, from the idea of diplomatic immunity to the practice of religious tolerance.

Our subject matter underpins every other natural science, so physicists get to study everything from quarks to the cosmos. As exceptional problem-solvers, physicists use the most basic laws of the universe to attack its toughest questions. Whether you’re curious about how solar panels convert photons to electricity, or you wonder why black holes send ripples through space-time, the answers lie in physics.

Biochemistry students at Macalester receive a broad, robust grounding in the molecular structures and chemical reactions of life by adding a Biochemistry Emphasis to a major in Biology or Chemistry. The Biochemistry Emphasis allows students to tailor their coursework to focus on a unique, cross-disciplinary perspective.

We aim to open students’ eyes to the myriad wonders of the natural world: from the strange creatures inhabiting the depths of the oceans and the tops of the earth’s highest mountain peaks, to the plants and pollinators right here on Macalester’s campus, to the diverse array of microbes that thrive inside each one of us, to the ways our remarkable bodies function—and what happens when things go wrong. Our faculty will help you discover how the history of evolution led to the present moment, how humans are an integral part of this framework, and what climate change might mean for the future of life on our planet.