Hi, my name is Armani Johnson, and I’m an Interdisciplinary Humanities major. I like to refer to the Interdisciplinary Humanities major as a “build-a-major” because of its incredible flexibility and creativity. Personally, my major is crafted out of three minors: Portuguese, Latin American and Caribbean Studies (College of Social Science), and Teaching English and Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).
I have what is referred to as a triad, meaning I have three focus areas, two being in the College of Arts & Letters and one in a different college. If you want all your concentrations in Arts & Letters that’s fine too, but for me I was basically making my own Portuguese major so the College of Social Science was a way to help me get courses about Brazil and other Lusophone countries.
CAL only has a Portuguese minor, but there were no other majors that interested me, so I ended up crafted that with IDH. I really appreciate this major as an option as I had considered transferring to another university that would have a Portuguese major.
I plan to use my IDH major to become a future English teacher in any foreign country but preferably a Portuguese-speaking place like Brazil before I go on to graduate school for Higher Education Administration. This upcoming February, I will be embarking on a five month program in Brazil to finish both my Portuguese and LACS minors. When I return next fall I’ll only have to complete my TESOL minor.
I really recommend Freshman to take on this major because it really is flexible to your interests and because the words “interdisciplinary humanities” don’t quite hold meaning on their own you can really spin it and sell it to employers as whatever they want it to be. On Handshake, a lot of companies reach out to me for Human Resources internships as well as elementary schools hoping I would like to teach someday, so there isn’t just one niche for this major and it doesn’t mean you have to go to grad school either.
And because I am an IDH major I have had a lot more elective options to take, which is why I’ll be able to complete three minors and still be able to take courses in French, Mandarin, and Korean before I graduate! Freshmen who have many interests and aren’t quite sure yet about what they want can use this major to help craft something more personalized without wasting credits.