History of the Program

Special Concentrations was established in 1971 by a vote of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Although by design never one of the larger concentrations, Special Concentrations has always had a solid core of students in widely divergent fields. There are currently some twenty Special Concentrators covering fields as varied as Ethnomusicology; Architecture: Design, History, and Theory; Biology and Public Policy; and Central and East Asian Studies.

Among the perennially popular fields have been Urban Studies and Dramatic Studies. Interest in some areas, such as Psychobiology, and Environmental Science, which once drew a number of concentrators, has declined due to a change in the requirements in the relevant departments allowing the pursuit of such interests within their departmental frameworks or the development of new interdisciplinary concentrations. The popularity of certain fields waxes and wanes depending upon the current topical interest in the field and the availability of Faculty Advisers. For example, during the mid-1980's there was a surge of interest in Latin American studies as Nicaragua and El Salvador dominated the headlines. More recently, there has been increased attention paid to cultural studies and science and public policy.

Special Concentrations' distinguished graduates include Peter Sellars, opera and theatre director, William "Trip" Hawkins, President and CEO of 3DO and founder of Electronic Arts, and Alec Keshishian, film director.