Foreign Language

Students must complete the study of a single foreign language through the second semester of the second year of the college-level course work. All or part of this requirement may be fulfilled by performance on placement examinations. Students may fulfill the entire foreign language requirement by placing into the third-year level.

International students whose native language is not English may demonstrate required proficiency in their native language. They may not, however, earn credit for any course at the first- or second-year level in their native language.

By completing the B.A.J. foreign language requirement students will also complete the campus-wide General Education World Languages and Cultures requirement.

Generally 100-level foreign language courses may not be used to fulfill any other B.A.J. requirements. However, foreign language courses at the 100-level from departments that allow 100-level courses to fulfill major requirements, may be applied to other appropriate B.A.J. requirements.

Culture Studies

The purpose of the Culture Studies curriculum is to introduce students to cultural systems, to allow students to define what is commonly meant by the term "culture," and to examine critically specific examples of culture. The curriculum also provides students with the opportunity to explore the relationship between cultural artifacts and the community that produced them and/or draw comparisons between different cultures. This exposure can lead students to understand the facts, possibilities, and limitations of their own cultural conditioning.

The Culture Studies requirement is divided into two areas of study:

• Global Civilizations and Cultures (GCC)
• Diversity in the U.S. (DUS)

Students must complete two GCC courses and one DUS course to fulfill the requirement.  Approved courses can be found by using the College of Arts and Sciences Course Designations search tool.  A couple Journalism courses are also Culture Studies options:

• JOUR-J 418 Field Experiences in Journalism (only this topic: International Reporting) counts as GCC.
• JOUR-J 375 Race, Gender and the Media counts as DUS.

Note: The College of Arts and Sciences Course Designations search tool was designed for College of Arts and Sciences students rather than Journalism students so it may include search functions for requirements exclusive to the College of Arts and Sciences degrees in addition to the requirements for which Journalism students have been directed to the site. Journalism students only need to fulfill the requirements listed here in the School of Journalism bulletin.

Students should note the examples below before using the College search tool:

Example 1: Course level approval

• AAAD-A 112 Black Music of Two Worlds A&H GCC

All versions of AAAD-A 112 are approved for A&H* and GCC.

Example 2: Topic level approval

• ANTH-E 300 Culture Areas and Ethnic Groups Islam in and out of Africa S&H GCC (for this topic only)

Only the topic "Islam in and out of Africa" is approved for S&H* and GCC. Other topics of ANTH-E 300 are not approved for these designations.

(*A&H is the abbreviation for Arts and Humanities and S&H is the abbreviation for Social and Historical Studies, which are two of the designations within the Breadth of Inquiry requirement.)

Please note that some of the courses on the campus-wide General Education World Cultures course list are on the GCC and DUS course lists, but not all of them.

Students who successfully complete an academic semester abroad in a program sponsored by the Indiana University Office of Overseas Study will partially satisfy the culture studies requirement of one course from the Global Civilizations and Cultures list. Similarly, students who successfully complete an academic year abroad in a program sponsored by the Indiana University Office of Overseas Study will partially satisfy the culture studies requirement of two courses from the Global Civilizations and Cultures list. Students participating in academic programs sponsored by other universities may petition for a similar exception, providing materials from courses taken and evidence of the general cultural emphasis of the program.