Liberal Arts
Combine a breadth of knowledge with a depth of understanding
Focused yet flexible, Bachelor of Liberal Arts programs at UAS provides academic depth to a general course of liberal arts study. Humanities, communications, literature, writing, philosophy, and languages can be combined with social sciences fields such as anthropology, economics, history, political science, psychology, and sociology. With the guidance of a faculty advisor, students choose which liberal arts and social sciences disciplines they wish to combine to match their own career and academic goals.
Liberal Arts Degrees
Student Experience
Marie and X'unei: A Conversation on Language
A conversation between Elder Marie Olson and Lance X̱’unei Twitchell, Associate Professor of Alaska Native Languages. Recorded in September 2017.
Outdoor Studies Students in Japan
Come along with the Outdoor Studies Capstone class while they explore backcountry skiing in Japan's Hakuba region.
Learning Environments
Interdisciplinary Studies
B.L.A. Emphasis
Students have an opportunity to design an Interdisciplinary Bachelor of Liberal Arts (B.L.A.) degree with the guidance of a faculty advisor. Students choose which disciplines to combine. This program provides a focused, yet flexible course of study in the humanities with additional study options in languages, mathematics, natural sciences, and social sciences.
Alaska Native Languages and Studies
B.L.A. Emphasis
The Alaska Native Languages and Studies program focuses on three primary components of modern and historical Alaska Native life: Language, Art, and Society. Students learn and document the languages of Southeast Alaska, including Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian, with the goal to keep them alive for generations. The focus in art includes Northwest Coast formline design, carving, weaving, and textiles. Society looks at what makes up Alaska Native cultures and organizations — from historical migration patterns and contact with other cultures to modern day tribes, ANCSA corporations, consortia, and civil rights organizations.
Outdoor and Adventure Studies
B.L.A. Emphasis
Students learn and practice the foundational skills of rock and ice climbing, hiking, camping, kayaking, backcountry skiing and snowboarding, and mountaineering, as well swift-water rescue and wilderness medicine — courses that provide skills needed to act responsibly in the backcountry. These classes often require full-day and multi-day outings. Students must be in good physical condition and be prepared to spend many weekends in the field.
Students have the opportunity to reflect on our interaction with nature and each other with academic courses such as perspectives on wilderness, and small group communication and team building.
Tidal Echoes Literary and Arts Journal
UAS students, mentored by a professor, edit and produce Tidal Echoes, a literary journal showcasing the art and writing of Southeast Alaskans. The journal fills a unique literary niche — a forum for an eclectic blend of readers and artists to meet and engage.
Tidal Echoes aims to bring together the voices and visions of Southeast Alaska. Each year, students have the opportunity to intern with the journal, gaining skills in design, editing, project management, networking, communication, and broadcasting.
The Flying University
The Flying University is a collaboration between UAS and the Lemon Creek Correctional Center, an education project with incarcerated students. Inspired by the underground philosophy taught behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War, students and inmates collaborate to create poetry, short stories, drawings, and photography while studying literature, philosophy, and theater.
“Intellectual debate is encouraged; struggling with problems presented in the courses made me academically stronger.”
Program Faculty
Kevin Maier, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of English
While my training is in 19th and 20th century American literature, my interests have always been in the cultural components of environmental concerns, often seen from the angle of sport hunting and fishing. Which is to say: I like to mix my outdoor recreation with hard questions about climate change, equity, and environmental justice.
Lance (X̱’unei) A. Twitchell, M.F.A., Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Alaska Native Languages
All systems and spaces have space for Indigenous languages, knowledges, arts, and peoples. You can study with us and stand up for Indigenous languages, ways of knowing, and decolonization in revolutionary self-love. Kakḵwa.áaḵw aag̱áa yakḵwadláaḵ: I will try, and I will succeed!
Emily Wall, B.A., M.F.A.
Professor of English
My passion is for poetry. I’ve been studying, writing, and publishing poetry for 20 years. I’ve been lucky enough to be part of a connected and supportive writing community throughout Alaska.
Richard F. Simpson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Humanities, Geography and Environmental Studies BA Coordinator
Literary Theory; Literary Urban Studies; Material Cultures of Education; Nineteenth-Century Labor and Economic Theory; Allegory and the Essay; Cultures of Finance Capital
William Elliott, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of English
Growing up in rural Alaska, we were always reading, especially the snow. Today I am still reading, nose in a book, nose to the air. As a teacher, and scholar of literature and environment, my work attends to the ways that our experiences are both socially constructed and materially grounded, shaped by stories and signs that are often curved along the contours of a more-than-human world.
Math Trafton, B.A., B.S., M.A., Ph.D.
Associate Professor of English
In the classroom, Dr. Trafton is committed to empowering students through rigorous interdisciplinary exercises that challenge students according to their interests and their abilities. He strives to support students in developing the experience, confidence, and skills to discover their voice and to use it effectively.
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