College of the Holy Cross

Accounting

Accounting is defined broadly as the process of identifying, measuring and communicating economic information. Because sound decisions based on reliable information are essential for the efficient allocation of resources, accounting plays an important role in our economic system. Each year the largest accounting firms visit Holy Cross to recruit majors for employment opportunities in public accounting.

Anthropology

Anthropology provides students the skills to navigate a rapidly changing world, marked by globalization and political turmoil. The anthropology major or minor helps students understand these global transformations and create bridges between different worldviews.

Architectural Studies

The study of visual arts is designed to be an integral part of the liberal arts curriculum at Holy Cross. Its aim is to increase student sensitivity to the visual arts, to refine the powers of critical analysis, and to provide the student with the means of creative expression.

Art History

The study of visual arts is designed to be an integral part of the liberal arts curriculum at Holy Cross. Its aim is to increase student sensitivity to the visual arts, to refine the powers of critical analysis, and to provide the student with the means of creative expression.

Asian Studies

Home to major philosophical, religious, artistic, and political traditions that have shaped global history, Asia remains critically important in understanding the contemporary transnational marketplace and international politics. The Asian Studies Program offers students a variety of courses and a multidisciplinary framework for the exploration and interpretation of the diverse societies, cultures, and politics of Asia and the Asian diaspora.

Biology

The biology curriculum is designed to acquaint students with the broad scope of the biological sciences at several levels of functional organization. Its courses include molecular, cellular, organismal, ecological, and evolutionary aspects of biology. Departmental course offerings prepare biology majors for a wide range of career opportunities after graduation, including advanced study in graduate or professional schools.

Chemistry

The Department of Chemistry offer a curriculum that provides students with a solid background in fundamental principles and theories of chemistry with hands-on experience using state-of-the-art laboratory equipment. Students gain experience and knowledge in all of the major areas of modern chemistry including organic, analytical, physical, inorganic, and biochemistry and have an opportunity to focus their program on a particular area through research and elective courses.

Chinese Studies

China, one of the world's oldest civilizations, is increasingly important to United States national security, foreign relations, trade, and climate change policy. Chinese language is a valuable asset for careers in business, government, technology, education, law, and journalism.

Classics

In the Department of Classics, students explore the peoples and cultures of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East, as well as later peoples' responses to this past. Our curriculum focuses on ancient Greece and Rome, as well as peoples and cultures ranging from ancient Egypt across ancient Mesopotamia. We offer courses (taught in English) on a wide array of archeological, art historical, historical, and literary topics.

Computer Science

The primary goal of the programs in mathematics, computer science, and statistics at Holy Cross is to enable students to become active participants in the study of fundamental and dynamic areas of human endeavor. The inherent structure and beauty of mathematics is at the core of all mathematical inquiry. Mathematics is also the language of the sciences and social sciences, and in our increasingly technology-driven society, it is part of our daily public discourse.

Critical Race & Ethnic Studies

Drawing on scholarly expertise about race and ethnicity across several disciplines, CRES offers a uniquely interdisciplinary plan of study that allows students to approach these topics from multiple perspectives. CRES courses provide a space for students to discuss, reflect upon, and analyze how different populations have been racialized, how structural racism operates, and why race continues to be a relevant yet controversial topic of study.

Economics

Economics can be defined as the study of how people allocate scarce resources among competing ends. It can also be understood as a particular way of thinking distinguished by its axioms, concepts and organizing principles. In terms of both subject matter and methods, economics provides important and powerful insights into the human experience.

English

Language and literature lie at the heart of a liberal education. The study of English attends to the use of language as a means of communication as well as to literary works of the imagination - poems, plays, stories, novels, and creative non-fiction. Students explore how literary forms manifest meaning, how they develop across time and cultural bounds, and how they engage a society's fears and aspirations.

Environmental Studies

The Environmental Studies Program provides students with a broad understanding of contemporary and past environmental problems, including an examination of their causes, mechanisms and effects. This understanding will reflect the relevant natural, cultural, and political processes including the interplay among the environment, human values, and economic institutions.

French and Francophone Studies

The French and Francophone Studies program comprises four levels that follow a logical progression, from elementary (FREN 101 and 102), to intermediate (FREN 201 and 202), to transitional (300-level courses), to advanced (400-level courses).

German Studies

The German Studies program offers students the opportunity to study German - the native language of more than 100 million people in the world. Students not only learn this widely spoken language, but also study German literature and culture through diverse and richly layered courses and a variety of cultural programs.

History

The Department of History offers a wide range of courses dealing with most of the world's major civilizations. Historians utilize a variety of theoretical approaches, research methods and sources to study the process of change over time and examine all aspects of human experience in the past. History intersects with, and draws upon, other disciplines including sociology, anthropology, political science, economics, arts and literature.

International Studies

As a multidisciplinary program, the International Studies faculty reside in their home departments of Economics & Accounting, History, Modern Languages and Literatures, Philosophy, Political Science, Religious 2025-2026 Catalog 145 Studies, Sociology & Anthropology, and Spanish. The Director of International Studies can assist students in identifying faculty advisors and professors for International Studies courses.

Italian Studies

Studying Italian language, literature, and culture, you will explore Italy's historical legacy and contemporary society while developing essential communicative and analytical skills and deepening your awareness of other cultures. The Italian Studies program builds upon Italy's artistic, intellectual, and scientific tradition, reexamining historical perspectives while illuminating modern cultural dynamics and societal trends.

Mathematics

The primary goal of the programs in mathematics, computer science, and statistics at Holy Cross is to enable students to become active participants in the study of fundamental and dynamic areas of human endeavor. The inherent structure and beauty of mathematics is at the core of all mathematical inquiry. Mathematics is also the language of the sciences and social sciences, and in our increasingly technology-driven society, it is part of our daily public discourse.

Music

Music is a unique form of human expression that transcends boundaries of language, culture, time, and place. The study of music, especially in a liberal arts context, is inherently interdisciplinary, drawing on the sister arts and other fields in the humanities as well as the social sciences and sciences. The Department of Music provides a tremendous variety of opportunities to explore, experience, and perform music both inside and outside the classroom.

Neuroscience

Neuroscience confronts fundamental questions about human nature and the natural world. It is an integrative discipline, using knowledge and tools from multiple other disciplines across the sciences, social sciences, and humanities to approach complex challenges. The neuroscience major and minor prepare students to approach these challenges from a foundation of broad-based proficiency in the sciences.

Philosophy

Philosophy is concerned with fundamental questions about the nature of reality; the foundations of science, ethics and art; and the nature and scope of human knowledge. Philosophy is actually the meeting place for all disciplines, for any discipline becomes philosophical once it begins seriously to examine its own methodology and fundamental presuppositions. Ultimately, philosophy is much more than the acquisition of a certain kind of knowledge.

Physics

Physics is the study of the behavior of the universe, especially the fundamental laws underlying natural phenomena. The Department of Physics has offerings to meet a range of interests, from a Topics in Physics course, to a minor, to a complete major program on the principles and analytic methods of the field.

Political Science

Political science is the study of government, including the empirical study of American and foreign political regimes; theoretical approaches that attempt to explain political action in its various forms, both within nations and among them; and the study of philosophic texts that address questions of the nature of justice, the best way of life, and the best political order. The study of political science is valuable for non-majors as well as for majors.

Psychology

Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental life. The discipline is broad, with different fields of study that range from conducting basic research in laboratory or field settings, to meeting the needs of individuals or groups in clinical settings, to addressing philosophical questions of the discipline. The department represents these various orientations, encouraging students to engage in the analysis of psychological phenomena from diverse perspectives.

Religious Studies

The study of religion is a quintessential task of a Catholic, Jesuit college. It invites students, in an academic context, into a long tradition of theological and historical questions about the nature of humanity in relation to God and to the world, and it engages them in the interreligious and intercultural encounter that is taking place today. The study of religion requires a variety of contemporary methodologies and is interdisciplinary.

Russian Studies

By far the largest nation in the world, the Russian Federation spans two continents, eleven time zones, and over six million square miles. Its geopolitical significance and cultural contributions to the world are as immeasurable as its vast resources. At Holy Cross, students can approach Russia in various ways and from multiple perspectives.

Sociology

The sociology curriculum focuses on applying theory and sophisticated empirical research methods to address complex real-world issues. It asks students to critically examine continuing and urgent issues of inequality and social marginalization. The sociology curriculum provides students with qualitative and quantitative skills to analyze social structure, history, and culture, and their effects on people's lives.

Spanish

The Department of Spanish prepares students to engage with the diverse communities, cultures, and traditions of our Spanish-speaking world, including those in the US. Our program offers opportunities for students to embrace the Spanish they speak, enhance their intercultural competence, and broaden their expression in writing, speaking, reading, and communication in Spanish.

Statistics and Data Science

The primary goal of the programs in mathematics, computer science, and statistics at Holy Cross is to enable students to become active participants in the study of fundamental and dynamic areas of human endeavor. The inherent structure and beauty of mathematics is at the core of all mathematical inquiry. Mathematics is also the language of the sciences and social sciences, and in our increasingly technology-driven society, it is part of our daily public discourse.

Studies in World Literatures

The Studies in World Literatures major allows you to explore literature, film, and other forms of cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Located in the Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, the program is guided by the idea that human narrative is a universal phenomenon of shared themes, forms, and movements in ways that are also unique to the cultures that produce them.

Studio Art

The study of visual arts is designed to be an integral part of the liberal arts curriculum at Holy Cross. Its aim is to increase student sensitivity to the visual arts, to refine the powers of critical analysis, and to provide the student with the means of creative expression.

Theatre

The Department of Theatre and Dance offers a variety of complementary perspectives on performance. Our acting classes teach students to interpret dramatic texts through a combination of western and eastern techniques for training body and voice. Dramatic literature and theatre history courses place texts in historical and thematic contexts while focusing on them as a medium for performance.