As a member of the Five Colleges Consortium, UMass Amherst students and faculty have access to an even wider variety of academic departments, majors, and centers that explore various aspects of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Visit each program's website to learn more about their teaching philosophies and course offerings.
African Studies, Five College Certificate
The Five College Certificate in African Studies offers students an opportunity to pursue an interest in African studies as a complement to any academic major.
Arabic Language Initiative, Five College
The Five College Arabic Language Initiative allows students at each of the five campuses to develop a concentration of study devoted to the Arabic and culture. Students are able to work with faculty at all campuses to pursue their studies.
Asian/Pacific/American Studies, Five College Certificate
As a Five College Certificate, APA Studies combines coursework with internships and field experience, offering students a lens through which to appreciate A/P/A cultural expressions, understand the racial formation of Asian/Pacific/Americans, and investigate how international conflicts, global economic systems and ongoing migration affect A/P/A communities and their intersections with others.
Buddhist Studies, Five College Certificate
With one of the largest concentrations of scholars of Buddhist Studies in the United States, the Five Colleges provide an excellent environment in which to study Buddhism: collectively, we enable students to study most of the major Buddhist traditions. In addition to our many Junior Year Abroad and other extended study programs in Asia, our academic exchange program with the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in India offers a unique opportunity for our students to study with eminent Tibetan scholars.
Center for East Asian Studies, Five College
The Five College Center for East Asian Studies is committed to promoting East Asian Studies at the Five Colleges and supports, encourages, and improves the teaching of East Asian cultures in elementary, middle, and secondary schools, and two- and four-year colleges in the Northeast.
Center for the Study of World Languages, Five College
The Five College Center for the Study of World Languages offers academic-year courses in less-commonly studied languages for students at Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Course sessions meet on all five campuses. Courses are taken for academic credit and are part of a student's regular course load. Five College students are not required to pay any special fees or tuition in order to enroll.
Crossroads in the Study of the Americas, Five College
Crossroads in the Study of the Americas (CISA) is a center dedicated to new teaching and scholarship on the Americas. Founded in 1997, CISA brings together faculty from Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst who work together to explore relational aspects of identity in the Americas.
East Asian Languages Program, Five College
The Five College East Asian Language Program allows students on each of the five campuses to develop a concentration of study devoted to East Asian languages that complements any major.
East Asian Studies, Five Colleges
Faculty from the five institutions work together to support undergraduate study of East Asia through the Executive Committee of the Five College Center for East Asian Studies. The Committee includes faculty from each of the colleges and the University, representing a range of disciplines and departments, as well as the chair of the Five College East Asian Languages Program. Recent activity by the Committee on behalf of undergraduate study at the five institutions includes co-sponsorship of cultural programming, professional development for faculty, and coordination of various forms of faculty...
Ethnomusicology, Five College Certificate
The Five College community is home to a diverse, vibrant group of students, scholars, and performers working in ethnomusicology, the anthropology of music, and related disciplines. Students with a special interest in ethnomusicology may pursue the Five College Certificate in Ethnomusicology, a program that allows students to develop a unique, multi-disciplinary curriculum focused on their individual research interests.
Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies, Five College Certificate
The Five College Certificate in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies enhances rather than replaces the more traditional major, minor, or certificate available at the individual schools and can complement the student's major field of study.
Middle Eastern Studies Program, Five College Certificate
The Five College Certificate Program in Middle Eastern Studies is an opportunity for students to complement a disciplinary major with multidisciplinary studies and linguistic attainments. Because of the wide range of courses available through the Five College consortium, students may design a program that will meet their intellectual, academic, and prospective professional needs in conjunction with an advisor from their home institution.
Native American and Indigenous Studies, Five College Certificate
The Five College Certificate in Native American and Indigenous Studies provides students with the opportunity to acquire a knowledge and understanding of the development, growth, and interactions of the indigenous peoples and nations of the Western Hemisphere. The program emphasizes the many long histories of Native American Indians as well as their contemporary lives and situations. A holistic and comparative interdisciplinary approach underlies the Certificate Program's requirements, enabling students to become familiar with the diversity of indigenous lifeways, including cultural...
Queer and Sexuality Studies, Five College Certificate
The Five College Queer and Sexuality Studies certificate provides undergraduate students an opportunity to pursue a course of study that critically examines the relationship between sexual and gender identities, experiences, cultures and communities in a wide range of historical and political contexts. Working across disciplines, students take courses in a variety of fields. The certificate also leads students to investigate how non-normative and normative genders and sexualities intersect with other social categories such as race, ethnicity, gender, class and nationality.
Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, Five College Certificate
The Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies (REEES) Certificate Program works to offer students an opportunity to draw on rich resources of the faculty members at the Five Colleges and to coordinate curricula across the five campuses. The program also sponsors special events of interest to students and faculty members working in the field.
