Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Among New Majors Offered to Chapman Students

When Chapman University undergraduates register for classes in April, they will see some new course offerings for this coming fall. One new major and two new minors have been created and approved.

Global Communication and World Languages

The School of Communication, Chapman’s newest school, will launch a bachelor of arts program in Global Communication and World Languages. Featuring six language tracks in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish, students will have the opportunity to combine their interests in language with the study of communication theory and research. The program seeks to develop service-oriented global citizens who will make significant contributions to the local community and abroad. Those that complete the major will possess functional core communication skills and a high-level proficiency in a world language to make an impact in their chosen career.

Cultural and Creative Industries

Chapman’s Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences will also contribute and enhance students’ global and interdisciplinary perspective through its Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI) minor. Students enrolled in the program will analyze and interpret cultural and creative activities in media, fashion, tourism, museums, art galleries, publishing, gaming and visual cultures both from a local Southern California point-of-view and a global framework. Graduates will be able to understand creative and cultural industries’ unique roles today and in the future. Although CCI is an established discipline in top-ranked universities internationally, this minor will be the first of its kind in the United States. Chapman’s CCI minor launched in the spring with its first course, “Introduction to Museum Studies,” where students learned about the history of museums worldwide and the details of running a museum through contact with Chapman’s art collections and field trips to local museums. Novel CCI courses in popular culture, cultural memories in the digital age, identities and cultural emotion in the 21^st century, and mediated lives in cultural industries will be available in the 2018-19 academic year.

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

Dodge College of Film and Media Arts also has a new addition to its academic offerings—a new minor in Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality (VR and AR). As the media continues to buzz about the commercial and artistic opportunities made possible by new virtual and augmented reality technologies, this minor will give students a head start in this emerging field. Students will explore the uses of immersive media for storytelling across a wide range of fields as part of their curriculum. Classes will look at the history and development of the new medium and students will learn how to plan and strategize in creating immersive media projects. Faculty in Dodge’s Institute for Creative Reality (ICR) developed the minor in consultation with industry experts, particularly Roy Taylor, corporate vice president of AMD/Radeon Technologies, a company that develops high-speed graphics processing units (GPUs) for use in virtual reality and video game creation. Additional funding used to kick-start and sustain the Institute of Creative Reality is provided by proud parent Srini Srinivasan.

As more information becomes available, updates on the new programs can be found at chapman.edu/academics/degrees-and-programs.aspx.

Photo display at top/Virtual and Augmented Reality is one of the new minors available to Chapman undergraduates beginning fall 2018. (Photo: Livi Dom ’20)