The Leadership, Culture and Politics (LCP) major is an interdisciplinary program that equip and empowers students with tools that permit them to craft their own thematic concentrations rooted in questions of leadership, culture, knowledge and power.

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Through self-selected coursework oriented around a chosen theme, the major fosters an environment for critical inquiry, creative engagement and collaborative learning. The high degree of flexibility afforded to students enables them to take the lead in their learning by designing their own program of study according to their individual interests and talents. 

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Cultural competence and diplomacy are central to the peaceful functioning of a global system marked by deep and historic inequalities. Students explore how politics and policy are mediated through cultural practices and how global inequalities are informed by the ongoing legacies of imperialism and colonialism. They learn how power relations inform global economic, racial, gendered, religious, environmental, health and educational justice endeavors.

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By preparing scholars to weigh opposing viewpoints and experiences with respect, LCP helps students to develop a sophisticated and informed understanding of cultural diversity and the politics of identity in order to make valuable contributions to the world. LCP students recognize that solving real-world problems requires interdisciplinary inquiry, multiple methodologies and ethically grounded research. LCP students go on to be prize-winning journalists, scholars, performance artists, filmmakers, museum curators, human rights activists, diplomats, politicians and religious leaders. 

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To prepare students to grapple with questions shaping culture and inequality across the globe, the LCP major trains students to:

• Compare and synthesize key concepts and scholarly research in cultural and social theory across multiple disciplinary fields and address connections between leadership, power, culture and identity.

• Evaluate and critique cross-cultural political issues, dynamics and events by learning critical reading strategies and ways to assess scholarly arguments, methods, data and rhetoric.  

• Recognize multiple perspectives and dimensions of cultural interactions within historical and geographic power relations, and apply critical frameworks to competing claims to rights and recognition.

• Develop analytical and ethical skills necessary for peacefully resolving conflicts in the domestic and international realm.

• Understand and apply an expansive concept of culture that empowers people, organizations and institutions as agents of change.

• Recognize global inequality and undertake projects that facilitate social justice.

• Make creative and incisive arguments using appropriate writing techniques and other multimedia methods.