University of Connecticut (Avery Point)

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Water covers more than two-thirds of the Earth’s surface and the majority of the human population lives within 50 miles of navigable waterways. The world’s oceans and great riparian systems have provided the dominant medium for human economic and cultural exchange and the context for many of humanity’s most dramatic stories, powerful technologies, and aesthetic and literary achievements.

Maritime Studies is an interdisciplinary major that embraces the liberal arts as the foundation for exploring humankind’s critical and continually evolving connections with the world’s waterways and watersheds. The Maritime Studies Program combines rigorous liberal arts training in recognized humanities and social science disciplines such as history, English, economics, political science, anthropology, and geography with specialized courses, interdisciplinary seminars, and research and internship opportunities that focus on issues, traditions, and problems that influence life in maritime regions. A complement to the Marine Sciences major, Maritime Studies highlights the social and cultural side of the human/water relationship, but recognizes and explores the links between human activities and the composition and the condition of the coastal and marine environments.

Maritime Studies is a flexible but focused major that students may shape to meet a wide range of occupational and educational goals. Depending upon the track of studies selected, Maritime Studies students may prepare for a range of careers including those in the maritime service and heritage tourism sectors as well as for graduate study in maritime and public history, English, journalism, marine policy and cultural resource management, planning and regulation, education, law, or business. The Maritime Studies Program takes advantage of the UConn-Avery Point campus’s unique Long Island Sound location and its many coastal and maritime educational resources and research programs including the UConn Sea Grant Institute, the National Undersea Research Center, the Long Island Sound Resource Center, and Marine Sciences Department. Significant internship and research opportunities for students are also available through agreements with regional institutions that include Mystic Seaport Museum, one of the world’s premier maritime museums and research centers.