Clusters
A Cluster within an Area is a group of related courses that are closely linked by a focus on a subject or by a method of analysis. More than 250 clusters exist, and new clusters can be proposed by departments, faculty or students. Clusters are assigned at least one of the four Distribution areas [Natural Sciences & Mathematics (NS), Social Sciences (SS), Language & the Arts (LA), or Textual & Historical Studies (TH)].
Students take 8 to 9 units within each of the four Distribution Areas, and at least 6 of the units in each area must be in a cluster.
Students may choose to select more than the minimum number of courses to satisfy a cluster. When they do, they must complete all courses in order to complete the cluster, even the additional optional courses they have selected. The Planner online system will not attempt to determine which courses are unnecessary. The major or minor does not automatically satisfy the area unit requirement. Individual courses assigned to that area must be selected to satisfy the distribution area unit requirement. All courses in a cluster designated to the same distribution area as the cluster count toward that area.
Examples of Clusters
- The Harlem Renaissance in Literature and Music (TH)
Description: The Roaring '20s was the era in which 20th-century music and literature were forever changed. This generation produced new works that we find unusual in style and origin. Whites and blacks, men and women experienced Harlem as one of the focal points for this explosive change. In this cluster, students will not only read the writers of the period, but will also listen to and see the expressive artists of the age. The cluster will examine works of literature, art and music from numerous angles, situating them in the political and social context of the time.
Courses include: Afro-American Modern Writers Since the Harlem Renaissance (TH); Literature Studies of the Harlem Renaissance; Jazz in American Culture (TH). - Gender, Sexuality and Culture: Education and Identity (SS)
Description: This cluster will focus on gender and its relationship to sexuality and gender identity from a number of different perspectives. The course will examine how families, schools and popular media shape gender identity. It will look at the ways boys and girls, men and women resist dominant forms of gender construction and dominant definitions of gender roles in these institutions. It will examine the power and interests served by particular constructs of masculinity and femininity and the importance of critically examining the normative assumptions that influence how gender is treated in institutions of education and culture.
Courses include: Gender and Education (SS); Gender, Sexuality, and Change in Africa (SS); Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Identity Development (SS); Construction and Experience of Black Adolescence (SS). - Focus on France and Germany: Language, Culture and History (TH)
Description: The goal of this program is to combine language learning with a study of the culture, society and politics of Western Europe, particularly France and Germany. The focus will be on the age of nationalism (1789-1914) with a special emphasis on the tense Franco-German relations of the period. Students will also examine cultural history and the symbolic representations of political issues in prose, drama, poetry, art, music and popular culture. The course will culminate with a three-week class trip to Paris and Berlin to introduce students to some of the historic sites they have studied in both countries.
Courses include: Focus on France and Germany: Franco-German Relations in the Age of Nationalism 1789-1914; Focus on French Identity: France 1789-1914; Focus on Germany: Imagining Germany 1789-1914. - Global Environmental Issues (NS, SS, TH)
Description: Sponsored by International Studies, this cluster will introduce students to some of the important issues regarding human use of the natural environment. Students will gain an interdisciplinary perspective on issues of global concern, such as the fate of shared global resources and issues of environmental degradation. They also will be exposed to the diversity of local practices in the exploitation and conservation of environmental resources. Students will learn the geology of ores and fossil fuels, and they will examine the environmental consequences of mining and using these products.
Courses include: Culture and Environment (SS); Environmental and Energy Issues (SS); Human Use of the Earth (NS); Resources of the Earth (NS); Introduction to Environmental Ethics (TH); Brave New Crops (SS).
Areas with Clusters
Two components are required to complete Areas with Clusters:
- Cluster Component: At least 6 units must make up a coherent cluster of courses in each of the four Areas.
- Units Component: Within each of four Areas, you complete 8–9 units (including the 6 clustered units). This typically means 3 courses per Area since courses are usually 3 units each.
There are two kinds of Clusters:
- Single-Attribute Clusters: Most Clusters comprise courses that all carry the same Area attribute as the Cluster itself. By completing such a Cluster, you may fulfill both components of that Area’s requirement. Example: The completion of an NS Cluster consisting of three 3-unit NS courses fulfills:
• The Cluster component (at least 6 “clustered” NS units), and
• The NS Units component (at least 8–9 units).
- Multi-Attribute Clusters: Some Clusters carry more than one Area attribute because the courses comprising the Cluster belong to different Areas. A student taking this kind of Cluster must designate which Area s/he wants the Cluster to fulfill. To count a Cluster toward a particular Area, at least one of the courses taken must carry that Area’s attribute. Example: Let’s say a Cluster requires the completion of any two of six courses listed. Two of the possible courses are designated NS; two, SS; and two, TH. If you elect to take the two SS courses, you may only use the cluster to fulfill the cluster component of the SS Area requirement. If, however, you elect to take one SS and one NS course, you may use the Cluster to fulfill the Cluster component of either the SS or the NS Area requirement, but not both.
Courses with Different Area Attributes in Clusters
When you take courses with different attributes in a Cluster, you have the opportunity to count one course with an attribute different from that carried by the Cluster toward the Units component of that Area requirement. We call this the “Shared Attribute Principle.”
The Shared Attribute Principle states that a single course in a given Cluster may lend its attribute to another course (one carrying a different attribute) in that same cluster. NOTE: The Shared Attribute Principle may be applied only once in a given Cluster.
Example: The Latin American Studies Cluster (CL3669) carries two attributes: TH and SS. The Cluster comprises three courses: two TH courses and one SS course. All three courses must be taken to complete the Cluster.
Let’s say a student chooses this Cluster to fulfill the cluster component of the TH Area requirement, which s/he does after successfully completing all three courses. Additionally, because of the Shared Attribute Principle, s/he also fulfills the units component of the TH Area requirement: the two “natural” TH courses (6 units) + one SS course (3 units) sharing the TH attribute = 9 total TH units.
Now let’s say that the student decides to count this same Cluster as an SS Cluster. After successfully completing the three courses, s/he fulfills the cluster component of the SS Area requirement. However, because the Shared Attribute Principle may be applied only once within a given Cluster, s/he only has 6 SS units after taking the three courses: the 3 “natural” SS units + 3 units from one of the TH courses sharing the SS attribute = 6 units.
In cases such as this one, and in cases where a student takes a Cluster that requires only two courses for completion, one additional course needs to be taken to complete the Units component of an Area requirement. The exception occurs if the two courses are more than 3 units each, such as in a beginning language Cluster. This third course can be any course carrying that Area attribute.
Example: In the case we just examined, the student still needing 2–3 units of SS course work could take Introduction to Psychology or Microeconomics or Introduction to Archaeology, et cetera, to complete the 8–9 Units component of the SS Area requirement. The course would not have to be related to Latin American Studies.
NOTE: The rules governing a Cluster supersede the Units component
of an Area requirement.
Example: Going back to the first Latin American Studies case we examined, let’s say that the student had already taken a course carrying the TH attribute before beginning to work on this Cluster. Although s/he would earn 8–9 TH units after taking just two of the three courses in the Cluster, the Cluster requires the completion of all three.
Choosing Clusters
There are two ways of deciding which Cluster to take to complete the Cluster requirement in a particular Area:
- Search for Clusters by Area online at https://acadinfo.wustl.edu/WUCrsL/WUCrsL.asp.
- To see if a course participates in a Cluster, find the course online by using the “Search” function at https://acadinfo.wustl.edu/WUCrsL/WUCrsL.asp.
