OPPORTUNITY FOR INQUIRY
Collaborate with professors who are engaged in their discipline’s research, whether that’s in a lab, a book, or the field. There are ample opportunities for undergraduate research, scholarship and creativity.
Academics
Engage
Join our Intellectual Community
A Gustavus student is an engaged student. Gusties like to be involved — in class discussions, in social justice, in their faith, in campus activities, and in their community. Our dedicated faculty want you to thrive. They want to help you think about ideas from more than one angle, form opinions, and then defend them. The world needs more good thinkers. Our professors believe in rigor and in a diverse and motivated classroom.
75%
Ultimately attended graduate or professional school
11:1
Student to Faculty Ratio
72
Majors
100%
of courses taught by faculty members
15
pre-professional programs in a wide variety of disciplines
Liberal Arts Learning
Challenge your perspective
What does it mean to take part in liberal arts learning? It means you have a well-rounded education that prepares you to adapt and lead in an ever-changing world. Through classes in the humanities, natural sciences and mathematics, fine arts, education, and social sciences, you’ll learn to identify a problem, examine it from multiple angles, and come up with creative interdisciplinary solutions. This commitment to acting on the great challenges of our time is exemplified through the Challenge Curriculum, our innovative general education experience that concludes with a capstone course focused on a real-world issue.
Find Your Focus
Where do your passions meet your purpose and values? How do you want to make a difference? In what field will you take on the great challenges of our time, and make your life count?
Empowered
Find Your Voice
We deliver a distinctive and integrated liberal arts education of excellence. “Integrated” means classrooms and co-curriculars work together to make a transformative college experience. “Distinctive” means notable and desirable. And excellence? We define that one unique student at a time. Our excellence is you. You’ll make a difference, make connections, make change, make the world better, make your life count.
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First Term Seminar
Introducing skills central to the liberal arts: critical thinking, writing, and speaking. You’ll explore your values and get individualized advising. This is your foundation for college.
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January Term
Lasers in on one innovative, experiential, and interdisciplinary course. This can include study away, internships, independent studies, and on-campus coursework.
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Writing Across the Curriculum
Think through challenging expertise,internalize what you know, and express yourself effectively. At Gustavus, you will write to learn.
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Academic Support Center
Make the most of your academic experience. Build on your strengths through individualized course planning and advising, skill development, and accommodations.
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Experiential Learning
At Gustavus, 90 percent of students participate in experiential learning. That includes internships, research, study away, mentoring, and service learning.
OPPORTUNITY FOR DISCOVERY
Gusties study the world around them and they study all over the world, too. Immerse yourself in a new culture to better understand service, leadership, and community, in such places as Sweden, Japan, and Ecuador.
Betsy Byers, MFA
Chair and Associate Professor of Art and Art History, Environmental Studies Faculty
Expertise
I teach courses in painting and printmaking at Gustavus, as well as a specially developed course for ES, Climate Change Art, and for First-Term Seminar, Good Art, Bad Art. My courses explore art as both a subjective and objective experience, allowing students to explore how we can communicate visually and utilize art to enhance our daily experience. Of late, my work is inspired by the intersection between art and science, specifically climate change and ice loss.
Julie Bartley, PhD
Professor of Geology and Environmental Studies
Expertise
I teach courses that explore how Earth has changed over time. My courses include introductory courses (Geochemistry of the Environment; Our Planet: Introduction to Earth Science) and upper-level courses (Evolution of the Earth; Paleontology; Sedimentary Systems). My research investigates how life on Earth has shaped environments through Earth history. I study the fossil and sedimentary records of microbes and also investigate how we can recognize and interpret microbial records, both on Earth and on other planets.
Laura Burrack, PhD
Associate Professor of Biology
Expertise
My teaching spans several areas of biology including microbiology, cancer biology, molecular genetics, and the interdisciplinary borders between biology and society. My research uses microbes to explore the mechanism and consequences of several types of genetic changes seen in cancer cells and during the development of drug resistance in pathogens.
Sheng Yang, PhD
Professor of Economics, Marcia Page and John Huepenbecker Endowed Professor in International Business and Entrepreneurship
Expertise
As an economist in the fields of Industrial Organization, Investments, and Applied Econometrics, my research has been mostly focused on the empirical analysis of strategic behavior and market dominance, capital market efficiency, and behavioral economics. The main topics of my publications vary widely and interdisciplinarily, including empirical analysis of asset pricing, structure-conduct-performance paradigm, student ethic awareness, efficiency wage theory, and selectivity bias in survey estimates. My current research is about investigating the short-run and long-run dynamics between exchange rates and stock prices and the path through which monetary policy shocks impact on these markets in small open economies.
Laura Triplett, PhD
Associate Professor of Geology
Expertise
I am curious about how human activities on the landscape affect the quality of rivers, lakes, and groundwater. My research projects focus on river water quality, and help communities answer questions like “how can we protect our water?” and “how can we reduce the pollution in our river?” I teach about how the earth works, focusing on topics that intersect with human interests: climate change, rivers, soil, landslides, glaciers, coasts, etc.
Excellence Defined
Learn From Our Awesome Faculty
They’re nationally and internationally recognized scholars. And they’re devoted to undergraduate teaching. Top-notch intellectuals and people, Gustavus faculty lead 100 percent of Gustavus courses. You’ll meet and learn from them every single day. Helping you discover your passion and purpose through the liberal arts is their passion and purpose.