Editor’s Note: the article’s title was changed on 3/14 to more accurately reflect the academic goals of the minor.

This year, Whitman added a new minor, “Law, Culture & the Humanities” (LCH), to add more depth and variety to the liberal arts experience while focusing on preparing students for postgraduate opportunities in law school. Patrick Frierson, Professor of Ethics and Philosophy, Chair of Philosophy, and co-director of the LCH minor speaks to how the minor came into being naturally as a result of student needs and professor knowledge.

Explaining how the minor helps students cater their liberal arts background to successful law careers, Frierson explained that the program allows students to pursue their interests in their major while catering what they learn to their graduate school goals.

“One question that students often had was what they should major in, and I regularly gave them the same advice given by the best law schools in the country, which is that they should choose the major they are most interested in and in which they can develop their interests in the most depth. Law schools look for art majors and chemistry majors and philosophy majors and every other major out there,” Frierson said. “Students would sometimes also ask about a ‘prelaw major,’ and Whitman rightly does not have any such major… However, many of the students interested in going on to law school… have desires to think in a broad, interdisciplinary, humanistic way about what the law is and what it means in our society and culture today.” 

This fusion of interests is why junior Politics major Ellie Edwards added the minor to her Whitman experience. Hoping to focus on how her humanities experience could supplement her future goals, the minor helped her to formulate those connections. 

“I’m planning to go to law school. I find the study of law and the political theories behind it fascinating, so when I heard that there was a new minor that seemed to cater exactly to my interests, I was immediately intrigued. While the politics program at Whitman is fantastic and many of its classes delve into theories of law, I believe that many topics that are not covered by the politics major are important to gain an understanding of if one wants to study or practice law,” Edwards said. “A good criminal lawyer, for example, must have a grasp of theories of punishment, religion and race, and the perceptions of those things across different cultures, among many other subjects. The LCH minor provides a structure for those interested in law to work from.”

Frierson hopes that the LCH minor will provide students like Edwards with complex, nuanced understanding of liberal arts education that requires them to take a variety of classes and attend out-of-classroom experiences.

“Taking the minor involves leaning into what it means to be a liberal arts college student, exploring different disciplines, going to hear thought-provoking lectures, thinking and talking about topics that interest you with other interested students.  The range of classes is also incredibly rich and diverse, from social science courses like ‘Anthropology and the Law’ or ‘Psychology and Law’ to art courses like ‘Dance in Popular Media’ or ‘Museums and the Politics of Display’ to courses on Roman imperialism or music and activism in Latin America to several courses currently taught at the Walla Walla State Penitentiary,” Frierson said.

For Frierson, the requirement for students to engage with the lectures the college has to offer helps them make the most of the resources they have on hand.

“One distinctive feature of this minor is that it requires attendance at two on-campus law-related events (such as lectures), and one hope that I have is that students pursuing this minor will be motivated to engage with the amazingly rich and diverse set of speakers that Whitman brings to campus every year,” Frierson said.

Jack Jackson, Associate Professor of Politics, Chair of Politics and co-director of the LCH Minor agrees with Frierson’s finding that the out-of-classroom but still on-campus events make the minor unique.

“As an example, visiting lecturers speaking on theories of punishment, the sociology of sex work, the politics of law and violence, the history of movement lawyers in the twentieth century, decolonization and international law, or the trial of Joan of Arc, [which] all fall within the orbit of the minor,” Jackson said.

Students hoping to fuse their passion in their major with practical applications to the law field will continue to benefit from the major’s interdisciplinary curriculum.