For his final project for MDVL 0360: “Medieval Bodies: Medieval Perspectives,” Markus Joerg ’26 served a ten-course medieval style meal.
Finding old medieval manuscripts and translating the recipes, he attempted to cook the dishes “as closely as I could to the original,” he said.
Joerg’s final project is just one example of the sense of community fostered among students in smaller concentrations. The medieval cultures concentration, for example, has had just 20 graduates in the past nine years.
In 2024, 287 Brown undergraduates received a degree in computer science, the largest cohort of students under one concentration. On the opposite end of the spectrum, seven other concentrations had no graduates that year, according to data from the Office of Institutional Research. The Herald spoke with students and faculty to learn more about the academic and social experience of being in a small curricular corner of the campus community.
Medieval cultures: Ten-course dinner for a tiny concentration
The medieval cultures concentration is deeply interdisciplinary, Joerg said. MDVL 0360 lessons were team-taught by professors of religious studies, East Asian studies, Judaic studies, classics, comparative literature, history of art and architecture and others.
Associate Professor of History Jonathan Conant, whose research specializes in North Africa in the medieval period, is the director of undergraduate studies for medieval cultures. Conant praised how many of his students arrived at Brown with an interest in medieval history, saying he was “astounded” at how much his students had studied medieval texts before coming to college.
Sarah Kim ’28 was one of Conant’s students. In high school, a history teacher introduced her to the late antiquity period, which is the focus of one of the medieval cultures concentration tracks.
Even though her concentration may be small in number, it “doesn’t feel” that way to Kim. The uniqueness and cross-functional nature of medieval cultures allow Kim and her fellow concentrators to graduate with a unique skill set, she said. “Nobody else will have skills like you do.”
Egyptology and Assyriology: a small niche
The Department of Egyptology and Assyriology has had a total of 20 graduates in the past nine years.
The department — faculty, graduate students and undergraduate students — “all know each other,” John Steele, professor of Egyptology and Assyriology, wrote in an email to The Herald. “This means that faculty can respond to the student needs and students know what research we are all currently doing. This level of engagement is not possible in bigger departments.”
“I really love the Egyptology faculty. They’re great people, and they’re great scholars,” said Livia Hoffman ’25, who is double-concentrating in classics alongside Egyptology and Assyriology. “It’s a great community that they build.”
The concentration is “a very niche thing to study,” Hoffman noted. “But I think there’s a real interest in studying ancient Egypt.” She added that there are many non-concentrators who enroll in the department’s courses and bring “different things to the table.”
Physics and philosophy: a one-person show
The size of the physics and philosophy concentration means that it doesn't have a Departmental Undergraduate Group, David Christensen, the concentration’s director of undergraduate studies, wrote in an email to The Herald.
Sophia Lloyd George ’25.5 is the only undergraduate pursuing the concentration. She is also completing a second concentration in computer science. Her path to physics and philosophy was a “serendipitous” result of enrolling in courses like PHIL 0060: “Modern Science and Human Values.” The course introduced her to the concentration and fulfilled some of its requirements, she said.
The computer science program has “a lot more support” and infrastructure built into its large classes, she said. But “it was through that journey of studying physics and philosophy that I came to my interest in AI, ethics and safety,” she explained.
Astronomy: the oldest star in the physics department
Professor of Physics Ian Dell’Antonio said that astronomy, housed within Brown’s physics department, receives an average of one concentrator per year. But astronomy is one of the oldest continuously taught subject areas at Brown.
Dell’Antonio noted that students who are interested in astronomy sometimes opt to concentrate in physics instead because of the field’s closer link to potential graduate studies. But the concentration exists for students interested in the “interface” of physics and the planetary sciences who “don’t really want to specialize in either one,” Dell’Antonio said.
Another advantage of astronomy is the concentration’s fewer prerequisites, which students can finish in four semesters “with some difficulty,” he said. This isn’t possible for physics, he added.
South Asian studies: interdisciplinary offerings
South Asian studies, which hasn’t graduated any concentrators since 2022, is hosted by the Saxena Center for Contemporary South Asia in the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.
Because it is a non-departmental concentration and doesn’t have an “independent hiring budget,” the concentration “draws upon the expertise of multiple specialists in the study of South Asia across departments,” Tiraana Bains, the concentration’s director of undergraduate studies, wrote in an email to The Herald.
As a result, suggested courses to fulfill the concentration’s requirements include cross-listed classes in departments such as history, political science and religious studies, she explained.
Portuguese and Brazilian studies: connecting with the Providence community
Akshay Malhotra ’25 came into Brown with “no intention” to study Portuguese and Brazilian studies, he wrote in an email to The Herald. While the department has a small number of concentrators, many other students explore courses within POBS, he wrote.
“I always love to see students who are just interested in POBS taking POBS classes, and usually, they have such a positive experience that they end up taking multiple POBS classes throughout their time at Brown,” Malhotra wrote.
Malhotra was first drawn to POBS when he took his first-year seminar, POBS 0810: “Belonging and Displacement: Cross-Cultural Identities.” He then decided to pursue it as a concentration after he took a job at a local hospital and gained experience speaking Portuguese with patients.
“I knew there is a large Portuguese-speaking population locally in Providence,” he wrote. Speaking the language of his patients allowed both the patients and the treatment team to “feel more comfortable” with Malhotra.
Teddy Fisher is a senior staff writer who studies International and Public Affairs and is passionate about law, national security and sports. He enjoys playing basketball, running and reading in his free time.
Kate Rowberry is a senior staff writer at The Herald.
