Portland State University is home to Deutsche Sommerschule am Pazifik, one of the nation’s premier German intensive programs offered in the summer. Leading students through language, history, culture, literature, and pedagogy during five-weeks of thoughtful coursework.

The program is open to all students regardless of class standing, age, or cultural background. Participants can earn credit that goes towards their bachelor’s degree at Portland State. Most students leave the program having advanced an entire level in their language proficiency.

Many public agencies in the Portland metropolitan region recognize the importance of this analytical tool, have GIS capacity, and need trained practitioners. The U.S. Department of Labor has identified GIS and geospatial technology as a field in high demand with excellent job opportunities.

Our location in Portland provides you with unmatched opportunities to study the geological paradise that is the Pacific Northwest, from extinct and active volcanoes to landslides, the Columbia River flood basalts to glaciers atop Mt. Hood, and tsunami deposits along the coast. You won't have to go far to gain new insights about our past, present, and future.

The geology major builds on a foundation of physics, chemistry, and math to help you better understand earth systems and processes.

Learn from and work alongside our faculty who are leading researchers in the field of geology. Their areas of expertise include volcanology, geochemistry, structural geology, urban systems, glaciology, hydrogeology, meteorites, and planetary science, and active tectonics.

They bring their research back to your classes, providing you with breadth and depth of knowledge in geology as a discipline.

Work with community partners on projects. Our partners include the City of Portland, the state departments of Water Resources and Environmental Quality, environmental consulting firms, K-12 institutions across Oregon, the U.S. Geological Survey's Oregon Water Science Center housed on our campus, and the Cascade Volcano Observatory across the river in Vancouver, Washington.

Our research facilities include surveying equipment, scanning and transmission electron microscopes, a teaching laboratory with sensors and data loggers, and a web-based data clearinghouse with regional geoscience data.

You can get involved with our student clubs, including CoRiBa and chapters of the Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologists and the Association of Petroleum Geologists. Learn about geology and related topics outside the classroom, listen to invited speakers, explore careers in geology, and go on field trips and hikes.

PSU's location in downtown Portland, with easy access to the Pacific Coast, the Cascade Mountains, and the Willamette Valley, provides ample opportunity for field work-based classes and field work opportunities for research in urban, rural, and wilderness sites. Numerous local, state, and federal agencies are within walking or driving distance, providing opportunities for applied research in a wide variety of areas.

Faculty engage in local, regional and international research projects in hydrology, water resources, biogeography, climate science, sustainable resource use, land use analysis, cultural and political ecology, the urban environment, and geographic information science. Faculty incorporate research findings into their courses and their work has been featured in the media.

The geography department’s engaged faculty and students create a close-knit community with active student-led groups like the ASPRS/GIS Club. The ASPRS/GIS Club is a student organization focused on the advancement of knowledge and improved understanding of GIS, remote sensing, photogrammetry and supporting technologies on the PSU campus. The group also facilitates the partnerships between the industry and PSU students and enhances professional development of undergraduate and graduate students in geography and related disciplines.

PSU's French program is committed to developing your intellectual potential, knowledge of the French language, and understanding of the world. Our small French classes will help you become proficient at reading, writing, and speaking the language and provide opportunities to get to know your classmates and professors.

Our faculty are experts in a historical period from the Middle Ages to today, and our courses offer solid training in the French language, and broad exposure to the rich store of ideas and human experience found in the culture, history, literature, and film of French-speaking people and societies.

You'll also have opportunities to immerse yourself in French-speaking communities, both at home and abroad. We sponsor internships for students to teach French in schools around the Portland area, host cultural events such as the Champs-Elysees Independent Film Festival, and partner with the French Consulate in San Francisco to bring French authors and graphic artists to PSU.

Portland State is the first four-year institution in the state of Oregon (and only the third in the region) to establish a major in Indigenous Nations and Native American Studies. Portland, Oregon has one of the largest urban Native American populations in the United States and Portland State is uniquely positioned to partner with the many governmental agencies, Tribal and Native organizations, and nonprofits that are headquartered in the city. Several of which have inter-governmental and cooperative agreements and grants with the PSU Indigenous Nations Studies program. Community partners were integral in encouraging the establishment of the major which is reflected in the significant community-based component of the program.

Sustainability is a central aspect of Indigenous Nations and Native American Studies internationally, and a core theme of the program at Portland State. Sustainability — particularly its interrelated cultural and environmental components — is inextricably connected to Native worldviews around the need to protect and cherish the ecological systems of the Earth, and the need to embrace self-determination and sovereignty. Sustainability is not only critical to the survival of the planet in environmental terms; it is critical to the survival of Indigenous peoples in cultural, political, and physical terms. Students will take several courses that deal with sustainability issues, engage in partnerships such as the one with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, and connect with faculty who are experts in this area.

The Portland State Indigenous Nations and Native American major offers a focus on Native, Indigenous, and First Nation peoples and Nations of the Northwest and Alaska. The program overall has a global Indigenous view.

Our expert faculty are international scholars who work with Native peoples across the globe. They bring their knowledge, scholarship, and rich experiences into the classroom. Through mentorship, our faculty and staff provide students with the support you need to grow as a person and as a professional. Courses in this major will encourage you to analyze and reflect upon your own identity. Much of what students gain from the program happens outside of the classroom through engagement with a cohort, the community, and faculty. All of these components contribute to the deconstruction and building of identity, self, and Native/Indigenous/First Nations peoples. This will allow you to forge your own pathway of decolonization alongside your peers.

Here, you’ll find an interwoven community of both Native and non-Native students. PSU’s Native American Student Community Center is unique in the United States. Native staff, faculty, community members, and students guide and serve the Center. It houses four active student groups:

• American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES): The goal of this student group is to increase the representation of American Indians, Alaskan Natives, and Pacific Islanders in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. Using a “full circle of support” model, AISES programs serve the organization’s members as pre-college and college students, professionals, mentors, and leaders.
• Healing Feathers: The purpose of Healing Feathers is to promote wellness to Native American/Alaska Native students of Portland State University and community members.
• Pacific Islanders Club (PIC): A student organization that educates and gathers PSU students who are familiar with and interested in the pacific island heritage. We represent the different Island Nations located in Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia.
• United Indigenous Students in Higher Education (UISHE): Assists American Indian, Alaskan Native, and Indigenous Peoples in maintaining cultural values, while pursuing their educational goals.

Portland State offers a robust Japanese-American community through the Center for Japanese Studies, a student-oriented resource center focused on preparing students to become leaders in business, government, and the arts by fostering cross-cultural understanding through a variety of curricular and outreach programs.

Portland State and the Center for Japanese Studies has a special relationship with Waseda University, one of Japan’s preeminent private universities located in Tokyo, and Hokkaido University, a public university in Portland’s Sister City, Sapporo. These relationships provide you with uniquely immersive experiences, allowing you to study Japanese in Japan and live with a Japanese host family.

A senior Capstone project provides you with the opportunity to work with elementary school programs that offer Japanese in the Portland area by assisting a classroom teacher and developing teaching materials.

Studying the past helps us better understand not only where we’ve been, but where we may be going. Historical knowledge has the power to be both individually and collectively transformative, and there is no better place in the Pacific Northwest to gain a critical understanding of the past than the PSU History Department. Our award-winning and internationally recognized faculty offer courses that span the globe and cover chronological periods from Antiquity to the Present, with concentrations in U.S. history since 1800; modern Europe and East Asia; Latin America, Africa, Russia, and the Middle East; ancient Rome and medieval Europe, environmental history, public history, and more.

The study of History cultivates appreciation for the diversity of human experience and fosters empathy for the stories, traditions, cultures, and world views of historical groups and individuals. It also provides the foundation for informed participation in the local and the global community, by teaching its students how to apply critical thinking skills to solving problems. Our History majors learn valuable and broadly applicable skills in making arguments from evidence, collecting and interpreting data, and communicating ideas clearly both in writing and orally. 

History students at PSU are able to build strong relationships with faculty members through coursework, departmental and community events, and student groups. These connections are further supported through opportunities for career and academic advising, directed research, and internships in the local community. All of our Majors engage in hands-on experience in our seminars through the development and completion of a research agenda. 

Students at PSU can also join both the national History Honors Society—Phi Alpha Theta—or the History Club, where they can share their research and love of history with their fellow students. We offer a variety of competitive scholarships and awards, and our majors and minors have gone on to succeed in a variety of different occupations and professions, including business, government, non-profit administration, law, and education, to name just a few.

In PSU's Department of Applied Linguistics, you’ll find faculty who are committed to helping you succeed. You'll join a community of faculty and students who are passionate about applying the science of language for making positive social change.

Be mentored by expert researchers and devoted teachers. Our award-winning faculty are invited to give seminars around the world but are just as committed to building community in their classes and sharing the excitement they feel for Applied Linguistics. Connect with the local and global community. We work closely with community partners in the Portland area and around the world on research and teaching projects. In the same week, you might help with workshops at a linguistically diverse school in Portland and interact online with an English learner in China.

Our program allows you to adapt your course plan to your interests. You can choose to pursue a concentration in structural linguistics or the language classroom. You can take a wide variety of elective courses in areas as diverse as technology applications, intercultural communication, and documenting endangered languages.

PSU's popular ASL program boasts the third-largest enrollment of languages in the World Languages and Literature department.

Our experienced faculty recognize the difficulty in learning a distinct and complex language like ASL and are prepared to assist you every step of the way and provide a wealth of opportunities to practice in a supportive environment.

In your ASL courses, you'll develop fluency in receptive and expressive skills for a variety of settings and contexts, and broaden your understanding of the current attitudes, movements, policies, and trends that affect the Deaf community as a linguistic minority.