Gain an intellectual foundation to become an informed and engaged global citizen.
What are Social Sciences?
The social sciences investigate and educate students about individual and group behavior in different social and cultural contexts. Through the application of a wide range of theoretical and methodological approaches, the social sciences strive to explain the variables that affect human decision-making; patterns of social, economic, and political development; and conflict and cooperation across the globe. Further, the social sciences explain how people allocate scarce resources in the framework of different social, governmental, and commercial institutions. A central component of the liberal arts, the social sciences contribute to an understanding of the historical development and contemporary structure of the global environment and provide an essential intellectual foundation for informed and engaged global citizens.
Social Sciences Departments
All students have the opportunity to take at least two social science courses as part of the Discover-General Education requirements for graduation. Not only may the following courses count for that requirement, but they also have no prerequisite courses making it possible for any student to enroll.
ANTH 123: Socio-Cultural Anthropology
ANTH 210: Native North America
ANTH 220: Anthropology of Africa
ANTH 236/SOC 236: Anthropology of the City
ANTH 248/SOC 248: Human Rights and Social Justice
ANTH 251: Film and Ethnography
ANTH 252: Anthropology of Food
ANTH 263: Whose Amazon?
ANTH 265: Latin America through an Anthropological Lens
BA 251: Business Law
ECO 101: Principles of Microeconomics
ECO 102: Principles of Macroeconomics
EDUC 115: American Education
EDUC 225: Schools and Society
ENVS 245: Food Systems
PSCI 110: American Government and Politics
PSCI 120: American Political Thought
PSCI 130: Introduction to International Relations
PSCI 140: Global Comparative Politics
PSCI 220: Constitution – Civil Liberties
PSY 101: General Psychology
SOC 101: Introduction to Sociology
What Will Students Learn from Social Science Courses?
All courses that count towards the social science Discover-General Education requirement must include at least one of the following student learning outcomes:
Acquiring Research Skills: “Students can identify and describe one or more methodological approaches used in the Social Sciences.”
Learning Theories of Human Behavior: “Students can describe individual and/or group behaviors using disciplinary appropriate language.”
Understanding the Ways Societies and Social Systems Function: “Students can explain how cultures and institutions inform society.”
Recent Social Science
Jan Term Courses Include:
Collecting Culture: Museums
Children’s Literature
Ethics and Politics
Political Themes in Sci-Fi Films
Neuroscience in Nature, Yoga, and Meditation
New Year Resolutions and Science
Lynching in the American South
Supreme Court Seminar: First Amendment
Sports in Society
Ethnomusicology
Personal Financial Planning
You are Being Played
Economics of Poverty
City Lab: Food as Medicine
The Folk Music Revival ’50-‘70