Minimum number of credits required to graduate: 124
Minimum cumulative GPA required for the major: 2.5
Minimum number of credits to complete the major: 36
School: School of Arts and Sciences
Department of Humanities
Learn more about the major
The Social Justice major provides students with the opportunity to turn their passion for social change, human rights, and a more just world into a fulfilling career. Students will gain extensive theoretical, analytical, and experiential knowledge in the field. This interdisciplinary program has been designed to prepare students for the demands of a world in which our awareness of injustice and our responsibility to address social issues has grown nationally and across the globe. It combines a strong understanding of ideas of social justice with practical application. Given that social justice work connects with different fields, skills, and knowledge areas, students take courses across different departments and programs. Students also complete a required internship in a community-based organization or non-governmental organization. Our majors have done internships relating to law, food security, education, accessibility, and diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Students can tailor their degree to their interests, choosing from a range of subject areas to concentrate on such as global justice and human rights, law and justice, immigration justice, health justice, food justice, and racial justice, to name a few. Each student will develop a concentration with their faculty adviser. Sample concentrations include:
- Global Justice and Human Rights
- Law and Justice
- Advocacy and Social Change
- Immigration Justice
- Food Justice
- Health Justice
- Racial Justice
- Gender Equality
Because of its interdisciplinary focus, the major in Social Justice prepares students for rewarding work in a variety of fields. Career opportunities include employment in law, policy, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, education, research institutes, consulting firms, corporations, social work, media, community-based organizations, human rights organizations, and more. Students are also encouraged to participate in the annual Social Justice Month, an initiative that brings renowned speakers to campus and aims to raise awareness of contemporary social justice issues, such as gender equality, racism, discrimination, immigration justice, and food security.
Because of its interdisciplinary focus, the major in Social Justice prepares students for rewarding work in a variety of fields such as law, policy, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, education, research institutes, consulting firms, corporations, social work, media, community-based organizations, human rights organizations, and more. In the Social Justice major, students will learn to:
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Demonstrate a critical understanding of how the practices of marginalization and domination give rise to social injustice and the social and cultural responses to them.
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Demonstrate a critical understanding of human rights (including civil, political, social-cultural, and economic rights) and other theories of social justice.
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Apply the principles listed above to real-life situations.