Catalogue

Social Studies Overview

The Division of Social Studies offers academic programs in anthropology, economics, history, philosophy, political studies, religion, and sociology. Additional courses of study are available through interdivisional programs, such as Environmental and Urban Studies, Human Rights, and area studies programs; and concentrations, such as Gender and Sexuality Studies and Medieval Studies. Students are encouraged to take courses from multiple fields in the division in order to develop an interdisciplinary perspective on fundamental questions about the human experience that is historically rooted but geared toward contemporary issues. Students draw on the interpretive strategies and analytic methods of multiple disciplines to develop a critical perspective on various aspects of society, politics, thought, and culture. Although the main emphasis in the division is interdisciplinary, students are encouraged to design programs of study that address particular areas of inquiry that are personally meaningful and can also provide pathways for graduate or professional work or a future career. 

Typically, courses in the Upper College are seminars characterized by active discussion, intensive reading, synthetic analysis, and independent research. Major conferences, tutorials, fieldwork, and research projects prepare the student for the Senior Project. The Senior Project may take any form appropriate to the student’s field, subject, and methodology; most are based in independent research, but a project may also take the form of a critical review of a literature, a close textual analysis, a series of related essays, or even a translation.

Several special interdisciplinary initiatives offer series of courses that are clustered thematically. Racial Justice Initiative (RJI) courses critically analyze systems of racial hierarchy and power from multiple disciplinary perspectives; Engaged Liberal Arts and Sciences (ELAS) courses link academic work with civic engagement; Thinking Animals Initiative (TAI) courses introduce ways of thinking about animals that encourage interdisciplinary connections; Courage to Be seminars address the practice of courageous action in the 21st century; Hate Studies Initiative (HSI) courses examine the human capacity to define and dehumanize an “other”; and Calderwood Seminars help Upper Class students think about translating discipline-specific writing to a general audience.

Division chair: Robert J. Culp