Lower-Division

Surveys different strategies of community activism including charity, volunteering, labor and community organizing, and recently emerging global activism with goal of demonstrating how certain strategies challenge existing social relations and arrangements while others typically (and often by design) reproduce them.

The heart of the community studies major is the field study experience. Through this series of courses, students prepare for, complete and reflect on six months of immersive, full-time experiential learning with a community-based or social change organization. This process culminates in the production of original qualitative research that builds new knowledge about the processes and conditions that facilitate social change. In this 1-credit preparatory course, students develop and articulate their intellectual, professional, and personal goals for field study. They research and communicate with potential field study sites, and locate organizations with which they can complete it.

From #BlackLivesMatter to #MeToo, from the Women's March on Washington to the March for Our Lives following the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, a new generation of activists is using media to advance social justice goals. From the perspectives of sociology, psychology, and political science, course explores how contemporary activists harness a diverse range of media tools and platforms for social change and how contemporary strategies are rooted in and/or diverge from historical practices of using media to effect social and political change. Defines "media" broadly to include social media and legacy media forms, such as radio, television, and print journalism.

Relates simple lessons of quantitative thinking to topical materials that are accessible and relevant to working for justice and social change. Students learn practical techniques to distinguish credible statistical evidence from misleading statistical claims.

Supervised work in a community-based setting conducted under the guidance of a faculty member. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency.

Supervised work in a community-based setting conducted under the guidance of a faculty member. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency.

Supervised work in a community-based setting conducted under the guidance of a faculty member. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency.

Individual directed study for lower-division undergraduates.

Individual directed study for lower-division undergraduates.