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About the Major

The undergraduate program has five core areas. See the Major Requirements.

Gender and Family
Includes courses on gender, families, sexuality, women’s biography, gender and race, women’s leadership, women’s intellectual work, women and development

Politics and Social Change
Includes courses on political sociology, welfare state, social movements, community power, globalization, war and peace, and social policy

Health, Illness, and the Life Course
Includes courses on body and health, health care systems, medicalization of social problems, aging, disability, genetics, and policy

Theory and Methods
Includes courses on classical, critical, psychoanalytic, existential, and cultural theory, as well as qualitative, quantitative, comparative, and historical methods

Institutions, Communities, and Culture
Includes courses on law, mass communications, consumption, culture, religion, human services, youth, popular music, work, science and technology, education, environment, and professions

Hands-On Learning Experience

Through various internships, service learning, and experiential courses, students can combine classroom learning with active engagement or action research in community organizations; social movements; human service and healthy community coalitions; peace, environmental, and social justice groups; and policy organizations. Some examples of recent internships include:

Convening a “Wingspread” youth summit among major national student organizations and Campus Compact, as well as four national leadership conferences on civic engagement

• Conducting Peace Games for schools, families, and young adult volunteers in Roxbury
• Developing a hunger relief curriculum for Waltham Community Farms
• Providing case worker services to seniors at the Springwell Senior Citizen Center
• Developing young women’s leadership with the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance