Social Justice Minor

The minor in Social Justice (SOJ) is designed for students with a passion to make a difference in their worlds.  The interdisciplinary curriculum uses an intersectional lens to explore the causes and consequences of historical and contemporary systems of injustice, while centering theoretical and policy debates about systemic power, structural inequality, and social and global justice in historical and contemporary contexts. Specific topics within the minor may include criminal justice reform and transformative justice; conditions for economic access and opportunity; the processes of social and cultural production and reproduction; the politics of urban violence and policing; and diverse human experiences of exploitation, intersecting histories of domination and oppression, and resistance. Students will also learn to engage with feminist, anti-racist, and political economy debates about racial capitalism within the global North and South.

The SOJ minor introduces students to, and develops their understanding of, social justice as a field of both research and praxis. The minor is designed to strengthen the skills necessary for students to be effective advocates for social justice at interpersonal, structural, and institutional levels. This pursuit of academic knowledge and experiential “know-how” prepares students for various careers, such as those in government agencies; colleges and universities; consulting firms; research institutes; corporations; domestic and international nongovernmental organizations; and international development organizations. Students will be able to enter the workforce with an understanding of structural inequalities and means through which to reduce and/or eliminate them.

Content-Focused Learning Objectives:

1. Students will  identify, discuss, and evaluate theoretical understandings of justice focused on critical understandings of systemic power and structural inequality;

2. Students will identify, define, and critique patterns of historical and contemporary structural inequality and marginalization;

3. Students will describe, analyze, and assess historical and contemporary social justice responses and resistance to structural inequality and marginalization. 

Skills-Focused Learning Objectives:

4. Students will effectively practice skills necessary for creating more socially just communities by  honing skills including empathy, communication, cross-cultural communication and sensitivity, anti-racist practice, and civic engagement; 

5. Students will demonstrate analytical and practical skills necessary for creating social change at the institutional and systemic levels;

6. Students will demonstrate a reflexive awareness of their positionalities and self-awareness with regard to their own social identities and their relationships to power, privilege, oppression, trauma, and healing.