Interdisciplinary Social Science (AB)

About this programme

The rationale for the College core requirement in social science acknowledges the significant diversity within the disciplines and departments grouped under that umbrella: some approaches are “quantitative or experimental,” while others are “observational and interpretive.” What unites them, the rationale suggests, is that “all examine the ways people think and act as members of social networks, how those networks function as complex systems, and how those systems in turn affect individual lives.” The major in Interdisciplinary Social Science begins with the assumption that incarcerated students are particularly attuned to the workings of so many of these complex systems, and their often malign effects on both individuals and communities. It seeks to build on the passionate drive that incarcerated students have to understand these “structures and institutions we take for granted” by giving them the theoretical frameworks and methodological apparatuses necessary to analyze and critique those structures and systems. The major brings together course offerings from Anthropology, Economics, Government, Linguistics, Psychology, and Sociology, as well as from College interdisciplinary programs with strengths in the social sciences (e.g, the History, Behavioral Science, and Social Inquiry concentration in African American Studies, as well as subfields within Justice and Peace Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies).