New Interdisciplinary Minor in Social Justice
The interdisciplinary Minor in Social Justice is for students interested in "activism." The minor is designed as an academic complement to social justice activist work, enabling students to explore and debate the meaning of "social justice," to grapple with the moral and ethical issues involved in undertaking such work, to engage in extensive service learning in urban minority communities, to understand and evaluate alternative perspectives and strategies pertaining to political and organizational social change, and to develop an informed action plan for furthering social change in a particular area of concern.

The core incorporates service learning in all of the courses and is designed to provide a common foundation that offers students depth and progression in the level of analysis and engagement. The interdisciplinary approach complements a wide range of majors across the social sciences, sciences, and humanities and is designed to accommodate a wide array of areas for social justice work.

Three required core courses:

• SJ 220, Working for Social Justice (M6)
• SJ 222, Organizing for Social Change (M5)
• SJ 320, Integrative Capstone Project

Two electives from a list of courses in Africana Studies, Economics, History, Management, Philosophy, Political Science, Sociology, and Women's Studies.

Note: Women's Studies majors, Sociology majors, and Africana Studies majors who choose to complete a minor in social justice may only count one of the required social justice core courses as an elective.

SJ 220, Working for Social Justice (M6)
Offered every spring.
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing
Instructor: Janie Ward, Africana Studies and Education

This course combines study of the psycho-social, moral and ethical issues of social justice and social activism with community-based learning. It explores what it takes to become citizens who are committed to rectifying the myriad political, economic and social problems we face. The course aims to have students better understand their own values and motivations, to grapple with the complexity of understanding the needs of others, to assess and clarify their ethical and political beliefs, to develop skills in recognizing and negotiating across social differences, and to cultivate strong participatory democratic instincts toward structural social change.

SJ 222, Organizing for Social Change (M5)
Offered every fall.
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing
Instructors: Jill Taylor, Women's Studies and Education
Carole Biewener, Women's Studies and Economics

This course provides students with a theoretical and practical foundation for understanding and evaluating social change strategies. Students look at different collective actions, citizen movements and community-based organizations with an eye toward understanding the history of community organizing and assessing the ways in which community leaders have mobilized resources to effect change. Conversation with community-based practitioners is incorporated throughout.

> Download a syllabus for this course (pdf)

SJ 320, Integrative Capstone Project
Offered as needed.
Prerequisite: SJ 220 and SJ 222, and Junior or Senior standing

This course is designed for students to address a particular social justice issue, research past and current organizing efforts and strategies, and develop a community action plan that culminates in a term paper. This project allows the minor to offer a culminating course experience for all students, with different kinds of community-based work during the semester and with the possibility of further student-initiated, community-based learning via a subsequent internship or fieldwork experience (which could mesh with a student's major).

> Download a detailed description of the project (pdf)

Two Electives Chosen from the Following Courses:
* It is strongly recommended that you take electives from two different disciplines.

AST 210	African American Women
AST/SOCI 234	The Black Experience in America
AST /SOCI 311	Critical Race Legal Theory
AST 325	Critical Race Feminism/Womanism
ECON 125	Women and Work
ECON 214	Women in the World Economy
ECON 216	Economic Development
ECON 225	Political Economy of U.S. Capitalism
HIST 211	The African American Experience from Reconstruction to the 1980s
HIST 213	Race and Ethnicity in U.S. History
HIST 216	Women and Gender in U.S. since 1890
MGMT 224	Socially-Minded Leadership for Women
PHIL 223	Philosophy of Race and Gender
PHIL/POLS 232	Theories of Justice
POLS 212	Politics Unplugged: How Things Work in Massachusetts
POLS 215	The Politics of Race and Ethnicity
POLS 219	Gender and Politics
SOCI 225	Women in Social Movements
SOCI 249	Inequality: Race, Class, and Gender in Comparative Settings
SOCI 261	Urban Sociology
SOCI 262	Criminology
SOCI 263	Sociology of Education
SOCI 267	Globalization, Transnationalization and Strategies of Resistance
SOCI 346	Society and Health
SOCI 347	Whiteness, Antiracism, and Justice Work
WST 200	Issues in International Women's Studies
WST 204	Roots of Feminism
WST 340	Intimate Family Violence

Electives for the Minor in Social Justice devote a preponderance of the course material to developing an analysis of social inequities; studying different strategies, activist experiences and social movements in the 20th and/or 21st centuries; developing an historical understanding of social movements in the 20th and 21st centuries; and/or studying different theories of social justice.

Service Learning
Service learning is a teaching and learning method which combines community service with academic instruction to achieve specific learning objectives. The Scott/Ross Center for Community Service facilitates service learning placements for classes in many different fields of study, including SJ 220 Working for Social Justice and SJ 222 Organizing for Social Change.

Previous service learning placements include:

Action for Boston Community Development
Casa Myrna Vazquez
City Life/Vida Urbana
Eastern Service Workers Association
Fenway Community Development Corporation
MassVOTE
MIRA Coalition
One Family, Inc.

Social Justice Steering Committee
The Minor in Social Justice is administered by an interdisciplinary Social Justice Steering Committee currently comprised of faculty from the Departments of Africana Studies, Economics, Sociology, and Women's Studies; staff from the Scott/Ross Center for Community Service and the Simmons Institute for Leadership and Change; and students pursing the Minor in Social Justice. In the future we hope to include participation by community partners.

Currently the minor is housed in the Department of Women's Studies (C205) with Professor Carole Biewener serving as the faculty coordinator (E203-I, x2583).

Social Justice Steering Committee Members

Masato Aoki, Economics

Carole Biewener, Economics and Women's Studies

Diane Hammer, Administrative Director, Simmons Institute for Leadership and Change

Stephen London, Sociology, and Director, Scott/Ross Center for Community Service

Jennifer McKee, Director of Service Learning, Scott/Ross Center for Community Service

Jeremy Poehnert, Associate Director of Service Learning, Scott/Ross Center for
Community Service

Jill Taylor, Women's Studies and Education

Christine Tellez, Class of ‘05

Janie Ward, Africana Studies and Education

Professor Carole Biewener
Faculty Coordinator
carole.biewener@simmons.edu
Phone: 617-521-2583
Office: E-203I

The Scott/Ross Center for Community Service
src@simmons.edu
Phone: 617-521-2700
Office: W102