Division of Social Sciences

The objective of the Social Sciences curriculum is to provide students with the tools and perspectives they need to become engaged and knowledgeable global citizens. The ability to navigate varied social and cultural systems is an essential skill in a world increasingly interconnected by technology, media, and markets. Through courses that integrate insights and methods from sociology, anthropology, history, economics, political science, and social psychology, students come to understand the process of modernization in Western and non-Western contexts, and consequences for individuals living in these societies. Thus, each of the courses designed by the Division of Social Sciences seeks to provide students with a basis for understanding human social behavior and to help students understand today’s world in historical context.

Learning Outcomes

Students who complete the Social Sciences curriculum will be able to:

• Examine groups, nations, events, and ideas in historical and sociological contexts.
• Explore historical and cultural perspectives as analytical tools for the study of society.
• Analyze the relationships among social, economic, political, and cultural systems in their own society and others.
• Critically analyze primary and secondary sources.
• Develop informed arguments and express them in multiple formats (written, oral, and multimedia).

Requirements

All BU undergraduate students, including both entering first-year and transfer students, will pursue coursework in the BU Hub, the University’s general education program that is integrated into the entire undergraduate experience. BU Hub requirements can be satisfied in a number of ways, including coursework in and beyond the major as well as through cocurricular activities. College of General Studies students will ordinarily, through coursework in the Social Sciences, satisfy some BU Hub requirements in Philosophical, Aesthetic, and Historical Interpretation; Social Inquiry; Diversity, Civic Engagement, and Global Citizenship; Communication; and the Intellectual Toolkit. Remaining BU Hub requirements will be satisfied by other College of General Studies courses as well as by selecting from a wide range of available courses within and outside the major or, in some cases, cocurricular experiences.

To fulfill the CGS Social Sciences requirement, students must take SS 104 and select at least two other CGS SS courses listed below:

• First Year
  • CGS SS 103 Politics, Economies, and Social Change in the West: The Ancient World through the Enlightenment (5 units) 
  • CGS SS 104 Politics, Economies, and Social Change in the West: The Industrial Revolution to the Digital Revolution (5 units) (London term)
• Second Year
  • CGS SS 201 Radicals, Rebels, and Revolutionaries: Agents of Global Change (4 units)
  • CGS SS 202 American Foreign Policy Since World War II (4 units)