BA in Liberal Studies, Global and Social Justice Studies

Strengthen your capacity to effect social change.

If you’re passionate about addressing urgent social problems, our Global and Social Justice Studies concentration can help you achieve the necessary competencies.  This concentration highlights the important role  social movements have played throughout history in creating a more peaceful global society. Movements that have empowered youth, workers, indigenous communities, religious leaders, women, artists, cultural workers, and committed individuals of every color have effectively shaped the world that we live in. But these progressive movements were only started because of courageous leaders who were committed to a cause and showed immense bravery by challenging the status quo. Will you be next?

This degree is offered by AU Seattle.

Program Overview

Through coursework and community-based learning opportunities, students will gain various political, theoretical, and organizational skills necessary to foster the conditions for empowerment and transformation within themselves as well as with their respective communities.

Degree Requirements

A Global and Social Justice Studies concentration requires a minimum of 45 credits. Students take at least one class in each of the six areas of learning listed below. Electives, at least 2 credits of internship/field-based learning and a senior synthesis project round out the concentration.

1. Leadership, Social Movements, and Global Change

Interdisciplinary courses meeting this requirement explore the: a) history of social movements in democratic (and non-democratic) societies and/or (b) theories, practices, and case studies of leadership for systemic change from a global perspective. Courses help students understand the contemporary and historical role of social movement-building process in nurturing democracy and positive change in the United States and abroad. Courses in this area strongly recommend participation with a community-based organization or project-based learning, enabling students to explore the dynamic relationship between reflection and practice – theory and action. Courses that fulfill this subject area include:

• Nonviolence, Social Movements, and Democracy
• Case Studies in Global Leadership
• Community Organizing in Action
• International Activism
• Leadership and Conflict Resolution
• Expeditionary Leadership: Lessons in Group Facilitation
• Far-From-Equilibrium: Systems Perspectives on Change

2. Political Economy and Globalization

Courses that fulfill this requirement explore the power relations that constitute the production, distribution, and consumption of resources within capitalist society. Students examine capitalism as a global system and develop a transformative analytic to understand matters of wealth, exploitation, impoverishment, social class, inequality as well as the contested themes of development and globalization. Along with developing critical analysis, courses that fulfill this requirement will highlight how diverse communities understand and enact social change that confront the logic and structure of capitalism. Courses that fulfill this subject area include:

• Political Economy and Globalization
• Globalization, Development, and Grassroots Movements: Issues in the Global South
• Wealth and Poverty in America

3. Theorizing Culture and Difference

Courses that fulfill this requirement analyze culture and difference as reflections of a people’s collective history as well as their respective aspirations for the future within hierarchal structures of inequality and oppression. Courses sharpen theoretical and practical understanding of unjust power relations in areas such as race, gender, class, and/or sexuality. It is recommended that students enroll or have already completed Diversity, Power, and Privilege (DPP) before completing this particular concentration requirement. Courses that fulfill this subject area include:

• Postcolonialism, Diasporas, and Narratives of Resistance
• Sports, Popular Culture, and Social Change
• Critical Theories of Race
• The African-American Experience
• Literature of Displacement
• Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies
• Border Crossings: A Multicultural Journey through Film
• Literary Representations of American Slavery
• Upper division Ethnic Studies Courses

4. Community Engagement and/or Social Justice Methodologies

Classes in this area explore important aspects of working with community groups relevant to social justice work. Courses that fulfill this area will focus upon themes of community dialogue and empowerment in the processes of facilitating organizational and systemic change. Along with developing conceptual skills necessary to support/facilitate projects in diverse communities, students will also develop practical skills in public speaking, conflict resolution, meeting facilitation, cross-cultural communication, and group development. Courses that fulfill this subject area include:

• Social Science Research Methods: Participatory Action Research
• Narrating Change: Stories for Collective Action
• Facilitating Democratic Participation
• The Power of Engaging: Listening. Collaborating, Facilitating
• Intercultural Communications and Conflict Resolution
• Social Justice in Seattle

5. Education for Transformation

Classes that fulfill this requirement explore the production of knowledge in formal settings (e.g. schools) and informal settings (families, popular education, and culture). Students will gain deeper insight to alternative ways of knowing that diverse community groups are employing to educate and intervene in urgent global problems. Courses that fulfill this subject area include:

• Adult Education
• Critical Pedagogy
• Critical Media Studies
• Pedagogy, Power, and Control

6. Global and Social Issues

A course that fulfills this area allows students (in consultation with their academic advisor) to focus on a specific global or social justice issue. Courses that fulfill this subject area include:

• Environmental Justice
• Women’s Health: Global Perspectives
• The Palestine-Israel Conflict
• Literature of Displacement
• Children and Social Policy

Sample Antioch Electives:

• Nutrition and the Politics of Food
• Homelessness: The Deepening Scandal
• Law and Social Change
• American Family in Literature and Film

Sample Transfer Electives:

• Survey of Anthropology
• Introduction to World Music
• History of the Art of Asia
• Urbanization in Developing Nations

Sample Community/Field-Based Learning Experiences:

• Antioch Education Abroad
• Amnesty International
• Women’s Education Project
• Washington Fair Trade Coalition
• Social Justice Fund
• iLeap
• King County juvenile justice program
• Field based learning with a labor union or community-based organization
• Field based learning to organize/support an international human rights day event

Sample Synthesis Projects:

• Design and facilitate an educational curriculum related to social / global justice issue
• Design a community-based research project with a local organization
• Interview and document the “counter-narratives” of community activists
• Organize an International Human Rights Day event / symposium.
• Write grant proposal related to social / global justice issue
• Write a thesis paper developed in consultation with your faculty advisor

For detailed curriculum, degree requirements, and course descriptions, please visit the  AUS catalog

Career Outlook

The goal of the Global and Social Justice Studies concentration is to prepare students to work within global and social justice organizations, including:

• Nonprofit
• Governmental
• Educational
• Political
• Labor
• Philanthropic
• Humanitarian
• Community-based organizations