Social and Economic Justice Minor
The minor in social and economic justice is designed for students who want to understand how to think analytically about issues of justice and how perspectives on justice can be joined with the pursuit of it. An overarching objective is fostering attitudes and knowledge about human rights; racial, ethnic, and gender equality; economic justice; democratic participation; sustainable development; diversity; and peace. It is especially appropriate for students who anticipate working in advocacy roles in nonprofit organizations, in local communities, or in governmental organizations. In these inquiries about justice, students engage scholarship in a variety of disciplines and traditions of practice.
Requirements
In addition to the program requirements listed below, students must:
- take at least nine hours of their minor "core" requirements at UNC–Chapel Hill
- earn a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.000 in the minor core requirements. Some programs may require higher standards for minor or specific courses.
For more information, please consult the degree requirements section of the catalog.
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Core Requirements | ||
| One core course chosen from: | 3 | |
 Intersectionality: Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Social Justice | ||
| Political Geography | ||
| Space, Place, and Difference | ||
| Justice, Rights, and the Common Good: Philosophical Perspectives on Social and Economic Issues H | ||
| Social and Economic Justice, Experiential Education | ||
| Three additional courses that cover at least two different areas (listed below) 1 | 9 | |
| Total Hours | 12 | |
| H | Honors version available. An honors course fulfills the same requirements as the nonhonors version of that course. Enrollment and GPA restrictions may apply. |
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Depending on the topic, independent study, special topics, and internship courses may be approved to fulfill the requirements for the minor with the explicit permission of the director.
A student may major in sociology and minor in social and economic justice; however, a student cannot count toward graduation more than 45 hours in SOCI courses. All college requirements about minors apply.
Service Learning Component
Students are required to complete one service-learning experience, a requirement that can be met in one of three ways.
- A student may take a course that includes a service-learning (APPLES) component.
- After seeking and receiving the approval of the director of the minor, a student may take a one- to three-credit independent studies or special topics course (summer or academic term) with a faculty member.
- A student may participate in the two-credit spring break course, HBEH 610, which meets the service-learning requirement but not a course requirement.
Note that core courses do not necessarily contain a service-learning component; check ConnectCarolina each semester to confirm that courses are listed as APPLES courses.
Thus, the minor is fulfilled with 12 to 13 credits, depending on whether the service-learning requirement is part of a three-credit course or is fulfilled in another way.
Understanding Justice
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| AAAD 260 | Blackness in Latin America | 3 |
| AAAD 232/WGST 266 | Black Women in America | 3 |
| ANTH 350 | Anthropology of the State, Civil Society, and Politics | 3 |
| ANTH 422 | Anthropology and Human Rights | 3 |
| ANTH 539 | Environmental Justice | 3 |
| ASIA/GEOG 267 | South Asia | 3 |
| EDUC 375 | Identity and Sexuality | 3 |
| EDUC 415 | Schooling of Immigrant Children | 3 |
| EDUC 533 | Social Justice in Education | 3 |
| ENGL 271 | Mixed-Race America: Race in Contemporary American Literature and Culture | 3 |
| GEOG 259 | Society and Environment in Latin America | 3 |
| GEOG 448 | Transnational Geographies of Muslim Societies | 3 |
| GEOG/PLAN 428 | Global Cities: Space, Power, and Identity in the Built Environment | 3 |
| GLBL 383 | Global Whiteness | 3 |
| GLBL 487 | Social Movements: Rethinking Globalization H | 3 |
| HIST 142 | Latin America under Colonial Rule | 3 |
| HIST 143 | Latin America since Independence | 3 |
| PHIL 163 | Practical Ethics: Moral Reasoning and How We Live H | 3 |
| PHIL 170 | Liberty, Rights, and Responsibilities: Introduction to Social Ethics and Political Thought H | 3 |
| PHIL 274 | Race, Racism, and Social Justice: African-American Political Philosophy H | 3 |
| PHIL 280 | Morality, Law, and Justice: Issues in Legal Philosophy H | 3 |
| PHIL 480 | Philosophy of Law | 3 |
| PHIL/WGST 275 | Moral and Philosophical Issues of Gender in Society H | 3 |
| PLCY/WGST 365 | Sexuality, Gender, and Public Policy | 3 |
| POLI 203 | Race, Innocence, and the Decline of the Death Penalty | 4 |
| POLI 206 | Race and the Right to Vote in the United States | 3 |
| POLI 276 | Major Issues in Political Theory H | 3 |
| POLI 411 | American Constitutional Law II: Civil Liberties and Rights H | 3 |
| POLI 472 | Problems of Modern Democratic Theory H | 3 |
| POLI/WGST 265 | Feminism and Political Theory | 3 |
| SOCI 122 | Race and Ethnicity | 3 |
| SOCI 414 | The City and Urbanization | 3 |
| SOCI 424 | Law and Society | 3 |
| SOCI 430 | Sociology of Food and Food Justice | 3 |
| SOCI 469 | Health and Society | 3 |
| SOCI/WGST 444 | Race, Class, and Gender | 3 |
| SOWO 491 | Community Organizing for Social Change | 4 |
| WGST 388 | The International Politics of Sexual and Reproductive Health | 3 |
| WGST 382/HIST 385 | African American Women's History | 3 |
| H | Honors version available. An honors course fulfills the same requirements as the nonhonors version of that course. Enrollment and GPA restrictions may apply. |
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Have departmental requirements that may or may not be waived. Students should consult course descriptions and discuss requirements with the instructor.
Justice in Action
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| AAAD 403 | Human Rights: Theories and Practices in Africa | 3 |
| AMST 398 | Service Learning in America | 3 |
| ANTH 142 | Local Cultures, Global Forces H | 3 |
| ANTH/GEOG/GLBL/HIST/POLI 210 | Global Issues and Globalization | 3 |
| COMM 53 | First-Year Seminar: Collective Leadership Models for Community Change | 3 |
| COMM 260 | Introduction to Performance and Social Change | 3 |
| COMM 372 | The Rhetoric of Social Movements | 3 |
| COMM 625 | Communication and Nonprofits in the Global Context | 3 |
| COMM 650 | Cultural Politics of Global Media Economies | 3 |
| COMM/ENEC 375 | Environmental Advocacy | 3 |
| DRAM 288 | Theatre for Social Change | 3 |
| ECON 465 | Economic Development 1 | 3 |
| EDUC 506 | Politics, Policymaking, and America's Schools | 3 |
| GEOG 56 | First-Year Seminar: Local Places in a Globalizing World | 3 |
| GEOG 429 | Urban Political Geography: Durham, NC | 3 |
| GEOG 458 | Urban Latin America: Politics, Economy, and Society 1 | 3 |
| GEOG 650 | Technology and Democracy Research | 3 |
| GLBL 487 | Social Movements: Rethinking Globalization H | 3 |
| HIST/MNGT 365 | The Worker and American Life | 3 |
| MEJO 141 | Media Ethics | 3 |
| MEJO 340 | Introduction to Media Law: Journalism Focus | 3 |
| PLCY 75 | First-Year Seminar: Debates in Public Policy and Racial Inequality | 3 |
| PLCY 361 | Health Policy in the United States | 3 |
| SOCI 274 | Advocacy Strategies: Communication Across Movements | 3 |
| SOCI 393 | Independent Experiential Internship (3 credits required for the minor) | 1-3 |
| SOCI 411 | Social Movements | 3 |
| SOWO 490 | Preprofessional Special Topic | 1-6 |
| SOWO 492 | Seminar in Service Learning | 1-6 |
| WGST 281 | Gender and Global Change | 3 |
| WGST 340 | Leadership in Violence Prevention | 3 |
| WGST 350 | Spitting in the Wind: "American" Women, Art, and Activism | 3 |
| WGST 368 | Women of Color in Contemporary United States Social Movements | 3 |
| WGST 410 | Comparative Queer Politics | 3 |
| WGST 465 | Gender, (Im)migration, and Labor in Latina Literature | 3 |
| WGST 583 | Gender and Imperialism | 3 |
| H | Honors version available. An honors course fulfills the same requirements as the nonhonors version of that course. Enrollment and GPA restrictions may apply. |
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Have departmental requirements that may or may not be waived. Students should consult course descriptions and discuss requirements with the instructor.
The Context of Justice
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| AMST 294 | American Studies Seminar on Aesthetic Perspective | 3 |
| AMST/HIST 110 | Introduction to the Cultures and Histories of Native North America | 3 |
| ANTH 120 | Anthropology through Expressive Cultures | 3 |
| ANTH/PWAD 280 | Anthropology of War and Peace | 3 |
| ANTH 540 | Planetary Crises and Ecological and Cultural Transitions | 3 |
| ASIA/HIST/PWAD 277 | The Conflict over Israel/Palestine | 3 |
| ASIA/RELI 486 | Islam and Feminism/Islamic Feminism | 3 |
| COMM 82 | First-Year Seminar: Food Politics from an Organizational Communication Perspective | 3 |
| COMM 140 | Introduction to Media History, Theory, and Criticism H, F | 3 |
| COMM/PWAD 355 | Terrorism and Political Violence | 3 |
| COMM 576 | Race and Rhetoric | 3 |
| COMM 624 | Hate Speech | 3 |
| ECON 480 | Labor Economics 1 | 3 |
| ECON/EURO/PWAD 460 | International Economics 1 | 3 |
| EDUC 615 | Schools and Community Collaboration | 3 |
| ENGL 265 | Literature and Race, Literature and Ethnicity H | 3 |
| ENGL 269 | Introduction to Disability Studies | 3 |
| ENGL/WGST 363 | Feminist Literary Theory H | 3 |
| ENGL 386 | Gender, Sexuality, and the South Asian Diaspora | 3 |
| GEOG 123 | Cultural Geography | 3 |
| GEOG 130 | Development and Inequality: Global Perspectives F | 3 |
| GEOG 232 | Agriculture, Food, and Society | 3 |
| GEOG 435 | Global Environmental Justice | 3 |
| GEOG 452 | Mobile Geographies: The Political Economy of Migration | 3 |
| GEOG 457 | Rural Latin America: Agriculture, Environment, and Natural Resources H | 3 |
| GEOG 460 | Geographies of Economic Change | 3 |
| GEOG 470 | Political Ecology: Geographical Perspectives | 3 |
| HIST/WGST 280 | Women and Gender in Latin American History | 3 |
| HIST 383 | Big-Time College Sports and the Rights of Athletes, 1874 to the Present | 3 |
| HIST 589 | Race, Racism, and America: (United States) Law in Historical Perspective | 3 |
| MEJO 441 | Diversity and Communication | 3 |
| MEJO/WGST 442 | Gender, Class, Race, and Mass Media | 3 |
| PLCY/PWAD 110 | Global Policy Issues H | 3 |
| PLCY 340 | Justice in Public Policy H | 3 |
| PLCY 349 | Immigration Policy in the 21st Century | 3 |
| PLCY/AAAD 354 | The Lived Experience of Inequality and Public Policy | 3 |
| PLCY/WGST 365 | Sexuality, Gender, and Public Policy | 3 |
| POLI/WGST 217 | Women and Politics | 3 |
| SOCI 420 | Political Sociology | 3 |
| SOCI 423 | Sociology of Education, Experiential Education | 3 |
| SOCI 426 | Sociology of Education | 3 |
| SOCI 468 | United States Poverty and Public Policy | 3 |
| SOCI/MNGT 412 | Social Stratification | 3 |
| SOCI/WGST 124 | Sex and Gender in Society | 3 |
| H | Honors version available. An honors course fulfills the same requirements as the nonhonors version of that course. Enrollment and GPA restrictions may apply. |
| F | FY-Launch class sections may be available. A FY-Launch section fulfills the same requirements as a standard section of that course, but also fulfills the FY-SEMINAR/FY-LAUNCH First-Year Foundations requirement. Students can search for FY-Launch sections in ConnectCarolina using the FY-LAUNCH attribute. |
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Have departmental requirements that may or may not be waived. Students should consult course descriptions and discuss requirements with the instructor.
See the program page here for special opportunities.
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