Social Sciences

The Certificate in African Studies provides opportunities to learn about the continent. The program offers classes in Africa's political, economic, and social history; built environments and urban geographies; ecology, genetic diversity, and epidemiological concerns. The program also offers classes in Africa's vibrant art scenes, past and present, where literature, music, and art have come to define a new post-colonial African cosmopolitanism.

The program aims to give students an understanding of American society - its culture, its institutions, its intellectual traditions, and the relationships among its diverse people.  We encourage study and debate about America’s place in the world and the world in America, as well as what it means to grapple with the horizons and limits of its democratic aspirations.

Cognitive science is the study of how the mind works, drawing on research from psychology, philosophy, linguistics, neuroscience, and computer science. The interdisciplinary character of cognitive science reflects different levels of analysis of mental phenomena and their employment of a variety of methodologies appropriate to each level.

The program encourages the interdisciplinary study of modern Europe, with a particular focus on politics, economics, and society in western and central Europe since World War I.

The program aims to supplement undergraduates in their major departments with an understanding and practice in entrepreneurship.

The program deepens students' understanding of European civilization and strengthens their command of cultural interpretation through interdisciplinary investigation. The program focuses on the ways in which European societies, past and present, order reality, make sense of life and communicate meaning across a range of disciplines and in a wide variety of media.

The program enables undergraduates to study the determinants, consequences, and patterns of disease across societies, the role of medical technologies and interventions in health improvements, and the economic, political, and social factors that shape domestic and global public health policy.

The program offers undergraduate students the opportunity to pursue concentrated interdisciplinary study of history and diplomacy in concert with internships in the practice of diplomacy and related professions. 

The undergraduate program traverses the arts, humanities and social sciences, seeking to provide students with a broad understanding of the emergence, transformation and consolidation of Latinos as a pan-ethnic group and to appreciate the range of Hispanic imprints on American society and culture.

The undergraduate program draws on the humanities, history and social sciences to study of Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Students develop expertise in a core language of Eurasia and a scholarly grounding in the study of the region.

The undergraduate program offers students the methodological and theoretical tools to study the political, economic, social, religious, literary and cultural institutions of the region with particular focus on the modern history of India and Pakistan. Students take a four-term sequence of language instruction in Hindi, Urdu and Sanskrit.

The program combines coursework, seminars, laboratory experience, field work and practice teaching to become fully prepared and certified to teach successfully at the middle and secondary levels. Participants can earn certification in art, English, mathematics, music, the sciences, social studies and world languages. The program is approved by the New Jersey Department of Education and by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP).

The undergraduate program is targeted to students, both engineers/scientists and humanists/social-scientists, who are interested in exploring the intersection of society and technology. Programs of study are offered under information technology and energy tracks.

The undergraduate program offers an interdisciplinary framework for the study of cities, metropolitan regions, and urban and suburban landscapes.

The undergraduate program focuses on modes of inquiry into important ethical issues in public life. The program helps students develop competence in pursuing such inquiries generally and supports them in applying these intellectual skills to the advanced analysis of one or more related topics. Students will be equipped to bring informed discussion of values into the public sphere and to integrate a critical value perspective into their future studies and pursuits.