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Course requirements for STPEC majors are both flexible and highly directed. Students are able to develop their own individualized course of study while they acquire a foundation in areas of concern to the STPEC Program. Courses in these areas are chosen from a list of recommended courses drawn up each semester and available from the STPEC office. Transfer students may petition to have courses taken at other institutions accepted for STPEC credit. STPEC also encourages its students to spend one or two semesters studying abroad and, with program approval, to use courses taken abroad to satisfy STPEC requirements.

Students must take two introductory courses selected from the STPEC course list, one in social theory and one in political economy, before they will be admitted to STPEC’s Seminar I. Students are also strongly encouraged to enroll in STPEC's first-year seminar, Introduction to STPEC. Once admitted, students must complete at least 40 credits within the STPEC Program distributed as follows:

A) Five upper-level courses (15 credits): Includes one course each in modern social theory, political economy, history and politics of women, history and politics of race in the U.S., and the non-Western world, all of which must be selected from the STPEC course list.

B) One upper- or lower-level history course (3 credits).

C) One graded internship (3 credits minimum).

D) Four STPEC seminars (16 credits):
a) Two STPEC seminars: A two-semester sequence initiating the in-depth interdisciplinary study of Western and non-Western social and political theory and its application in particular situations. Enrollment limited to 25 STPEC majors. Both seminars offered every semester.
b) Two senior seminars: Opportunity for students to engage in intensive work in specific areas of interest decided by the professor and students. Recent seminars have addressed such topics as “Law and the American Working Class,” “Race and Urban Political Economy,” “Gandhi’s Critique of Modernity,” “Latino Politics and Identities,” “Theory and Practice of Education,” “Social Construction of the Body,” “Economies of the Middle East and North Africa,” “The Political Economy of Race and Class,” “U.S. Women’s Lives,” “Conquest of the Americas,” “Representation of the Holocaust in Film,” “Reading and Creating Political Autobiography,” “Queer Theories/Social Realities,” and “Sex, Drugs, Rock ‘n’ Roll and Seatbelts: Individual Liberty, Morality, and Politics.”

E) STPEC 393A Writing for Critical Consciousness (3 credits). Fulfills the University’s Junior Year Writing requirement. Offered every semester; enrollment limited to 20 STPEC majors.

Grades of C or better must be obtained in all courses required for the STPEC major.

Note: All requirements for completing a degree in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences apply, including the Global Education requirement.

Matriculated students new to the STPEC Program must contact the STPEC office for an initial advising session, complete an application form, and attend an introductory meeting with the STPEC Program Director and several STPEC students.