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The Social Thought and Political Economy Program is an interdisciplinary undergraduate program in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences for students who want a challenging major. Courses meeting STPEC requirements are drawn from a variety of departments in the humanities and social sciences, including Afro-American Studies, Anthropology, Economics, History, Judaic and Near Eastern Studies, Legal Studies, Philosophy, Political Science, Sociology, and Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies.

The STPEC Program encourages students to engage in a critical examination of society and to develop their own capacities for critical reading, writing, and thinking. STPEC students cross disciplinary lines to confront fundamental questions often ignored or neglected by traditional academic thought. Many of the issues STPEC students explore involve relations between individuals and society. Through the content of its curriculum, STPEC demonstrates its commitment to multiculturalism and racial and ethic diversity. STPEC courses may deal with issues such as freedom and the state, power relations, structural inequality in the economy, work and work relations, the relationship of Western to non-Western cultures, the intersection of class, race, gender, and sexuality, and theories of social change.

As STPEC students acquire an understanding of social relationships, they frequently develop a need to put their knowledge to work. The program encourages its students to involve themselves in practice as well as theory by enrolling in internships as part of their undergraduate education, by playing a role in university and community affairs, and by assuming an active responsibility for the shape of their own education within the STPEC Program.