Social Science and Cultural Studies

The Department of Social Science and Cultural Studies provides students with the critical and analytical knowledge to understand the social context of their intellectual, artistic, and professional work.  The faculty of our interdisciplinary department span the social sciences - sociology, anthropology, psychology, economics - as well as history, philosophy, and cultural studies.  The department's elective courses feature the interdisciplinary approaches and intellectual diversity that foster critical investigation and curiosity.  Students may choose from a variety of courses that examine the political, social, historical, and geographical forces shaping social life. 

General Education

The two semester World History sequence is the department's contribution to the core general education that is a part every Pratt undergraduate's "Pratt education."

Bachelor of Arts Degree in Critical and Visual Studies

The department offers a B. A. in Critical and Visual Studies. More information on our major can be found here.

The Minor in Cultural Studies

Cultural Studies is an interdisciplinary minor that provides students with an understanding of the diversity of human experience through the critical analysis of contemporary and historical material expressions -- objects, communities and identities, bodies, institutions and environments -- of the social world.  Cultural Studies emerged from many traditions in the social sciences, humanities, and intellectual movements that never found a home within the academy and yet have had a profound influence on how we understand social relations and the relation of society to nature. Students minoring in Cultural Studies strengthen their grasp of the dynamics of power and knowledge by developing their ability for critical analysis. Courses transgress the boundaries of traditional disciplines to develop a clearer understanding of how fields of human knowledge, modes of understanding, and creative expression change over time. More information on the Minor in Cultural Studies can be found here.

The Minor in Philosphy

A Minor in Philosophy enables students to study the formative ideas of philosophical thought, from beauty, God and justice to the foundations of knowledge, the nature of the mind and the concepts of bioethics. Students shape their own program to satisfy their own intellectual curiosity by selecting courses in aesthetics, ethics, politics, metaphysics, logic, and others from a generous range of courses.

For more information, please contact the office at ss@pratt.edu