Skip to main content

Social Studies Major

Are you interested in learning more about social studies education? As a social studies major you can expect to to learn about history and political science, while integrating information to teach psychology, sociology, economics and geography. You will learn social studies skills that can be implemented into your classroom or throughout your professional career. 

This major is highly recommended to be paired with an education major!

Program Details

Program Overview

As a social studies major you will be prepared to teach a wide range of subjects to middle and high school students. The program emphasizes history and political science, but also prepares students to teach sociology, psychology, economics and geography. This broad-based approach provides you with critical-thinking, problem-solving and communication skills that are prized by school districts. Graduates of this program are teaching in public and private schools and serving as museum educators.

Program Concentrations

This program is made up of the following concentrations. Learn more about concentrations.

Concentration Overview

The History Concentration provides students an in depth overview of world and U.S. history. Students will learn about a wide range of topics from ancient times to the modern era including the Roman Empire, the French Revolution and Napoleon, and the World Wars. This study will help students develop skills in research, historical analysis, and communication.

Concentration Overview

This concentration provides students a global perspective on political science and history. In it, students will examine how global politics and international relations function and also obtain an understanding of the world’s history. This will help students develop a wide range of skills including research, analysis and problem solving.

Concentration Overview

The Political Science concentration provides an in depth knowledge of political science. In it, students study American politics and government, law and political theory. This study will help students develop research, analysis, and communication skills.

Concentration Overview

Social institutions are necessary structures in human society, but they also shape persistent inequities and inequalities of class, ethnicity, gender, age, race and nationality in people’s lives. This concentration focuses on social structures that serve as mechanisms for the creation and perpetuation of social disparities, while also studying how individual and collective action in turn, affect the impact of societal structures on people’s lives.

Concentration Overview

This concentration focuses on how intersections of race, gender, class, and other significant social locations shape social identity and inequality. Students in this concentration area learn to interrogate the complicated ways that human behavior is shaped by both structure and agency through a variety of theoretical vantage points with an emphasis on race, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, and gender.

Concentrations on this page are required for this program. Additional courses or concentrations may need to be added to meet program or credit requirements.

Liberal Arts Core

The Liberal Arts Core Curriculum is rooted in the Liberal Arts and our Franciscan heritage. It is designed to create a framework to develop knowledge, skills, and responsibilities necessary to educate students so that they will be prepared to contribute to the world guided by a concern for issues of justice and ethical behavior.

LEADERSHIP:  4 credits
  • Freshman Seminar (1 cr.)
  • Spiritual & Ethical Literacy (3 cr.) 
FOUNDATIONAL LITERACIES/SKILLS:  12 credits
  • Personal Branding Communication (3 cr.)
  • Writing for the 21st Century (3 cr.)*
  • Quantitative Problem Solving (3 cr.)*
  • Language & Culture (3 cr.)
*For ‘Writing for the 21st Century’ (English) and ‘Quantitative Problem Solving’ (Math), you may need additional courses depending on your placement.

CORE LITERACIES:  15 credits – Choose one (1) course from each broad theme. Course options can be found in the course catalog or on the academic advising page. Broad themes are:
  • Narratives of Identity       (3 cr.)
  • Science, Environment & Culture (3 cr.)   
  • Social Tensions (3 cr.)    
  • The American Experience (3 cr.)
  • Approving the Better Things (3 cr.)

Professional Core

Culminating Experience

Giving students a culminating experience as well as practical work experience, the Professional Core is a graduation requirement for every Stritch student in a bachelor’s degree program. This bachelor’s degree program includes completion of the Professional Core consisting of three courses:
  • Pre-Internship
  • Internship
  • Capstone
Milwaukee Public Museum Exterior

Internship Sites

As a social studies major, you can apply your knowledge through experiential learning. Stritch provides the unique opportunity for social studies majors to connect with internships in Milwaukee and surrounding areas. 

Internship sites may include:

  • Milwaukee Public Museum
  • Housing Ministries of American Baptists in Wisconsin
  • Cedarburg History Museum
  • Jewish Museum Milwaukee
Teacher helping student

Jobs for Social Studies Majors

Are you curious about social studies jobs? Here is a list of options for social studies majors... 

  • Sociologists
  • Historians
  • Teachers
  • Political Scientists
Contact admissions or the program faculty with questions about this program.

Admissions