Social Sciences, B.A.

The Shimer School Social Sciences Major introduces students to various modes of critical reflection on human societies. Classic and major contemporary works of anthropology, sociology, economics and psychology form the core of the Social Sciences curriculum. Students come to know and understand these texts partly through individual reflection, but also through collaborative practice of methods and small-class discussions with their peers and in intensive writing, peer-editing and revision of essays. While each course includes two or three distinct approaches to social scientific thought and inquiry, the sequence progresses through a series of organizing themes that orient the student’s interdisciplinary work toward broad but nuanced accounts of social phenomena.

Breadth and depth of knowledge and skills characterize graduates of the Shimer School. Through the core curriculum of the Shimer School they immerse themselves in major classic and contemporary works of human expression, social thought and scientific knowledge and practice. Their broad familiarity with fundamental ideas and methods across the Liberal Arts provides the foundation on which they build increasingly refined understanding and skills in more specialized courses in chosen disciplines taught across North Central College. Shimer School graduates thus find meaningful employment in an unusually broad array of fields, including teaching, social work, law, small business and entrepreneurial enterprise and non-profit administration among the most common.

For additional programs and courses in this school, see Shimer Great Books School .