Social Justice program
Help solve problems and create a more just world.
Throughout UW-La Crosse's social justice minor program students engage in assessing different forms and manifestations of inequality. They evaluate strategies and policies aimed at addressing these inequalities and propose new solutions based on those assessments and evaluations.
The social justice minor helps create critical thinkers who can act as interdisciplinary and intersectional problem solvers. The program is a part of UWL’s Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies Department.
A program within the Department of Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies
What is social justice?
Social justice is fairness as it relates to rights, opportunities, and access to resources within society. This includes questions of housing, healthcare, political representation and participation, the economy and more.
The social justice minor has surrounded me with inspiring people and has empowered me to advocate for a fair and equitable education system.
Mary Miller
Careers in social justice
A social justice minor pairs well with a number of majors and helps prepare students for a wide variety of careers.
Career paths
- Business management
- Education
- Government and public policy
- Health care and health care management
- Human resources
- Non-profit advocacy
- Psychological services
What distinguishes UWL’s social justice minor?
Students can take courses from a wide variety of disciplines. Students can focus on social justice as it relates to environmental issues, planning and development, the economy, public policy or a variety of other topics.
After taking the introductory course (RGS or SOC 150: Introduction to Social Justice), minors can study a variety of social problems or choose to focus on one general issue. Either way, minors do so by choosing a set of five courses from a variety of departments, including:
- Anthropology
- Economics
- Educational Studies
- English
- Geography
- History
- Philosophy
- Political Science
- Public Administration
- Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
- Recreation Management
- Sociology
The interdisciplinary framework of the program allows students to “surround” a problem and offer critical and complex solutions to critical and complex problems. These are precisely the skills that graduate school directors and employers are looking for.
Each course requires students to assess different forms and manifestations of inequality, evaluate strategies and policies aimed at addressing these inequalities, and propose new solutions based on those assessments and evaluations.
Courses in the minor help sharpen minors’ skills in
- Critical thinking
- Written and oral communication
- Creative problem-solving
Sample courses
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