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As a STPEC major, you’re joining a lively intellectual community with a challenging and thought-provoking curriculum, dedicated faculty, staff, and students who share a passion to confront fundamental questions often ignored or neglected by traditional academic thought.
Our small class sizes, flexible curriculum and personalized advising make STPEC a great major for transfer students.
- STPEC courses rarely have more than 20 students. This encourages in-depth class discussions and an opportunity to get to know your peers and professors.
- Our interdisciplinary curriculum allows students to shape their education based on their particular interests. Students take courses in a variety of departments across campus including in AfroAm studies, Political Science, Anthropology, History, Women, Gender and Sexuality studies and many more. This also permits students to more easily pursue a secondary major or a minor.
- We provide one on one advising sessions throughout the semester to ensure that transfer students have access to professional guidance and resources when they need it. Students can also rely on regular communication through newsletters, emails and social media channels.
We Facilitate Real World Experiences for STPEC Transfer Students.
As STPEC students acquire an understanding of social relationships, they frequently develop a need to put their knowledge to work. Thus the program also 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 active responsibility for the shape of their own education within the STPEC Program.
STPEC’s academic advisor and Internship Director, as well as the SBS Career and Professional Development Advising Staff, can help you find and apply for internships. STPEC majors have pursued internships in a wide variety of fields, including social services, organizing, law, education, government, public policy, and more.
STPEC also offers two scholarships for students pursing internships and the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences offers several additional funding opportunities. Please don’t hesitate to speak with your academic advisor about these opportunities.
If you are interested in research assistantships please also speak with your academic advisor who can help direct your search.
What Do STPEC Majors At UMass Study?
The Social Thought and Political Economy Program (STPEC) is an interdisciplinary undergraduate major. 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. STPEC courses may deal with issues such as freedom and the state, structural inequality in the economy, work and work relations, the relationship of Western to non-Western cultures, the interrelationship of racism, sexism, and class oppression, the psychodynamics of politics and theories of social change.
What Careers Are Available to me with a STPEC Degree?
Now more than ever, employers are seeking graduates who can think critically, communicate clearly and solve complex problems. Our small seminar courses are heavily focused on class discussions, analyzing scholarly texts and ample writing opportunities in order to best prepare student for their post-graduation plans.
STPEC’s interdisciplinary curriculum provides a variety of possible career opportunities for its graduates. STPEC students go on to have rewarding careers in law, non-profits, education, labor, public service, media, business and many other fields. Many STPEC graduates pursue advanced degrees at prestigious universities.
