Program Learning Outcomes

In the department of Community and Social Justice Studies, our faculty approach our classrooms and our courses as sites of participatory, collaborative and collegial learning. Our teaching and research strive to create a mutually respectful and inclusive environment that practices and fosters social justice from deeply intersectional and interdisciplinary perspectives.

We also offer several minors in the above programs and Minor in Social Justice Studies, and attractive certificate programs in Cultural Competency, Gender and Sexuality

Our Mission

Prepare Students to critically examine communities and development through the lens of social justice, to investigate systemic inequalities and injustices using interdisciplinary and decolonizing frameworks and practices,to actively engage in social change by shaping public debates, working with and for communities, and influencing public policy, to occupy positions of leadership and pursue careers in community development, public policy, and as community advocates

Our approach is through enabling experiential learning activities, teaching critical skills for bio- and sociocultural analysis, power mapping, needs analysis, impact analysis, and sociohistorical/archival analysis, and building collaborative partnerships with local organizations and communities in northern New Jersey.

Africana World Studies - BA Mission Statement 

The scope of the Africana-World Studies program includes the continent of Africa and its diasporas in the Americas, the Caribbean, the South Pacific, Asia, and Europe. The Africana World Studies major seeks to develop students' appreciation for the discipline's historical and ongoing emphasis on linking knowledge and practice, learning and service, community and campus, and academic excellence and social responsibility. The Department also seeks to provide students and the university community with an increased international and multicultural awareness of and sensitivity to issues of race, ethnicity, sexuality, class, and gender and their role in the human community and human exchange. 

The goals of the Africana-World Studies (AWS) program are: 

1. To introduce and enhance student knowledge about people of African descent 
2. The major goals of the Africana-World Studies (AWS) program are: 
3. To introduce and enhance student understanding of major theories and theorists in  
4. Africana-World Studies; 
5. The major goals of the Africana-World Studies (AWS) program are: 
6. To enable students to develop and sharpen their analytical and critical thinking skills; 
7. The major goals of the Africana-World Studies (AWS) program are: To enable students to learn and employ various research methodologies as they relate to issues affecting people of African descent; 
8. The major goals of the Africana-World Studies (AWS) program are: 
9. To facilitate and enhance student writing, oral and technological presentation skills around issues affecting people of African descent. 

Africana World Studies - BA, Student Learning Outcomes

1. Students will be able to write an intellectual history of Africana-World Studies. 
2. Students will be able to use primary documents to form an argument about and within the discipline. 
3. Students will be able to create and present a technology-based research project. 
4. Students will be able to develop a research topic and survey. 
5. Students will be able to develop interview questions and conduct and transcribe an ethnographic interview. 
6. Students will be able to use a literature review to articulate an interdisciplinary perspective regarding a topic related to the experiences of people of African descent. 

Anthropology - BA, Mission Statement  

The mission of the Anthropology program is to actively engage students with questions about the biocultural nature of humans and the contexts that shape and transform human behavior and practices. We are committed to cultivating the knowledge and skills to participate in current debates within the public sphere and critically engage in creating a more just world. 

Anthropology - BA, Goals 

1. Foster a general understanding of the human condition through the integrated study of human evolution, biology, culture, and language in past and present human societies 
2. Immerse students in various possibilities of engagement as public anthropologists. 
3. Provide students with active learning opportunities and applied experiences inside and outside the classroom. 
4. Support faculty efforts in teaching, research, and public engagement and service. 

Anthropology - BA, Student Learning Outcomes

1. Recognize the bio-cultural nature of the human condition through the study of human evolution, biology, language and culture in past and present societies. 
2. Apply anthropological knowledge and skills to the study of past and present human problems. 
3. Recognize possibilities of public engagement in anthropology from the perspective of social justice. 

Latin American and Latinx Studies - BA, Student Learning Outcomes

A major in Latin American and Latinx studies enhances student awareness of the variety of systems and cultures within Latin America and the political economy of the Americas. Students will gain knowledge and skills to pursue career paths in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors that require specialized knowledge of Latin America. The major will also increase undergraduate student preparation for possible graduate study in political science and international affairs. Students will gain knowledge and skills they can use to pursue career opportunities that expect some specialized knowledge of Latin America. The minor will also increase undergraduate student preparation for possible graduate study in political science, international affairs, or related fields.

Women and Gender Studies - BA Mission Statement  

Women's & Gender Studies is an interdisciplinary program that foregrounds feminist analysis, intersectionality and social justice as key elements of an integrated approach to the study of social relations, cultural identities, and economic and political institutions that shape human experience. The program emphasizes the study of race, gender, class, sexuality, ethnicity and nationality, and a social justice approach for the analysis of diversity and multiculturalism, inequality and oppression in local and global contexts. Through development of conceptual, analytical and critical thinking skills, the WGS program seeks to engage students in their personal, professional and public lives with issues of social change, activism and citizenship.  

Women and Gender Studies - BA Goals 

1. Offer an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary academic program that engages students with community, civic issues and citizenship. 
2. Develop conceptual, analytical and critical thinking skills and opportunities for experiential learning for the study of gendered lives and experiences 
3. Engage feminist analyses that foregrounds the centrality of gender relations, emergence and reproduction of sexism and patriarchy, production of feminist knowledge and theories, women’s movements, and feminist methods of doing research 
4. Employ an intersectional framework for the analysis of gender, race, class and sexuality (concepts), racism, sexism, homophobia/heterosexism (processes), and the organization of these processes in social institutions 
5. Promote a social justice approach to issues of systemic oppression, resistance, change and activism locally and globally 
6. Enhance student professional skills through in-class activities and civic engagement 

Women and Gender Studies - BA Student Learning Outcomes

After completing the Women’s and Gender Studies undergraduate program, students will be able to: 

1. Discuss the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary scope of Women’s and Gender Studies as an academic discipline 
2. Utilize key feminist analyses in historical and cross-cultural contexts and their impact on social institutions, social problems and social change. 
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the intersectionality of race, class, gender and sexuality in society 
4. Examine the connections between oppression, sexism and patriarchy and address the need for a social justice approach in personal, professional, and public contexts 
5. Demonstrate critical thinking skills to assess conditions that enable or inhibit individual and group resistance, agency and activism in local and transnational contexts