Social Sciences & Humanities

This field education internship experience provides hands-on practice in the knowledge and skills learned in major courses. You will develop a learning contract for focused areas of development and learning, and are mentored and supervised at the site by professional staff with experience in the area of practice. You will also be supervised by Chicago Semester staff through a weekly professional seminar course and through midpoint and final site visits.

This course investigates urban cultural life as reflected in the arts of Chicago. We will attend plays, concerts, movies, and visit art galleries. We will process these experiences through readings, lectures and classroom discussion as we explore how Christians engage culture.

This course introduces the culture, history, assets and challenges of Chicago neighborhoods. We will examine our own social and cultural locations, and compare and contrast how our stories are similar to or different from the Chicago racial and ethnic landscape.

This course will introduce students to major streams of social justice thought, including the history of the criminal justice field and contemporary movements for social justice. We will examine the role of race, poverty and inequality in people’s experiences of the criminal justice system in the U.S. As a class we will discuss how marginalization, segregation and the lack of access to social resources influences people’s experiences of justice. We will also explore two major issues related to justice: mass incarceration and mass eviction. Finally, through conversations and visits with practitioners, advocates and organizers we will look at models of restorative justice and how communities address issues related to injustice.

This course explores the evolution and development of the city, with particular emphasis on the built environment in Chicago. We will explore the significance of the city’s architecture, sculpture, parks and community murals, and the impacts of city design. Students will seek to understand and critique the city’s built environment through field trips, guest speakers, readings and class discussions.

This course explores the concept of vocation from a variety of perspectives. Drawing on readings from religion, theology and sociology, we will examine the ways in which we discern our calling in light of our responsibility to engage the common good. We will also look at social structures that impact work and family life (gender, race, religion and class) and how they might shape our understanding of vocation.