Social Change Courses @ Northeastern

Course Number: CED 6910

Department: Commerce and Economic Development – CPS (CED)

Offers students, working in individuals and groups, an opportunity to design and carry out an interdisciplinary economic policy analysis comparable to those performed for a government or nonprofit agency. Projects can be done with real-world clients and utilize experience learned from co-op or experiential learning projects.

Course Number: POLS 3485

Department: Political Science (POLS)

Focuses on China’s political system and the major issues confronted: leadership recruitment and succession, economic policies and development, class and class struggle, political culture and socialization, human rights, civil society, the media, and both internal and external security concerns. Examines how ideology, development, culture, and the pursuit of China’s national interest affect governance.

Course Number: INTL 3200

Department: International Affairs (INTL)

Examines the roots of the urbanization process, major ways of thinking about it, and the development of world cities and megacities. The twenty-first century will be a century in which urbanism is a central problem and opportunity. Considers the economic, political, cultural, and environmental dimensions of urbanism across the globe. Includes specific case studies from around the world. Encourages students to develop a knowledge of particular cities in order to examine the key themes of the course. INTL 3200, ANTH 3200, and SOCL 3200 are cross-listed.

Course Number: LARC 2340

Department: Landscape Architecture (LARC)

Presents the core themes, social theories, ethical debates, and iconic works that shape the field of contemporary landscape architecture and urban design, particularly in the context of environmental change and climate disruption. Focuses on contemporary projects and designers to examine formal characteristics of built works and contextual factors, including social, political, and economic systems and institutions. Challenges students to apply theories of environmental and climate justice to questions about the built environment and the relationship between natural and social systems. Designed to prepare students to address complex sociocultural and environmental issues through thoughtful inquiry and creative expression. Offers students an opportunity to formulate critical design perspectives via reading responses, project analyses, written work, and podcasts.

Course Number: LAW7597

Department: Law (LAW)

The CRRJ (Civil Rights and Restorative Justice) Clinic engages students in legal research, litigation and legislative initiatives relating to anti-civil rights violence in the United States. CRRJ clinic students assist law enforcement agencies considering criminal investigation and pursue civil litigation against government entities. One of CRRJ’s projects, Reconstructing Cases of Racial Violence, involves researching cases where criminal prosecution may not be an option. Students reconstruct legal proceedings and conduct factual investigations. The project focuses on practical legal research skills and helps students integrate the law of torts, civil procedure, federal courts, criminal law, and constitutional law. Faculty will provide individual supervision of each student.

Course Number: SOCL 3450

Department: Sociology (SOCL)

Explores theories and research on the institutionalized forms of inequality that have accompanied the rise of advanced capitalism in Western society. Major topics include the competing definitions of class that have developed among social scientists; the relation between class and race in the United States; how class and gender have intersected historically; and the link between workers’ movements, political systems, and the forms that capitalist development has assumed in Western Europe and the United States. Students conduct projects in which they explore the conceptions of social justice held by members of subordinate groups.