Social Issue Advocacy Major | Truman State University

Social Issue Advocacy Major (BA/BS)

Advocacy is ongoing. It requires practice. The social issue advocacy major helps you build a pathway to becoming an advocate for the issues that are important to you. Following an interdisciplinary approach, you incorporate courses from a wide range of academic areas, including communication, economics, history, justice systems, sociology/anthropology, philosophy and religion, and more. In these courses, you develop your advocacy skills by studying theories, principles, research methodologies, and best practices for advancing your cause and providing services to communities and organizations for social action. Add that knowledge to a pathway for exploration (an existing minor in an issue you care about OR create one of your own), and you will become a force for positive change.

Faculty members in diverse academic departments are available to help you craft a path that suits your goals and interests.

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Career Paths

When you pursue an interdisciplinary studies degree, you have the flexibility to advance your career in a wide range of fields. Potential career options include community organization, education, healthcare, human services, law, non-profit organizations, and government. The social issue advocacy major can also be excellent preparation for graduate school.

Featured Courses

Rhetoric of Women’s Rights

Examine discourse, written, spoken and mediated, that is related to attempts by women to achieve economic, political, and social rights equal to men’s.

Structured Inequalities

Explore the dimensions and dynamics of structured inequalities over time and across societies, with a particular emphasis on the growing gap between rich and poor in the U.S. and worldwide.

American Law and Society

Gain historical and philosophical perspectives of the American legal system and explore how key provisions in the U.S. Constitution have impacted our government legal system, and society throughout history.

Labor Economics

Explore how economic analysis is applied to the study of the labor market through topics that include the goals and economic impacts of labor unions; the supply and demand for labor; the work incentive effects of anti-poverty and income support programs; human capital investment decisions such as those involving education and on-the-job training; compensating wage differentials; and an economic analysis of discrimination.

Philosophy of Action

Examine some of the many philosophical questions surrounding the nature of action and explore topics that include free will and determinism, weak-willed action, what makes a bodily movement an action, the role our desires and intentions play in the actions we perform, moral responsibility for our actions, autonomy, and practical reasoning.

History of American Law

Study the development of law in the United States, ca. 1600-2000, and the connections between law and other aspects of American history.

The social issue advocacy major encourages you to build leadership skills and connect with peers who share similar interests by getting engaged with student organizations such as: