Community Studies
207 College Eight Academic Building
(831) 459-2371
communitystudies.ucsc.edu
Program Description
An interdisciplinary major, community studies integrates knowledge and methodologies from the social sciences and humanities to examine theory and practice in a variety of social justice domains. The UCSC faculty offer courses related to social justice—including broad structural and social changes and community-based organizing—in the following areas: global political economy with regional and local impacts; the intersection of class, race, gender, and sexuality in relation to health; labor studies, including the history of the working class; youth cultures, youth activism, and empowerment; race and racism; cultural work in social justice; gay and lesbian issues; and resistance and social movements. The faculty has engaged in community-oriented fieldwork in the U.S., Latin America, and elsewhere.
The major provides an opportunity for the student who is actively committed to social justice to work on a full-time basis beyond the boundaries of the university. Each student in the program builds his or her curriculum around a combination of course work and a six-month field study or internship with a community organization or agency. The core curriculum includes courses in preparation for field study as well as in theory and analysis. Students complete the major by preparing a senior project integrating field study, classroom, and research work. The program has no lower-division prerequisites and usually takes about two years to complete.
With the guidance of a faculty adviser and a field study coordinator, UC Santa Cruz community studies students choose field placements related to one of the department’s core areas. The majority of field studies have been in California, although students have worked as far away as Mexico, Central America, New York, Thailand, London, Paris, and Nairobi. Placements have been with health centers, immigrant rights organizations, newspapers, minority media outlets, city planning departments, neighborhood organizations, civil rights groups, battered women’s shelters, legal clinics, programs for seniors, tenant unions, government agencies and the offices of elected officials, trade unions, and other organizations committed to and working for social justice in communities.
Facilities
The Community Studies Department maintains several unique resources for students. A media laboratory is available for majors (and others in the social sciences) to learn the use of video, radio, film, and graphic media as research and presentation tools. Two field-study coordinators work with students to develop part- and full-time field studies. Special Collections at McHenry Library maintains a complete collection of community studies senior theses. A subject/keyword computer retrieval system makes these materials fully accessible.
Major Program
The program for all students in the major includes preparatory courses, the field study, post-field-study course work, electives chosen to broaden knowledge for the individual senior project, and the senior project itself.
To begin the major and declaration process, a student must be enrolled in one of the Community Studies 100 (A–Z), Theory and Practice, seminars. These seminars are gateways into the community studies major. Students learn about a distinct area of social change and social justice theory and practice that will become the focus of their academic study plan, field study, and senior project. Several sections of Community Studies 100 (A–Z) are offered each fall and winter quarters. Topics vary from year to year and may include economic justice; health care; race and ethnicity; gender, work, and family; youth empowerment; and resistance and social movements.
Students are expected to plan the rest of their program of study around the two-quarter (six-month) full-time field study. Students complete their fieldwork in spring and summer or summer and fall so that they can immediately follow up with course 194, Analysis of Field Materials, offered only during fall and winter quarters.
Knowledge of Spanish or another language is useful to many students in their fieldwork. Students are required to have appropriate language skills for their field studies. Students may also find media production skills useful in their fieldwork and are encouraged to visit the Social Sciences Media Laboratory, located in Social Sciences 2 Building, early in their academic career.
Admission to the Major
A general background or course work in politics, sociology, anthropology, and/or community activism is suggested for students considering the community studies major. Students are required to have enrolled in two community studies courses at the time they declare the major: one must be one of the 100 (A–Z) seminars and the other may be any of the lower- or upper-division courses except for the 42 series of student directed seminars or independent or field studies.
The process of declaring the community studies major properly begins when a student enrolls in a section of Community Studies 100 (A–Z), the Theory and Practice seminar series. Prospective majors must choose a seminar that matches their own social justice and field-study focus. These seminars are offered during fall and winter quarters only. Because of their small size, the 100 seminars in which students enroll are by “interview only.” Although they are open to all students, prospective community studies majors enjoy priority enrollment.
In the eighth week of the quarter, as part of the 100 seminar, prospective majors prepare a three-page essay outlining how their social justice focus matches the emphasis of their theory and practice seminar. The essay should also describe their academic study plan, including relevant upper-division electives and their tentative field-study plans. Students then meet with the professor in charge of their 100 seminar to review and discuss the essay and other application materials. Occasionally, a student is not accepted into the major because the student’s social justice and field-study focus are poorly matched with the department’s theory and practice areas.
Guidelines
1. Attend a department orientation held at the beginning of each quarter at a time and location listed in the Schedule of Classes. Pick up a department handbook that fully explains the admissions process and contains the necessary forms.2. Enroll in a Community Studies 100 (A–Z) seminar.3. Pick up a Declaration of Major petition from your college, and get Part 1 signed off by your college adviser. Prepare an academic study plan for completing all requirements for the major, including field-study and upper-division electives.4. Write a three-page essay explaining how your social change focus matches the theory and practice area of the 100 seminar and describing your plans for field study. Complete the Community Studies Department application form contained in the handbook.5. During the eighth week of the quarter, meet with your 100 seminar professor to discuss your essay, field-study plans, and other application materials. Obtain faculty signature on application form.6. Bring your completed Declaration of Major petition, draft study plan, signed application form, and essay to the Community Studies Department Office, 202 College Eight, for processing.
Students must be declared prior to enrolling in Community Studies 102, Preparation for Field Study.
Major Course Requirements
Summary of Requirements—Credits
100 A–Z Theory and Practice—5 (fall or winter)
102 Preparation for Field Studies—5 (winter or spring)
198 Independent Field Study—30 (spring/summer or summer/fall)
194 Analysis of Field Materials—5 (fall or winter)
Three upper-division electives—15 (all quarters)
100A–Z, Theory and Practice Seminars
Each of these courses explores the relationship between theory, practice, and social justice within the particular subject area of each course. The Community Studies 100A–Z seminars are designed to raise questions about the relationships between different theoretical perspectives and social justice. For example, do social psychological, historical, or literary theories vary in their usefulness in helping us understand social justice work around race and racism? What is the relationship between activism and theory? How do social justice activists select, develop, and, sometimes, even seem to reject their own theoretical perspectives?
The primary course objective is demonstrating how current issues and problems can be researched by better understanding the relationship between theory and practice—how theory gives rise to certain kinds of issues and actions and, in turn, how practice can introduce new ways of thinking about the world. The goal is to expose students to different ways of perceiving and understanding the world and to engage them in an ongoing dialogue about the “practical implications of theory” and the “theoretical implications of practice.”
102, Preparation for Field Study
This course is designed to immerse community studies majors who are planning full-time field study in the practical and theoretical work of field study with a focus on activist research—that is, study conducted by and with activists so as to participate in and learn from their work. A required part-time field study of six to eight hours/week with a local community-based social justice organization is a central component of the course that should ideally approximate the kind of work students intend for their full-time field study. Other course assignments are organized around this core component of the course.
Community Studies 102 engages students in a range of issues common to all field studies and focuses on the relationship between theory, field methods, and on-the-ground fieldwork. It gives students the opportunity to develop interpersonal and organizational skills and to learn how to relate issues in the fieldwork within a community/region to those within the global society. Assignments are designed to rigorously prepare students for activist research in a social justice organization by fostering specific research and organizing skills.
Upper-Division Electives
Each student in the major must complete three upper-division electives. The purpose of the elective requirement is to ensure that students have the necessary substantive background for their field studies and senior projects. At least one of these courses must be from the Community Studies Department, but the other two may be from another campus program as long as their topics are related to the full-time field study. Senior Thesis and independent studies do not fulfill the elective requirement. Students are strongly encouraged to complete their electives prior to the full-time field studies.
198, Full-Time Independent Field Study
A distinguishing feature of the community studies major is the six-month, full-time field placement, an arrangement facilitated by the student’s Community Studies 100A–Z instructor and the field study coordinators. During the field study, students are enrolled at UCSC and receive full-time university credit. Students in the 100A–Z courses are presented with recommended organizations from which to select their placements. The Field Study Office provides full placement information and guidelines for setting up placements, along with logistical and academic support during the field study.
194, Analysis of Field Materials
This course is designed for community studies seniors returning from their full-time field study. The course has two related goals: (1) to help students, both individually and collectively, analyze and gain perspective on their field experiences and (2) to move students through the process of completing the senior projects. A central question addressed in the course is how the student’s theory and practice of social justice has been affected by his/her field experience. Each student has a unique field-study experience; and, collectively, students have been involved with widely varying types of organizations with little or no relation to each other. Yet there is common ground, and students have much to learn from each other. Thus, a related objective of this course is to discover and travel the common ground.
Senior Capstone Requirement
Each student must fulfill a senior capstone requirement and can do so in one of four different ways: a senior essay, a senior thesis, a senior project, or a student-directed seminar. Students choosing one of the last three options must have a faculty adviser for their projects. Senior essay students work directly with their Community Studies 194 professor.
Senior Essay
Students complete an essay that synthesizes a combination of previously completed papers and essays written in Community Studies 194. The essay must in some way represent a response to the six-month field study. The senior essay is completed by the end of quarter when a student is enrolled in course 194.
Senior Thesis
The purpose of the senior thesis is to reconstruct and analyze the field experience in greater depth and to provide a means of communicating the experience to others. The format can vary considerably, ranging from a literary or theoretical endeavor to oral histories or community social surveys.
Senior Project
Students may complete a project in an alternative medium, such as film and video, still photography, or audio formats. The senior thesis begins during Community Studies 194 and is generally completed in the following quarter(s).
Student-Directed Seminar (SDS)
Under the direction of a faculty adviser, the student develops and teaches a seminar on a topic relating to the full-time field study. Students interested in teaching a student-directed seminar must meet with their adviser prior to the full-time field study to begin the process of obtaining course approval.