Department of Social Sciences
The Department of Social Sciences plays a central role in the education of the Pittsburg State University student. Students must take at least six hours in the department as part of the general education curriculum. Beyond its general education responsibilities that touch every Pittsburg State University student, the department also provides undergraduates the opportunity to specialize in majors and/or minors in the traditional academic disciplines of geography, philosophy, political science, sociology, and social work, as well as exploring interdisciplinary majors/minors in justice studies, multicultural studies, and international studies. Furthermore, the department hosts the university's advisor for the pre-law program.
What unites the faculty of these diverse disciplines is a commitment to the search for truth and the explication of the love of learning to their students. Department faculty confront the probabilistic nature of social knowledge by requiring of themselves and their students logical rigor, use of empirical evidence, and a commitment to principled inquiry. The love of learning demands respect for reasoned differences, ethical treatment of others, civil discourse, and an appreciation that it is the process by which we seek to know which is at the core of social science learning. It is the conveyance of this common approach to learning along with the unique subject matter characteristic of each discipline to students that are the primary responsibilities of the department.
As members of the Social Sciences department at Pittsburg State University, we welcome you to our website and hope that you find it useful. Like the university, the department prides itself on its commitment to teaching and its students and we see our web site as part of the educational process. Please feel free to contact the department chair or any faculty member to comment, make suggestions, or ask for information.