Social Justice
- Majors & Programs
- General Studies
- Academic Calendar
- Catalog
- Graduation Requirements
- Whitman’s Faculty
- Off-Campus Studies
- Penrose Library
- Fellowships and Grants
- Honor Societies
- Research at Whitman
- Immersive Learning at Whitman
- STEM Hub
- The Center for Writing and Speaking
- Disability Access Services
- Academic Resource Center
- Maxey Museum
- Sheehan Gallery
- Community Outreach
- Academic Placement Tests
BE THE CHANGE
Work toward a better world
Every corner of society needs changemakers—people who understand how inequity takes root and have the creativity, commitment and skill to work toward a better future for everyone. Through Whitman College’s Social Justice concentration, you’ll challenge the ideas that perpetuate oppression and discover how past and present struggles for justice can inspire new ways forward. And you’ll connect theory to practice—with hands-on projects designed to bring about real-world change.
3 Reasons to Study Social Justice at Whitman
Make Bold Connections
Whatever your major, adding a Social Justice concentration to your toolbox will prepare you to be an agent of change in your chosen field. By exploring social justice through a wide range of academic perspectives, you’ll learn how inequity is created, how identity and power intersect, and how communities organize for liberation.
Learn By Doing
At Whitman, you won’t just learn the theory—you’ll put your ideas into action. In a meaningful capstone course, you’ll design your own Project for Action and Change, tackling a social issue that you deeply care about. You’ll bring together what you’ve learned in an internship, volunteer opportunity or project with real-world impact.
Be Part of a Community That Cares
At Whitman’s annual Power and Privilege Symposium, students, faculty and staff put classwork on hold for a day of conversation, listening and reflection about structural oppression—at Whitman and the world beyond. In this open space for dialogue, we learn from each other and work together to move forward.
Interested in Studying Social Justice at Whitman?
We’d love to send you information, including more on getting recruited and student life at our beautiful campus in Walla Walla, Washington.
“Students will study systems of oppression, interrogate their own relationship to injustice and learn models for liberation and change, all while connecting theory and history to hands-on practice.”
Lisa Uddin, Associate Professor of Art History and Paul Garett Fellow
Make It Your Own: Social Justice Tracks
Through your Social Justice concentration, you’ll weave together courses from a variety of disciplines while exploring three thematic areas.
Systems, Institutions & Policies
In courses like Global Political Economy, Monuments and Memorials, and Media, Politics and Power, you’ll explore the ways that structural power dynamics, political economy, and social policies produce and reproduce inequity.
Power, Positionality & Responsibility
In these courses, you’ll theorize and respond to the ways that society positions people in relation to identity, power and difference. Explore fascinating topics like Psychology of Poverty, Feminist and Queer Legal Theory, and Race, Class, Violence.
Social Movements & Liberation
You’ll engage with historical and contemporary struggles against social injustice in courses such as The Rhetoric of the Black Freedom Struggle, Environmental Justice and The Arab Spring in Historical Context.
Your Questions Answered
The Social Justice concentration is designed to be paired with a major you pick from Whitman’s wide range of programs in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. This allows you to explore social justice through the lens of the subjects you care most about.
Studying Social Justice will enhance your critical thinking and empathy. And it will strengthen your problem-solving, collaboration, and leadership skills. You’ll learn to understand the historical and contemporary contexts for injustice and gain practical training on how to drive social change.
A Social Justice concentration can prepare you to do meaningful work in any field. It might particularly appeal to students interested in careers in education, nonprofits, law, public policy, social work, community organizing and public art.