Social Sciences

Social Sciences (3 credits)

Social Sciences courses introduce students to the methods of the social sciences and to the applications of these methods for gaining a scientific understanding of the social world.

A Social Science is a great course to take your first semester at Charlotte. Consult the Registration Guide for the major(s) of interest to see if there are specific course recommendations.

Select one of the following:

  • ANTH 1101 – Introduction to Anthropology (3) – Biological and cultural evolution; archaeology; language and culture; comparative study of human social institutions such as kinship, subsistence patterns, religion, politics; methods and theories.
  • DTSC 1302 – Data and Society B (3) – An introduction to data acquisition, models, and analytic methods for interpreting data and developing hypotheses in the context of the interdisciplinary field of Critical Data Studies. Critical Data Studies seeks to track, analyze, and transform the use of large data sets across a variety of domains, including the health sciences, security and surveillance technologies, social media, marketing and business, government and public policy, and other uses of aggregative and algorithmic data science. With resources from Critical Data Studies, students learn how to use statistical methods/tools and scripting programming languages to explore social problems and the ethical implications of collecting and using tabular data. Corequisite(s): DTSC 1301 and STAT 1220, STAT 1221, or STAT 1222
  • ECON 1101 – Economics of Social Issues (3) – Economic issues without emphasis on theoretical models. Contemporary economic issues such as pollution control, healthcare, unemployment, and crime are studied.
  • ECON 2101 – Principles of Economics – Macro (3) – Scope and methodology of economics as a social science, the measurement of national income, the theory of national income determination, money and banking, monetary and fiscal policy, and international economics. Restriction: sophomore standing
  • ECON 2102 – Principles of Economics – Micro (3) – Pricing mechanism of a market economy, the industrial organization of the U.S. economy, problems of economic concentration, the theory of income distribution, and comparative economic systems. Restriction: sophomore standing
  • GEOG 1105 – The Location of Human Activity (3) – An examination of factors which account for the locational characteristics of economic and other human activities. The locational decision-making process is examined as a means of understanding human spatial behavior.
  • POLS 1110 – American Politics (3) – Introduction to the role of the President, Congress, Supreme Court, and national administrative agencies in the American political system. Relationship between the American people and their political institutions with emphasis on political culture, the electoral process, political parties, interest groups, and political communication.
  • SOCY 1101 – Introduction to Sociology (3) – The scientific study of society and its structures, culture and its building blocks, and group interactions; the sociological perspective and process; fundamental concepts, principles, and procedures to understand society.
  • SOWK 1101 – The Field of Social Work (3) – Introduction to social work, social science methods, analysis of contemporary issues, and evaluation of the interconnections of individual, society, and culture.

You can find additional information about all General Education requirements in the catalog,