The major in Social Ecology embraces the unique and interdisciplinary spirit of the School of Social Ecology. Students take courses from all three of the school's departments: Criminology, Law & Society, Psychological Science, and Urban Planning and Public Policy. Students graduate with a well-rounded understanding of how these disciplines intersect and inform an understanding of social, psychological, environmental, and legal problems.
The School of Social Ecology is an academic unit committed to solving important social and environmental problems through interdisciplinary, community-engaged scholarship. Just as the field of ecology focuses on the relationships between organisms and their environments, social ecology is concerned with the relationships between humans and their environment. A key premise is that complex problems can only be understood by considering how people impact and are impacted by the multiple contexts they navigate. These contexts include families, schools, social networks, the workplace, culture, communities and the environment.
Faculty and students in the School of Social Ecology apply scientific methods to the study of a wide array of pressing issues. These issues cluster into three primary research hubs: Healthy People and Places, Crime Prevention and Social Justice, and Technology and Human Potential. Specific problems addressed cover a broad range of topics including stress and coping, the effects of trauma on children and adults, healthy aging, flood risk management, poverty alleviation, sustainable cities, juvenile justice and correctional reform, eyewitness testimony, jury decision making, youth violence and delinquency prevention, policing, crime mapping, and the impact of social media on children's lives.