School of Humanities and Social Sciences

The School of Humanities and Social Sciences (SHSS), sitting at the heart of a great urban college, educates students to be leaders of character, wisdom, and influence in an interdependent, global economy through high quality humanities and social science programs. An SHSS education is not bound by our classrooms, because Brooklyn, and New York City more generally, is a diverse educational laboratory, that enables our students to regularly apply their learning to world challenges, bringing what they learn by experience into sharper focus in our classrooms. When you take classes in any of our 45 departments or programs you will work with world-class faculty who believe that a humanities and social science education is wonderful preparation for a changing world and a shifting economy. Therefore, SHSS students are intellectually ambitious and adaptable to change. The work we do manifests what Michael S. Roth has written in Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters: “[a] reflexive, pragmatic liberal education is our best hope of preparing students to shape change and not be the victims if it.”