The purpose of the Social and Political Thought concentration is to enable students to pursue interests in social and political theory that arise in a variety of disciplines, including both traditional humanities and social science fields (such as philosophy and politics), but also such areas as management theory, communications, and education. For program details about the Liberal Studies option of the MLA click here. For a history of the program click here. As with the liberal studies option generally, 33 hours (including a three hour thesis and comprehensive exam) are required, but specific course distributions between departments and courses from a specific course list are not required. Relevant courses are available in several of the colleges of USF. Courses are applied to the degree entirely on the basis of the approval of the student's committee.

Initial advising of students admitted to the concentration and assistance in forming a committee will be provided by Dr. Stephen
Turner. The committee will be responsible for approving the student's program of studies and will write and evaluate a
comprehensive exam as well as supervise and examine the thesis. The committee will consist of faculty associated with the
Center, a group drawn from five colleges at USF.

In practice, students explore their interests through selecting courses from the very substantial offerings of the University, and this is ecouraged, unless they come with a clear and specific topic and goal. They take courses from affiliated faculty, some special Social and Political Thought offerings, Directed Readings, and courses that seem to be appropriate as foundations or background for the topics they are beginning to focus on. The purpose of the degree is to master the literature of social and political theory. Working on a specific topic that enables the student to employ the resources of various traditions is a means of making that mastery tangible.