This four-year bachelor of arts program explores the rituals, norms, beliefs, conflicts, and traditions that underpin culture and society.

By studying present and past cultural practices, and social and cultural shifts, students engage critically with important issues such as medical systems, the influences of mass media, global issues and trends, and the formation of group and personal identities. This program encourages students to learn about and contribute to contemporary debates on social and cultural issues that affect their daily lives and futures.

 

Why study social/cultural studies at Grenfell?  

Grenfell's social/cultural studies provides you with a broad, multidisciplinary education in contemporary social and cultural phenomena, and prepares students to engage with our multicultural, global, mass mediated and interconnected world as citizens, workers and scholars.  Our practical fieldwork courses involve original field research with human participants, and entail a broad range of skill sets applicable to many areas of employment after graduation.  Our focus on critical reading and effective writing provides lifelong skills. This is your invitation to join a vast, interactive learning experience where you approach the study of culture and society within present-day and historical contexts and from three distinct, yet complementary perspectives:

• Anthropology
• Folklore
• Sociology

These three areas share an emphasis on the individual experience and interpretation of culture and each rely on the ethnographic method – an approach that helps you understand the world from the perspective of the people you are studying. In the program there are opportunities for original field research under the mentorship of your professors.

You can study at our campus in Harlow, England, where you will have the opportunity to explore things such as the culture of architecture from rural housing to castles, and the significance of art and material culture. 

Suggested Program of Study for a Bachelor of Arts (Social/Cultural Studies)​

This scheme represents only one of the many possibilities for completing the program requirements during a normal four year cycle. Remember to contact your faculty advisor or the chair of social/cultural studies each semester to ensure that you move through the program in a timely manner.

 

Some of the courses we offer include:

• Folklore and popular culture;
• Cultural crises and the environment;
• Social and cultural aspects of health and illness;
• Gender and Society;
• Newfoundland Society and Culture 

View a complete list of courses for social/cultural studies.

A fourth-year independent project will allow you to answer your own big question. Others have researched gender stereotyping in children's literature and men who participate in recreational ballet, among others.

 

It's personal

Small class sizes mean a more intimate learning experience where your professors know you by name. Your instructors will engage you with their own research passions, including marginal communities and street kids, Mennonite women's autobiographical narrative, rural development dynamics, the modern funeral services industry, gesture in Zimbabwean storytelling, informal economy, identity renegotiation in Magdalene laundry inmates' accounts, applied ethnomusicology and historical and contemporary perspectives on Mi'kmaw culture and society.

 

In the news

Information for first-year students

Students in this program are eligible for various entrance scholarships, as well as program specific scholarships and awards including the University Medal for Academic Excellence in social/cultural studies: the Breakwater Book Prize in Folklore; and the John Ashton Folklore Award. Social/cultural studies provide students with a strong set of transferable and practical skills, including critical thinking and real-world research and writing skills, applicable across a broad range of professional disciplines.

As a Grenfell student, you can participate in the Student Exchange Program, where you pay Grenfell tuition rates while studying in another NSE member university in Canada or the United States.

 

Career opportunities

There are many career opportunities for graduates of our social/cultural studies program, including:

• Social research
• Governmental and non-governmental organizations
• Social policy
• Health care and medicine (e.g. occupational health and safety)
• Community and rural development
• Public relations
• Law
• Education
• Journalism
• Cultural heritage preservation and promotion
• Cultural tourism
• Social work
• Human resources
• Criminology/policing

Many of our graduates enrolled in advanced programs say they are well prepared for graduate studies because of this program's interdisciplinary structure. Social/cultural studies graduates have studied such areas as health studies, sociology, cultural studies, ethnomusicology and folklore at the advanced educational and graduate levels.