The CTSJ Department brings together critical theories to analyze, unpack, and address issues and approaches to social justice.  Courses and projects draw from theoretical and experiential approaches, including community-based learning and community-based research.

"Critical” refers to various bodies of theory and method—Marxism, psychoanalysis, the Frankfurt School, deconstruction, critical race studies, queer theory, feminist theory, postcolonial theory, and intersectionality—that interrogate the essentialist assumptions that underlie social identities.  

“Social justice” refers to an extrajuridical concept of fairness that is focused on exposing and ending social inequalities. The aim of the critical theory and social justice department is to promote understanding of how categories such as “race," "gender," “sexual orientation,” and “nationality” help people recognize and combat some injustices and hinder them from recognizing and combating others.