Please note that SIT will make every effort to maintain its programs as described. To respond to emergent situations, like COVID-19, however, SIT may have to change or cancel programs.
Why a Master's in Social Justice and Advocacy?
Social (in)justice today is apparent around the world as citizens raise their voices against war and conflict, climate change, and violence against women, as they advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, refugees and migrants, and much more. As people claim agency—whether in their streets and cities or online—they are creating global networks of engagement and advocacy.
SIT’s one-year, accredited global master’s degree in Social Justice and Advocacy provides you with conceptual and applied training in contemporary social justice and advocacy through a comparative framework that takes you from Serbia and Hungary in southeast and central Europe to Argentina, South America. During semester-long residencies on two continents, you will learn from local activists, civil society NGO workers, academics, and international organizations. Your final semester involves a professional practicum and capstone research in close consultation with your faculty advisor to ensure alignment with your personal career goals.
The program’s multidisciplinary approach is focused on global challenges to social justice through international and transnational lenses that equip you with comparative perspectives on state violence, justice after conflict, citizenship rights, environmental justice, and justice in urban spaces. You will engage critically and comparatively in places where social rights are entangled with challenges for democracy and embedded in past social and political struggles as well as in current events.
At a time when populist leaders and authoritarian governments are threatening democracies across the world, this program investigates the actions and challenges faced by activists. It centers questions and challenges related to advocacy and protest in states with ongoing transitions to democracy, in illiberal democracies in Europe, as well as activism of Indigenous movements in Latin America.
By focusing on how identity markers such as race, gender, class, sexuality, religion, economic background, and ethnicity shape the dynamics of inequalities, this degree prepares students to work as consultants, advocates for nonprofit organizations and government agencies, and agents of change within international agencies. Graduates will be prepared to work in situations of crises, conflict, and rapid change as rights advocates, community organizers, public policy analysts, lobbyists, and political campaigners.