Social Thought and Political Economy Program (STPEC)

Social Thought and Political Economy Program (STPEC) STPEC students cross disciplinary lines to confront fundamental questions often ignored or neglected by traditional academic thought.

The Social Thought & Political Economy Program (STPEC) is an interdisciplinary undergraduate major in Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The Social Thought & Political Economy Program (STPEC) is an interdisciplinary undergraduate major in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The STPEC Program encourages

students to engage in a critical examination of society and to develop their own capacities for critical reading, writing, and thinking. Many of the issues STPEC students explore involve relations between individuals and society. STPEC courses may deal with issues such as freedom and the state, structural inequality in the economy, work and work relations, the relationship of Western to non-Western cultures, the interrelationship of racism, sexism, and class oppression, the psychodynamics of politics, and theories of social change. As STPEC students acquire an understanding of social relationships, they frequently develop a need to put their knowledge to work. Thus the Program also encourages its students to involve themselves in practice as well as theory by enrolling in internships as part of their undergraduate education, by playing a role in University and community affairs, and by assuming active responsibility for the shape of their own education within the STPEC Program.

06/02/2026

In case you missed STPEC's graduation speaker this year- take a listen. Congratulations Ava Harrington and class of 2026!

Congratulations to our graduating class of 2026! Please stay in touch- you will be missed!Have a great summer everyone!
05/19/2026

Congratulations to our graduating class of 2026! Please stay in touch- you will be missed!

Have a great summer everyone!

04/29/2026

Today is the first day of . This is an opportunity for the STPEC community to support what they love! Please Donate: https://umass.scalefunder.com/gday/giving-day/111216/department/111248

STPEC has provided over 50 years of interdisciplinary programming that has challenged students to approach our most complex societal concerns with a critical analysis and transformative solutions. STPEC could not have thrived for this long without your help.

Your donation during this year’s UMassGives campaign will support student activism and internship work through the Sara Lennox Scholarship Fund and the STPEC Summer Grassroots Internship Scholarship. As you know STPEC students bring their passion, time and talent to a variety of social issues. Over the past year STPEC students have:

Written and published important investigative reporting pieces with The Shoestring, Amherst, MA.
Served as an activity leader for the afterschool program at Fort River Elementary, Amherst, MA
Served as an operations intern with Amherst Survival Center, Amherst, MA
Worked as a legal intern with the Greenfield Court Service Center, Greenfield, MA.
Served as editor to Media Voices for Children Magazine in Vineyard Haven, MA.

Your contribution will help STPEC students bring what they’ve learned in the classroom to the real world. Because student activism and internship work are largely unpaid, STPEC students need financial assistance to pursue these opportunities. Please support the next generation of engaged scholars and activists.

Please Donate: https://umass.scalefunder.com/gday/giving-day/111216/department/111248

Video produced by STPEC alum Scott Morris of Waka Seattle.
Camera: Kate Geis

04/24/2026

The Social Thought and Political Economy (STPEC) major has a lasting impact on its students and their careers. "STPEC gives you the gift of being able to try so many things." This is STPEC Alum Christy Sullivan Class of 04 talking about her experience.

Thank you to STPEC alum Scott Morris of Waka Seattle who produced this video.

Thank you to Professor Idris Robinson, John Clegg and all of the folks that attended "The Revolt Eclipses Whatever the W...
04/21/2026

Thank you to Professor Idris Robinson, John Clegg and all of the folks that attended "The Revolt Eclipses Whatever the World has to offer".

04/09/2026

The world is on fire. What will you do about it?

A STPEC degree can help you understand how we got here and how we can radically change course. Reach out to STPEC Advisor Monica Garcia, [email protected] to find out more.

Thank you to all of the STPEC students who participated in this video.

A special thank you to STPEC alum Scott Morris of Waka Seattle who produced this video and Kate Geis who filmed it.

Please share widely!

Please join us for "The Revolt Eclipses Whatever the World Has to Offer: A lecture with Professor Idris Robinson"April 8...
03/31/2026

Please join us for "The Revolt Eclipses Whatever the World Has to Offer: A lecture with Professor Idris Robinson"

April 8th, 5:30-7pm in the ILC S311

Idris Robinson is a philosopher from the New York hinterlands. For over a decade, he has written extensively on crisis and revolt. He is the author of The Revolt Eclipses Whatever the World Has to Offer (MIT Press / Semiotext(e)) and Escritos desde la tierra baldía (Irrupción Ediciones). Currently an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Texas State University, he is completing a monograph-length study on the progression of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophy that substantially reworks his PhD dissertation, “Paradigms and Logical Morphology in Wittgenstein’s Philosophy.”

This event is co-sponsored by the Philosophy Department and UMass Amherst AfroAm the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies

Thank you to Dr. Jackie Wang for the amazing talk yesterday! And thank you to all of the students and community members ...
03/10/2026

Thank you to Dr. Jackie Wang for the amazing talk yesterday! And thank you to all of the students and community members who joined us for this event!

Please join us for "The Carceral Laboratory" a lecture with Professor Jackie Wang.March 9th at 5:30 in S245 South Colleg...
02/26/2026

Please join us for "The Carceral Laboratory" a lecture with Professor Jackie Wang.

March 9th at 5:30 in S245 South College.

Jackie Wang is a scholar, poet, multimedia artist, and Assistant Professor of Literary Arts at Brown University. She is the author of Carceral Capitalism (Semiotext(e), 2018), the poetry collection The Sunflower Cast a Spell to Save Us from the Void (Nightboat Books, 2021; National Book Award Finalist), and the experimental essay and poetry collection Alien Daughters Walk Into the Sun (Semiotext(e), 2023). She is also the co-author, with the Precarity Lab, of Technoprecarious (Goldsmiths Press, 2020).

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