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Together building a more just future

The Center for Social Concerns is an interdisciplinary institute responding to the complex demands of justice through a combination of justice education and research for the common good. We bring people together to think carefully about the world’s most pressing social concerns in order to develop creative and effective approaches to addressing them.

Justice Education

We cultivate moral imagination, practical wisdom, and the courage to act through a range of curricular and co-curricular programs for undergraduate, graduate, and professional students.

Research for the Common Good

We work with academics, advocates, and artists to study the world’s most pressing social concerns and develop creative and effective community-based approaches to addressing them.

Critical Conversations

We convene critical conversations that include diverse perspectives and foster innovative approaches to questions of justice from religious freedom to gun violence to racial health inequalities.

Center stories

From army officer to peace-and-justice researcher

Helal Khan, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Social Concerns, describes himself as a “soldier turned peacekeeper turned anthropologist turned peace-and-justice researcher.”

His journey began with conversations he had with Rohingya refugees while serving in the Bangladesh Border Guard.

Virtues & Vocations workshop focuses on virtue in the classroom

More than 30 faculty members from throughout North America attended Integrating Virtue Together from March 21-23 at the Center for Social Concerns.

The proposition animating the workshop is that faculty can help students develop character in the context of any course — from astrophysics to zoology.

Center partners with Klau Institute on course about racial justice

Students in the course Racial Justice in America considered questions of racial justice while visiting sites where some of the nation’s most significant civil rights battles were fought.

The course is a collaboration between the Center for Social Concerns and the Klau Institute for Civil and Human Rights.

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A question of justice

Why do racial disparities in education persist despite long efforts on behalf of equal opportunity and racial justice? 

How can art help us face injustice with honesty, humor, and hope?

Coming up at the center

2024 Senior Send-off Ceremony and Reception

May172024
Time: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Mural Celebration at Foundry Field

May202024
Time: 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Virtues and Vocations Conference

Jun32024
All-day event
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1,000

More than 1,000 students a year

550

Community partners in 36 states and 26 countries

40

Years of transformative impact