The scholarship among the faculty in the social sciences encompasses the study of major rubrics of human existence: time, space, language, economy, polity, society, culture, and population. It also incorporates learning in topics of great contemporary currency, including the analyses of gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity. In all, the 12 social science departments contribute mightily to providing a liberal arts education to students at Berkeley.

This is the largest division within the university, with 20 percent of the faculty and 25 percent of student enrollments. It  is also the most heterogeneous, offering diverse theoretical approaches and methodologies for understanding the ways in which human beings, past and present, have organized their lives.

The twelve social science departments are among the most distinguished in the nation. Most of them are also intrinsically interdisciplinary, such that relationships and collaborations among faculty and students usually stretch across the disciplinary divides. The consequence of such interdisciplinarity is an unparalleled opportunity for the student to range far and wide in the search for solutions to personal, social, and global problems.

Dean and Staff

• Dean: Carla Hesse
  
• Associate Dean: Kim Voss
• Executive Assistant:  Ann Gilbert
• Assistant to the Dean:  Josh Mandel
• Budget Analyst:  Helen Workman
• Senior Director, Development and College Relations:  Danielle Hawn Bluey
• Graduate Diversity Outreach Coordinator:  Gloria H. Chun
  

Academic Departments

In addition, the College offers interdisciplinary majors in Legal Studies  (in cooperation with the School of Law) and in Social Welfare  (in cooperation with the School of Social Welfare). The College also offers a wide variety of interdisciplinary major and minor programs through Undergraduate and Interdisciplinary Studies.

Related Research Units & Museums

• Archaeological Research Facility*
• Beatrice Bain M. Research Group
• Center for the Study of Sexual Culture
• Field Station for the Research of Animal Behavior
• Geography Computing Facility
• Graduate Group in Folklore
• Hearst Museum of Anthropology*
• History of Science and Technology, Office of*
• Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences*
• Institute of Governmental Studies*
• Institute of Human Development*
• Institute of Personality and Social Research*
• Institute for Business and Economic Research (IBER)*
• Psychology Clinic

*Reports to the Vice Chancellor for Research