Social Studies

Students will gain a general understanding of the histories and cultures of the world and how these histories relate to and affect our own world. Students will study the civilizations of Africa, Asia, Europe, South America and the Middle East. The course will focus on the cultural, social, religious and political developments in each of these areas. We will pay particular attention to how these developments created the world in which we live today.

The student will explore the heritage of Western Civilization through an examination of the cultural and political contributions of the Ancient World, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and Modern Era in Europe and the Americas. Emphasis will be placed on methods of historical inquiry and objectivity in order to reach a true understanding and appreciation of the many contributions of these past eras to our present.

American Studies is an interdisciplinary program consisting of paired American History and American Literature classes. In this course, students examine the nation’s history and culture through literature, primary and secondary historical documents, art, music, and politics. Starting with the pre-Columbian era and ending in the 20th century, students work chronologically and thematically through American fiction and non-fiction texts in an effort to understand the evolution of the United States as a nation, as well as the evolution of the American character and literary tradition. The course prepares students to read and write about a wide range of texts over the span of several centuries -- texts like Puritan sermons and poetry, captivity narratives, the Declaration of Independence, the essays of Thoreau and Emerson, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Great Gatsby, famous speeches, and 20th century plays. In addition to their work for each class, students complete at least one interdisciplinary project each quarter that synthesizes the ideas of literary and historical texts, important historical events, and the music and/or art of a given era. The course places great emphasis on the development of critical thinking skills, especially the ability for students to recognize and grapple with enduring values, conflicts, and tensions in American life, and to develop their own essential questions about them. Student-generated essential questions serve as the starting point for their formal and informal writing, including their quarterly interdisciplinary projects. Another central component of the course is its commitment to guiding students through the writing process, which includes the creation of questions and topics, drafting, conferencing and revision.

AP American History is a college level course and is designed for students with a serious interest in Social Studies. The course syllabus will be in accordance with College Board guidelines for AP American History and will prepare the student for the AP exam at the end of the year Placement in AP American History is based on G.P.A. and grades Social Studies courses. Students in AP American History will be required to take the AP exam. Failure to do so will result in a half letter grade deduction of the final grade.

Department approval required.

This Advanced Placement course is designed to give students a critical perspective on government and politics in the United States. To accomplish this end, the course studies the development of our system of constitutional government, political beliefs and behaviors in the United States, the organization of the National government, civil rights and civil liberties.

Placement is based on G.P.A. and grades Social Studies courses.

This course will provide authentic and meaningful experiences for students to learn the process of how to bring their original business ideas to fruition. During this course, students will review principles of business (accounting and marketing; learn how to identify an opportunity, evaluate an idea and assess the market, appreciate the risks and rewards of entrepreneurship, develop experiments to validate your idea and refine your business strategy, discover the key financial decisions any entrepreneur must make in the early stages of a new venture, understand the process of raising capital and how to speak to investors, and learn from successful entrepreneurs and leading venture capitalists, as well as peers. Students will be encouraged to generate their own, original business ideas to develop in this class. Authentic experiences will include real-time presentations to experienced investors drawn from the ranks of successful Prep alumni, and open, shark-tank like competitions such as the Start-up program sponsored by Fairfield University, where students can compete for funding grants ranging into the tens of thousands of dollars.

AP European History is a survey of European History from “The Late Middle Ages to the Dawn of the 21st Century,” and will fulfill the History requirement for the students who have taken Asian Humanities Honors. This course will explore not only the political aspects of Europe’s history, but also the important intellectual, cultural, and economic developments over the last 700 years. Special attention will be devoted to the important conflicts, borrowing of culture and economic interaction between Europe and Asia from the Renaissance to the present. Through lecture, student projects, primary documents, class discussion and exposure to artistic works, students will be provided with the background necessary to understand the important social, cultural and intellectual movements during this period.

Department approval required.

This course will focus on the various theories of economic development, i.e., Keynesian, Monetarist, supply side, etc. Students will explore the various forces in economics and how they interact with each other. They will study how the manipulation of these forces can affect the national economy and how that national economy interacts with the international economy creating a world economy. Finally, the course will explore how the economic forces affect those decisions a company must make to determine how it should develop and how it handles its financial resources.

American Government introduces students to key political ideas, institutions, policies, interactions, roles, and behaviors that characterize the political culture of the United States. The course examines politically significant concepts and themes, through which students learn to apply disciplinary reasoning, assess causes and consequences of political events, and interpret data to develop evidence-based arguments.

There is no prerequisite for this course. It is a full year course.

This course will serve as introduction to the science of society, with an emphasis on modern America. Sociologists study how various social forces and institutions, such as religion, politics, technology and education mold our views about our world and our place in it. Topics for study will include sociological theory, socialization, deviance, stratification, power, and change.

Over the last two centuries the countries of south and east Asia have undergone significant change and considerable turmoil. Imperial dynasties have fallen and traditional cultures have been subjected to foreign domination and radical ideologies. War and conflict have become the norm rather than the exception to it.

This course will investigate the main forces which have affected Asia in the modern era. Special attention will be devoted to major international conflicts including the Opium wars, World War II, and the clashes in Korea, Vietnam, and other Asian "hot spots."

In addition, the rise of Asian nationalism and communism will be closely examined, as well as the resultant tragedies such as the "killing fields" of Cambodia and failed insurrectionist movements in Indonesia and the Philippines. Finally, recent historical developments will be analyzed including the rise of Japan as an economic power, the pro-democracy movement in China, Burma, and other Asian countries.

The first semester course is a study of the Middle East and North Africa from the late 19th Century to the present. The region is defined to include the entire Arab world from Morocco in the west to Iraq in the east as well as Iran, Turkey and Israel. The topics of the course will focus on regional conflicts, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Palestinian question; special attention will be placed on U.S. involvement in the Arab-Israeli conflict, dependence on foreign oil, Iran-Iraq War, The Persian Gulf War, and the War on Terror. The goal of the course is for seniors to come away with an understanding of the political, cultural, social and economic forces that have shaped the Middle East in the modern world.

The second semester course examines the recent events and trends which have shaped the world in which we live. The course will focus on the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, the rise of the consumer society, the Vietnam War, and the Reagan Presidency. We will use a variety of sources including textbooks, contemporary readings, music, and films. The goal of the course is to allow seniors and qualified juniors to acquire a basic understanding of the forces which inform American society and politics today.

The AP course in Comparative Government and Politics introduces students to fundamental concepts used by political scientists to study the processes and outcomes of politics in a variety of country settings. The course aims to illustrate the rich diversity of political life, to show available institutional alternatives, to explain differences in processes and policy outcomes, and to communicate to students the importance of global political and economic changes. Comparison assists both in identifying problems and in analyzing policymaking. This course is a yearlong course that is offered online through the Arrupe Virtual Learning Institute.

AP Human Geography is a yearlong course focusing on the spatial variations among cultural groups with an emphasis on analyzing geographic differences in language, religion, economy, and government. In this course students will discern patterns of land usage, internal structures of cities, size and spacing of human settlements, as well as interpret maps, graphs, and tables. Units of study include culture, population, migration, language, religion, ethnicity, political geography, economic development, industry, agriculture, and urban geography. This course is a yearlong course that is offered online through the Arrupe Virtual Learning Institute.

How should faithful Catholics think about economics? This course integrates selected themes from the Neoscholastic School of economics with the content of the Advanced Placement economics syllabus in macroeconomics. The course prepares students to do well on the AP Macroeconomics exam as well as offers a way to view our redeemed creation through the prism of social science. The economic way of thinking does not begin with Adam Smith. It is based on insights from Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Aquinas, the Jesuit and Franciscan theologians at the University of Salamanca in Spain during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and on the Popes’ social encyclicals. We develop our understanding of basic economic concepts and analytic tools by anchoring them to our faith’s moral traditions and foundations. This course is a semester long course that is offered online through the Arrupe Virtual Learning Institute.

How should faithful Catholics think about economics? This course integrates selected themes from the Neoscholastic School of economics with the content of the Advanced Placement economics syllabus in microeconomics. The course prepares students to do well on the AP Microeconomics exam as well as offers a way to view our redeemed creation through the prism of social science. The economic way of thinking does not begin with Adam Smith. It is based on insights from Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Aquinas, the Jesuit and Franciscan theologians at the University of Salamanca in Spain during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and on the Popes’ social encyclicals. We develop our understanding of basic economic concepts and analytic tools by anchoring them to our faith’s moral traditions and foundations. This course is a semester long course that is offered online through the Arrupe Virtual Learning Institute.

AP World History is structured around the investigation of key course themes and concepts in six different chronological periods, from approximately 8000 B.C.E. to the present. These themes, examined across cultures and time periods, include: Interaction between humans and the environment; Development and interaction of cultures; State-building, expansion and conflict; Creation, expansion and interaction of economic systems; Development and transformation of social structures. This course is a yearlong course that is offered online through the Arrupe Virtual Learning Institute.

This course takes a look at both the academic and social constructions of genocide. We will view the Holocaust as the paradigmatic example of, but not only, genocide in modern history. Students will study the causes and processes of genocide as well as other contemporary crimes against humanity. Students and parents should be advised that this course utilizes intense and disturbing materials. This course is a semester long course that is offered online through the Arrupe Virtual Learning Institute.

Law & Society features the study of the political nature of state and federal level courts, while paying particular attention to contemporary issues related to the judiciary. The course will provide a foundation for legal study through surveying the historical development of the courts, controversial issues surrounding the essence of court authority, state and federal court structures and operations, and case study areas related to civil rights and liberties. Students will have the unique opportunity to become acquainted with fundamental aspects of the American legal system, and be afforded educational exposure to issues applicable as both citizens and students in the historical field of law. Class methods will include discussion, lecture, case-summary writing, historical research, and other related techniques. Note: this course is not designed to be the basis of professional legal training. It is a general survey course designed to provide students with historical and contemporary practical learning material. This course is a semester long course that is offered online through the Arrupe Virtual Learning Institute.

Model United Nations is an educational simulation and academic competition in which students learn about diplomacy, international relations, and the United Nations. International Relations is an academic course designed to examine the behavior of nations and states both individually and collectively. When you combine the two—that is, using the Model UN platform to examine the state of International Relations today, you have an interesting, intriguing, and fun way to enhance both your perception of global issues and your position as a citizen of your country and the global community. This is not a course that will drown itself in theory. Rather, it is designed to offer opportunities for students to study modern global issues, and the positions and interactions of nations and states, through research, simulations, discussion, and written assignments. Students are assigned a country at the beginning of the semester and represent that country during simulations, constructing position papers, resolutions, and amendments. Several seminars encourage students to participate in online discussion Go to Course List to resolve, or perhaps merely to understand better, an issue. Since committee work is such a vital part of the course, significant online interaction via email, video conferencing, or texting is a must for success. Simulations are based on the United Nations format. This course is a semester long course that is offered online through the Arrupe Virtual Learning Institute.

The goal of this Latin American Studies course is that students obtain a better understanding of the realities within the region. From a comparative analysis and critical perspective, students will identify similarities, parallelisms, and differences of the countries' common origins, confluences of historical processes, and the challenges of social and political issues facing globalization. Topics include Latin American historical backgrounds, culture, identity, economics, and politics. This course is a semester long course that is offered online through the Arrupe Virtual Learning Institute.