San Francisco State University

College of Behavioral and Social Sciences

The mission of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences is to study, create, impart, and apply knowledge about the patterns, development, diversity, and changes in human behavior and institutions through geographical, social, cultural, economic, and political aspects of the human condition across time and space.

College of Ethnic Studies

The College of Ethnic Studies was established in fall 1969 through the efforts of a number of dedicated students, faculty and community members. The four departments - Asian American Studies, Black Studies, Raza Studies, and American Indian Studies - offer over 175 courses each semester to offer an educational experience that redefines the lives of people of color from their own perspectives.

College of Humanities

The departments within the College of Humanities explore the identities, ethics, aspirations, arguments, and imaginations of individuals and societies through myth, literature, language, philosophy, religion, public and private discourse, cultural artifacts, and the symbolic systems by which ideas and feelings are communicated.

California Studies Program

California Studies is a multi-disciplinary program which studies the consensus and conflict, unity and diversity, and the continuity and change that characterize the many cultures, artistic, and creative expressions, earth and geosciences, as well as social structures of past and present California. Each student gains from the minor program a grasp of Californian history and political processes, a knowledge and appreciation of the rich diversity of California cultures, creative arts and literatures, an informed view of California's environmental richness and ecological relationships, and a continuing interest in the mutable and dynamic California landscape. The California Studies Program has also sponsored many community programs:

  • California Indian Conference
    The California Studies Program is the coordinating sponsor of the rotating annual California Indian Conference. The instiution holding the conference each year works closely with the California Studies Program for program development.

  • Japanese American Internment
    With a grant from the California State Library, the California Studies Program developed an interactive website to deliver teaching packets about the Japanese American Internment experience in California.

  • Contaminated Museum Collections & NAGPRA
    Sponsored by a grant from the National Park Service, the Contaminated Museum Collections Project is working to distribute information to Native Americans about the dangers of contaminated artifacts repatriated under NAGPRA.

  • Hoopa Tribal Museum
    The California Studies Program has worked with the Hoopa Tribe of northern California to develop a website for their tribal museum.

    Minor in California Studies

    California Studies is a 24 unit minor program in which professors and students study California's history and political processes and the rich diversity of California's many cultures.

    B.A. American Studies (California Focus)

    American Studies is an interdisciplinary degree program that offers students an opportunity to follow a course of study in California. The purpose of the major is to study the unity and diversity, the consensus and conflict, the continuity and change, that characterize the many cultures and social structures of past and present United States.

    For a complete list of California courses at SFSU, click here.