M.S.S. Courses & Projected Schedule
All coursework for the Master of Social Sciences is entirely online. No campus visits are required. Students have six years, from the time they begin the program, to complete it.
Graduates of the program are welcomed and encouraged to participate in commencement ceremonies, which are held in December and May of each year.
The projected course schedule below helps students to plan which courses to take each term. It is subject to change.
Register Now
[NOTE--The M.S.S. courses listed below and accessed through these links are limited ONLY to those individuals who have been admitted to the M.S.S. program. Others may not register for these courses through any method, such as a class permission (i.e. "green") slip.]
Student OHIO ID and password are required for registering for classes. Information about your student OHIO ID and password is available on the OIT website.
- Sign in to My OHIO Student Center and click on the "Enroll" link in the Academics section of the Student Center. Select the appropriate term and click "Continue." Enter the Class Number and click "Enter." Complete the registration steps to finish enrolling.
Dropping a Course
Check the course offerings to confirm course add and drop dates for that particular semester. If you need to drop a course or courses, use the MY OHIO Student Center.
If you drop ALL your courses on or after the first day of class, university policy considers this a withdrawal. If you are only registered for one class and you wish to drop that class, it is still considered a withdrawal. [See below for information about re-admission].
To withdraw from the semester, you must notify the Graduate College. The email address is graduate@ohio.edu. Indicate in that e-mail that you are dropping all of your course(s) for that semester, and therefore need to withdraw. [Even if you are registered for only one course, you still need to follow this procedure. If you are registered for more than one course, and drop only one of the courses, you do NOT need to follow this procedure.]
If you withdraw from a semester and are in good standing, you can enroll in classes the following semester without doing anything extra.
If you withdraw from a semester and then skip a semester or more before resuming your graduate program, you will have to re-enroll (without a fee) using the Re-Enrollment Form [PDF].
Skipping a Semester
If you skip a taking courses in Fall or Spring Semester before resuming your graduate program, you will have to re-enroll (without a fee) using the Re-Enrollment Form [PDF]. This process is not necessary if the semester you skip is the summer semester.
Course Schedule—Plan Your Course of Study
Up-to-date M.S.S. course listings can be found on the Ohio University Course Offerings website by clicking the "eCampus" box and then selecting "Master of Social Sciences" from the drop-down menu.
Spring 2023
Colloquium in European History (History 6903), Dr. Michele Clouse: This course is a graduate reading seminar in history, introducing students to selected historiographical interpretations of the politics, culture, and society of Europe. This course fulfills the MSS program's colloquium graduation requirement. Typically, students should have successfully completed at least one semester of MSS coursework before enrolling in a colloquium, but interested first semester students are encouraged to contact the instructor.
Theories of American Foreign Policy (Political Science 5270), Dr. Maria Fanis: Exploration of different theoretical approaches used for the analysis of American foreign policies from past to present. Emphasis on explaining American foreign policy changes with the use of theories from international relations.
International Law (Political Science 5550), Dr. Andrew Ross: Studies the contribution of international law to order, power, and justice in international politics. Explores historical origins and current problems in the field, with attention to classic debates over the sources, purposes, and interests associated with international law. Places formal aspects of law (centered on the United Nations and the International Court of Justice) within the wider context of global governance, including the influence of customary international law and the work of non-governmental organizations. Discussions and readings include critical perspectives on international law as a vehicle of power in a world of inequality.
Summer 2023
Sex, Crime and Deviance in Europe, 1200-1800 (History 5715), Dr. Michele Clouse: This course explores sexuality, deviance and crime in early modern Europe, contrasting imaginary crimes, e.g. witchcraft, with “real” crimes such as highway robbery and infanticide. It examines impact of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and class in process of criminalization in European history, 1200-1800. The course traces long-term changes in the definition, incidence and prosecution of particular crimes to changes in economy, social structure, government, religion and culture. Summer Session I Course.
Seminar in American Politics II: Executive & Legislative Institutions (Political Science 6120), Dr. Linda Trautman: This course introduces some of the latest theoretical innovations in theories of American political institutions (executive & legislative). It explores how the make-up of executive and legislative institutions influences their behavior at the federal and state levels. Institutional actions that will be covered in the class include war-making, budgetary decision-making, and policy-making in the social and economic arenas. The impact of external actors—political parties, interest groups, the media—will also be investigated. Summer Session I Course.
History of US China Relations (History 5465), Dr. Joshua Hill: This course examines the relationship between the United States and China by tracing its history from the eighteenth century to the present. An exploration of the political, diplomatic, cultural, and economic history of the complex and consequential interactions between the two countries is balanced with a consideration of the impact of US-China ties on the lives of ordinary individuals. Summer Session II Course.
Human Rights, Law and Justice (Anthropology 5620), Dr. Haley Duschinski: Applies anthropological perspectives to issues relating to human rights, law, and justice with special attention to themes of peacekeeping and peace building, democracy and the rule of law, and the politics of truth, justice, and reconciliation in conflict and post-conflict countries. Examines particular cases from Latin America, South Asia, Africa, and Southeast Asia to consider some of the questions facing countries that are emerging from periods of significant human rights violations, including how to attribute responsibility and guilt, how to deal with perpetrators, and how to provide proper redress to victims. Summer Session II Course. Limited Seats Available.
Fall 2023
U.S. in the 1960s (History 5220), Dr. Chester Pach: This course allows students to go beyond the popular stereotypes of the 1960s to understand the decade as a period of social, cultural and political confrontation that laid the groundwork for life in the present-day United States. The primary focus is on social protest movements of the era, the Civil Rights movement, the student movement, the antiwar movement, the counterculture, and the women's movement.
World War I (History 5750), Dr. T. David Curp: This covers the course of the “Great War” including its origins, conduct and aftermath. The course considers the military, diplomatic and cultural factors that led to the outbreak of the war as well as how and why European governments and peoples were willing and able to sustain and expand their war. In addition to an intensive focus on the fighting itself, the war’s great battles as well as the experience of combat of ordinary soldiers, special topics will include (among others) the Armenian genocide, the deployment of WMDs (including both poison gas and blockades), wartime technological and military developments, the war at sea, the break-up of multi-national empires and the changing understanding and representation of the war.
Development Economics (Economics 5500) Dr. Cort Rodet: This course examines principles of economics and the roots of economic progress including trade, comparative advantage, knowledge, and innovation. Broadly speaking, it addresses various aspects of the human condition including economic and moral dimensions.
Critical Race Theory (Political Science 5751), Dr. Vince Jungkunz: This course examines, analyzes and theorizes race and racism from a critical and politicized perspective. This rich theoretical perspective points out that racism is still a pervasive part of contemporary societies and seeks out effective ways to challenge racism’s existence and impact on various groups and societies. It examines Critical Race Theory as a theoretical and political alternative for understanding and criticizing racism in contemporary settings. Critical Race Theory critiques perspectives that claim far-reaching progress has been made combating racism. The course challenges students to think in new ways about contemporary manifestations of racism. Explores innovative ways to challenge the widespread prevalence of racism.
Law in Societies (Sociology 5640), Dr. Bruce Hoffman: This course explores the fundamental roles that law plays in organizing contemporary social life. It considers various ways of understanding law’s complex presence: how law shapes and enables routine social interaction, how law constructs differences among people and their actions, how law mediates and enforces power relationships, and how law matters for the kind of societies we have. It examines official legal institutions and actors, but the class will emphasize how law works as a complex array of norms, symbols, discourses, and practices that infuse and shape all aspects of social life, from everyday social interaction to social movements and official legal institutions and actors. The course draws from the U.S. experience as well as historical, international, and transnational perspectives.