Master of Arts in Social and Political Thought

SOPT
The Graduate Program in Social and Political Thought (SOPT) at the University of Regina is a selective interdisciplinary master’s degree program anchored in the Department of Philosophy & Classics and the Department of Political & International Studies, with links to other departments in the humanities and social sciences. The program stresses flexibility and originality. It is directed by the Committee for Social and Political Thought, which is devoted to insuring that the program has the requisite rigor, depth, and imagination, while encouraging exploration of problems, issues, and concepts through a variety of disciplinary, critical, and theoretical approaches.
The focus of the program is on ideas and their expression in historical, cultural, social, and political contexts. The emphasis is on consideration of, and critical engagement with, problems, issues, and concepts ranging from justice, liberty, equality, natural law, and democratic theory to gender, race, class, (dis)ability, post-colonialism, and heteronormativity.  These are ideas that we believe lend themselves to a variety of critical and theoretical approaches and perspectives.

The program should be of particular interest to students with backgrounds in diverse areas such as Philosophy, Political Theory, History, Anthropology, Sociology, English Literature, and Comparative Literature. It provides students with excellent preparation for doctoral research in both traditional and interdisciplinary programs and is designed to facilitate completion in 18 months (including thesis). Students take courses from a range of graduate courses offered by departments across the Faculty of Arts. The only required courses are SOPT 800 and 801: Foundations in Social and Political Thought I and II, which provide critical engagement with the foundations of political philosophy understood both historically and in terms of contemporary thought.  SOPT 800 and 801 are offered consecutively in the Fall and Winter semesters, are administered by the Committee on Social and Political Thought, and culminate in a written and oral comprehensive examination required for successful completion of the program.

Students must have an undergraduate degree in either Philosophy or Political Science with a minimum average of 75%. Students with degrees in related disciplines (e.g., Sociology, with an emphasis on social theory, or History, with an emphasis on intellectual history, or English, with an emphasis on literary theory) will also be eligible, but may be required to complete qualifying courses before full admission into the program. Candidates for admission are encouraged to have a clear idea of the thesis topic that they wish to pursue. Generous student funding is available through a number of graduate awards and research assistantships sponsored by the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research and the Faculty of Arts. 

***PLEASE NOTE: Applications to the SOPT Program are suspended until further notice***