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Humanities & Social Sciences · Year 2 · Methods and societies
S4 Societies, law and the past
Understand how public policy and law organise society, and how archaeology and history reconstruct the past.
225hours of coursework
23weeks at 10 h
4steps
16new courses
4universities
Target skills
- Public policy, advocacy and social justice
- Social work and community organising
- Constitution, liberties, criminal and private law
- Scientific methods of archaeology
- Cultural history: globalisation, gender and identity
Semester project
A four-page policy brief on a local problem, grounded in the applicable law and in the problem’s history.
Courses this semester
- 1University of MichiganBeginner
Stated prerequisites: No prior experience required
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Course Level Length Rating (reviews) Using Public Policy for Social Change Beginner 14 h 4.9 (194) Social Work Practice: Advocating Social Justice and Change Beginner 13 h 4.8 (449) Community Organizing for Social Justice Beginner 8 h 4.8 (327) Sustainability Leadership Development Beginner 25 h 4.8 (14) - 2University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignBeginner
Stated prerequisites: Basic law knowledge helpful
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Course Level Length Rating (reviews) Foundations of American Law: History and Constitution Beginner 15 h — Rights, Liberties, & Criminal Law Beginner 15 h — Regulation and Private Law: Torts, Property, Contracts Beginner 19 h — Legal Processes: Family Law, Procedure, and Evidence Beginner 17 h — - 3Rice UniversityBeginnerGoogle Slides, Padlet
Stated prerequisites: No prior experience required
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Course Level Length Rating (reviews) Introduction to Archaeology: Knowing The Past Beginner 13 h 4.7 (33) Introduction to Archaeology: Archaeology as Science Beginner 18 h — Introduction to Archaeology: Reconstruction of The Past Beginner 17 h — Introduction to Archaeology: Archaeology as Activism Beginner 16 h — - 4University of Colorado BoulderBeginner
Stated prerequisites: No prior experience required
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Course Level Length Rating (reviews) Moneyball and Globalization Beginner 9 h — Race, Gender, and Culture Beginner 9 h — Baseball and Americanism Beginner 10 h — Baseball into the Millennium Beginner 7 h —
Reading
Introduction to Sociology 3eOpenStaxCulture, socialisation, stratification, institutions and social change.Free (OpenStax)
Introduction to AnthropologyOpenStaxCultural and biological anthropology and archaeology, alongside the Rice courses.Free (OpenStax)
Things to watch
- Foundations of American Law (Illinois) is recent (October 2026) and not yet rated; it covers US law.
- The American History Through Baseball courses are not yet rated individually: the specialization is rated 4.5.
With Coursera Plus
This semester takes 225 hours, about 5 months at 10 hours a week. A Coursera Plus subscription gives access to most of its courses during that time.