What is GISES?

When the Everett Program was founded in 1998, it was called Global Information and Social Enterprise Studies.

Over the years, GISES courses became available as a concentrated major for sociology majors, or a minor for all other majors across campus. We still retain the GISES acronym for these academic requirements.

Interested in declaring GISES as your major or minor? Speak to your academic advisor or email Chris Benner- cbenner@ucsc.edu

What is GISES

Sociology with an Intensive Concentration in Global Information and Social Enterprise Studies, known practically as GISES (pronounced, guy-sis), is challenging and designed for highly motivated, self-directed and enterprising students who have demonstrated the capacity to design and complete an honors-quality project for a civil society group.
This site and its associated materials were created to supply prospective and current GISES students with as much context, clarification, and support as possible to help them through the process of deciding if the major or minor is right for them, and then writing the Project Practicum.
Please feel free to email Dr. Chris Benner, cbenner@ucsc.edu, with any questions you may have.

Major GISES Requirements

To get a Sociology BA with Intensive Concentration in GISES, the following are the requirements according to the 2019-20 catalog requirements. For additional information, quarter offerings, worksheet, and sample plans, please visit the sociology department website.

Three Lower-Division Courses Required to Declare the Major and Concentration
The following three courses must be passed with a cumulative GPA of 2.8 or better, and have approval from the program director (which takes place in SOCY 30A) prior to declaring the major.
Select two of the following three courses:

SOCY 1 Introduction to Sociology

SOCY 10 Issues and Problems in American Society

SOCY 15 World Society (CC GE)

AND complete:
SOCY 30A Introduction to Global Information and Social Enterprise Studies (PE-T GE) – Fall quarter

After completing SOCY 30A in Fall quarter, students must continue on to the upper-division GISES core course requirements: SOCY 107A in Winter and SOCY 107B in Spring.

Two Lower-Division Core Courses
SOCY 3A The Evaluation of Evidence
SOCY 3B Statistical Methods (SR GE)

Two Upper-Division GISES Core Courses
SOCY 107A Designing ICT Projects for Social Enterprise (formerly SOCY 30B)- Winter quarter
SOCY 107B Project Implementation and Grant Writing (formerly SOCY 30C) – 3 unit course, Spring quarter

Two Upper-Division Core Courses
SOCY 105A – Classical Social Theory
SOCY 105B – Contemporary Social Theory

Five Upper-Division Elective Courses
Electives must either be from the Sociology Department at UCSC, numbered SOCY 110-189, or from the list of approved electives for GISES.

5-unit Independent Studies taken with the Program Director, Professor Chris Benner, are approved to count as upper division electives.

All other upper division electives must be petitioned with the Program Director, Professor Chris Benner. Electives must be upper division and 5 units at UCSC (abroad courses may carry different units). If you are petitioning a new course for approval, please complete this online form.

Please note: students who are following the previous catalog requirements, 2018-19 or prior, were required to justify their upper-division, 5 unit electives explaining how each elective contributes to your project and/or your growth as a technology activist and/or technology linked social change advocate after graduation. Please refer to the Elective Justification section below.

One Project Practicum
SOCY 196G – Offered Fall quarter. Prerequisite: SOCY 107B. Please review the project information further below.

One Comprehensive Requirement
Complete the Sociology Capstone Course. SOCY 196A, Capstone: The Sociologist as a Public Intellectual. 5-unit course offered Spring quarter only.

Complete a Senior Thesis. Students must enroll in 10-15 units (SOCY 195A and B mandatory, 195C is optional) of independent study thesis coursework. Prerequisite: SOCY 3A and faculty approval, DC requirement completion recommended.

For additional information visit the sociology website.

Minor GISES Requirements

To get a GISES Minor, the following are the requirements according to the 2019-20 catalog requirements. For additional information, quarter offerings, worksheet, and sample plans, please visit the sociology department website.

One Lower-Division Course to Qualify for Declaration
The following course must be passed with a C or better and students must have approval from the program director (which takes place in SOCY 30A) prior to declaring the minor. Students must be declared in a major first prior to declaring a minor.
SOCY 30A Introduction to Global Information and Social Enterprise Studies (PE-T GE) – Fall quarter

Three Upper-Division Elective Courses
Electives must either be from the Sociology Department at UCSC, numbered SOCY 110-189, or from the list of approved electives for GISES.
5-unit Independent Studies taken with the Program Director, Professor Chris Benner, are approved to count as upper division electives.

Please notes: students who are following the previous catalog requirements, 2018-19 or prior, were required to justify their upper-division, 5 unit electives explaining how each elective contributes to your project and/or your growth as a technology activist and/or technology linked social change advocate after graduation. Please refer to the Elective Justification section below.

In addition, students who completed the previous versions of SOCY 107A and SOCY 107B (SOCY 30B and SOCY 30C) are required to complete four upper-division electives instead of three, due to the university policy that all minors are required to have a minimum of 25 upper-division units.

One Project Practicum
SOCY 196G – Offered Fall quarter. Prerequisite: SOCY 107B. Please review the project information further below.

Declaring GISES

Declaration must happen after you have completed the lower-division qualifying courses detailed above. For the major this is passing SOCY 30A and two of the sociology courses (SOCY 1, SOCY 10, and SOCY 15) with a cumulative GPA of 2.8 or better. For the minor students must pass SOCY 30A with a C or better.

Do not declare until you have your GISES proposal approved by the Everett Staff and Executive Director.

Students should declare the GISES major/minor if and only if they have a viable project on the way to being implemented, not before.

Declaring the major/minor is done with the sociology department, see website for process.