Welcome to STPEC!

What Is STPEC?

STPEC strives to foster a closely knit student community within a large university setting. We offer an evolving curriculum that favors small classes and encourages experiential learning through internships and student involvement in our program's governance. The major is designed to give students the flexibility to pursue their own interests in a number of departments within the University of Massachusetts and the surrounding area colleges.

Using Your Degree


Now more than ever, employers are seeking graduates who can think critically, communicate clearly and solve complex problems.      

STPEC's interdisciplinary curriculum provides a variety of possible career opportunities for its graduates. STPEC students go on to have rewarding careers in law, non-profits, education, labor, public service, media, business and many other fields. Many STPEC graduates pursue advanced degrees at prestigious universities. 


All STPEC Majors and students interested in becoming a STPEC major are welcome to meet with STPEC's Academic Advisor.

Learn more about advising.

Email Monica Garcia | Phone: 413 545-1597 | 305 Machmer Hall

Director of Undergraduate Advising

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Areas of Interest: Solidarity Economy, Food Security, and Popular Education.
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Recent News

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Bread and Puppet Theater Presents The Hope Principle Show: Citizens' Shame and Hope in the Time of Genocide
Bread and Puppet is a world-renowned anti-capitalist theater company that has performed with their signature puppets for 61 years. It is one of the oldest street and protest theater companies in the world. The troupe will perform: The Hope Principle Show: Citizens’ Shame and Hope in the Time of
April 19, 2024
War on the Reproduction of Life: Palestine and Beyond. A Lecture with Silvia Federici
Please join the Social Thought and Political Economy Program for a lecture with Silvia Federici. Professor Federici is a world-renowned Italian-American philosopher, teacher, and activist from the radical autonomist feminist Marxist tradition. She is the Co-Founder of the International Feminist
April 18, 2024
“History Doesn’t Repeat Itself But It Rhymes”: The Black Scare/Red Scare
Dr. Charisse Burden-Stelly is an Associate Professor of African American Studies at Wayne State University and a 2023-2024 Visiting Scholar at the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard University. She is the author of Black Scare/Red Scare: Theorizing Capitalist Racism in
April 9, 2024

Spotlight: STPEC Senior Alina Antropova '24 Receives 21st Century Leader Award

Alina Antropova '24 recently received a 21st Century Leader Award at Undergraduate Commencement on May 18, 2024.

Alina, of Southwick, a double major in English literature and social thought and political economy, demonstrated a combination of academic excellence and a deep commitment to social justice when she arrived at UMass Amherst. Her senior thesis, “Sigue Uno Caminando en la Oscuridad (One Keeps Walking in the Darkness): Theorizing the Abolitionist Sanctuary Model,” is centered around the immigration sanctuary movement in western Massachusetts, and her paper on neoliberalism in non-governmental organizations working with Syrian refugees in Turkey was published in UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity.

Photo of Alina Antropova