The Citadel School of Humanities and Social Sciences


The Citadel School of Humanities and Social Sciences is one of the five schools comprising The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. The school offers Bachelor's and master's degrees in a variety of fields, as well as minors and certificates. It was established in 2002 as The Citadel reorganized its existing departments into the five schools. The school is located in Capers Hall which will be expanded and rebuilt beginning in 2018.
The school is composed of seven departments, covering Criminal Justice, English, History, Intelligence and Security Studies, Modern Languages, Political Science, and Psychology. Offering seven undergraduate majors with several concentrations, 19 undergraduate minors, five master's programs, and three graduate certificate programs, the school accounts for more credit hours and majors than any other within The Citadel each year.
The History Department's Oral History program seeks to collect audio recordings of residents of the South Carolina Lowcountry. Founded in 2008, the program promotes the study of The Citadel and its surrounding region, and has captured interviews with World War II veterans, Hispanic residents of the region, and key players in the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo.
David L. Preston, Westvaco Professor of National Security Studies in the History Department, in 2015 won the Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize in Military History and the 2016 Distinguished Book Award from the Society for Military History for his book, .
The School's new programs focusing on homeland security, intelligence analysis and cyber security have earned recognition from the National Security Agency, as the program has been designated a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense.
Within the Department of Political Science are several endowed chairs, including the new Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Chair of American Government and Politics, with the longtime Mayor of Charleston serving as the first occupant. Additionally, the John C. West Chair hosts a Professor of International Relations and American Politics. Established in 2001 with a gift from West, the part-time professor arranges a speaker series of luminaries in the field of politics, government, and international relations.