The Department of Social Sciences at the University of Toronto Scarborough offers discipline-based programs in Anthropology, Geography, Political Science and Sociology; and interdisciplinary programs in City Studies, Diaspora & Transnationalism Studies, Health Studies, International Studies, International Development Studies, and Public Policy. These programs provide different but related perspectives that are essential for a critical appreciation of the immense challenges and opportunities that are becoming apparent early in the 21st century, such as globalization, rapidly increasing urbanization, the unevenness of development, social and environmental sustainability, international migration, and social cohesion in the midst of growing cultural diversity and economic instability.

The core mission of the social sciences is to provide students with the knowledge and conceptual tools to enable them to develop a strong, realistic and nuanced understanding of contemporary processes of social and political change.