"The sociological imagination is a quality of mind that seems most dramatically to promise an understanding of the intimate realities of ourselves in connection with larger social realities."

--C. Wright Mills, The Sociological Imagination

Welcome to the Department of Sociology. We seek to understand the actions of individuals by situating them within the social contexts in which they take place. Sociologists are interested in discovering the underlying regularities of social life, how these patterns of people's behavior have come to be, and how they differ across both time and space. We analyze both how these structures shape and how they are reproduced and transformed by our actions. The scope of sociology is quite broad, ranging from the study of fleeting encounters in public to the analysis of global social processes. The purpose of our curriculum is to familiarize students with the basic approach and findings of sociology, its methods of gathering and evaluating evidence, its major theoretical approaches, and the ways in which sociological knowledge can both enrich our self-understandings and enhance our capacities for democratic citizenship.

Sociology prepares students for a wide variety of careers. Our students have gone on to careers in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Many of our alumni pursue graduate degrees in sociology, law, and related fields.