Sociology investigates how people interact with the institutions we have created. The ‘sociological imagination’ looks deeply into social relations, discovering how normal daily interactions hide complex relationships.
We study the key divisions of society: class, race, gender, and sexuality. For instance: how does poverty endure amidst the vast creation of wealth? Why do men get paid more as women excel in college? How can new cultural practices overcome old forms of subjugation?
Our subjects range from the interpersonal to the global, from prison behavior to mass mobilizations. We are interested in the social order, social inequality, and social change.
A large and growing field, sociology trains students in critical thinking, creative problem solving, and rigorous ways to analyze torrents of information – all key skills in our knowledge economy.