Sociology Department
We have a vision for the sociology program. We want our students --- whether as majors, minors, or just taking electives -- to be transformed by the books they read, their classroom experience, the research they conduct, the worlds they enter and explore in internships and community service, and the papers they write. We have strong expectations that these varied learning experiences will help our students become:
- More informed about the world they live in; about, for example, positive and negative trends in crime and substance abuse; family structure; poverty; race relations; educational achievement;
- More critically analytic about what makes information reliable and meaningful; in the presentation of scientific findings, in media reports, in the internet, in interviews about delicate matters;
- More competent in being able to use information, to interpret ideas, and to express what you have discovered to others clearly and lucidly; in papers; in classroom discussion; with visual aids; in public forums;
- More aware of other people's and group's social situations, their needs, the policy initiatives that might make a positive difference in their lives and in the wider society;