B.A. in Sociology

When Auguste Comte built upon the works of earlier philosophers to found Sociology, he probably anticipated it would be the only academic discipline through which all other disciplines would be studied.

He called it the queen of all the social sciences, and was he correct! Sociologists are scientists who study lives, communities, and institutions. They pursue scientific knowledge of practically every aspect of humanity. Today, we have:

  • Sociology of law
  • Sociology of mathematics
  • Sociology of deviance
  • Sociology of education
  • Sociology of the family
  • Sociology of race and ethnicity
  • Sociology of hip hop music
  • Sociology of cancer
  • Sociology of aging
  • Sociology of the media
  • Sociology of death and dying
  • Sociology of suicide
  • Sociology of gender
  • Sociology of work and occupation
  • Sociology of health and illness
  • Sociology of organization
  • Sociology of disaster or environmental sociology
  • Sociology of space
  • Sociology of scientific knowledge
  • And many many more

These are only a few of the many concentrations and tracks within the discipline of sociology.  Our students learn about philosophers whose ideological reasoning contributed to the development of sociology as an academic discipline.  Some of these ideologies or philosophies predate the actual founding of sociology.  Jane Addams, Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, Ibn Khaldoun, Herbert Spencer, W. E. B. Dubois, C. Wright Mills, Marx Weber, Ferdinand Toennies, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Marianne Weber, and Alexis de Tocqueville are some early thinkers whose work either influenced or built upon that of August Comte.

Sociological perspectives thrive on the examination of the interplay of individuals and the group, namely how social groups influence individuals and vice versa.  The nature, structure, and processes within which such relations emerge and their continuity are of similar interests to sociologists.  Sociology, is therefore, a never boring discipline.  Its broad scope encompassing every aspect of lives implies students can always identify a track to concentrate on. 

When you select this major, you will graduate not only as a scholar trained in social scientific research, sociological theory, and critical thinking skills, but also be versatile to go into many fields should you put off graduate studies.  You can go into social research, health services, education, business, and the government.  Other sociology related fields include demography, criminology, policy analyses, statistics, political activism, epidemiology, diplomacy, and community analyses.