Mission

The Department of Sociology offers a B.A. in sociology as well as minors in urban policy, law, criminal justice, and business-related areas. The department is committed to meeting student needs and offers a full major and advising during the day as well as advising during the evenings. Our faculty have stature in such areas as urban studies, gender, aging, mass media, sociological theory, immigration and labor, children’s studies, criminology, race and ethnicity, and the environment. We are committed to quality teaching, the production of policy-relevant social research, and service to the Brooklyn community. Our teaching and research is strongly rooted in Brooklyn’s sociologically rich and vibrant environment.

The sociology curriculum will help you to understand the workings of societies and their institutions, organizations, and groups by exposing you to the history, knowledge, theory, and methods of the discipline. By introducing you to the concepts, theoretical frameworks, and methodological techniques of sociology, we will help you develop a “sociological imagination,” leading to a deeper understanding of the relationships between personal experience (your own and others’) and the larger social world. In all of your sociology courses you will be asked to examine and question the “world we take for granted.”

We offer you a special lens to view both contemporary and historical social phenomena. The range of courses in the curriculum will not only expose you to diverse social issues and social structures but also emphasize the dynamics of power and inequality on local, national, and global levels. Our courses emphasize the concepts and practice of social justice, civic and community involvement, and the rights and responsibilities of global citizenship.

Our curriculum facilitates understanding of how and why societies develop, are maintained, and change; how the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, age, gender, and sexuality affect personal and social experiences and institutional arrangements; the interactions of social systems with ecosystems; and the dynamic interplay between social forces.

Our courses encourage you to make your own discoveries about social experiences and to communicate these discoveries. All include opportunities to develop critical thinking, writing and speaking skills, and visual literacy. In the course of your sociology education, you will learn to produce reflective, logical texts by summarizing arguments concisely, synthesizing different forms of data, evaluating evidence and arguments, writing in a professional style, and presenting research material clearly.

The department offers a variety of support services, including the sociology lab (3611 James Hall), where our majors work on course papers and research projects, a seminar room for small discussion classes, and an expanding range of internship and field research opportunities. In the tradition of a liberal arts education, the sociology curriculum is designed to promote in you a sense of curiosity about the diverse ways that humans create, transform, and adapt to their surroundings, self-reflection and appreciation of perspectives and experiences outside your own, connections across disciplines to gain a better understanding of the world, and public intellectualism through attentive, creative, and articulate engagement with community affairs and social issues.