Our mission is to provide the highest quality education in Sociology at the baccalaureate, masters, and doctoral levels. Broadly stated, Sociology is the study of group life. It combines scientific and humanistic perspectives in a basic approach designated by sociologist C. Wright Mills as the sociological imagination. At both the undergraduate and graduate levels, students develop this imagination and the analytic-research skills for studying, understanding, and addressing major social issues.

Our undergraduate program contains two-degree tracks, one in General Sociology and the other in Criminology. At the graduate level, we offer three areas of concentration:

• Criminology
• Family and Demography
• Class, Race, and Gender

We emphasize contemporary issues within these areas, and also explore their historical, comparative, and global dimensions. Through teaching and research, we seek to update and refine our knowledge about the substance and dynamics of each and to assist in formulating and evaluating social policy.