. ..FACULTY      GRADUATE      UNDERGRADUATE        EVENTS     DIRECTORY      *PRESS BOX*   

Welcome to Sociology at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. We are a part of New Jersey’s leading public university – one of the oldest and most well regarded institutions of higher education in the nation. Our department is located midway between New York City and Philadelphia, an area known throughout the country for its dynamism and diversity.

We pride ourselves on our eclectic vision of sociology.   Our faculty and students’ research projects address over 60 areas of sociological inquiry, and our work incorporates a wide variety of methodologies, including the latest statistical modeling techniques, innovative network-analytic approaches, cutting-edge ethnographic research, in-depth comparative historical inquiry, and sophisticated survey analysis.

At both the undergraduate and graduate level, we provide the rigorous training that allows students to see the world through a sociological lens.  We also encourage our students to pinpoint and explore their own special interests, and help them to develop the skills and confidence necessary to become independent producers of sociological knowledge.

The department is particularly well-known for its strengths in four areas:

• A unique culture and cognition program that addresses both traditional areas of cultural sociology and the fast-growing study of culture, mind and brain.
• A gender, inequality and difference program affiliated with the oldest and most influential Women’s and Gender Studies program in the country
• A health, population, and the life course program anchored by the renowned Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research
• An expanding political and economic sociology program with a growing focus on globalization

In recent years, we have developed several additional areas of concentration which are rapidly growing:

• A sociological approach to crime and social control that emphasizes inequality, community, and education, and the relationship of these factors to crime and justice.
• An environment, technology, and society program grounded in research on development, disaster, risk, and social policy.
• A focus on social networks, particularly emphasizing the cultural, historical and institutional dynamics of social relations.

Our site provides information on our department’s history, and our department members’ research and teaching interests.  You can see the graduate students who are entering the job market, explore the achievements of our alumni, and learn about awards and distinctions our faculty and students have won.  And be sure to check our “Press Box” for information on department members’ connections to current debates and events.

Come and explore what we have to offer.