The Department of Sociology offers a Ph.D. program in Sociology. Particular emphases include social networks, gender, race/ethnicity, labor, social movements, family, migration, population, political economy, and states and global transformation. The program provides structured training in sociological theory, statistics, and qualitative and quantitative research methods. While the core of the program is sociological, it may also include an interdisciplinary component, incorporating links to anthropology, education, law, political science, history, criminology, and urban planning. Small entering cohorts ensure personalized attention for each student and guarantee access to professors, allowing for close mentorship relationships. Program faculty take diverse theoretical and methodological approaches to a variety of substantive issues, are committed to empirical research addressing central sociological issues, and are open to intellectual cross-pollination from cognate disciplines.
Graduate students have the opportunity to participate in a variety of interdisciplinary research units, including the Center for the Study of Democracy; the Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies; the Center for Research on Immigration, Population and Public Policy; and the Center for Demographic and Social Analysis. The Sociology Department maintains ties with Gender and Sexuality Studies and various ethnic studies programs, such as Asian American studies, Chicano/Latino studies, and African American studies. Research and funding opportunities are also available through UC-wide programs like Pacific Rim Studies and the Humanities Research Institute located on the UCI campus.