The graduate program in sociology provides a unique combination of demographic, organizational, political-economic, and social-psychological aspects to the study of major domestic and global issues.
Graduate students have the opportunity to merge basic foundation coursework in social theory and research methods with more specialized training in selected specialty areas, which are environment and community, demography, and states and markets. The sociology program has a particular strength in environmental and natural resource sociology and is one of the top programs for these areas in the United States. In this area, the department collaborates with faculty in natural resources, water engineering, and other physical and social sciences.
There is also a strong emphasis on teacher development, with a required teaching seminar for doctoral students, opportunities for students to teach their own courses, and strong teaching mentoring from faculty.
For more information, visit the program website.
Specialization(s):
They must also choose from one of the remaining two specializations as their secondary area of study.
- Demography (PhD): This specialization explores issues of population change, migration, and health outcomes. Graduate coursework covers areas including social demography, population theories and policies, demographic research methods, and various special topic seminars.
- Environment and Community (PhD): This specialization focuses on the sociology of natural resources, environmental sociology, community theory, and applied community development. Students and faculty conduct research in areas such as natural resource development and social change, resource dependency patterns, land use planning, and more.
- Social Inequality: This specialization focuses on new developments in economic sociology that center on the social and political bases of market processes. Students also research in political sociology on the impact of state-level institutions and political processes on social and economic outcomes.
- Climate Adaptation Science (Sociology MS & PhD): The Climate Adaptation Science specialization provides students with experiences in actionable science through internship and research experiences. Program includes interdisciplinary research to identify adaptive responses to changing climate extremes and two-part internships with agency, NGO, and industry partners. In a first internship, students contribute to projects and learn the workplace cultures and science needs of the host. The internship experiences inform interdisciplinary climate adaptation research by student teams. In a second internship, students share science results and tools with the host organization and help put that science into action.

