About
The Department of Sociology at VCU produces innovative and socially impactful research and provides our students with engaging and creative learning experiences both within and beyond the classroom.
We are committed to addressing multiple and overlapping forms of exclusion and inequality as we seek to prepare our students to pursue a wide range of careers and live as socially conscious global citizens in a diverse world.
Our department offers a B.S. in sociology, a fully online M.S. in sociology and a certificate in applied social research that may be earned separately or simultaneously with the M.S. We also offer a sociology minor and two accelerated bachelor's to master's degree programs.
Areas of Expertise
Our research examines a variety of substantive topics and attempts to explain and interpret them within the context of sociological theories. Areas of expertise among our faculty include:
- Digital sociology
- Environmental sociology
- Health/medical sociology
- Migration and transnational sociology
- Public sociology
- Relationships and family
- Social inequalities
- Social movements
- Work and labor markets
We value and support collaborative efforts involving interdisciplinary faculty as well as both graduate and undergraduate students.
Our Vision
We have defined a distinctive vision for our teaching, research and service:
- Questioning the structures of power and inequalities
- Building awareness and understanding the questions of power, structure and inequalities across intersecting forms of oppression
- Engaging and pursuing those questions via research and application
- Applying teaching, research, service and activism to make an impact
- Connecting students to each other, their community and the world through active learning, public engagement and critical scholarship
- Promoting a sense of responsibility and the humility, respect and courage to change the world