Program Description

Are you interested in people? Are you fascinated by such topics as race, social class, gender, globalization, the environment, or social change? These subjects and others that deal with social relationships, culture, and the nature of society comprise the discipline of sociology. As a broad and eclectic field of inquiry, sociology uses many different approaches, ranging from cultural and historical studies to survey research.

The sociology major at Purchase College is designed to give students maximum exposure to the breadth of the field. Optional concentrations — Everyday Cultures and Social Change, Globalization and Society, and Health and Social Advocacy — allow students to focus on a particular area of interest.

What can you do with a degree in sociology? Opportunities exist in both the private and public sectors in the fields of social advocacy, social work, human service, education, business, law, criminal justice, social science research, and community relations. (For more detailed information about career opportunities, visit the American Sociological Association.)

Program Faculty

Requirements for the Major

All students majoring in sociology take the following courses, plus an additional four to five courses in the student’s chosen concentration:

  • Introduction to Sociology
  • Research Methods
  • Sociological Theory
  • One internship, study-abroad opportunity, or community-action independent study, chosen in consultation with the faculty advisor
  • Sociology Junior Seminar
  • Sociology Senior Seminar I & II
  • Senior Project in Sociology

Concentration 1: Sociology (general major)
At least four sociology electives, chosen from specified courses in the following three groups: Sociological Perspectives, Social Institutions, and Inequality and Change

Concentration 2: Everyday Cultures and Social Change

  • Three of the following courses, including at least one upper-level course:
    Culture, Consumption, and the City
    Computers and Culture
    Environmental Sociology
    Social Movements
    Urban Sociology
    Social Entrepreneurship
    Conflict Management and Mediation
    Innovation, Change, and Society
    Globalization, Culture, Social Change
    Mass Media and Society
  • One of the following courses:
    Race and Ethnicity
    Sociology of Gender
    Class, Power, Privilege

Concentration 3: Globalization and Society

  • Three of the following courses:
    Environment and Society
    Social Entrepreneurship
    Innovation, Change, and Society
    Globalization, Culture, Social Change
    Any relevant anthropology course
    Any relevant environmental studies course
  • One of the following courses:
    Race and Ethnicity
    Sociology of Gender
    Class, Power, Privilege

Concentration 4: Social and Health Advocacy

  • Three of the following courses:
    Birth and Death
    Sex, Politics, and Health
    Science, Medicine, Culture
    Religion, Culture, and Society
    Public Sociology
    Sociology of the Family
    Any relevant policy-based political science course
  • Two of the following courses:
    Human Sexuality
    Race and Ethnicity
    Sociology of Gender
    Aging, Culture, and Society
    Class, Power, Privilege
    Conflict Management and Mediation

Representative Alumni

  • Stephen Duncombe ’88, Ph.D., City University of New York Graduate Center; associate professor, Gallatin School, New York University; his books include Dream: Re-Imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy
  • Amy Bromberg Funk ’77, J.D., Yale University; chief manager, Smart Information Flow Technologies (SIFT), Minneapolis
  • Jessica Hentoff ’7, artistic and executive director of the Circus Day Foundation and its entertainment wing, Everydaycircus
  • Audrey Hutchinson ’77, program director, Education and Afterschool Initiatives, National League of Cities, Washington, D.C.
  • Mary E. Kane ’73, film producer; credits include King of New York, Bad Lieutenant, The Funeral, and If These Walls Could Talk 2
  • Antonio Pagliarulo ’02, author, A Different Kind of Heat and The Celebutantes young adult fiction series (Random House, Inc.)
  • Jeffrey K. Salkin ’76, D.Min., Princeton University; senior rabbi of The Temple in Atlanta; well-known activist in Reform Judaism and award-winning author

For more information, visit the Sociology site in Academic Programs.

Updated May 27, 2008

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