Sociology

Office: Beatty Hall 238-A
Telephone: 410‑617‑7429
Email: sociology@loyola.edu
Website: www.loyola.edu/academics/sociology

Chair: Amanda Konradi, Associate Professor

Professors: Jai P. Ryu (emeritus); Michael Burton (emeritus)
Associate Professors: Michelle I. Gawerc; Joshua D. Hendrick; Amanda Konradi; Nicole Shoenberger; Barbara Vann (emerita)
Assistant Professors: H. Lovell Smith
Affiliate Faculty: Nicole Rosen; William Sheppard; Christopher Turner

Mission: Understanding and critically analyzing social issues of our time is essential to the construction of just and sustainable local, national, and global communities. To this end, the Sociology Department of Loyola University Maryland cultivates a sociological imagination – the ability to think critically about the social construction of knowledge, power, privilege, difference, and inequality. The department provides students with theoretical, analytical, and methodological tools to engage with poverty, racism, sexism, homophobia, genocide, war and peace, religious tolerance and intolerance, the defense of human rights, and the environmental impact of human activity.

Vision: The Sociology Department of Loyola University Maryland will foster students' capacity to recognize the reproduction of inequality, difference, and patterns of social injustice in the U.S. and the world. We will cultivate students' ability to recognize the intersecting nature of structures of inequality and privilege and the varied ways in which these are experienced by others and themselves. Faculty aim to inspire students to challenge unjust systems, organizations, and communities, and to reflexively examine their own participation in them.

Sociology incorporates the dual traditions of the humanities and natural sciences to describe, understand, and explain human social behavior. Sociology addresses many of the great questions that humanists have posed with the attitude and methods of the natural sciences. Students of sociology develop a strong appreciation for history, philosophy, and the liberal arts in general, while learning to think scientifically and systematically. Students learn to apply basic sociological research techniques and skills, which graduates will find useful in a variety of career tracks including, but not limited to law, business, medicine, teaching, government, nonprofit organizations, or social work.

Sociology majors and minors have a wide range of interesting and useful courses to choose from, and considerable freedom to design programs of study that match their academic and career goals. Because of its integrative, synthesizing nature and its emphasis on social research skills, sociology complements other disciplines, as in a double or interdisciplinary major.

Learning Aims

Upon graduation, sociology majors will:

Understand and be able to apply a sociological perspective proficiently to a range of social issues, as demonstrated by:
1. Describing and giving examples of how a sociological perspective and the discipline of sociology differs from and is similar to the other social sciences.
2. Describing how a sociological perspective and the discipline of sociology contributes to the liberal arts understanding of social reality.
3. Applying the sociological imagination, sociological principles, and concepts to their own lives and to social problems.
Demonstrate an ability to think critically, as evidenced by:
1. Using sociological research and analytical skills to critically evaluate claims made about social reality.
2. Showing how patterns of thought and knowledge are influenced by culture and social structure.
Master fundamental sociological theory and concepts, as demonstrated by:
1. Defining, giving examples, and demonstrating the relevance of the following: culture, social change, socialization, stratification, social structure, institutions, and differentiations by race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class.
2. Comparing and contrasting basic theoretical orientations;
3. Applying sociological theories and concepts to social phenomena, both locally and globally.
Demonstrate a complex understanding of how difference and patterns of inequality in the U.S. and the globally are produced and sustained, as demonstrated by:
1. Describing the significance of empirical variation by race, class, and gender/sexuality in various U.S. and international contexts.
2. Describing the role of collective action, culture, structure, and the institutionalization of culture and policies (both formal and informal) in constructing and sustaining difference and inequality.
3. Describing the intersecting nature of structures of inequality and privilege and the varied ways in which these are experienced by others and themselves.
4. Proficiently applying sociological concepts to analyze the great moral issues of our time including poverty, racism, sexism, homophobia, genocide, war and peace, religious tolerance and intolerance, the defense of human rights, and the environmental impact of human activity.
Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the role of evidence in sociological thinking and how empirical evidence may be collected and analyzed to answer sociological questions, as demonstrated by:
1. Defining and explaining the relevance of key qualitative and quantitative methodological concepts.
2. Describing the general role of empirical investigation in building sociological knowledge.
3. Comparing and contrasting the basic methodological approaches to gathering data.
4. Designing a research project in an area of choice and explaining why various decisions (concerning sampling, data collection, analysis, and informed consent, etc.) were made.
5. Critically assessing a research publication.

Programs

Major

Sociology, BA

Interdisciplinary Options

Interdisciplinary Sociology

Minor

Sociology Minor

Courses

Sociology