Sociology Minor

Program Director: Nicole DeLoatch, Ph.D.

The Sociology Minor introduces students to the ways in which social institutions, such as the family, religion, education, mass media, the workplace, and the justice system inform individual and social trajectories. Students will analyze global social processes including culture, identity formation, war and peace, deviance and social control, aging, and social movements; and the investigation of inequalities, for example in the areas of race, class, and gender. Students who minor in sociology are advised to systematically choose their sociology electives (e.g., Social Psychology, Medical Sociology, Social Policy, Problems and Justice). Undergraduates may consult with the department's undergraduate advisor and the undergraduate director in deciding which electives to take. In completing minor requirements, only two courses (six semester credit hours) will be accepted in transfer from other colleges and universities, and only two courses can overlap with major requirements. 

Program Learning Outcomes

1. Critical Thinking: The ability to demonstrate critical thinking through the ability to analyze and evaluate social, political, and/or cultural arguments, including the background assumptions, appropriateness of methods used and the strength of explanatory evidence.
2. Sociological Understanding: The ability to demonstrate sociological understandings of phenomena, for example, how individual biographies are shaped by social structures, social institutions, cultural practices, and multiple axes of difference and/or inequality. Students will be able to apply their “sociological imagination” to analyzing current events, political, economic and cultural media.
3. Written and Oral Communication: The ability to formulate effective and convincing written and/or oral arguments as well as in appropriate graphic forms where appropriate.
4. Methodology: The ability to demonstrate an understanding of several of the major social science research methodologies including research design, data gathering and analysis.