Department Overview

The Department of Sociology at MSU has adopted a new departmental theme, Global Transformations. Global transformations is rapidly changing the world and our society. People, culture, goods, markets, ideas, and capital are moving globally across national boundaries at ever increasing rates. Global processes are transforming individuals and societies, changing our cities, the ways we communicate, our health and longevity, environmental risks; and leading to new risks and opportunities such as new forms of work, patterns of family living, health care delivery, and ways to distribute food. Given these extensive global changes, sociology itself is changing and no longer can we easily distinguish domestic from international issues. The theme of Global Transformation is found throughout our department's diverse activities, unifying research and scholarship among faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates.

Global Transformations as a department theme celebrates our historical commitment to global comparative and international studies of social change and inequality and African and Asian diasporas. Sociology has research, teaching and service that focus on the challenges of global understanding of social, political and cultural differences and how a global context accounts for social processes, change, and inequality both locally and abroad. This commitment to diversity is reflected in our diverse faculty and student body. The sociology department has faculty who specialize in North America, Africa, Eastern and Western Europe, Russia, Cuba, Taiwan, and Brazil.

Advisory Committee
Areas of Sociology at MSU
Bylaws (PDF - opens in a new window)*
Sociology Related Links
Visiting the Department
What is Sociology?
College of Social Science

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Department Faculty August 2008