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Undergraduate Students

What is Sociology?

Sociology is the scientific study of society, social institutions, social structure and social relationships. A key contribution of the discipline is the insight that social factors matter; our lives are not only shaped by personal psychology, but also by our place in the social world.

Sociology's areas of inquiry range from intimate family relationships to ties between nation-states; from divisions by race, class, gender and sexuality to shared ideas of common culture; and from understanding the influence of broad-scale social movements to analyzing how adolescents become productive adults.

Sociology at UC Merced Emphasizes:

  • Community Organizing
  • Health/ Environmental Sociology
  • Immigration
  • Inequality (race, class, gender, sexuality)
  • Organizations and Institutions
  • Politics and Social Movements

Why Major in Sociology? (Click Here)

Sociology students sitting in a classroomUC Merced Grad Student Delegation talk with Master's students at
the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras in August 2016.

Left to right (at blue table): Interdisciplinary Humanities student Danielle
Bermudez and Sociology students Maria Mora, Alejandro Zermeno, and Rodolfo Rodriguez)

 

 

 

 

Updated 2021