Academics
Take the next step in your educational journey by earning your degree from the Sociology Department at UC Santa Cruz.
Why study sociology at UC Santa Cruz?
Across our academic programs, we teach an especially wide range of theories and methods and provide significant flexibility for students to fully explore and develop specialized understanding of the issues that matter most to them. Our students go on to become thought leaders, knowledge producers, and changemakers across many sectors of society that work to address social issues, including social services, government, business, community organizations, education, public policy, media, academia, and more.
We offer particularly rich learning opportunities in the following interrelated topical areas that draw upon the unique research and teaching strengths of our faculty:
Political economies and ecologies
Students learn about the interconnections between the environment and our social and economic systems through courses like Work and Labor Markets, Society and Nature, Environmental Inequality, Eco-Metropolis, Capitalism and Its Critics, and Black Botanical Medicine in the Americas.
Space, place, and mobility
Courses like Migrant Europe, Space and the Politics of Difference, and Global Cities provide students with opportunities to explore critical approaches to human geography.
Culture, knowledge, and power
This area holds the largest number of undergrad electives, including Health and Medicine, Healing Justice, Genomics and Society, Sex as Social Practice and Representation, Sociology of Knowledge, Theories and Methods for the Analysis of Popular Culture, Cultural Politics of Gender and Erotic Sovereignty, Educational Inequality, Social Welfare, Global and Transnational Perspectives in Science and Technology Studies, Health in a Changing America, Black Botanical Medicine in the Americas, and Race, Gender, Sexuality and Cultural Politics.
Offerings at the graduate level include our core theory courses Culture/Knowledge/Power and Identity and Inequality, as well as Classical and Contemporary Social Theory. We also offer a related core methods course, Analysis of Cultural Forms, and topical seminars like Global and Transnational Perspectives in Science and Technology Studies and Science and Justice: Experiments in Collaboration.
Publics, policy, and law
Undergraduate courses include Sociology of Law and senior seminars such as Housing Justice, California and the Quest for Health Equity, and Law, Health, and Human Rights. A cornerstone of this area is the Community Engaged Research Practicum, which allows undergrads to participate in large scale research projects with community partners, and our new Community Engaged Research, Learning, and Internships, which provides scaffolding for students involved in individual field studies and internships. Grad courses include Community-Engaged Research, and Science and Justice: Experiments in Collaboration.
World building, political imaginaries, and alternative futures
Ideas related to social change are woven throughout many of the above areas, but undergraduate courses explicitly within this area include Sociology of Social Movements, Sociology of Emotion, and Capitalism and Its Critics. Graduate courses include Social Movements and Political Affect and Emotion.
Discover our degree options and student resources:
Student experiences
Saugher Nojan: UC Free Speech Fellow
Ph.D. candidate Saugher Nojan was named a 2019-20 fellow of the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement, where she conducted a UC-wide study of Muslim students to assess campus climate and how it inhibits or encourages students’ participation in campus life. She is now an Assistant Professor of Sociology & Asian American Studies at San Jose State University.
Asante Nkosi: Standing tall and giving back
Asante Nkosi, a double major in sociology and history, focused his studies on Black U.S. history and the Civil Rights Movement, seeking to understand the roots of today’s injustices. While on campus, he took part in experiential learning and a quarter abroad in Argentina and Chile. He is now a lawyer in Los Angeles.
Diane N. Nguyen: Alumna leads with love through her philanthropic firm
2011 sociology graduate Diane N. Nguyen says that, during her time at UCSC, compassionate professors and teaching assistants inspired her to “remain curious, ask challenging questions, and advocate for what I believe in.” She encourages current first-generation students at UCSC, to embrace their identity, seek support, get involved, set goals, and believe in themselves.