The Department of Sociology is an exciting and congenial place to pursue a graduate education. Our faculty now numbers twenty-eight, many of whom have held (or are holding) the highest national and regional professional offices. We have five Distinguished Professors (the highest honor bestowed on faculty by the SUNY system) among our ranks, and many of our faculty have won university awards for Excellence in Teaching, Research, or Service. Sociologists at Albany publish their work in the major sociology journals at a rate higher than almost any other faculty in the country. Since classes are small and our faculty is relatively large, graduate students receive personal attention. Graduate students are paired with faculty mentors, thus affording students the opportunity to participate actively in research projects, often supported by external funding, conducted by the faculty.
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The Demography Certificate is a graduate program designed both for students currently enrolled in graduate programs in social science or public policy areas and for members of the community, such as state employees. The program prepares students with theoretical, substantive, and methodological knowledge of how population processes (e.g., fertility, mortality, and migration) operate in societies and how they interrelate with other social processes. The program is under the guidance of the Graduate Committee in Sociology.
The combined M.A Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies /PhD Sociology program is the outcome of longstanding cooperation and overlapping strengths between the Departments of Sociology and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. It allows Sociology PhD students with interests in Gender Studies and Women’s Studies students with sociological interests to combine their work in these two programs. This is facilitated by the number of joint and affiliated faculty shared between the two departments, as well as by graduate-level cross-listed coursework. It is also facilitated by the willingness of both departments to allow requirements for one program to be included as a portion of the coursework for the other program.
