About Us
Overview of the Department
The Department of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin is one of the largest and most highly ranked sociology departments in the country. Our group of 44 tenured or tenure-track faculty members allows us to offer an excellent range of opportunities—both inside and outside the classroom—for undergraduate and graduate students. The 2007 US News and World Report Guide to Graduate Departments ranked our program as tied for 14th in overall quality in the country and among the top 10 sociology departments in public universities throughout the country. This high esteem, along with the very high quality of life in the Austin metropolitan area, makes it easy to see why our department has become a very attractive place for some of the leading young sociologists and graduate students to make UT-Austin their home!
Our faculty members are extremely research-active, placing great value in not only disseminating social scientific knowledge but also on producing such knowledge—often working alongside our own students. Our faculty members regularly publish articles in the leading general and specialty journals of our discipline, and books in leading scholarly presses; many of our faculty also have their work funded by grants from the federal government and private foundations. Our faculty and graduate students also regularly present research at conferences throughout the country and in international settings, and are actively sought out by policymakers for advice and by the press for the public’s better understanding of social trends and issues. The faculty section on this website provides a more in-depth look at the areas of specialization and research activity of this very productive and diverse group of faculty members.
The UT Department of Sociology currently serves as the academic home for 120 graduate students and over 500 undergraduate majors. We place tremendous value on our core training in sociological theory as well as methods and statistics at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. We build on that core with a myriad of course offerings in areas such as criminology and deviance, demography, development, education, family, gender, health, political sociology, race and ethnicity, religion, and social stratification. A subset of our undergraduate alumni go on to some of the leading graduate programs and law schools around the country, while most go on to very productive careers in state and local governments, the private sector, and the non-profit sector. Many of our graduate student alumni go on to academic careers at research universities and teaching colleges around the country, while others are placed in research positions in policy settings, governmental settings, and the private sector.
We encourage you to explore the webpages of our faculty and students to look at their research and teaching interests, to contact our Graduate Coordinator (Evelyn Porter) or one of our Undergraduate Advisors (Jackie Dana and Debbie Rothschild) if you are interested in one of our programs, and to take some of the many exciting and important courses that our faculty members offer!