Letter from the Chair: Department Updates & Reflections
Dear Friends & Alumni,
Greetings from the Department of Sociology!
Department Growth & Transitions
The last couple of years have brought a mixture of accomplishments and challenges in our department. Since fall 2024, we have welcomed three exciting new junior scholars to our tenure-track faculty, and hired two full-time lecturers whose fantastic teaching has enriched the classroom experiences of our undergraduates. At the same time, several of our most esteemed senior faculty have recently transitioned to emeritus status. Our discipline has seen enrollment declines nationwide, but we currently have more that 400 undergraduate majors, maintaining our position as one of the largest departments in the College of Liberal Arts. Our graduate program also continues to thrive, with 48 doctoral students currently pursuing degrees in our department.
Excellence in Research & Rankings
Our department maintains strength in four main research areas: demography, family and life course; global, transnational and comparative sociology; law, crime, punishment and human rights; and, inequalities and culture. Exciting research projects are unfolding in all of these areas, with direct benefits for our undergraduate and graduate students. Reflecting the advantage of the research university setting, our undergraduates take courses informed by the latest cutting-edge research performed by our faculty.
The most recent program rankings by “U.S. News and World Report” ranked our department 22nd nationally, climbing two spots since the previous rankings. Our faculty and students also benefit from critical linkages to various interdisciplinary centers and institutes around the University, including the Institute for Social Research and Data Innovation, the Institute for Global Studies, and the Center on Race, Indigeneity, Disability, Gender & Sexuality Studies. We also pride ourselves on our reputation for engaged sociology, meaning that we strive to do research and teaching that benefits our communities, locally and globally, consistent with the U’s mission as a land-grant university.
Adapting to Current Challenges
The current semester had a bumpy start, due to the presence of federal immigration law enforcement in the Twin Cities. Many of our students (including U.S. citizens and immigrants with legal authorization to be in the country) felt anxious about coming to campus in this environment, which prompted us to move many of our courses to a hybrid modality on a temporary basis, so that students would have the option to attend remotely. One of the advantages of having lived through the COVID-19 pandemic is that we were much better prepared — from both a pedagogical and a technological perspective — to make a quick pivot to the hybrid modality. Despite this challenge, I am confident we will finish this academic year strong, and our students will benefit from a return to full participation in campus life.
Staying Connected
We are so grateful for your past support of the Sociology Department, and we want you to know that future gifts will make an important difference in our ability to continue to attract top scholars to our faculty and to deliver excellent education and training to our students at both the undergraduate and graduate level. Should you find yourself on campus anytime soon, please don’t hesitate to stop by the department. We would love to see you.
Warm regards,
Kathy Hull
Professor & Chair
