Research Clusters

The Gender Cluster encompasses a group of scholars whose research and teaching interests focus on some aspect of gender as one of the major axes of stratification and inequality.

The Governance Cluster brings together faculty and graduate students in the Department of Sociology who are interested in the structures, processes and beliefs that shape collective decision-making and action across changing local, national and global political contexts.

The Health and Social Welfare Cluster focuses broadly on how structural, political, institutional, demographic, cultural and environmental forces shape the policies, practices and disparities of health, health care and welfare.

The Race, Ethnicity and Immigration Cluster brings together faculty and graduate students who are interested in the structures and processes that shape patterns of inequality related to race, ethnicity, nationality and citizenship.

Research in the Social Control Cluster encompasses the origins of interpersonal, collective and social violence; the consequences of incarceration; sex work and stigma; and discrimination and violence.

Researchers interested in social transformations share a conviction that the comparative and historical study of institutions and social fields, in relation to culture and practice, can yield new discoveries about the shared dynamics that drive change in different arenas.