Sociology at Washington University strives to understand the origins and reproduction of social inequality and apply that knowledge to address issues of pressing public concern. As a new and growing department, we adopt an approach rooted in the work of W.E.B. Du Bois, focused on undertaking rigorous empirical research to identify and suggest solutions to social problems. Our faculty and students engage core questions through diverse cutting-edge methodological approaches, from interview-based and historical analyses to large-scale quantitative experimental designs. Our location in St. Louis provides an ideal vantage to engage the complex interplay of inequity and policy, along with the vibrant social movements that have emerged to address entrenched injustices in the city and region.
Our faculty occupy positions of leadership both in the discipline and within associations and networks at the forefront of social change efforts. We invite you to explore their research programs, the attention their work has garnered in media and policy circles, the many exciting courses that they have to offer, and the focus of our newly-inaugurated graduate program.
"While the availability of sociology as field of study at WashU might seem unremarkable, it is, in reality, the result of a rare and exciting event only nine years ago: the revival of the Department of Sociology."
In 2015, Washington University re-established the Department of Sociology in Arts & Sciences. Concentrating on the origins and impacts of inequality, faculty and students are investigating some of the nation’s most critical and urgent social challenges.
Caity Collins, an Associate Professor of Sociology at Washington University in St. Louis was featured in The Record. In this feature, we get a closer look at some of the challenges working moms face.
Yannick Coenders, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Washington University in St. Louis was featured in the American Journal of Cultural Sociology. The article looks at recursion from a sociological lens.
In this video feature, recent graduate Mariel Ehrlich, who double majored in Sociology and Latin American studies, talks about her time abroad in Lima, Peru and how studying Spanish has changed her perspective on what it means to be a global citizen.
upcoming events
Who Owns the Future? From Artificial Intelligence to Abundant Imagination
Emerson Auditorium, Knight Hall
Who Owns the Future? From Artificial Intelligence to Abundant Imagination
Ruha Benjamin is the Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, founding director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab, and an award-winning author.
From automated decision systems in healthcare, policing, education and more, technologies have the potential to deepen discrimination while appearing neutral and even benevolent when compared to harmful practices of a previous era. In this talk, Ruha Benjamin takes a transdisciplinary approach to public scholarship, inviting us into the world of biased bots, altruistic algorithms, and their many entanglements, and providing conceptual tools to decode tech predictions with historical and sociological insight. When it comes to AI, Benjamin shifts our focus from the dystopian and utopian narratives we are sold, to a sober reckoning with the way these tools are already a part of our lives. Whereas dystopias are the stuff of nightmares, and utopias the stuff of dreams… ustopias are what we create together when we are wide awake.
Ruha Benjamin is the Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, founding director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab, and an award-winning author. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Fellowship in 2024.
Benjamin's new book, Imagination: A Manifesto, will be available for purchase and signing from 6-6:30 p.m.
This lecture is made possible by the William C. Ferguson fund and is co-sponsored by the Department of English and the Department of Sociology.