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 five 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.
WashU Creates Diverse Sociology Department from the Ground Up
This article highlights to rediscovery of Washington University's Sociology. In 2015, Sociologists Adia Wingfield, David Cunningham, and Jake Rosenfeld joined hands to create a department that encouraged diversity and focused on the demographics of the St. Louis area. Over the last 6 years the department has made an impact on WashU's campus, while paving the way for several other universities across the country.
U.S. banned imports from China’s Xinjiang region. Will Americans object?
Tim Bartley, a Sociology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, was recently featured in The Washington Post. In the article points out that when companies promise concrete action on human rights violations, Americans are less likely to support government intervention. However, this time, there’s a catch. Bartley takes a closer look!
WashU Experts: Supreme Court decision will transform American life, politics
Zakiya Luna, an Associate Professor of Sociology at Washington University in St. Louis was featured in The Source. Luna gives insight on inequality and child care, take a closer look!
Getting Lost & Found in Peru
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.
Opinion: The 1936 manual that enshrined racism in America's housing
Elizabeth Korver-Glenn is a new Assistant Professor of Sociology at Washington University in St. Louis whose research focuses on racial and economic housing inequalities. She is the author of "Race Brokers: Housing Markets and Segregation in 21stCentury Urban America" (Oxford University Press 2021). The views expressed here are her own. Read more opinion on CNN.
Best States for Racial Equality in Education
Adia Harvey Wingfield, a Professor of Sociology at Washington University in St. Louis, says it starts with the racial wealth gap, enabling more white parents to live in expensive neighborhoods with schools they believe will be better for their kids.
Activism, Scholarship, and Radical Self-Care: a Conversation with ericka huggins
Activism, Scholarship, and Radical Self-Care: a Conversation with ericka huggins
Come join the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellows for the 2023 virtual symposium.
The virtually-moderated discussion between Huggins and Angela LeBlanc-Ernest will cover Huggins’ academic and community work, Black Panther Party Community Programs, and Huggins’ recent co-authored publication, Comrade Sisters: Women of the Black Panther Party.
Speaker Information
Ericka Huggins is an educator, Black Panther Party member, former political prisoner, human rights advocate, and poet. For 50 years, Ericka has used her life experiences in service to community. From 1973-1981, she was director of the Black Panther Party’s Oakland Community School. From 1990-2004 Ericka managed HIV/AIDS Volunteer and Education programs. She also supported innovative mindfulness programs for women and youth in schools, jails and prisons.
Ericka was professor of Sociology and African American Studies from 2008 through 2015 in the Peralta Community College District. From 2003 to 2011 she was professor of Women and Gender Studies at California State Universities- East Bay and San Francisco. Ericka is a Racial Equity Learning Lab facilitator for WORLD TRUST Educational Services. She curates conversations focused on the individual and collective work of becoming equitable in all areas of our daily lives. Additionally, she facilitates workshops on the benefit of self care in sustaining social change. She is co-author, with Stephen Shames, of the book, Comrade Sisters-Women of the Black Panther Party, published in 2022.
Angela D. LeBlanc-Ernest is an independent scholar, documentarian, multi-media content creator, oral historian, and community archivist whose projects focus on 20th-century social movement history, gender, education, and culture. She received a Bachelor’s in Afro-American Studies from Harvard University and a MA in History from Stanford University. She has spent her 30+ year career bridging the divide between academic institutions and communities by developing and participating in projects that have public history components and incorporating narrators themselves in the process. Most recently, she was a photographic archival and an oral history consultant for Comrade Sisters: Women of the Black Panther Party (2022), author of the books companion guide, the Comrade Sisters Women of the Black Panther Party Discussion and Resource Guide, and co-organizer of the Comrade Sisters book tour. Angela is the founding director of The OCS Project LLC, an academic research project that focuses on the Oakland Community School, one of the Black Panther Party’s educational institutions and flagship community programs. She also is the recipient of a 2022-2023 Oral History Association and National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for her to work on the Oakland Community School Oral History Project.