College of Liberal Arts

Department of Sociology

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Reputation of Program

The Department of Sociology at Washington State University has been consistently ranked among the top graduate programs in the nation. In 1994, a comprehensive study of graduate education conducted by the National Research Council ranked Washington State 31st among all graduate programs in sociology in terms of the quality of the program and its faculty. A less comprehensive but more recent survey conducted by U.S. News and World Report ranked Washington State 35th among all graduate programs in sociology in 1998.

The reputation of the department is confirmed by the fact that it has served, in recent years, as the editorial home for several major sociological journals including American Sociological Review, Criminology, and the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.

Productivity of Faculty

A recent study published in Footnotes, the newsletter of the American Sociological Association, compared the reputations of graduate programs with the productivity of their faculty (Bruce Keith, "Scholarship and Departmental Rankings Revisited," Footnotes, May 2000). This study found that Washington State ranked 19th among all graduate departments in terms of the number of articles published by its faculty in seven major journals in the two decades between 1970 and 1989. In addition, this study found that the Washington State also ranked 20th in terms of the number of books published by its faculty during this same time period.

Another study of faculty productivity (John Logan, "Producing Sociology: Time Trends in the Publication of Journal Articles, 1975-1986," The American Sociologist, Summer 1988) found that Washington State ranked 24th among all graduate departments in terms of the number of sole-authored or first-authored articles in the three leading journals of the discipline (American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, and Social Forces) in the ten years between 1975 and 1986.

Placement of Graduates

Since 1980, the Department of Sociology at Washington State University has granted over 100 Ph.D. degrees. Over 60 percent of these graduates secured academic appointments at colleges and universities. Another 35 percent secured comparable research positions with government agencies or private research organizations. For example, our graduates are currently employed at the following universities with graduate programs in sociology:

University of Akron American University University of Arkansas Arkansas State University Auburn University Bowling Green State University Brigham Young University University of California - Riverside California State University - Fullerton California State University - Sacramento Cleveland State University University of Colorado - Boulder University of Colorado - Denver University of Florida Florida International University George Mason University Harvard University Humboldt State University Idaho State University University of Idaho Iowa State University University of Massachusetts - Boston University of Memphis University of Miami Michigan State University Minnesota State University - Mankato University of Missouri - Columbia University of Nebraska - Lincoln University of Nevada - Las Vegas University of Nevada - Reno University of New Mexico New Mexico State Univeresity University of North Carolina - Greensboro North Carolina State University University of North Dakota North Dakota State University Northern Arizona University University of Northern Colorado Ohio University Oklahoma State University University of Oregon Oregon State University Portland State University Purdue University University of South Florida University of Southern California University of Tennessee University of Texas - Austin Texas A&M University Utah State University Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University University of Wisconsin - Madison

In addition, our graduates are currently employed in a number of government agencies and research organizations. These organizations include the Battelle Institute, the Bonneville Power Administration, the State of Washington, the State of Oregon, the State of Idaho, the U.S. Ninth District Court, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the General Accounting Office.

Areas of Specialization

Over the years, the department has developed and maintained several areas of specialization. There are graduate courses and at least three or four faculty members in each of the following areas of specialization:

Criminology and Deviance | Political Sociology | Environmental Sociology | Social Psychology | Family Sociology | Sociology of Gender | Social Stratification | Social Organization | Methods and Statistics | Communities

The department also offers other areas of specialization. There are graduate courses and at least two faculty members in each of the following areas of specialization:

Sociology of Culture | Demography

Research Facilities

The department provides all of its students, both graduate and undergraduate, with ready access to computer equipment and software. Graduate and undergraduate students have access to the facilities of the Social Science Computing Laboratory, located in Wilson Hall . This facility includes sixteen personal computers and a high-speed printer. In addition, graduate students have access to the facilities of the Sociological Data Processing Center, also located in Wilson Hall. This facility includes fourteen personal computers, two printers, and a document scanner. All of these computers are connected directly to the internet via a local server.

The department also maintains the Small Groups Laboratory, which consists of a complex of laboratory and observation rooms, located in the basement of Wilson Hall. This laboratory, which contains television cameras, videotape equipment, monitors, and personal computers, is used to conduct small group experiments and simulations. Furthermore, the department is associated with the Social and Economic Sciences Research Center, also located in Wilson Hall. This center conducts large-scale surveys for a variety of agencies and organizations using both mail and telephone techniques. Graduate and undergraduate students in sociology are often employed in the conduct of these surveys.

Sociology Department, PO Box 644020, Washington State University, Pullman WA 99164-4020, Voice: 509.335.4595, Fax: 509.335.6419, Contact Us