Letter from the Chair

Welcome to the Florida Atlantic University Department of Sociology website. Our Department is among the new "Public Sociology" departments in the United States that are defining sociology as both a scholarly endeavor and as an activity in the service of humanity. Our goals as sociologists are to cultivate scholarship and teaching that are socially relevant, to promote critical thinking, and to contribute to the development of an educated and engaged citizenry. To this end, our department offers a unique program in sociology as its faculty pride themselves to be involved in building a distinctive program that:

• Includes four interrelated concentrations in:
  • Social Inequalities & Social Change
  • Global Sociology and Social Movements
  • Theory, Culture, and Political Economy
• Cultivates an integrated perspective on society in which the social, economic, political, and personal aspects of life are recognized as interlinking realms of human existence.
• Offers a curriculum that provides a rigorous training in critical thinking skills to prepare students for informed and active participation in society.
• Provides students with the opportunity to work with faculty whose areas of research are world-wide.

Every year more than 2200 students enroll in 40 to 50 courses offered by our department's faculty. These courses include foundational classes  in classic and contemporary social theory, qualitative and quantitative methods, core courses in social inequalities, and an expanding range of new courses in global sociology. We have 15 full-time  faculty members, three full-time instructors, 25 graduate students (15  receive full-time assistantships and tuition scholarships), and over 350 undergraduate sociology majors. We offer full degree programs on two campuses. The faculty in our department are scholar-educators who are highly committed to teaching and research excellence. Finally, our department is home to the International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food.

We encourage you to visit us and discover firsthand the variety our unique program offers. Your questions, concerns, and feedback are most welcome. Please contact me at 561-297-0261 or by emailing me at araghi@fau.edu.

We look forward to meeting you.
Farshad Araghi, Chair