Located in Los Angeles, the city that the world watches to detect the shape of the future, UCLA Sociology sets the discipline's pace.   The interests of our internationally-renowned faculty span the entire disciplinary gamut, from the microanalytic (conversation analysis and ethnomethodology)  to  the macroanalytic  (comparative historical sociology);  from the past (18th century China) to the future (the internet); and from here (Los Angeles) to there (Eastern and Western Europe, southeast Asia, Latin America).  Committed to methodological diversity, we conduct sociological research in a myriad of ways, whether through direct observation, archival work, recording of naturally occurring interaction, large-scale sample surveys, experiments, or secondary data analysis.

Our home base -- Los Angeles -- is an extraordinarily dynamic social setting and a rich laboratory for sociological research.   The city’s unparalleled levels of ethnic diversity, social and political experimentation, and diverse urban life provide endless stimulation for sociological eyes, whether professionally trained on the region or not. 

Our faculty has been honored by such esteemed awards as the American Sociological Association Distinguished Book of the Year, American Sociological Association Distinguished Teaching Award, Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundation Awards, a list too numerous to itemize.  Our recent PhD students are now teaching at the world’s leading universities including Michigan, Wisconsin, Yale, and Berkeley, along with some of the very finest liberal arts colleges.  Our undergraduates have excelled in business, academia, the non-profit sector, public service, and the professions.  With these achievements, it is no wonder that we are generally considered among the preeminent sociology departments in the world.

A new generation of scholars has joined the faculty in recent years, and we will continue to recruit yet another more young and mid-career scholars at the discipline's cutting edges.  Our graduate program moves students quickly into research, providing rigorous training in a broad range of methodologies.  Our undergraduate program provides exposure to the full range of sociological concerns and methodologies, while ensuring instruction in the basics, and opportunities for advanced work with faculty in small settings or tutorials.  Welcome to the UCLA Sociology Department!

William Roy, Chair