Welcome to the Department of Sociology at The University of Lethbridge
Many of today’s political and media narratives reduce complex social problems – such as crime, poverty, or addiction – to individual failings or simplistic solutions. For sociologists, this is a deeply limited approach, one that overlooks the important relationship between individual behaviours and the social contexts in which those behaviours arise. As C. Wright Mills argued, using a “sociological imagination” enables us to understand how personal troubles connect to larger public issues or, in his words, “to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two.” Thus, individual challenges like relationship issues, workplace concerns, political disagreements, or quality of life are not merely the result of individual choices, talent, hard work, or good luck. Rather, sociologists examine how such experiences are shaped by deeper social structures, such as privilege, inequality, global history, ideology, or other systematic ways of organizing social life within a given culture.
Our department is made up of passionate scholars and educators committed to helping students understand the world through a sociological lens. The undergraduate program explores both current and historical events, and how ideas and institutions affect our experiences of gender, ethnicity, race, age, ability, class, nationality, and sexuality. We also study social processes, such as the rules and norms that guide our everyday lives, and the ways that power operates at multiple levels in our homes and communities.
Core undergraduate courses in contemporary and classical theory, as well as research methods, equip students with the tools to understand social issues from critical and informed perspectives. Building on these core strengths, substantive courses – covering topics such as gender, race and racialization, health, deviance, social stratification, families, the body, and media – encourage students to critically reflect on many aspects of society. We also regularly offer senior seminars on emerging topics, building on the interests of our faculty and students.
Faculty engage in wide-ranging research programs spanning topics such as the contested terrains of marriage law; urban guerrilla movements in former West Germany; oral histories of epilepsy in Canada and the United States; colonial contours of racialized and gendered violence; Blackfoot historical research; intersections of gender and migration; sport and physical culture as both sites of colonial violence and of Indigenous resurgence; and the health and wellness of trans people. Methodological approaches include qualitative interviewing, discourse and media analysis, ethnographic fieldwork, Indigenous methodologies, theoretical research, statistical analysis, surveys, archival research, autoethnography, and arts-based approaches. Our faculty also supervise graduate students in innovative, multi-disciplinary Master’s programs, where graduate students can explore their own scholarly interests and conduct original research.
Our undergraduate and graduate programs foster critical thinking, analytical abilities, and strong communication skills that are highly valued by employers. Graduates are well-prepared for fulfilling careers across a variety of sectors, including community organizations, government agencies, public service, education, and political and social activism. Our programs also serve as a strong foundation for advanced professional degrees, such as law, social work, education, and other related fields.
We are proud of our diverse and inclusive community, and we invite students from all backgrounds to cultivate their own sociological imagination with us.
Welcome to the Department of Sociology at the University of Lethbridge!
Dr. Tom Perks, Chair