New forms of labor, social movements, family life, health care delivery, military conflicts, and ways to distribute food and services are emerging. These global forces are changing the character of sociology itself.

The MSU Department of Sociology examines these changing social dynamics through domestic and international scholarship. To signify this perspective, the department has adopted the theme of global transformation to indicate what unifies the diverse activities of our faculty and students.

Global transformation implies a commitment to global and cross-national projects and programs. Our research analyzes global social, political, and cultural differences as well as how a global system often shapes social and environmental processes and movements, change, racial and ethnic inequalities, gender relations, social and economic conflict, and innovation.