• Sociology explores the intricacies of social life in all its variety: from the prosaic routines of everyday life to dramatic transformations of state and economy, from the symbolic realm of identity and culture to the structures of class, race and gender that generate inequality. Despite all this diversity, the discipline of sociology has a powerful coherence that comes from a collective dedication to developing theoretical principles about social life and testing them with empirical evidence.
  • This commitment to systematic empirical research represents the strength of the discipline and the chance for a distinctive undergraduate experience for Sociology majors at Barnard.  It exposes them to a range of approaches that include quantitative data collection and analysis, participant observation, intensive interviewing, historical-archival research, and discourse analysis.