Sociology/Anthropology

About the Department

In Sociology/Anthropology, students explore the depth and breadth of human diversity. Taking an integrated approach, the Sociology/Anthropology Department at Earlham combines sociology's focus on institutional order and patterns of social interaction with anthropology's interests in culturally shared meanings and contested power relations.

The curriculum challenges students to question conventional wisdom about contemporary life, while discovering the myriad ways in which individuals and groups negotiate a complex landscape of human creation. Are truly egalitarian societies possible, or is social stratification inevitable? How are norms and sanctions established and challenged? What roles do conformity and conflict play in various communities? Through these and similar questions, we seek perspective on how people continually construct selves and societies, sexualities and identities, symbols and meanings — and deploy power and resistance — in a wide variety of times and places.

Departmental courses address these themes in diverse ways:

• Introductory courses:
  Culture and Conflict; Institutions and Inequality; Identity and Social Movements

• Topical courses:
  e.g., Jackie Robinson: Race, Sport and the American Dream

• Culture Areas:
  Latin America; Japan; Native North America; Indigenous Peoples

• Institutions:
  Sociology of Education; Health, Medicine and Society

• Subfields:
  Anthropological Perspectives on Gender; Urban Studies; Social Deviance; Language and Culture

• Stages in Life Courses:
  Social Construction of Adolescence; Social Construction of Aging

• Theories:
  Classical Social Thought; Contemporary Theory

• Methods:
  Social Research Methods; Ethnographic Research Practicum

An advantage of our integrated approach is that our courses (and our major) may emphasize one discipline more than the other while combining the insights of both. Department faculty offer Earlham Seminars in addition to the courses listed below. In addition, the Department participates in Earlham's interdisciplinary majors, including Human Development and Social Relations, Peace and Global Studies, African and African-American Studies, Latin American Studies, Women's Studies, Comparative Languages and Linguistics, International Studies and Education.

The Sociology/Anthropology Major leads students to develop skills in systemic analysis, understanding diversity and addressing social issues — skills that prepare our graduates to pursue a wide range of careers. Many go on to earn doctorate degrees in sociology, anthropology and related disciplines. In fact, according to HEDS data, Earlham is ranked 29th (in the 98th percentile) among 1,469 institutions of higher learning in the U.S. in the percentage of graduates who go on to receive Ph.D.s in the social sciences.* Other SOAN graduates enter fields such as public health, social work, law, business, education, computer programming and design, international development, public policy and social advocacy. In fact, virtually any career that involves human interactions and social systems can be built on the foundation of an undergraduate degree in Sociology/Anthropology.

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This page last updated: August 12, 2007