Students pursuing a degree in sociology at Ithaca College explore the complex dynamics that exist between individuals, their collective identity, and actions in groups, as well as the social codes and behavioral patterns of larger local, national, and global human structures.
How do societies change? What makes social order possible? What are the sources of conflict in society? How is power exercised and how is ideology used to control people? How do people organize to create change? How do racial and ethnic prejudices develop and become entrenched in society? How do we define human sexuality and sexual norms? How has the family unit evolved over time?
As sociology students you study the intended and unintended consequences of social life. The Ithaca College Sociology Department will encourage you to accomplish this through co-curricular means. That is, we encourage to bring together multiple aspects of your college education . We want to help you to put together a major that helps you to understand how to use sociology in the public interest, and how sociologists develop skillful engagements in community life. You will be inspired to develop your own themes of study within the department and the college and your own perspectives and skills for a public sociology. Themes of study might include studies in gender and social change, crime and social justice, environment and culture, human services and public sociology, or family, gender and work, for example.
Your studies in sociology will include an inquiry into both the traditional foundations of social life: social institutions and organizations, individuals and culture, social change and inequality, and other curricular and co-curricular experiences that might occur on or off campus. The curriculum reflects a new awareness by many sociology departments, that there is a need for a "public sociology", a sociology that brings its findings and insights to inform public discussions about social issues.
Our faculty members work closely with students to help them develop skills in writing and analysis, computer usage, and research methods. Students develop their own interests through internships in real-world settings and through close collaboration with faculty in independent study projects.
Many colleges, including Ithaca College, encourage students to develop evidence of their learning and evidence of their individual growth. As a student here, you will develop themes and clusters of courses that when viewed together form a body of evidence of your learning throughout your college years. We will encourage you to develop e-portfolios that show evidence of the themes reflected in the clusters of courses, projects, papers, web pages, and co-curricular activities you have engaged in during your college years. We encourage you to develop a media rich resume’ by collecting, selecting and publicizing your work on the web and in other contexts.
