Research & Centers

Family and the Life Course

Faculty in the family and life course area study new family forms, the sociology of sexualities, gender, family violence, work-family connections, linkages between religion and families, attainment processes, criminal careers, transitions between life phases and multiple role trajectories. Affiliated faculty direct the NICHD-supported Youth Development Study on the transition from adolescence to adulthood, and the Flexible Work and Well-Being Project, part of an NICHD/NIOSH research network to understand the connections between work, family life, and health. Faculty in this area have close ties with the School of Public Health and the Child Development Institute.

Faculty
Elizabeth Boyle, Penny Edgell, Scott Eliason, Douglas Hartmann, Kathleen Hull, Erin Kelly, Carolyn Liebler, Enid Logan, Ross Macmillan, Ann Meier, Phyllis Moen, Jeylan Mortimer, Teresa Swartz, Christopher Uggen, and Rob Warren

Inequality: Race, Class, and Gender

Faculty in this area have diverse research interests, including gender differences in earnings, the symbolic construction of race, racial identity, industrialization and inequality, and stratification in post-communist societies. Faculty members in this area maintain close affiliations with the Center for Advanced Feminist Studies, the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, the Department of American Studies, and the MacArthur Interdisciplinary Program on Global Change.

Faculty
Ron Aminzade, Elizabeth Boyle, Scott Eliason, Joseph Gerteis, Teresa Gowan, Douglas Hartmann, Ann Hironaka, Kathleen Hull, Carolyn Liebler, Enid Logan, Ross Macmillan, Ann Meier, Robin Stryker, Teresa Swartz, and Rob Warren

Law, Crime, and Deviance

Faculty in the area of law, crime, and deviance are focused on both the institutional environments of criminal behavior and the individual offender. Faculty interests include organizational responses to crime, law and the mental health system, the social organization of penal institutions, the development of criminal careers, female offenders, the employment-crime relationship, and the spread of international law regarding women’s rights.
Faculty in Law, Crime, and Deviance maintain close working relationships with the University of Minnesota Law School, local law-enforcement agencies, and the courts. Courses in this area merge micro (e.g., criminology, juvenile delinquency, criminal violence, sociology of mental health) and macro (e.g., sociology of law, women and criminal justice, comparative penal policy) sociological approaches.

Faculty
Elizabeth Boyle, Kathleen Hull, Erin Kelly, Candace Kruttschnitt, Ross Macmillan, Carl Malmquist, Joachim Savelsberg, Robin Stryker, and Christopher Uggen

Organizations, Work, and Markets

Organizations and economic institutions such as work and markets are subjects of central sociological concern dating back to the classical foundations of sociology. Analyses on these substantive fields relate to a wide range of sociological topics and approaches. Specifically, members of this department area analyze social networks, cultural institutions, cross-national comparisons, market attainments and stratification, and the life course. The broad topics of their research are the interface among the economy, corporations and social stratification; globalization; production markets; consumption and consumer behavior; labor force demography and labor market processes; labor policies; law and economy; welfare states; education, science and technology; environmentalism; and interest groups and governments. Faculty and seminars in this area link to the Department of Strategic Management and Organization of the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.

Faculty
Jeffrey Broadbent, Penny Edgell, Scott Eliason, Teresa Gowan, Erin Kelly, David Knoke, Phyllis Moen, Jeylan Mortimer, Joachim Savelsberg, Evan Schofer, Rachel Schurman, Robin Stryker, and Rob Warren

Political Sociology and Social Movements

This area focuses on the social underpinnings of political behavior and political changes. Much of this research takes a historical/comparative perspective defined by a concern with the historical dimensions of social life, cross-cultural and spatial differences, and the dynamics of large-scale and long-term processes of change. Current research interests include democracy and development, international legal and political systems, nationalism, globalization, and power and protest in capitalist societies. Faculty in political sociology also participate in interdisciplinary research programs at the University of Minnesota, such as the MacArthur Interdisciplinary Program on Global Change, the Center for the Study of Political Psychology, and the Center for European Studies.

Faculty
Ron Aminzade, Elizabeth Boyle, Jeffrey Broadbent, Joseph Gerteis, Michael Goldman, Teresa Gowan, Douglas Hartmann, Ann Hironaka, Kathleen Hull, Joachim Savelsberg, Evan Schofer, Rachel Schurman, and Robin Stryker