A Global Reputation
The BU Sociology Department is dedicated to original research by its award-winning faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate majors. Our research spans the globe, and tackles topics of historical, contemporary and future significance.
By any indicator, the BU Sociology Department ranks among the most innovative and accomplished in the nation. Sociology faculty members have published widely, engaged in public outreach through the mass media, consulted on national and international research enterprises, and edited field-defining edited volumes and academic journals. Their recent scholarship has won major book prizes and other honors from the American Association of State and Local History, American Sociological Association, Eastern Sociological Society, Gerontological Society of America, International Network for Social Network Analysis, Law and Society Association, Sociologists for Women in Society, Urban Affairs Association and more. They have also received prestigious grants and fellowships, including those from the American Council of Learned Societies, Borchard Foundation, Charles Koch Foundation, Ford Foundation, Fulbright, Gates Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, National Institutes for Health, National Science Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Rockefeller Foundation.
The department has developed an international reputation for innovative research in several key areas, particularly crime and law; culture; economic sociology; global/transnational sociology; gender and sexuality; health and medicine; migration; and urban sociology. Our faculty members and graduate students work in diverse research methods, including archival, ethnographic, in-depth interview, survey data, network approaches, and more.