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Academics

Providing our students with opportunities and the expectation to be active learners fully engaged in exploring our most important societal issues, including social justice, aging, and criminology.

Majors, Minors, and Thematic Sequences

The Department of Sociology and Gerontology offers several options to our undergraduate students.

Majors

  • Sociology
  • Organizational Leadership
  • Social Justice Studies

Minors

  • Pre-Professional Minor in Sociology
  • Minor in Applied Sociological Research
  • Minor in Criminology
  • Health and Aging Practice, Policy, and Administration
  • Leadership and Innovation in an Aging Society
  • Social Justice and Inequalities Minor
  • Crime, Law, and Social Justice Minor

Thematic Sequences

  • Applied Social Science Methods
  • Sociological Perspectives on Inequality
  • Sociological Perspectives on Criminality and Deviance
  • Gender and Family Studies
  • Medical Sociology
  • Aging in Diverse Contexts
  • Health and Aging
  • Social Justice and Inequalities
  • Crime, Law, and Social Justice

Academic Programs

Professor leads students in a class lecture.

Sociology

Sociology connects the individual to society. It explores how individuals are shaped by the societal environment in which they live. Sociology links biography with history linking the individual (micro) to larger social spheres: community (meso); nation (macro); and the international (global).

Student working on artwork with an elderly man.

Gerontology

As a social science, Gerontology focuses on the social construction, meanings, and implications of the aging experience. It integrates knowledge from diverse fields including anthropology, demography, economics, family studies, epistemology and public health, human development, political science, psychology, social work, public policy, and sociology.

Students sit at desk with a United Way sign in the background.

Social Justice Studies

Social Justice explores the ideals of justice, the realities of injustice, and practical solutions to bridge the gap between the two. In your studies, you'll examine a broad range of issues including economic justice, environmental justice, criminal justice, and fundamental human rights as well as assess solution sets to address social inequalities.

Organizational Leadership Major

The Organizational Leadership major allows students to apply sociological, psychological, and political science theories and methods to real world organizational problems. The major is designed to maximize graduates' ability to flexibly adapt to today's continually shifting job requirements, emerging technologies, and new ways of working and collaborating in a dynamic economy.

Core Courses

  • MGT 211: Introduction to Management for Non-business Majors
  • PSY 111: Introduction to Psychology
  • PSY 221: Social Psychology
  • SOC 153: Sociology in a Global Context
  • SOC 262: Research Methods
  • SOC 340: Internship
  • STA 261: Statistics
  • ORG 354: The Social Dynamics of Strategy and Leadership
  • ORG 361: Innovation in Organizations
  • ORG 471: Organizational Leadership Capstone
Students are also required to take an additional 18 credit hours from a variety of electives covering business foundations, leading organizations, and organizations and their environments.
Professor demonstrates to students from the board.

Students develop skills and knowledge relevant for jobs across a variety of sectors, including for-profit businesses, nonprofit organizations, and government. Graduates are also well equipped for a variety of graduate school programs in the social sciences and areas such as business, law, and public policy.

Miami offers two graduate programs in gerontology:

Master of Gerontological Studies

The Master of Gerontological Studies (MGS) degree prepares you for work in a wide variety of aging-related fields. MGS graduates hold jobs in a range of public and private settings as administrators, planners, practitioners, researchers, advocates, and trainers. New job opportunities for well-trained gerontologists are constantly emerging. Many of our graduates go on to pursue doctoral degrees.

Doctorate in Social Gerontology

Our doctoral program encourages you to integrate knowledge and research methods from a range of behavioral and social sciences in your study of social gerontology. Our program–the first in the state of Ohio, and among the first in the nation–prepares scholars and educators who can meet the challenges, demands, and opportunities presented by global aging. You will be prepared to teach and conduct research in institutions of higher education, and hold positions in policy or service organizations.

Department of Sociology and Gerontology

375 Upham Hall
100 Bishop Circle
Oxford, OH 45056