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About Us

Stanford’s Sociology Department has a long and rich tradition of scholarship and teaching. U.S. News and World Report’s 2013 survey ranks us among the top five departments in the U.S., as well as first in the special areas of economic sociology and social psychology, and second in social stratification.

Our undergraduate major is small and intensive, our coterminal master’s program is one of Stanford’s most popular, and our doctoral program attracts hundreds of applicants from around the world, seeking our advanced, rigorous and highly personalized training. Long known for being at the cutting edge of quantitative methods, we also train students and researchers in qualitative and mixed-methods research. The current Department Chair is Professor Xueguang Zhou.

Sociology faculty are prominent in the university community, serving as directors of:

  • The Institute for Research In the Social Sciences (Karen Cook, who is also Vice-Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity)

  • The Clayman Institute for Gender Research (Shelley Correll)

  • Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality (David Grusky)

  • The Asia-Pacific Research Center (Gi-Wook Shin)

  • The Native American Studies program within the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (C. Matthew Snipp)

Our strength is augmented by outstanding affiliated sociologists in the Graduate School of Business, the Graduate School of Education, and Stanford Law School. Please explore the pages within this website, and feel free to contact us for further information.