Sociology
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Welcome to the Department of Sociology
Fall 2010 Newsletter
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Sociology studies how societies are organized, and the consequences of varying forms of organization on people's lives. It is scientific, based upon systematic analyses of evidence; it is non-obvious, in making discoveries that might not otherwise be noticed; and it is important, in identifying opportunities and strategies for change that can improve society.
Purdue's Department of Sociology: produces world-class scholarship, in the books and articles it publishes; offers two outstanding undergraduate majors, one in Sociology and another in Law and Society; and delivers an exceptionally strong graduate program leading to the Ph.D. At the graduate level, the Department's research and training programs are currently organized into six areas: Family and Gender; Health, Aging, and the Life Course; Law and Society; Sociology of Religion; Social Inequality; and Social Movements and Political Sociology.
Bert Useem
Professor and Head
Departmental Highlights
Dr. Michael Vuolo joined the faculty as an assistant professor in Fall, 2011. Professor Vuolo received his PhD in sociology, MS in statistics, and MS in mathematics from the University of Minnesota. His research in law and society examines how variation in laws affects deviant behavior, the effect of low-level offenses on employability, and inmate adjustment to prison. He also conducts life-course research on the outcomes of pathways through education to careers.
Dr. Monica M. Trieu joined the faculty in Fall, 2011, and holds a joint appointment in Sociology and Asian American Studies. Professor Trieu received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Irvine. Her teaching and research interests include immigration, race and ethnicity, assimilation, and the Asian American experience. She is the author of Identity Construction among Chinese-Vietnamese Americans: Being, Becoming, and Belonging.
Professor Fenggang Yang is the Director of the Center on Religion and Chinese Society here at Purdue. The Center’s newsletter can be found here. A $2 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation to the Center supports studies and train researchers in the social scientific study of religion in China and in the Chinese diaspora. Watch an interview from the John Templeton Foundation here.
Graduate student Tyrell Connor received the 2011 H.H. Remmers Memorial Award, which is given by the African American Studies and Research Center for outstanding academic performance and leadership potential. Dean Irwin Weiser presented him with a plaque.
