We specialize in the study of social inequality. More specifically, our faculty focus on community and urban sociology, health and medicine, race and ethnicity, and gender. We encourage prospective graduate students interested in these issues to join us! Our urban location and proximity to six major hospitals make UC an ideal place to study urban and health issues, and Sociologists for Women in Society have consistently awarded us their seal of approval for gender scholarship.

The intellectual hub of the department is the Kunz Center for Social Research, an endowed center located within and designated to support the research mission of the department. It provides research funding for faculty and graduate students, and provides an intellectual commons for faculty and students across the university with research interests in urban and race, family and gender, and health issues.