The Department of Sociology and Anthropology embraces a range of disciplines and their related subfields: anthropology, gerontology and sociology. Our graduates are represented in careers such as social work, teaching, healthcare, politics, law, nonprofits, public administration and social policy. In addition to course content, students who choose one of these majors or minors acquire a valuable set of skills useful in their future professions or in graduate education, including:
Diversity Awareness. Students go outside their comfort zone to not only witness but identify with and appreciate the perspective of diverse groups.
Social Scientific Literacy. Students learn the logic of research methodology and are able to understand and critique the results of scientific research generated by scholars in the discipline.
Critical Thinking. Students apply disciplinary theories and concepts to interpret various social phenomena and scholarship from multiple perspectives through clear oral and written articulation.
Sociological Understanding of Society. Students discuss the theories, critical concepts and ideas that form the basis of disciplinary knowledge and understand how social structure affects the distribution of cultural and material resources across social groups.
The department offers majors in Sociology and Gerontology (Gerontology is no longer accepting new students). More information about the different options is available on the Majors tab. Coursework in the department provides students with skills that make them invaluable as workers, as community leaders and as citizens of a diverse, interconnected nation and world. Our majors graduate with the ability to appreciate diversity, to facilitate discussions across diverse viewpoints, to gather and assess evidence, and to evaluate programs and then “think outside the box” to act as leaders of innovation and change in the workplace.
The core of the Sociology and Gerontology majors is our internship program. As one of the first departments at Quinnipiac to have centered our majors around an applied internship, we have 35 years of experience in helping students translate their classroom knowledge into real-world, in-demand job skills. In addition to rigorous academic preparation, the department stresses the applicability and usefulness of this training through an upper-division experience in any number of internships at professional settings.
Anthropology, Gerontology and Sociology are united by a core set of classes designed to cultivate an appreciation for social and cultural diversity as well as to give students applied data analysis skills relevant to a career in any field. Students are taught to observe the ways that social and cultural forces shape both groups and individuals, and are provided with the skills of scientific inquiry that will enable them to be critical thinkers who can analyze the causes and consequences of social interaction in a wide range of settings.
Sociology
Sociology is the discipline of understanding society and social groups. Quinnipiac University offers a sociology degree, in which students can choose all their elective coursework from courses within the program, or students may choose a concentration in social work and community services to focus their course of study. Through their study, students learn how groups interact and the social reasons for individual and group behaviors. Coursework is enriched by a required internship. Internships let students apply their classroom experiences in professional settings. Our internship program is unique as we meet with each student to assess their professional interests before recommending appropriate internship sites. In addition to 120 hours at the internship site, students participate in a weekly seminar to connect skills they take from the internship to their coursework and to form a community among their peers. Sociology majors also have the option to complete two different internships that teach them about working in diverse settings. Our major equips students with the applied skills, capabilities and work experience to enable them to begin careers immediately upon graduation or to pursue graduate education in related areas. As such, sociology is applicable to a wide range of fields for which understanding groups, social interactions and diversity are essential: social work, teaching, healthcare, politics, law, nonprofits, public administration and social policy among others. Our program requirements incorporate the skills needed for the 21st-century workforce: diversity awareness, critical thinking, quantitative social scientific reasoning and a sociological understanding of society.
Anthropology (AN)
AN 101H. Honors Local Cultures, Global Issues.3 Credits.
This introductory course designed for Honors Program students provides a broad overview of cultural anthropology, giving students the tools to understand, speak and write about human diversities and similarities cross-culturally. Course materials emphasize issues of race, ethnicity, class and gender, making visible for students the inequalities and power dimensions embedded in societies throughout the globe.
Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, All
UC: Social Sciences, Intercultural Understand
AN 103H. Dirt, Artifacts and Ideas.3 Credits.
This course introduces students to the social science of archaeology, one of the four subdisciplines within anthropology. Students explore the history and methodology of archaeology, human evolution and adaptation. They learn to interpret archaeological data and study the relationship between humans and the natural environment. The ethics of doing archaeological fieldwork and the contemporary debates within the discipline also are discussed.
Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, All
UC: Social Sciences, Intercultural Understand
AN 104. Bones, Genes and Everything In Between.3 Credits.
In this course, students explore human origins and modern human diversity from a holistic, biocultural evolutionary perspective. Participants begin with the processes of evolution and natural selection, along with the mechanisms of genetic inheritance at the molecular level and its role in modern human diversity. Next they focus on our closest living relatives, the non-human primates, and then discuss the evidence for primate and human evolution found in the fossil record. The course concludes by exploring the origins of modern humans and their dispersal across the globe.
Corequisites: Take AN 104L.
Offered: Every year, Fall
UC: Natural Sciences
Gerontology (GT)
GT 211. Introduction to Social Work.3 Credits.
This course provides students with an introduction to social work profession, including its historical roots, its fundamental principles and its areas of practice. The course provides an overview of social work methods, skills, values, ethics and the social service delivery system, utilizing the Council of Social Work Education (CSWE) core competencies for social work education, and the National Association of Social Work (NASW) code of ethics. Attention is given to populations vulnerable to poverty, social, economic, racial, and environmental injustice, fostering awareness and understanding of systemic barriers and inequalities. By the end of the course, students will develop an introductory understanding of how social theories inform social work practice, empowering them to work with individuals, groups, and communities in a holistic manner.
Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, Fall and Spring
Sociology (SO)
SO 101. Introduction to Sociology.3 Credits.
Our society and culture influence who we are, how we feel about ourselves, and how we interact with others. This course investigates the ways in which our social institutions such as the family, the government, politics, religion, health care and others shape our experience. Students also look at the ways in which gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity and social class affect their life. The differences that characterize a stratified society in opportunity, reward, achievement and social class are discussed.
Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, All
UC: Social Sciences
SO 320H. Honors Sociology of Hip-Hop Culture.3 Credits.
This course designed for Honors Program students examines the formation, growth and current state of hip-hop culture through a sociological lens. Through a rigorous analysis of hip-hop, students are challenged to think critically and sociologically about the culture and its place in society and develop a clearer understanding of the history and social significance of the culture. Participants cover topics such as race, capitalism, misogyny, cultural appropriation, urban policy and feminism. This course serves as a space for students to analyze the societal structures and forces that influence the culture, as well as how hip-hop influences the world.
Prerequisites: Take SO 101 or SO 101H or SO 225 or SO 244;
Offered: As needed
UC: Breadth Elective, University Curriculum Ele, Intercultural Understand