Webpages designed by Sine Anahita in collaboration with Jordan Titus, and last updated January 26, 2008.
The University of Alaska Fairbanks is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. UAF is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and educational institution.
"It can be said that the first wisdom of Sociology is this:
things are not always what they seem."
--Peter Berger
things are not always what they seem."
--Peter Berger
Welcome to Sociology!
The Department of Sociology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks offers you the chance to study the diversity of social life, the relations among people, and the various ways and means by which people come together—the “social” as we term it. Our program focuses especially on those social systems that create and maintain inequalities and those that are organized to redress such inequalities and promote social justice.
We offer the discipline’s classical and contemporary social theories, and a range of social science research methods, including quantitative, statistical, and qualitative approaches. Our courses cover the legal and social control systems, institutions and organizations, social issues and social movements, as well as the various cultural forms that help shape and influence our social existence.
Our program fosters what C. Wright Mills called “The Sociological Imagination”—a distinctive perspective that can transcend surface appearances to illuminate the complex social reality underneath. From our program you will hone your sociological imagination and learn to deploy it to understand how broader social forces can constrain or enhance our lives, and to participate in constructive social change.
We invite you to investigate what sociology and our department can offer you. Click on any of the links to the left to find out more about us!
The photo above appears courtesy of the US Library of Congress. It was taken by Asahel Curtis in Alaska in 1914. In it, Athabascan and Eskimo children pose with two nuns outside of the Holy Cross Mission School near the Lower Yukon River. To find out more, visit American Memory at the Library of Congress.