SOCIOLOGY FACT SHEET

• The UW Department of Sociology is consistently ranked among the top 20 graduate programs in the country. 
• Five members of our faculty have been honored with UW Distinguished Teaching Awards, two have received UW Distinguished Graduate Mentor Awards, and two have received Distinguished Public Service Awards.
• The undergraduate major in sociology features practicum courses in which students bring their sociological knowledge, skills, and passions to real-world settings.

UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION

The study of sociology provides students with knowledge of and a perspective on social life that transcends their personal experience and helps them understand the world they live in. Through coursework and research, students learn about the implications of technology on society; how social factors shape deviance, social control, and criminal justice contact; forces shaping access to housing and other resources; the experiences of different immigrant groups; the extent of health disparities across social groups; how political and religious institutions shape society; and the many factors that produce and reproduce social inequality.

UW Sociology courses attract more than 4,500 students each year, many of them non-majors fulfilling general education requirements of the College of Arts & Sciences and other units. We graduate around 200 majors annually and serve many more sociology minors.

The Sociology Honors Program offers students in their senior year the opportunity to complete a full research project, starting with the articulation of a significant sociological question, progressing through the collection and analysis of appropriate data, and finishing with the presentation of results. This academically rigorous, cohort-based program is designed for students interested in graduate work in sociology or in related professional fields.

The undergraduate major features a diverse set of practicum courses where students develop real-world experience in conjunction with classroom learning. Sociology students have worked with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Contracts Compliance Program on workplace discrimination issues; in Seattle Public Schools as tutors; at grassroots organizations like the inter-generational Vietnamese nonprofit Helping Link; and with national organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union. Our research practicum offers an opportunity for students to conduct a research project that brings their sociological knowledge and skills to the community. In recent courses, students worked with the City of Seattle to assess impacts of homelessness on downtown business, and with Sound Transit to develop new methods to assess safety and disorder in the local light rail system.

GRADUATE EDUCATION

The department’s graduate program consistently ranks among the top twenty in the country. The aim of the PhD program is to train students to be independent sociological researchers. In addition to coursework, graduate students participate in working groups, seminar series, and professionalization activities, all of which contribute to a highly collaborative intellectual environment. UW Sociology has particular strength in quantitative methods and the study of demography; socio-legal systems; housing and homelessness; health inequality; and states, markets and societies. Across all areas, graduate students benefit from the department’s deep connections to affiliated research centers on campus and partners in the community.

Students

Autumn 2025

• 325 Undergraduate majors
• 53 Graduate Students

Degrees Awarded

Summer 2024 - Spring 2025

• 195 Bachelor of Arts degrees
• 7 Master of Arts degrees
• 3 PhD degrees

Major Student Awards

Since 2020

• 1 Gates Cambridge Scholarship
• 1 Population Health Recognition Award
• 1 Bonderman Fellowship
• 4 Husky 100 honorees
• 8 Mary Gates Scholars
• 1 Homecoming Scholar 
• 2 American Sociological Association Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grants
• 5 UW Top Scholar Awards
• 3  Office of Graduate Student Equity and Excellence Fellowships
• 2 IPUMS Research Awards
• 1 International Network for Analytical Sociologists (INAS) Robert K. Merton Award for the Best Paper in Analytical Sociology
• 1 ASU BRIDGS Emergent Scholar Fellowship

Alumni from the Department of Sociology have translated their degrees into successful careers in business, education, law, law enforcement, social work, and government. Most of our graduate students pursue faculty careers in higher education or conduct research in private, non-profit, or government organizations.

Autumn 2025

• 6 Professors
• 6 Associate Professors
• 1 Associate Teaching Professor 
• 5 Assistant Professors
• 1 Assistant Teaching Professor

Faculty awards and honors include:

• 2 Members of the National Academy of Sciences
• 6 Members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• 6 Members of the Washington Academy of Sciences
• 4 Fellows at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences
• 1 Past President of the Population Association of America
• 1 Past President of the American Sociological Association
• 5 UW Distinguished Teaching Awards
• 3 UW Distinguished Graduate Mentor Awards
• 1 UW Distinguished Public Service Award
• 1 UW Honors Program Excellence in Teaching Award
• 1 American Sociological Association Distinguished Early Career Award
• 1 American Sociological Association Peterson-Krivo Mentoring Award 
• 1 American Sociological Association Leo Goodman Award
• 1 American Sociological Association Sociology of Mental Health Best Publication Award
• 1 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Award

Department faculty are engaged in research on a wide variety of important issues, including:

• how different economic and social institutions shape inequality (racial, ethnic, health, income, educational);
• how race and indigeneity are defined, manipulated, and challenged within organizations and institutions;
• the complex role of neighborhoods on violence, crime and health outcomes;
• incorporating social change into population projections;
• the role of housing finance in shaping the urban landscape;
• the creation and implications of racial disparities in the juvenile and the adult justice systems;
• the role of law in reproducing inequality;
• the role of social networks in organizational processes, migration and health outcomes;
• the role of gender and sexuality in family organization and life course experience.

Research conducted by UW Sociology faculty has directly impacted policies and programs in Seattle, Washington state, the US, and the United Nations.

Areas of Research

• Crime, Law & Deviance
• Demography
• Health and Health Disparities
• Housing and Homelessness
• Inequality
• Migration Studies
• Race, Ethnicity, and Indigeneity
• Research Methods, Social Statistics, and Data-Intensive Social Science
• States, Markets & Society

Research Partners

• Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences
• Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology
• Comparative Law and Society Studies Center
• Center for Social Science Computation and Research
• eScience Institute
• Population Health Initiative
• Qualitative Multi-Method Research Initiative (QUAL)
• Urban@UW
• West Coast Poverty Center

Department of Sociology
211 Savery Hall
Box 353340
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
(206) 543-5882
Email: uwsoc@u.washington.edu
Website: soc.washington.edu

last update: July 2025