Department Overview

Our Past and Present

The Department of Sociology was established as an academic unit in LSU’s College of Arts and Sciences in 1928. Prior to that time, sociology was a component of the Department of Economics and Sociology. At its inception, Fred C. Frey was the Department’s sole member. Dr. Frey completed his PhD at the University of Minnesota under the direction of Pitirim Sorokin, one of the most important early figures in American sociology. In the years that followed, the faculty and student ranks in the Department grew. In addition to undergraduate instruction, the Department began training graduate students, awarding its first MA in 1931 and first PhD in 1937.

Today, the Department continues to carry on a tradition of dedication to research and teaching as a unit in LSU’s College of Humanities & Social Sciences. Our faculty pursues nationally and internationally recognized research on basic and applied social science questions. We serve over 400 undergraduate majors and 200 undergraduate minors, and make an important contribution to LSU’s general education mission. We are also home to a vibrant PhD program with about 50 graduate students, offering the only PhD in sociology in the State of Louisiana. Our graduate students come from across the United States (recent students have come from Louisiana, Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and other states) and from several other countries (recently from Bangladesh, Cameroon, China, Ghana, India, Pakistan, South Korea, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, and Turkey). Typical graduate "cohorts" consists of 6-13 students, with most funded through graduate assistantships, fellowships, or grants. The Sociology Graduate Student Organization (SGSA) is our student organization that seeks to provide sociology graduate students with enhanced scholarship and fellowship experiences at LSU. Our PhD alumni work, again, across the United States and the world. Most attain professorial positions in US colleges and universities. Others have pursued careers in research institutions, governmental agencies, and private industries.

Our faculty pursues nationally and internationally recognized research on basic and applied social science questions. Our faculty has strong expertise in an array of substantive research areas. The department is also methodologically diverse employing a variety of quantitative (e.g., spatial analysis, social network analysis, survey, and longitudinal modeling) and qualitative (e.g., participant observation, ethnography, video ethnography) approaches.