Sociology is a broad and sweeping field, with its research foci intersecting with multiple programs and institutes throughout the BU campus. Here is a selection of programs and units in which BU sociology faculty and students have appointments.
American & New England Studies Program (AMNESP) brings students and faculty together that study the disparate yet interconnected cultures of the United States as seen in the ideas and actions of its people, and as expressed in a range of forms, including culture, the arts, media, literature, and institutions. Several BU Sociology faculty are affiliates.
The Center for Anti-Racist Research convenes researchers and practitioners from various disciplines to figure out novel and practical ways to understand, explain, and solve seemingly intractable problems of racial inequity and injustice. The center fosters exhaustive racial research, research-based policy innovation, data-driven educational and advocacy campaigns, and narrative-change initiatives. Saida Grundy is Assistant Director of Narrative.
Center for Innovation in Social Science (CISS) was established in September 2021 to provide an intellectual home for faculty and students engaged in social science research across the BU campus. The Center is dedicated to forging collaborative multidisciplinary faculty research and training future generations of undergraduate and graduate students in the social sciences and related fields by using state-of-the-art methods and approaches and demonstrating the promise of the social sciences to improve human lives. Deborah Carr is director, and many sociology faculty and graduate students are Center affiliates.
The Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences (CDS) is an interdisciplinary academic unit comprising scholars and researchers from various schools and colleges at BU. CDS’ mission is to be a catalyst for synergy and integration of research and education programs in computing and data sciences across the landscape of academic disciplines at BU. Professor Neha Gondal is a Founding Member and Jessica Simes is an Affiliated Faculty member.
The Initiative on Cities engages with urban leaders, academics, and policy makers from around the world to help plan for the development of essential services and sustainable infrastructure necessary for cities to flourish. Japonica Brown-Saracino and other members of our faculty serve on the IOC’s Faculty Advisory Board, as Faculty Fellows, collaborate with the MetroBridge program to engage students with community partners, and direct the IOC’s Urban Inequalities Graduate Student Workshop.
Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer Range Future: The Pardee Center is an interdisciplinary research center affiliated with the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies. The Center brings together faculty from around the university to work on important issue that bear on sustainability, development, global health, and the human condition. In 2018, the Pardee Center supported the Symposium on Global Health and the Social Sciences. Professor Joseph Harris serves as a Faculty Associate with the Pardee Center. A few of our current and former graduate students have served as a Graduate Summer Fellows, including Andrea Beltran-Lizarazo, Heather Mooney, Brittany Frederick (GRS’19), Jonathan Shaffer, and Sasha White (GRS’18). In 2021, Professor Joseph Harris was named an Expert Affiliate at the Pardee Center’s Rising Power Initiative.
Pardee Global Development Policy (GDP) Center: The BU GDP Center advanced policy oriented research for financial stability, human well being, and environmental sustainability across the globe. Professor Susan Eckstein serves on the Steering Committee. Professor Joseph Harris is a Faculty Affiliate at the Center, and graduate student Jonathan Shaffer was a Summer in the Field Fellow at the Center.
Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGS) Program fosters interdisciplinary research and teaching related to the intersections of gender, sexuality, race, nationality, and other categories of identity that organize our lives and life chances. The program offers an undergraduate minor, a graduate certificate, and also sponsors public lectures, film screenings, discussions, and other events. WGS faculty work in and across the natural sciences, humanities, and social sciences and are committed to innovative scholarship and pedagogy, including the interdisciplinary team-teaching that is the cornerstone of both the undergraduate and graduate programs. Professor Cati Connell directs the WGS Program. Other Sociology faculty affiliated with WGS include Japonica Brown-Saracino, Max Greenberg, Saida Grundy, Ashley Mears and Sarah Miller.