Welcome Message

Welcome to the Department of Sociology. We are one of the top Departments of Sociology, both nationally and globally. As you explore these pages we hope you will see that we are a thriving community of academic staff, research staff, students and support staff in a university with a global profile and reputation. As part of the Faculty of Social Sciences we work closely with colleagues in Politics and International Studies, Philosophy, Law and History in both our teaching and research.

We are a Department that is known nationally and internationally for its excellence in teaching and research. Over the past few years we have been able to appoint a wide range of new staff at all stages of their careers and this has allowed us to develop both our existing research strengths as well as to address new issues of relevance to the world around us.

All our academic staff have active and evolving research profiles and are involved in networks of academics such as the British Sociological Association, European Sociological Association, International Sociological Association and the American Sociological Association. A number are involved in editing some of the key journals in the discipline as well as in related disciplines.

The Department takes pride in being an integral part of Warwick’s unrivalled undergraduate education experience, both through our own programmes as well as in joint programmes with related disciplines. Since we were established in 1970 we have produced a large number of graduates, and our students have gone on to use their sociological training to develop a broad range of careers. We are also aware that apart from their careers our students have gone on to make important contributions to their communities.

We have a number of MA and MSc taught programmes that attract students who want to continue their sociological education beyond the undergraduate level. These programmes are being developed in new directions and we are also looking to develop some new programmes in the near future.

In addition we have a large community of PhD students who are supervised in their doctoral research within the Department. We place great importance on this aspect of our role and welcome students from all over the world to become part of our PhD programmes.

We also have a commitment to teaching and research that spans disciplinary boundaries. This aspect of our work is reflected in a number of joint undergraduate programmes we teach with related departments. More importantly many colleagues in the department work across disciplinary boundaries in their own research and teaching and this helps our students to experience both a sociological education as well as gain insights from other social science and humanities disciplines.

You will also notice that alongside its regular teaching programmes the department facilitates lively discussions of research through regular seminars, workshops and conferences. All academic staff are active in disseminating their research through academic conferences and networks as well as in impact related activities that are focused on addressing the relevance of our research to wider social and cultural questions.

If you have any questions about the Department please feel free to get in touch.

Professor Ulf Liebe

Head of Department

Email: Sociology-HOD at warwick dot ac dot uk