About the Department
The Sociology & Anthropology Department builds from the strengths of faculty in the disciplines of anthropology and sociology. Both sociology and anthropology study human behavior, social interaction, and social organization. Both are concerned with how societies are organized and why people act as they do, but approach these issues from different perspectives and traditions.
Anthropology takes a holistic, comparative approach focused on humanity as both biological and cultural beings. Courses explore the similarities and differences in the ways humans organize their lives. Anthropologists in the department examine human origins and evolution, the prehistoric past, recent and contemporary forms of human culture and society, patterns of communication, and forensics in a variety of places spanning the globe.
Sociology focuses on social causes and consequences of individual and group behavior and interaction. It takes its cue from C. Wright Mills' famous work on "the sociological imagination" as the "intersection of biography and history within society." Sociologists at Ohio University apply this insight to study how social behavior becomes organized, institutionalized, and transformed at the macro level of societal change, the micro level of individual belief and action, and everything in between. Specific emphases include crime and deviance, social inequalities, poverty and social welfare, and the intersections of race, class, and gender.
Teaching:The Sociology & Anthropology Department is home to award-winning teachers, some of whom have received more than one award. The department is committed to effective teaching and to fulfilling the mission of the department and College of Arts & Sciences. That commitment to excellent teaching does not diminish its commitment to maintaining the first-rate quality of faculty research.
History of the Sociology & Anthropology Department
Founded in 1920, the Sociology & Anthropology Department is one of the oldest in the country and has carried out this mission for Ohio University for almost a century. The Master of Arts in Sociology dates from 1932, and the B.A. in Sociology-Criminology was established in 1980. The B.A. in Anthropology was established in 1967.
The department has long enjoyed a strong commitment to excellence in both teaching and research.
"We see ourselves fitting nicely with the overall mission of both the college and the university," says retired Department Chair Dr. Christine Mattley , "Our commitment to superior teaching is evidenced by our many award-winning teachers. However, we also have the strong commitment to research and scholarly activity that one would expect at a Research 1 university."
Sociology & Anthropology Missions
The Sociology & Anthropology Department supports the mission of Ohio University and the College of Arts & Sciences "to advance the interrelated areas of teaching, research, and outreach in a learning-centered community" that "foster(s) creativity, scholarly discovery, academic excellence and global citizenship." Its two distinct but complementary disciplines, sociology and anthropology, emerge from different intellectual traditions. However, both seek to provide training in foundational critical learning, analytical, and research skills combined with breadth and depth of knowledge about social, cultural, and behavioral processes that span the globe and the diversity of human experience to prepare students with the knowledge and skills they need to be productive community members and global citizens.
Sociology Mission
Excellence in instruction on the social causes and consequences of criminal and deviant behavior, social inequalities, and social policy that spans general education, undergraduate majors and graduate students in sociology and interdisciplinary programs across the campus.
- Nationally and internationally prominent research in criminology, poverty and inequality, rural development, gender, and social interaction.
- Enhancement of critical and analytic learning skills in both undergraduate and graduate education through emphasis on writing and qualitative and quantitative research methods.
- Diversity education through instruction and research on diverse forms of human society and social organization, with emphasis on gender, race/ethnicity, class, and place as organizing principles of social life.
- Service to the university, the discipline, the region and beyond through applied research, instruction and outreach on issues of poverty, crime, inequality, and social and economic development.
Anthropology Mission
- Excellence in instruction for undergraduate majors, general education, and interdisciplinary and graduate programs across the university.
- Nationally and internationally prominent research in Mesoamerican archaeology; Ohio Valley archaeology; forensic anthropology; African, Southeast Asian, and South Asian ethnography; and applied anthropology.
- Enhancement of critical and analytic learning skills in both undergraduate and graduate education through training in research methods and writing.
- Fostering values of diversity and inclusiveness though anthropology's uniquely holistic, comparative, and scientific approach to the study of the biological, social, and cultural aspects of human life.
- Student preparation to be global citizens in a rapidly changing and multi-cultured world.
- Service to the community and region through instruction, research, and outreach in environmental archaeology, forensic anthropology, applied anthropology, and the Ohio Valley International Council.