Our department features undergraduate and graduate programs, innovative research opportunities that cut across disciplinary boundaries, and award-winning faculty who are widely recognized for their scholarly publications.
The Department of Sociology at Notre Dame has signature strengths in cultural sociology, the sociology of education, political sociology and social movements, and the sociology of religion.
On the ground in Ghana, Notre Dame sociologist studies how developing nations build effective areas of government
Plenty of scholars study governmental problems and failures in developing nations. Erin McDonnell is interested in what’s going right. McDonnell, the Kellogg Assistant Professor of Sociology at Notre Dame, is examining certain pockets of government in Ghana and other countries to determine how they are succeeding.
Sociologist Christian Smith wins book award for research building innovative theory of religion
Christian Smith, the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Sociology at Notre Dame, has won the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion’s 2018 Distinguished Book Award. The honor, conferred upon the most outstanding book published by an SSSR member in the past two years, lauded the “impressive accomplishment” of Smith’s Religion: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It Matters (Princeton University Press, 2017).
Two professors place on 2019 Edu-Scholar rankings
Two professors from the University of Notre Dame and Institute for Educational Initiatives were named in the Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings, an annual listing published by Education Week of the 200 scholars who had the year’s biggest impact on educational practice and policy. Ernest Morrell, the Coyle Professor in Literacy Education and director of the Notre Dame Center for Literacy Education, ranked 123rd in the 2019 list. Mark Berends, a professor of sociology and the director of the Center for Research on Educational Opportunity, placed 161st.