Welcome to the Department of Sociology at the University of Akron.

Sociology has a long history at the University of Akron.  Our Department began offering undergraduate degrees in 1934 when we separated from the Department of Economics.  An M.A. degree was approved in 1963, with our first master’s degree awarded in 1966.  In 1973, we received approval for a joint Ph.D. program between the University of Akron and Kent State University.  Our first doctoral degrees were awarded in 1979.

Presently, we are a dynamic and productive community of faculty, staff and students.  At the undergraduate level, we offer two baccalaureate degrees: sociology and sociology/criminology and law enforcement.  Approximately 60 percent of our 500 active majors are in criminology and law enforcement.  In addition to graduate study in sociology and law school, our graduates have secured careers as Federal agents (e.g. U.S. Secret Service, the FBI), marketing, sales, public administration, community development, and health care. 

At the graduate level, both faculty and students specialize in four areas: criminology/deviance; inequality; medical sociology/mental health, and social psychology.  Our research covers, among others, such topics as immigration; homicide; emotional labor; alcoholism and drug abuse; interpersonal and family violence; race; gender; organizational deviance; and work and mental health.  Our M.A. and Ph.D. graduates work in the public and private sector, along with teaching at universities and colleges throughout the country.

Please look through our web page to learn more about the department.  I encourage prospective undergraduate and graduate students to e-mail or visit. 

John Zipp
Professor and Chair

jzipp@uakron.edu