About Us

There has been a Department of Sociology at Duke University for more than 75 years. Our world-renowned faculty build on the discipline’s classic foci, while also pursuing state-of-the-art developments in areas such as computational social science, the demography of health, economic sociology, and culture and cognition. We embrace sociology’s core interest in social institutions, paying particular attention to hierarchies of race, class, and gender within them. Research and teaching in the department emphasizes the interplay between institutions and social change, social inequality, and community structure.

Our program is ranked among the best in the nation:

  • College Factual, 2024 Best Ph.D. Programs in Sociology: #4
  • College Factual, 2024 Best Sociology Colleges in the U.S.: #6