Undergraduate Programme
The Department of Sociology offers Undergraduate programmes in Sociology and Anthropology. (Note: As Anthropology is a new major to be offered from August 2022, the programme declaration for Anthropology will be available to students after matriculation, and not at the point of admission).
Sociology
Sociology is the systematic study of the diversity of ways in which life is socially organized. The discipline seeks to understand the structure and dynamics of society, and their connections to patterns of human behaviour and individual life changes. Sociologists attempt to make sense of the variety of ways in which the structure of social groups, organizations and institutions affect human actions and opportunities.
The overall objective of sociology is to systematically understand how individuals and groups create, maintain and change social relationships, social structures and institutions over time. As such sociologists are interested in grasping the dynamics of social change precipitated by the constant two-way interaction between individuals and social structures.
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of what makes us human. It considers the range of human diversity, accounting for how people in different times and places have developed distinctly different societies. It exposes us to a vast variety of different beliefs and health practices, economic and political systems, material culture, and even different notions of beauty, the environment, food, family … and the good life.
How do we account for such diversity? Do we even experience pain, happiness, and love the same way in every society? Together, these and a litany of other questions invite us to explore the variations and commonalities of the human experience. In the process, anthropology overturns our common-sense views of the world and opens our eyes to the possibilities of human existence.