Governors State’s joint-discipline major Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Sociology was designed by faculty to focus on students’ understanding of the dynamic relationships between identity, cultures, and power through a lens of personal empowerment and social justice. Students learn about the social construction of norms, values, individual and collective identities, organizations and institutions in historical and political contexts.
Students take courses in both disciplines and graduate with a degree in both anthropology and sociology. Within the combined major, students gain knowledge and career skills in a set of core courses and choose from a select list that applies these foundations in the exploration of how power, culture, and social institutions impact identities of race, social class, gender, and sexuality. The result is that students learn knowledge and skills necessary to create meaningful changes in themselves and the world around them, while allowing for a deeper dive into their area of academic and professional interests.
Reach your career goals.
The Anthropology and Sociology majors pursue graduate degrees in law, social work, public health, public administration, marketing, secondary education, and/or academic careers in teaching and research. Many anthropology and sociology majors apply their knowledge and research skills in both the public and private sectors, and go on to work in advocacy, business, social services, or legal professions.
Faculty within Governors State’s Anthropology and Sociology program are making a difference by creating research topics that explore and analyze gender, sexuality, activism, religion, labor, environmental racism, and neoliberal/global economics in the United States, South America and the European Union. For example, Anthropology and Sociology faculty examined the rise of religious fundamentalism in changing pluralistic American society, researched the different ways social movement participants define and construct an "activist" identity and investigated gendered labor and the working conditions in Chile’s fruit-export industry. Faculty also encourage student inquiry through applied learning. For example, as a part of a sociology course, students worked alongside faculty at an immigrant and refugee shelter along the US-Mexico border to repair buildings and teach life skills to residents. By following the leadership of their instructors, Anthropology and Sociology students can participate in changing the world for the better.
Reach your career goals
The Anthropology and Sociology majors pursue graduate degrees in law, social work, public health, public administration, marketing, secondary education, and/or academic careers in teaching and research. Many anthropology and sociology majors apply their knowledge and research skills in both the public and private sectors, and go on to work in advocacy, business, social services, or legal professions.