Sociology welcomes four new faculty

Open House 2025

Open House 2025

Professors Jigna Desai and Tristan Bridges

Sociology Graduate Student Mini Conference

Liliana Rodriguez giving 2019 commencement address

Sociology Ph.D. Graduate Liliana Rodriguez giving 2019 commencement address

Sociology Staff

Sociology Department staff enjoying lunch together at Meet Up Chinese Restaurant

University of Chicago Professor, Julian Go and UCSB Assistant Professor Yader Lanuza

Remembering Tom Scheff

Tom Scheff was a pioneering sociologist who passed away on May 23, 2025. He was most renowned in sociology for his foundational work in the sociology of emotions. His work centered emotions as the glue of social life, and understanding emotions was key to understanding humanity. Tom was also a dedicated educator, deeply commited to engaging and student-centered pedagogy. He will be deeply missed. Continued here
 

Message from the Chair

Welcome to the UCSB Sociology Department. Established in 1944, our highly ranked department is among the most diverse nationwide in terms of faculty and students. Our faculty include internationally renowned scholars whose research and teaching have influenced intellectual developments affecting the landscape of the discipline, including intersectional analysis of social phenomena, new approaches to the study of gender and sexualities, social movements as drivers of social and political change, the “cultural turn” in Sociology, and a “reflexive turn” in ethnography. In 2022, the US News and World Report Guide to Graduate Departments ranked USCB Sociology third nationwide in the subfield of Sex and Gender, and tenth in Sociology of Culture. Continued on the research page (click here).

 

Chair's Message

Announcements

Şeyma Özdemir wins the John Mohr Dissertation grant from the ASA Sociology of Culture section...

Congratulations to Tagart Sobotka and Cate Taylor for receiving the 2025 Outstanding Faculty Mentor of Graduate Students Award.

 
 
 
 

Wins Dissertation Writing Fellowship from the Center for Engaged Scholarship

Winner of the Martin P. Levin Memorial Dissertation Fellowship

Winner of the ASA Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) Fellowship

Congratulations to Ian Anthony and Alex Maldonado, recipients of the 2025 Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award.

Congratulations to Yucheng Liu, whohas been awarded the 2025 John Mohr Best Graduate Student Paper Award for her article, "The Meaning of Autonomy: How Artists Justify Career Paths."

Congratulations to Jason Turowetz for receiving the 2025 Distinguished Book Award from the Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis Section for his co-authored book titled "Morality in the Making of Sense and Self."
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land upon which the University of California, Santa Barbara, is located, and pay our respects to the Chumash Elders past, present and future. They hold the memories, the traditions, and the culture of this area, which has become a place of learning for people from all over the world.