Undergraduate Areas of Specialization Offered

Family and Demography

• Demography is the study of births, deaths, migration, and family formation/dissolution.  Populations differ markedly with respect to the rates at which they engage in these four basic processes.  Demographers study this variation across countries and over time.  They also investigate, for example, how birth rates vary within countries according to socioeconomic characteristics such as education and race.  The study of demography also emphasizes both how individual decisions add up to group rates and how social and demographic contexts impinge on individual decisions.  Family as a social institution functions as one of the most important contexts in which demographic activities are experienced.

Social Organizations

• Organizations and institutions are normative systems built around important functions in society like the family and reproduction; education and the training of children for adult roles; and the military and the defense of society. 

Social Stratification

• The study of social stratification focuses on the causes, correlates, and consequences of the unequal distribution of power, property, and prestige.