Department Focal Areas

The Urban, Environment, and Community area of specialization centers on the study of people in space and place. This involves understanding the political, economic, environmental, and social dynamics of cities and rural areas, from areas as small as public parks to the relationships between countries. Faculty in this area teach and do research on topics relevant to Chicago, including:

1. patterns of employment, occupation and joblessness by race and education;
2. how religious institutions contribute to the reciprocal shaping of urban communities in Chicago and surrounding suburbs;
3. the ways that racial residential segregation is perpetuated through housing markets and how the lived experiences of low-income households interact with contemporary housing policies.

We also do research on issues that impact the rest of the county and the rest of the world, such as:

1. the importance of play, leisure, and joy in bridging social divides, and building social cohesion and civic engagement, for communities of color and poor white populations;
2. the democratization of drinking water testing to address the presence of heavy metals and educate all communities on the importance of clean drinking water;
3. efforts to address unequal exposures to environmental hazards through social mobilization and institutional politics;
4. how grassroots groups engage with state institutions and market-based policies to demand equitable access to water and sanitation infrastructures in Latin American cities;
5. the various ways that socially, economically, and politically marginalized populations challenge the state and other social structures to ensure equitable access to resources and public spaces.

The Health and Medicine area of specialization centers on the sociological study of health/illness, reproductive health, disability, health care systems, medical organizations, and the profession of medicine. Faculty in this area critically examine various topics, including:

1. the medicalization (and politicization) of health issues and the role that medical science, technology and innovation play in our of everyday lives;
2. disparities in health/wellbeing across different social groups (i.e., race, ethnicity, immigrant status, gender, sexuality) and the underlying social, economic, and environmental factors that contribute to these health inequalities;
3. the validity and reliability of health measures and how survey data on health and wellbeing are collected; and
4. the study of  health care professions, including the education, experiences, training, and professional socialization of students in the field of medicine and health care more broadly. 

The focal area of Politics, Power, and Social Justice encompasses themes of democracy and civil society; inequalities in power; policymaking by both states and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs); and movements for social change. Faculty members who work in this area are committed to teaching and doing research that supports social justice movements and fosters democracy in the United States and globally. As such, we understand politics broadly, studying it in forms that range from the micro (interventions aimed at reducing neighborhood violence) to the macro (policy-making by governments and IGOs). In so doing we take up and criticize forms of power, particularly as these shape justice issues ranging from the environment to gender equality, from labor rights to the production of knowledge by governments about their citizens to better regulate them. In all of these ways we explore how democracy and social justice can be fostered through a variety of means, including philanthropy, restorative justice, religiously based civic engagement, policy change, and social movement activism. Students interested in the sociological study of politics, power, and social justice at Loyola University Chicago can expect course offerings on topics including environmental justice; gender and sexuality; social movements; and the conflictual role of religion in democracies.

Faculty in the Global and Transnational Sociology focal area examine processes, phenomena, and social and historical change at global, international, and transnational scales using disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches. A premise of this focal area is that the very ideas of the “global” and the “national” are socially and politically constituted. Our faculty study global phenomena as they unfold in deeply local spaces and are concerned with the continuing significance of and challenges to national borders in past and present contexts, including border crossings by social actors ranging from undocumented migrants to transnational corporations, the regulatory regimes governing borders, and the movements contesting them. We conduct research and teach courses on topics ranging from global civil society, political economy, and social movements to environmental justice, gender and sexual politics, transnational science, and colonialism and empire. Our research and teaching span several geographic contexts including South and East Asia, Latin America, and North America. We also maintain affiliations to other Loyola programs and centers including the Center for Research on International Affairs, the School of Environmental Sustainability, Women’s Studies and Gender Studies, Global Studies, and the Center for Urban Research and Learning. Our faculty are committed to community-engaged research and pedagogy in the service of global social justice. 

This area of specialization centers on the various ways that social categorizations founded upon meaningful distinctions, such as race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality, reflect historically rooted and socially constructed identities and groups. These distinctions, identities, and groups often intersect or operate in tandem and represent significant axes of stratification that coincide with institutionalized systems (e.g., racism, classism, sexism, homophobia)—thus uniquely shaping experiences of marginalization, privilege, access to opportunities, resources, differential power dynamics, and patterns of resistance across local, national, and global contexts.

LUC Sociology Faculty in this area utilize diverse theoretical (e.g., intersectionality, global south feminisms, post-colonial and decolonial theories, queer theory, critical race theory, assimilation theory) and methodological approaches (e.g., ethnography, face-to-face interviews, comparative/historical, community-engaged, surveys, quantitative analysis) to critically examine topics such as:

1. racialization processes and patterns of inequality in the United States and Latin America;
2. race and class inequalities in housing policies, property ownership and evictions in Chicago;
3. understanding how racially marginalized individuals navigate and respond to structural inequalities in the places that they live, work, and play; engaging with (and against) government and community stakeholders to effect social change and improve the quality of their lives;
4. investigating the impact of global politics on sexual communities, political activism, and knowledge production in Asia; and
5. examining how various actors (e.g., state, philanthropic, private sector) and scientific authorities attempt to govern reproductive masculinity in Post-colonial India.

The Religion, Science, and Knowledge focal area brings together faculty and students doing both qualitative and quantitative research on the institutions that produce and discipline knowledge in the modern world. At Loyola University Chicago this includes the investigation of the ways that social technologies shape reproductive governance, the study of the micro-practices through which religious persons become secular citizens, the impact of religious congregations on urban ecological configurations, the way knowledge regimes shape the professional socialization of teachers or physicians, the effect of religious identification on immigration and assimilation processes, and the efficacy of faith-based organizations in movements for social change – particularly violence prevention. Given this combination of breadth and depth, students interested in the sociological study of religion, science, and knowledge at Loyola University Chicago can expect course offerings on topics including the politics of science, knowledge, and technology, public religion and democracy, the professions and organizational knowledge production, the role of religions in the urban built environment, and the intersections of migration, racialization and religious identification.