Sociologists at Berkeley have long been committed to studying topics of public concern and to communicating their findings to wider publics.
From Erving Goffman to Arlie Hochschild, from Philip Selznick to Todd Gitlin, from Robert Blauner to Jerry Karabel, from Robert Bellah to Mike Hout, from Seymour Martin Lipset to Ann Swidler, from Nathan Glazer to Martin Sanchez Jankowski, from Herbert Blumer to Troy Duster, from Gertrude Jaeger to Kristin Luker, from the authors of Inequality by Design to the authors of Berkeley’s Betrayal sociology at Berkeley has always been marked by its engagement with the world.
At this website you will find a history of the department that shows how its emphases have changed over the last half century or more. You will find video interviews, conducted by graduate students, that reveal the different ways Berkeley faculty have combined professional, policy, public and critical sociology, how they have sustained professional excellence alongside public engagement. You can also find a video series of public sociology forums that bring academics together to discuss pressing issues, and colloquia that discuss the public dimensions of writing and teaching, as well as a symposium on non-academic careers for sociologists.
Berkeley Public Sociology 