Research

WSU sociology faculty members draw on diverse methods—survey methodology, evaluation research, network analysis, experimental methods, qualitative methods, content analysis, longitudinal data analysis, quantitative methods—in their research programs, and they regularly offer courses and mentorship opportunities for students to develop their own expertise in one or more research methodologies.

The department became one of the first sociology programs in the country to have its own Geographic Information Systems (GIS) laboratory. The GIS laboratory is devoted to sociology graduate students’ individual spatially-informed research projects and contains a 11″x17″ document scanner, a large-format printer for producing high-quality maps and posters, and four personal computers equipped with ArcGIS and other spatial analysis software.

The department is associated with the Social and Economic Sciences Research Center (SESRC), also located in Wilson-Short Hall. This center conducts large-scale surveys for faculty research, the university, and other agencies and organizations using internet, mail, telephone and mixed-mode procedures. Graduate and undergraduate students in sociology are often employed in the conduct of these surveys and benefit from the guidance of our world-renowned survey specialist, Don Dillman.