Research in Sociology

Websites offer a wealth of valuable open access and free resources for those interested in and/or studying sociology. The websites on this page have been recommended by Dr. Tenille Allen, Chair of the Department of Sociology.

ColorLines.com contains interactives, infographics, and reporting on race, from an intersectional and institutional perspective. Focuses on immigration, criminal justice/mass incarceration, and youth, especially the school to prison pipeline and some on the environment,  as well as LGBTQ issues, among others. Particularly powerful and poignant is a recent offering called "Life Cycles of Inequity: A Series on Black Men."

RacismReview.com is run by Joe Feagin of Texas A&M University and Jessie Daniels, City University of New York (CUNY).

The Sociological Cinema uses video clips from popular culture--ads, tv, film, comedy acts. YouTube, etc...--to teach sociological concepts. Each clip os tagged with appropriate sociological themes and organized for busy academics.

TheSocietyPages.org is: "an open-access social science project headquartered in the Department of Sociology at the University of Minnesota and supported by publishing partner W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. TSP brings social science to broader public visibility and influence."

• TSP HQ: Produced directly by TSP editorial team and/or our wonderful authors and contributors, all of this original work is freely available online. Select pieces have been collected into topical volumes by W.W. Norton (thus far, The Social Side of Politics, Crime and the Punished, Color Lines and Racial Angles, Owned, and Getting Culture).

  • Features: Long-form articles meant to give a broad, social scientific view on an issue or topic without the usual academic jargon.
  • Exchanges: Office Hours podcasts and written Roundtables look to top social scientists to help give context to the headlines.
  • Research Briefs: Discoveries highlight new research findings, while There’s Research on That! compiles a list of accessible writings and key works on today’s hot topics.
  • Clippings: Where our graduate students track social scientists and their research in the media in a clear, concise style, applauding journalists examining the social issues underpinning their articles.

• Community Pages: The Society Pages hosts a suite of staggeringly lively and engaging social science blogs written by academics who share our passion for sharing the sociological imagination in an open, accessible manner. TSP’s Community Pages include Sociological Images, Cyborgology, Graphic Sociology, Sociology Lens, Girl w/ Pen!, Feminist Reflections, ThickCulture, The Color Line, Families As They Really Are, and more.

• Partners:

  • TSP hosts contexts.org, the website for Contexts magazine, the public engagement journal of the American Sociological Society.

  • Based at Harvard University under the direction of Theda Skocpol, the Scholars Strategy Network writes short policy briefs and basic sheets on topics of public importance.

  • Over the past two decades, the Council on Contemporary Families has built an outstanding reputation as a go-to source for authoritative social research on family life.

You can also view TSP by using the topics tabs focusing on Inequality, Crime, Culture, Politics, Gender, Race, & Health

Ten recently published articles from TSP, hover over title for description & click on title to see full article.

The EverydaySociology Blog features interesting, informative, and most of all entertaining commentary from sociologists around the United States. Come to this site regularly to get a sociological take on what is happening in the news (and on what should be in the news)."

Norton Sociology has a YouTube channel with interviews and brief talks with sociologists on their work in particular and concepts in the discipline, such as theory, inequality, immigration, gender, and social construction, in general.

Norton Sociology is a subsidiary of W. W. Norton and Company, the oldest and largest publishing house owned wholly by its employees. The company strives to carry out the imperative of its founder—to publish books not for a single season, but for the years—in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, college textbooks, cookbooks, art books, and professional books.

EPI.org resources include various economic indicators, data, and an excellent family budget calculator that establishes the income needed in various US cities, based on costs of living for families of different sizes.

An initiative of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. Includes a short audio-visual presentation here on trying to make ends meet on the poverty line.

The SmartScholar Sociology Education Resource Guide provides information and links to General Sociology Education Resources, Sociology Study and Writing Resources, Teaching resources, Notable Sociologists, Sociology blogs and Open Access Sociology journals.