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Faculties & Departments
Department of Sociology
Welcome
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
New books by Peter Murray and Honor Fagan - more in News and Events
Departmental Quality Review concludes successfully - read it here
QUICKLINKS:
INFORMATION COMING SOON ON 2010-11 PROGRAMMES
For reference information on 2009-10 is included below (please note programmes change from year to year):
Sociology & Politics Timetables / Handbooks 2009-2010
For information on modules available for 2009-2010 please click here. (Please note if you are looking for Politics modules they are listed under Sociology)
WELCOME TO SOCIOLOGY and POLITICS at NUIM
"the Sociology Department at NUIM is very strong in the key areas of research, teaching, and administration; in fact, it is one of the leading sociology departments in Ireland"
Peer Review Report, Sociology Department Quality Review, 2009
In a time of crisis and uncertainty, the search for an understanding of the world around us becomes all the more important. In the Department of Sociology at NUI Maynooth, you will find this search well underway - in our teaching, our research and our public engagement. Undergraduates can find innovative BA degrees in Sociology and in Politics among other topics. Postgraduates can choose from two masters courses and a vibrant research postgraduate programme. Research by staff and students explores the changes, dilemmas and possibilities in Irish society and beyond. We bring these sociological insights to bear on public life through our participation in civil society, in policy making, through the media and other forms of public engagement.
Sociology is a varied subject, with almost any area of social life open to sociological analysis. Most recently, we have brought the sociological imagination to bear on politics through a new and creative BA Politics. But sociology is more a way of thinking about the world than the study of any specific area. For C. Wright Mills the ‘sociological imagination’ enabled us to link the individual and society, biography and history and to show how ‘private troubles’ are shaped by ‘public issues’.
The Department of Sociology has a long history, going back to 1930, when a Chair of Sociology was established in Maynooth College. The department consists of eighteen academic staff, three postdoctoral researchers, and two administrators. If you want to contact a specific staff member click here for details.
TEACHING
The department has over 900 undergraduate students, taking degrees in Arts, Social Science, Media Studies and Community Studies. We offer two Masters courses and there are currently almost 40 research postgraduate students in the department. Our teaching is fully modularized and our student body is very diverse with a wealth of different experiences and interests.
The department offers two undergraduate degree courses - the BA Sociology and the BA Politics. Our courses emphasise critical thinking; learning about local, national and global social and political worlds; undergraduate student research; and active citizenship. Sociology modules are also crucial components of other undergraduate degrees - Social Science, Community Studies, European Studies, and Applied Social Studies. Find out more about all these courses here.
Are you interested in studying Politics? Information on Politics at NUI Maynooth
Postgraduate Courses and Research
Are you interested in understanding the current downturn and its implications for society in Ireland and further afield? Would you like to learn more about the inter-relationships between society and space from a multi-disciplinary perspective? Do you want to develop your critical thinking and analytical skills? Then you have come to the right place. Find out more about our two new exciting M.A. programmes. For more details on the course contents check out our slide presentations on 'Societies in Transition' and
'Society & Space'
RESEARCH
We are active in a wide range of research areas with particular areas of strength in:
Critical Political Thought, Activism, and Alternative Futures
Globalisation, Identities and Cultural Practices
Historical and Comparative Sociology Cluster
Political Economy, Work and Working Lives
We publish our research in a variety of academic outlets as well as having developed a range of outlets for wider audiences - including founding the Irish Journal of Sociology in 1991 and founding and continuing to edit the Irish Sociological Chronicles book series.
You will find details of current research projects, publications, research clusters, funding and more on our research home page.
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
Our teaching and research uses sociology to shed light on the crucial issues facing Ireland and the world - including the changes of the Celtic Tiger years, dilemmas of economic and cultural globalization, the emergence of the new suburbs around Dublin, patterns of drug use, and a variety of other topics. Through public seminars and publications aimed at academic and non-academic audiences we aim to bring our research to as wide a public audience as possible - creating a 'public sociology'. Department staff work with social movements, policy makers, non-governmental organisations, private enterprises, the media and others to shape public debate and decision-making. Find out more here.
OUR NETWORKS
Check out the centres, institutes and networks in which the department is playing a major role:
Centre for the Study of Wider Europe (CSWE)
National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis (NIRSA)
Irish Social Science Platform (ISSP)
Dublin Regional Higher Education Alliance (DRHEA)
Sociological Association of Ireland (SAI)
European Consortium of Political Research (ECPR)
CONTACT US
Please contact us if you are looking for further information on courses in the department, on postgraduate study, on our research and publications or if you wish to be added to our mailing list for events in the department. Our offices are to be found in the Auxilia building, which is located on the North (new) Campus. Full contact details are below.
Welcome to the exciting world of sociology!