Department of Sociology
Graduate Program
Our program combines an emphasis on social theory and research methods and development of each student's own interest.
Undergraduate Program
Our Sociology undergraduate program provides students with the tools to engage more effectively with the world around them.
Acclaimed Scholarship
Faculty and students engage in a wide range of research projects and publications, spanning sites in the U.S. and abroad.
Leading Faculty
Renowned scholars with a broad array of knowledge, research interests, and methodologies.
News and Faculty Research Spotlights
Symposium on Patterson's Paradox of Freedom Published
The European Journal of Sociology has published the remarks delivered at a panel discussion on the life and work of Stone Program faculty affiliate Orlando Patterson, the John Cowles Professor of Sociology at Harvard University. This event took place at...
Ellis Monk awarded ASA Theory Section Award
American Sociology Association's Theory Section’s Lewis A Coser Award for Theoretical Agenda-Setting awarded to Professor Ellis Monk. Please see more about the award here .
The Monk Skin Tone Scale now held in permanent collection of UK museum
Learn more about the Monk Skin Tone Scale, and the display at National Science and Media Museum Sound and Vision galleries.
2026 Sociology Undergraduate Thesis Prizes and Academic Awards
Students receive Fulton, Hoopes, Cummings, and Rose prizes for outstanding thesis work; Five students inducted to Phi Beta Kappa; Three students accepted to American Sociological Association 2026 Honors Program. Read more here.
Ellis Monk's research highlighted in The Harvard Gazette.
Lives saved by sociologist’s fix for skin tone bias. An answer to the dangers of colorblind healthcare. The Monk Skin Tone scale, devised in 2019 by Professor Ellis Monk, helps create more accurate medical diagnostic tools for patients with dark skin.
Ya-Wen Lei awarded the Berlin Prize for the 2026–2027 academic year.
The Berlin Prize is awarded annually to US-based scholars, writers, composers, and artists who represent the highest standards of excellence in their fields, from the humanities and social sciences to journalism, public policy, fiction, the visual arts...
Ya-Wen Lei has been selected as a fellow at the French Institute for Advanced Study (FIAS) program
The Paris Institute for Advanced Study (Paris IAS), a research centre specialising in social sciences, humanities and related disciplines, will welcome eight international researchers this coming September for a ten-month research stay, selected under the...
Daniel Schneider appointed Associate Director of Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
Daniel Schneider, PhD, the Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, and professor of sociology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, has been appointed the associate director of the Harvard Center for...
When the Chips Are Down
To understand why Xi is making these decisions, there is no better guide than the Harvard sociologist Ya-Wen Lei’s The Gilded Cage: Technology, Development, and State Capitalism in China . Her masterful study of what she calls China’s regime of “techno...
