sociology program

Mission

The mission of this department is to provide students with the requisite analytic tools for delving beneath the surface of everyday reality and perceiving the deeper meanings, recurring patterns, and concomitant structures that constitute the social world. As a department within a liberal arts college, we endeavor to integrate students’ study of sociology with Carroll’s broader and publicly articulated goals. Finally, as a department within a distinctly Catholic liberal arts college, we are committed to honoring students’ search for “Ultimate Truth” and highlighting the ethical ramifications of what students learn in the classroom about society.

The overall and ongoing goal of this department is to pursue our tripartite mission of honing the “sociological imagination” among our students, demonstrating to them the variegated connections between sociology and other academic skills and disciplines, and conscientiously underscoring the ethical considerations that inevitably accompany their studies in the social world. Commensurate with our pursuit of this goal are the following, more specific objectives:

personal growth

After studying sociology at Carroll I was able to understand society a great deal more. My education, consisting of both theories and hands on experience have prepared me well for working at a group home for severely emotionally disturbed children. A liberal arts education is the most fulfilling and gratifying education a person can receive because it opens your mind to a variety of facts, thoughts, and ideas. - Eric Schoen, Sociology 2000