UBC Sociology covers a diverse range of research areas that can be categorized by a set of four core research streams.
Environment & Community
A central concern with land often defines both environment and notions of community. Members of the Environment & Community cluster contribute to an understanding of the relationships between built and human communities within natural environments. While the cluster maintains a core focus on environment and community, scholars in this area use their expertise to study a range of subjects including civic engagement in climate action and other social movements, the relationship between land use, community, and policymaking in urban centres and the nature of human-environment relationships.
Sex, Gender & Sexuality
Sociologists of sex, gender, and sexuality explore changing gender relations, sexual practices, inequalities, and identities across national boundaries.
Sociology of Health
UBC’s Sociology of Health research stream focuses on social factors associated with health and wellbeing. It conceives of physical and mental health as an attribute of societies, communities, smaller groups like families, and individuals. It addresses issues such as the social determinants of health, the intersection of health and environment, health over the life course, public health and public policy, power and health, and the ways in which organizations shape health.
Race, Ethnicity & Migration
Scholars in this area study how racial, ethnic, and national identities are salient and stratifying forces in people’s lives and across societies. Processes of immigration, migration, and colonialism shape racial and ethnic diversity, inequality, and settlement in Canada and other nations. Studies by UBC faculty focus on histories of colonial dispossession, the experiences of undocumented and stateless peoples, the lived experiences of racialized refugees settling in Canada, and attitudes toward immigration and political trust among different racial and ethnic groups.
Sociology Pedagogy
Scholarly educators in this area research the design, implementation and evaluation of evidence-based curricular, pedagogical, and assessment frameworks and practices, often with the goal of making learning processes in sociology more effective and inclusive. Sociology classrooms are microcosms of society, making a “sociology as pedagogy” approach vital for interrogating and addressing teaching and learning dynamics.