Professor & Graduate Coordinator
Thank you for your interest in the MA and PhD programs in Sociology and Criminology at Kent State University. Our MA program was founded in 1939 and the PhD program was established in 1973. Sociology has a venerable history at Kent State. When the university first opened in 1912 as the Kent State Normal School the first semester consisted of four courses; Agriculture, History of Education, Psychology, and Sociology.
Distinguished alumni of our graduate program include Oscar Ritchie, the first African American to attain the rank of full professor in the Ohio Education System; Glen H. Elder, the Howard Odum Research Professor of Sociology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Bertice Berry, award-winning entertainer, lecturer and comedienne; Neal Krause, Professor Emeritus and Marshall H. Becker Collegiate Professor of Public Health, University of Michigan; Annette Schwabe, Professor, Florida State University, and Kathleen Piker-King, Professor, Mount Union University. For information on students currently on the job market please see our Grad Students on the Market webpage. For a description of where our recent graduates are working, see our Recent Grads in the World webpage.
The Sociology Department is housed in Merrill Hall which is the oldest permanent structure on the Kent campus and the first academic building on the campus. As our home since the building was renovated in 1995, Merrill Hall houses state-of-the-art research facilities, including the Survey Research Laboratory and the Electrophysiological Neuroscience Laboratory.
The Ph.D. program at Kent State University focuses on four main areas:
- Medical and Mental Health
- Inequalities (class/gender/race/ethnicity)
- Social Psychology
- Criminology & Deviance
Our graduate program gives students a specialized background in one of these areas along with a broad base of knowledge in the core areas of research methods, statistics, and classical and contemporary theory. More information about our graduate program (including details about how to apply, when to apply, etc.) are available on our prospective students page. If you have any questions not covered by the FAQs, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Dr. Susan Roxburgh
Graduate Coordinator