The Department of Sociology offers a graduate program dedicated to enhancing students' knowledge of the societies in which they live, while increasing their ability to think independently and critically about important social issues. We now offer a course-based graduate program in Sociology. The course-based streams are available in the general program as well as in our three specializations. Students may apply to enter the thesis stream after completion of the first semester.
Sociology is an ideal major for students planning to enter professions such as: social work, law, journalism and even medicine. Many graduates will decide to go into teaching or career counselling, while others enter careers in government, correctional services, community services and business. Since we teach excellent research skills, sociologists are often sought after to collect and analyze data for a wide range of organizations. Sociology studies all aspects of how human beings relate with each other. Such human relations range from intimate relationships, organizational and institutional dynamics, through to social processes that are felt at national and global levels. Substantive issues of interest to sociologists include health and illness, marriage and family, crime and deviance, science and technology, popular culture, social change, economy and society, gender and sexuality, education, social inequality, prejudice and discrimination, among many others.
The Department of Gender and Women's Studies at Lakehead University is dedicated to furthering an understanding of the importance of gender as a category of analysis in scholarly inquiry. Through interdisciplinary instruction, students will critically assess the relevance of existing models of knowledge in reflecting gendered experience and scholarship. The aim of the program is to encourage the development and integration of gendered teaching, learning, and research within the university community and the community at large. This Collaborative Master's program allows students to combine advanced disciplinary research with gendered scholarship from the interdisciplinary field of Gender and Women's Studies. Upon completion of the program, the degree awarded specifies the discipline of the participating academic unit and notes the Specialization in Gender and Women's Studies.