Office: Dudley Moorhead Hall 241
Telephone: 408-924-5320
Email: sociology@sjsu.edu; asianamericanstudies@sjsu.edu; wgssprogram@sjsu.edu
Website: www.sjsu.edu/siss

Professors
Maria Luisa Alaniz
William Armaline
Tanya Bakhru, Coordinator, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program
Natalie Boero, Chair
Hien Duc Do, Associate Chair
Carlos Eduardo Garcia

Associate Professors
Faustina DuCros
​Yvonne Y. Kwan, Coordinator, Asian American Studies Program
Megan Thiele

Assistant Professors
Soma de Bourbon
Susana Gallardo
Kerri J. Malloy, Coordinator, Native American and Indigenous Studies Program
Trung Nguyen
Saugher Nojan
Joanne Rondilla
Preston O. Rudy
Morgan Sanchez
Elizabeth Sweet
Yolanda Wiggins

Overview

The Department of Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences educates students about the social processes that create, maintain, and transform our society. The department has four programs: Asian American Studies; Native American and Indigenous Studies; Sociology; and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies.

The Asian American Studies (AAS) major provides an interdisciplinary liberal arts education. The AAS program is designed to develop student skills in critical analysis, writing, communication and reasoning, while retrieving, documenting and analyzing the diverse artistic, economic, social, political and historical experiences of Asian Americans in the United States.

The Sociology major uses sociological foundations and applications as well as interdisciplinary approaches to the study of society and in teacher education training. Sociologists analyze how social institutions and social structures such as the economy, politics, education, the family, mass media, and the criminal justice system affect individuals in society. The major provides students with the skills and knowledge to navigate the social, political, economic, historical, and cultural issues that build and sustain effective leadership in our complex global society. Sociology has two major degree program tracks: Sociology, Sociology with Concentrations in (1) Community Change and (2) Race and Ethnic Studies.

The Women, Gender, and Sexuality major investigates how lives are shaped by gender and gender identity, race, class, sexuality, and nation. The program emphasizes the importance of understanding gender as integral to social and political structures of power. Students will obtain skills to cultivate critical thinking, cultivation of dialogue, coalition building, appreciation of diversity, and contribution to social change based on feminist frameworks.

The department offers several minor courses of study: Asian American Studies; Sociology; Sociology of Education; and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. These degree programs lead to careers in education, government and public policy, criminal justice, nonprofit organizations, marketing research, human resource management, social work, and other areas.

Programs

• Asian American Studies, BA
• Sociology, BA
• Sociology, Community Change Concentration, BA (Not Accepting Students)
• Sociology, Race and Ethnic Studies Concentration, BA (Not Accepting Students)
• Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, BA

• Asian American Studies Minor
• Sociology Minor
• Sociology of Education Minor
• Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Minor

Courses

• WGSS 190 - Internship
• WGSS 192 - International Program Studies