It is my pleasure to introduce the Sociology Department’s Annual Newsletter for 2025. I took over as Interim Chair during the summer of 2024 when Dr. Kristi Williams accepted a position as Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs. We have been hard at work this year and have many accomplishments and milestones to celebrate. I hope you will take a few minutes out of your busy day to see what we have been up to.
I first came to Ohio State in 2007 as a brand-new Assistant Professor to help build our specialization in population health. In some ways, it was a very different department then. And yet, in the ways that truly matter, our core values remain the same. We are known for producing cutting edge, rigorous science that asks and tries to answer some of the most pressing sociological questions of our age. We create unique opportunities to engage undergraduates in the research process and develop their sociological imaginations. We foster a collaborative environment among our graduate students that enables them to achieve great things while they are at Ohio State and secure prestigious positions once they leave. Perhaps most importantly, we work together, learn from one another, and value our disparate experiences and backgrounds. This is the true strength of OSU Sociology.
There is much to celebrate about the current state of our department. This past year, we recruited and retained a stellar group of faculty who are carrying out pioneering research in the areas of criminology, immigration, stratification, and urban sociology. The amount of external grant funding we receive has been steadily increasing and now surpasses $50 million. Bucking national trends, our undergraduate enrollments in are rising, which speaks to the continued salience of the discipline in a rapidly changing world. We secured unprecedented amounts of fellowship support for graduate students who have obtained highly competitive jobs in the academic and nonacademic markets. We hired three of our lecturers as teaching faculty and hope to continue doing so in the future. We benefit from the experience, insights, and dedication of an administrative staff that keeps our department running smoothly. These are just a few of the ways in which we have emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic stronger than ever.
I could not be prouder of the work in which we are engaged, and yet this year has been remarkable for the challenges that we now face. The landscape for higher education is a daunting one, replete with drastic cuts to federal grant funding, threats to academic freedom, and greater instability in job prospects for our recent graduates. Given our new reality, the Department is even more committed to pursuing evidenced-based, rigorous research and training the next generation of sociology and criminology students.
I hope the stories you read in this newsletter provide not only a glimpse into the work in which we have been engaged over the previous year but convey how limitless our potential is when we work together.