Department of
Sociology

Upholding Democracy through Procedural Justice

CSU sociology faculty employ procedural justice, an inclusive and deliberate approach to decision-making, as a way to value multiple voices, fair processes, and transparency.

Spring 2023

New interactive digital project reveals what’s hidden in the prison agriculture system

At first look, the prison agriculture system might sound like a benefit to community and prisoner, but a dive into the program’s history, cost, and output reveal a more complicated and challenging issue.

Winter 2022

Building Bridges to Better Communities

Ph.D. students Emilia Ravetta and Milagro Núñez-Solis connected food pantries with gardeners and youth with opportunities to strengthen their local communities in their CSU Extension summer internships with Grow and Give and the Family Leadership Training Institute. 

Spring 2022

Graduate Teaching Instructors diversify Sociology’s classrooms

In the Department of Sociology, Graduate Teaching Instructors (GTI) provide skilled and innovative teaching in undergraduate sociology courses. GTI have years of training and experience, and they offer a diverse, deep pool of expertise along with an ability to connect with students in the classroom.

Winter 2021

Planting a Vision

Emeritus professor and former VP Lou Swanson receives the Yellow Mountain Foreign Advisor Award – a high recognition for work done in China. The award recognizes Swanson’s and other sociology professors’ work to improve food systems and rural development in China, an effort decades in the making. 

Spring 2021

Together, we investigate and advocate

In the Department of Sociology, together we learn, investigate, discover, advocate, and solve. From food systems to food insecurity, cotton in Africa to water on the Western Slope of Colorado, students and faculty are engaged in understanding the structural, societal, and cultural issues that impact people.  

Winter 2020

Economic viability and the health of a community: Tackling wicked problems begins at the kitchen table

What’s a small town to do when their economic breadwinner – oil and gas – disappears? Some towns consider hosting a prison, but the environmental, economic, and community impact is significant and can drive townspeople apart. Through stories and anecdotes, criminologists and environmental sociologists study the community conversations and outcomes of such a vexsome issue.