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Sociology, our mission

The goal of the UAB Department of Sociology is to be ranked among the best programs in medical sociology in the nation. Resources are in place to accomplish this through the Department’s current research links and opportunities with faculty in UAB’s medical school that is consistently ranked by U. S. News & World Report as one of the top twenty-five such schools nationally and with the many research centers and clinical programs that exist on campus.

The focus of instruction at the graduate level is the sociology of health and medicine. Students are trained broadly in theory and methods, but the primary goal is to train medical sociologists. We encourage an interdisciplinary approach and seek to maintain and grow our partnerships with the Schools of Medicine and Public Health, and campus interdisciplinary research centers.  At the undergraduate level, we offer a general degree in sociology, with concentrations available in social psychology and medical sociology.

New Online Master's Degree Program

UAB has launched a new online Applied Sociology MA program. Students with specific career goals or with unique intellectual objectives may propose an emphasis designed to meet their individual academic needs. The program is especially well suited for a variety of educators wanting to enhance their teaching and research skills, government employees seeking solutions to social issues, administrators wanting to improve work environments and financial professionals with consumer culture interests. We are committed to offering at least ten online classes a year.  Please visit the course requirement link for further information.
http://www.uab.edu/cas/sociology/ma-professional/requirements-for-ma-professional

Faculty News

BioMedLib ranked Bill Cockerham's paper "The Intersection of Health and Gender in a Transitional State: The Case of Russia," #8 in Top 20 Articles in epidemiology of Article since its publication (2012). The article was published in the Sociology of Health & Illness.

The Editorial Team for Social Theory & Health also notified Bill that his 2007 article "A Note on the Fate of Postmodern Theory and its Failure to Meet the Basic Requirements for Success in Medical Sociology," Social Theory & Health 5, 285-296 - was one of their top ten articles for number of web page views for 2012.

Dr. Magdalena Szaflarski, assistant professor in the department of sociology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, recently investigated how spirituality and religion are important to many people living with HIV (PLWH), focusing on special populations (ethnic-minorities, women, and youth), spirituality/religion
measurement, mediating/moderating mechanisms, and individual and community-level interventions.
To read more, click link below.
http://fridayletter.aspph.org/article_view.cfm?FLE_Index=1358&FL_Index=27

Graduate Student/Graduates News

Recent graduates and their new jobs include:

  • David Buys, UAB - Preventive Medicine (post-doc)
  • Henna Budhwani, UAB - School of Public Health
  • Yue Cao, Medical College of South Carolina
  • Colin Ferrell, Western Kentucky University
  • Tim Hale, Harvard University Medical School (post-doc)
  • Tara Jones, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
  • Akilah Dulin Keita, Brown University Medical School
  • Xiaofei Qiao, UAB- Spain Rehabilitation Center
  • Elizabeth Yost, College of William and Mary

 

  • Brian Hinote is a tenured Associate Professor in sociology at Middle Tennessee State University and co-editor of Sociological Spectrum. 
  • The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the nation's leading philanthropy on health and health care, has awarded UAB Medical Sociology Ph.D. graduate Akilah Dulin Keita, Brown University Assistant Professor in the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences, a 24-month grant through the New Connections program.  Keita is among a select group of Junior Investigators to receive one of the 24-month grants from New Connections. The grant will allow Keita, who studies health disparities at the Brown Institute for Community Health Promotion, to examine the risk and protective factors for childhood obesity among Southeast Asians.
  • Congratulations to graduate students Tuba Demir and Haley Medved Kendrick, who were chosen to participate in an exchange program with Hacettepe University in Turkey last summer.  The students learned about health care and nursing, as well as shared their expertise from research and medical sociology.  The program is supported by UAB's School of Public Health, Sparkman Center for Global Health, College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Health Professions.
  • Congratulations to Dr. Xuanping Zhang, 2002 Ph.D. graduate of our program, who is now a Health Scientist at the CDC. His paper on diabetes was cited in the Supreme court decision regarding the Affordable Care Act the week of June 28, 2012. (The article is at Diabetes Care 2008;31:1748-1753).