About the Department

The Department of Sociology at the University of Cape Town dates back to 1926, when sociology courses were first taught at this university. Since that time, the department has contributed to the development and understanding of South Africa within an increasingly globalised world, through its teaching, research and outreach.

One of the larger departments in the Humanities faculty with over 1000 students enrolled in undergraduate courses annually, the department offers bachelors, honours and master's programmes and courses as well as supervision for research-based master's and doctoral degrees. The department has a good research record and a number of its staff members have established themselves as leading researchers in their particular fields both nationally and internationally.

The Sociology department offers a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses. These cover the core courses of the discipline such as those in social theory, epistemology, research methods and statistics, as well as substantive and specialised fields linked to the four main undergraduate teaching streams. The latter are: industrial and economic sociology, sociology of development, diversity studies and general sociology.