The Sociology Program at Minnesota State University, Mankato is dedicated to the pursuit, transmission, and application of sociological knowledge. We acknowledge and celebrate the diversity of sociological approaches that exist in our department and within the discipline of sociology in general. We recognize that there is an essential tension between these approaches that promotes scholarly inquiry, enriches sociological debate and enlivens social research.
Our commitment to the pursuit of knowledge is an assertion that faculty and students have a mutual responsibility to engage in scientific inquiry into the collection, interpretation and evaluation of empirical data in reciprocal relation with the articulation, criticism, and reformulation of sociological theory.
Our commitment to the transmission of knowledge is an assertion that students should emerge from the program with a solid grounding in sociological knowledge, in theoretical approaches, in research methodologies, and in logical perspectives which will permit students to analyze and understand social phenomena across times, places, and cultures while minimizing tempocentric, geocentric, and ethnocentric biases. Our commitment to the transmission of knowledge extends beyond traditional classroom pedagogy and affirms the responsibility of faculty and students to share their knowledge freely within and outside the academic community.
Our commitment to the application of knowledge is an assertion that sociological knowledge is inherently applicable to the activities of social actors. We recognize that there are competing views on the appropriate relationship between sociology and action; we thus assert that it is a responsibility of our program to develop and analyze multiple models for the application of sociological knowledge.
Because we envision sociological practice as an essential component of sociological education, we are committed to cooperative research among faculty, graduate students and courses. We are committed to the principles that sociological research must be conducted with respect for the people being studied and with a consideration of how that research will affect them. We acknowledge that research, theory development and the application of findings are sometimes separate activities, but we are dedicated to exploring the connections that exist among them.
