Africana Studies Concentration

The Department of Sociology is home to Africana Studies, an interdisciplinary program with faculty expertise in race and social policy, Black Feminisms, ethnic health disparities, racial identification, Hip-Hop music, African-American and multi-racial social movements, mass incarceration, criminal justice, race and racism, race and sport, and food studies. Students completing the PhD in Sociology have the opportunity to complete a concentration in Africana Studies alongside their doctoral degree. Students who pursue this concentration will learn to critically assess the present cultural forces, structural forces, and historical conditions affecting the economic, legal, educational, social, and moral status of people African descent. 

• We support the research of scholar-activists, who connect with communities in need and provide research that can help them to shape policies and solve problems.
• The research and scholarly interests of our faculty cross a wide range of disciplinary boundaries.
• Best fit for students interested in full-time graduate study on the campus of Virginia’s largest research university. 
• The graduate program in Sociology at Virginia Tech prepares students to be productive and publicly-engaged scholars, advancing research. 

• Our doctoral graduates have gone on to become professors of sociology and related fields in universities around the world, and to direct and coordinate social research in such organizations as the U.S. Census, the Mt. Sinai medical school, the University of Virginia’s Cancer Center, the California’s Department of Social Services.
• All of our classes are taught in small seminars and offer personal interaction with faculty and peers.