Department of Sociology
The research and teaching of sociology in Xi’an Jiaotong University started and developed with the process of reform and opening up in China. In June 2004, the Department of Sociology, affiliated to the School of Humanities and Social Science, was independently established and authorized to confer master degree of sociology (second-level discipline). In October 2009, the Institute for Empirical Social Science Research (IESSR) was founded and served as an important scientific research platform for the development of sociology. The department was authorized to offer master degree of sociology (first-level discipline) in 2010, interdisciplinary PhD program of social development and management in 2013, professional master degree (master by coursework) in social work (MSW) in 2014, and PhD degree of sociology in 2021.
The department has now established an integrated talent cultivation system offering bachelor, master and doctoral degrees. Specifically, it was authorized to confer bachelors and master’s degree in sociology, professional master’s degree in social work, and inter-disciplinary PhD in social development and management. Currently, the department has 31 faculty members, including 11 professors, 14 associate professors and 3 assistant professors. Among them, there are 1 “Leading Talent” of the university, 3 “Distinguished Professor”, and 2 “Youth Top Talent”. The department now has 16 doctoral supervisors and 24 master supervisors, and has signed joint cultivation agreements for undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral education with a number of world famous universities, such as the Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Minnesota, the University of Manchester, the University of Saskatchewan, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
The sociology team adheres to both theory-oriented and policy-oriented empirical research with the focus on international academic frontier tasks, major national practical issues, and key issues of regional development and social governance. In terms of talent cultivation and discipline construction, the sociology team focuses on developing social network and relational sociology, social stratification and economic sociology, sociology of family and pension problem, social policy and social governance, and social psychology. Our teaching and research capabilities are at the domestic first-class level. Research fields such as social network and relational sociology, social stratification and mobility are of the top rank in the country.
Empirical sociology is one of the “world-class disciplines to be constructed” in Xi’an Jiaotong University. The IESSR is among the first batch of social science popularization bases in Shaanxi province. The institute has also been accepted as one of the three Chinese representative institutions of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) and one of the two Chinese research units of the East Asia Social Survey Programme. In 2015, as a member of the center for collaborative innovation of social governance and social policies, IESSR was included in the first batch of key research bases of philosophy and social sciences in Shaanxi province.
“A terrace of nine-storey height is piled from the first basket of soil.” “One can enjoy a grander sight by climbing to a greater height.” The Department of Sociology of Xi’an Jiaotong University and the IESSR have always devoted to the development of sociology in western China.
