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Welcome to Berkeley Sociology

Berkeley’s Sociology Department is known around the world for its excellence in research and teaching. Our faculty advance cutting edge research and teach in most sociological specialities. Our PhDs are leaders in universities and research centers across the US and in many other countries. And our BAs populate the ranks of innumerable professions, bringing with them the skills and special perspective of Berkeley sociology. 

We are proud to make these contributions from the world’s leading public university. At Berkeley, we combine intellectual rigor with a commitment to public service through our research, teaching, and service on campus and beyond. 

For the past six decades, Berkeley’s Sociology Department has consistently been ranked among the world’s top sociology departments. Our graduate program is ranked #1 in the latest U.S. News and World Report, and our undergrad degree is currently the best in the US according to College Factual and features on Grad Reports’ Best College List 2020.

Ricarda Hammer
Assistant Professor
Anticolonial Politics, Empire, Citizenship, Global and Transnational Sociology, Sociology of Race & Racism, Historical Sociology, Social Theory, Du Boisian Methodologies
Kristen Harknett
Professor
Labor, social stratification and mobility, demography, quantitative methods.
Claude S. Fischer
Distinguished Professor of the Graduate School
Personal networks, American social history, technology, social psychology, urban
In Memoriam
Albert Einstein (1941)
Albert Einstein (1941)
EMERITUS PROFESSOR

Prof. Einstein served graduate students as a model of prudence in remaining unfashionably true to the grand…

Departmental Colloquium Series

Austin H. Vo "Translocal Leverage and Challenges to Empire in French Indochina and French West Africa"

Monday, November 9, 2026 - 2:00 pm - Monday, November 9, 2026 - 3:30 pm
Blumer Room - 402 Social Sciences Building
Abstract: Why did political elites contest colonialism through a revolutionary path in Vietnam compared to an accommodationist one in Senegal? Drawing on original archival research in Vietnam, Senegal, and France, I examine how global economic shifts granted local economic intermediaries leverage as brokers between society, market, and state. This leverage generated uncertainty regarding political elites’ standing vis-à-vis the state to shape early challenges to colonialism. Using an actor-centric and relational approach, I show how and why accommodation was foreclosed in Vietnam yet prevailed in Senegal.