Sociology

UC Merced Sees Strong Gains in U.S. News Grad School Rankings

April 7, 2026

Top 100 Best Graduate Schools ranking, two students in a lab

UC Merced saw broad gains in the U.S. News and World Report 2026 Best Graduate Schools rankings with graduate programs rising in national standing, reflecting the campus’s growing academic and research profile. UC Merced’s School of Engineering broke into the top 100 in the rankings...

Undergraduate Experience: Erika Estrada Rodriquez

Name: Erika Estrada Rodriguez Year: Third Year Major: Sociology Hometown: Panorama City What is a memorable project that you worked on during your time at UC Merced...

GROW Grants Nurture Vital Projects During Pandemic

Two faculty members and three graduate students who are working on food systems, food security and food sustainability research have received small grants through the UC Global Food Initiative (GFI...

New Study Shows Immigration Policies Impact Student Success

A new report from the UC Collaborative to Promote Immigrant and Student Equity (UC PromISE) that summarizes results of a study of children of immigrants attending the University of California...

Sociology Professor Nella Van Dyke is an expert on social movements in relation to hate crimes and has studied far right-wing movements.

Q&A: Sociologist with Specialty in Right-Wing Movements on Free Speech and the First Amendment

Social justice movements and conspiracy theories have become a hallmark of our time, but how do we know which inflammatory statements are legally protected and which are not? Sociology Professor...

Celebrate Black History Month by learning about the good work being done on campus.

Eight Stories to Read for Black History Month

Black History Month may feel different this February, after a year of the coronavirus and historic protests for social justice. While coming together couldn’t be more important, under current...

Professors Nancy Burke and Whitney Pirtle are the two newest MacArthur Foundation chairs at UC Merced.

Two MacArthur Foundation Chairs Awarded to Female SSHA Faculty

Two female faculty members of UC Merced’s School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts (SSHA) have been named the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation chairs, making four prestigious...

Low-Wage Work Is Linked to Spread of COVID-19, Study Finds

California counties with high numbers of low-wage workers are seeing higher incidence of COVID-19, suggesting a link between so-called “worker distress” and spread of the virus, according...

Three Awarded UC Pre-Professoriate Fellowships

UC Merced graduate students Anabel Castillo, Veronica Lerma and Sammy Villa are recipients of the University of California’s inaugural President’s Pre-Professoriate Fellowship (PPPF)....

This fall, Katie Daniels will start a faculty position in the sociology department at California Polytechnic State University, Pomona.

First-Generation Student Pursues Anti-Racism Research, Joins Cal-Poly Pomona this Fall

Kathryn “Katie” Daniels was a teen when she attended the celebration of the opening of UC Merced. As a child growing up in Merced, Daniels had heard her parents stress the importance of...