Graduate study in Sociology

The Department of Sociology offers both Master’s (MA) and Doctoral (PhD) research based degree programs with supervisors based at both the Fredericton and Saint John campuses. Enrolment can be either on a full-time or part-time basis.

We generally have 20-30 graduate students enrolled in our programmes each year, one-third of them in the PhD Programme. Many of our graduate students are engaged in original research in areas such as the sociology of health, wellness, and health care; media and communications; and violence against women.

Graduate study in Sociology at UNB prepares you for a variety of careers and our graduates have gone on to work both inside and outside academe. For instance, many of our students have taken up tenure track university appointments (most recently see Brayton, PhD 2003 and Thomas-MacLean, PhD 2001) and two of our graduates have been awarded Canada Research Chairs (Beaman, MA 1992 PhD 1996 and van den Hoonard, MA 1984).

We also count among our former graduate students in sociology Bruce Arai, Associate Dean at Laurier University, Andy Scott, Federal MP from 1993 to 2008, and Wendy McLeod MacKnight, Deputy Minister of Education, Government of New Brunswick. Other Sociology graduates have secured careers in law enforcement (Fitch, MA 1995) and as business consultants for Industry Canada (Lefevbre MA 1997).

Graduate Student Resources

The Graduate Academic Unit in Sociology is particularly pleased to have at its disposal a number of awards, assistantships, fellowships, and field-research grants. In addition, the University of New Brunswick and other outside funding bodies may be applied to.

In addition to monetary support, the Department of Sociology and the University of New Brunswick provide other resources to graduate students. For example, the Department of Sociology provides work space and computer facilities to graduate students in Sociology.

For more details on this and other resources, see Department of Sociology Graduate Handbook and the Student Resources page. The School of Graduate Studies provides guidance to students on a variety of matters pertaining to graduate study at UNB including thesis formatting instructions on-line.

Additional support is provided by the Graduate Student Association and the Student Health Centre.