Social sciences research examines relationships among individuals, as well as relationships between individuals and their societies. Our social scientists study topics such as the healing power of words, how evolution shaped human thought, and how physical spaces can encourage breakthrough ideas.
Meet the Associate Dean
Associate Dean for the Social Sciences, Professor of Anthropology and Linguistics
Faculty Profile
Meek is a Comanche citizen and professionally trained linguist and anthropologist. Meek studies language revitalization to reclaim and carry words, dialects, and knowledge to future generations. She examines how representation and performance of language differences are intertwined with social inequality, specifically within Indigenous communities.
Units in the Social Sciences
Anthropology
Anthropology research focuses on human biological and cultural variation in time and space, with four traditionally recognized subfields.
Communication and Media
Communication and Media is dedicated to producing cutting-edge scholarship about the media’s impact on individuals and society.
Economics
In the Department of Economics, research covers a broad range of fields, including development economics, industrial organization, labor economics, and natural resource and energy economics.
History
History at Michigan is global, multidimensional, and interdisciplinary, and research is conducted on a range of topics spanning the millenia and covering nearly every geographic region in the world.
International Institute
The International Institute (II) stimulates research and teaching on critical areas of the world and on international issues that cut across world regions and disciplines.
Linguistics
Researchers in the Department of Linguistics explore language structure, history, knowledge, behavior, and use, and aim to integrate these diverse approaches to language in ways that engender new modes of linguistics inquiry and new research domains.
Museum of Anthropological Archaeology
Research collections at the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology include materials from many parts of the New and Old Worlds, and a portion is displayed in the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History.
Organizational Studies
Organizational Studies scholarship offers an interdisciplinary lens to understand the complex world we inhabit, including the structures of legal systems, markets, educational systems, or workplaces.
Political Science
Research in Political Science is comprised of multiple substantive focus areas and methodological approaches, including: American politics, comparative politics, methods, political theory, law and politics, and world politics.
Psychology
There are nine research areas within Psychology: Biopsychology, Clinical Science, Cognitive and Cognitive Neuroscience, Combined Program in Education and Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Gender and Feminist Psychology, Social Psychology, Personality and Social Contexts, and Social Work and Psychology.
Sociology
Research in the Department of Sociology is organized in eight different areas: Culture and Knowledge; Economic Sociology and Organizations; Gender and Sexuality; Health and Healthcare; Power, History, and Social Change; Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration; and Social Demography
Weinberg Institute for Cognitive Science
The Weinberg Institute for Cognitive Science advances the scientific understanding of mind through teaching, research, and interdisciplinary collaboration and the exchange of ideas both inside and outside of the classroom.
Women’s and Gender Studies
Through scholarship, curriculum, and activism, the Women’s Studies department seeks to: build interdisciplinary collaborations among faculty and students that bridge gender, racial, economic, religious, and national divides; create new forms of knowledge; and tie the University to our communities by promoting social justice.
