Sociologists have taken an increasing interest in surveillance over the last couple of decades. Surveillance has become a primary way to organize everyday life. Surveillance practices range from airport security practices (e.g., passenger pre-screening) to social media like Facebook. Contemporary sociologists are concerned with the expanding capabilities of information and communication technologies, but also key events that exacerbate surveillance systems (e.g., the 9/11 terrorist attacks on Washington and New York).

The department is offering a course on surveillance for the first time in Spring 2012. Surveillance and Society (SOCI 390) will be offered on Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday at 11:30-12:30 in Cornett B135. We also offer four courses that touch on aspects of surveillance:

• SOCI 202


• SOCI 307


• SOCI 306


• SOCI 401

Students enrolled in the undergraduate Honours program and the Master’s and Doctoral programs enjoy opportunities to conduct research on a wide range of surveillance practices. Some examples of research opportunities in the area of surveillance include:

• Surveillance and social problems
• Camera surveillance in private locations
• Public transit surveillance
• Moral panic and surveillance
• Theorizing surveillance
• Surveillance and public policy
• Medical surveillance
• Surveillance and Social Media

Click for details about our surveillance research activities

Click to contact Dr. Sean P. Hier

Policing is usually understood as something that state agents engage in by using a lot of fancy equipment. TV shows like Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) help foster this familiar image. But policing is quite different than depictions of high-tech crime solving. Policing involves formal policing agencies (e.g, RCMP, OPP) but also all the regulatory work of agencies who do not enforce criminal law but nonetheless try to maintain order in spaces where they patrol. Examples include the work of private security and conservation officers. Because policing involves far more than just criminal law enforcement, sociologists study how policing happens, the kinds of laws that policing agencies use, and the diverse spaces they work in.

The department is offering a course related to policing in Spring 2012. Regulation and Social Control (SOCI 307) deals with policing. It will be offered on TWF 1:30-2:30 SSM A102. We offer other courses that touch on policing:

• SOCI 202


• SOCI 307


• SOCI 306


• SOCI 401

Students enrolled in the undergraduate Honours program and the Master’s and Doctoral programs enjoy opportunities to conduct research on a wide range of policing and social control practices. Some examples of research opportunities in the area of policing and social control include:

• Private Security Policing
• Theories of Policing
• Intelligence and Policing
• Citizens’ Participation in Policing
• Conservation Officer Policing

Click for details about our policing research activities

Click to contact Dr. Kevin Walby

The idea of law typically conjures up images of a judge and jury in tense deliberation. But law does not simply refer to criminal statutes or what happens in courts. There are many kinds of law (e.g. constitutional law, civil law, labour law) that are administered in a variety of ways. Many of sociology’s founding figures looked at law from their own unique perspectives. In contemporary sociology, researchers not only focus on criminal law and other public laws but also by-laws, ordinances, private regulatory knowledges, and other formal regulations used to govern peoples’ lives. Sociologists are therefore interested in the making of law as well as the difference between law on the books and law in action.

The department is offering a course on law (for the first time in a long time) in Spring 2012. Sociology of Law (SOCI 401) will be offered in Spring, Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday 10:30-11:20, MAC D288. Other courses that touch on aspects of the formation and deployment of law include:

• SOCI 202


• SOCI 307


• SOCI 306


• SOCI 401

Students enrolled in the undergraduate Honours program and the Master’s and Doctoral programs enjoy opportunities to conduct research on a wide range of law-related phenomenon. Some examples of research opportunities in this area include:

• Constructions of Law
• Regulation and Law
• Privacy Protection Law
• Anti-Social Behaviour Laws
• Moral Panic and Law
• Race and Law
• Surveillance and Law

Click for details about our law research activities

Click to contact Dr. Kevin Walby

Crime is commonly understood as ‘wrong’ actions done by ‘bad’ people to innocent victims. Indeed, criminal anthropologists such as Cesare Lombroso used to try and study crime in the 19th century by measuring peoples’ ears and heads to discover anomalies that they thought were evidence of criminality. But contemporary sociologists are interested in crime as involving the breaking of socially defined rules. We are interested in how crime is constructed as a problem through social and communicative processes (e.g. News media), how jurisdictions define crime, and how criminal codes (e.g. the Criminal Code of Canada) are enforced and developed over time.

The department is offering a course on Deviance and Crime in Fall 2011. Deviance and Crime (SOCI 306) will be offered on Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday at 11:30-12:30 in CLE A127. We also offer other courses that touch on aspects of deviance and crime:

• SOCI 202


• SOCI 307


• SOCI 306


• SOCI 401

Students enrolled in the undergraduate Honours program and the Master’s and Doctoral programs enjoy opportunities to conduct research on a wide range of processes related to deviance and criminalization. Some examples of research opportunities in the area include:

• Crime and Media (especially new media)
• Crime and Time (changing understandings of crime and criminality)
• Race and Crime
• Surveillance and Crime

Click for details about our crime research activities

Click to contact Dr. Kevin Walby