Sociology

Program info

Department:
Department of Sociology

Program type: master
( follow-up master)

Study mode:  full-time

Title : Master (equivalent of master's degree) 

Tuition fee: 1,500 EUR / semester

Standard length of studies : 2 years (4 semesters)

Language of instruction:  English

Degree program specification

This program offers a rigorous course of instruction that will prepare you to investigate and understand the complexities of contemporary societies. The curriculum includes courses in classical and contemporary sociological theory, practical training in quantitative and qualitative research methods, and cultivation of your critical thinking and writing skills. The program has been carefully designed to offer you a rich and complete sociological education, while offering flexibility and opportunities to follow your personal interests.

The program offers intensive instruction in a small number of challenging courses with high credit values, rather than an extensive instruction in a high number of less demanding courses. This model of teaching is used at top international universities and it also helps you become flexible and transition smoothly to doctoral degree programs if you decide to continue your studies. Our curriculum focuses on independent study combined with consultations with experienced lecturers, which enables you to develop skills needed for autonomous, thorough, and creative problem-solving. Methods that help you solve problems and complete tasks are given priority over broad factual knowledge in sociology, which can quickly become obsolete, too extensive to be mastered in a two-year course of studies, and is usually easily available in digital databases and other types of information sources. Skilled use of such databases is one of the skills you learn during your Master's studies.

Why study Sociology at Masaryk University?

Historically ...

The Department of Sociology at Masaryk University was established in 1921 and is one of the oldest sociological institutes in Europe. Under the long-time leadership of Innocence Arnošt Bláha - founder of the department, but also one of the founders of Czech sociology and student of Emile Durkheim, sociologist at Masaryk University garnered its distinctive professional profile and status. In the history of Czech sociology, the interwar "Brno School of Sociology" became a thriving movement. For example, in 1926, Emanuel Chalupný received a professorship, and JL Fischer and others engaged in the development of sociology as a discipline. The publication of the prestigious journal  Sociological Revuewhich was considered one of the best European journals, represented by another important milestone for the department.

Today ...

The professional profile of the Department of Sociology currently boasts a wide range of research interests:

• Social integration and problems of social exclusion or marginalization
• Social stratification and social inequalities
• family, relationships in family, transformations in family patterns
• Population Development - Life Course, Aging
• children, youth, intergenerational relationships, generational conflict
• creation of sociocultural identities, ethnicity, ethnic relationships
• Non-profit sector
• gender studies, relationships between sexes
• Religion and its transformations in modern societies
• Globalization, migration, transnationalism
• urban studies
• sociological theory
• cultural sociology

The Department systematically promotes international cooperation. There are a number of cooperative research projects and activities with important academic institutions in Europe and the United States, for example, the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University, Central European University in Budapest, University of East London at the University of Vienna, among many others.