About SDS

The department's faculty represent a wide variety of disciplines, including economics, history, philosophy, political science, psychology, and sociology. Despite the diversity of the faculty, the department's teaching and research programs grow out of several intellectual themes that cut across the social sciences, including decision theory, organization theory, and political economy.

The multidisciplinary character of the department provides a unique opportunity for innovative research. Research areas of particular strength within the department include: behavioral decision theory, experimental political science and economics, social network theory, evolutionary and biological theories applied to economics and political science, organization ecology, political psychology, and bureaucratic politics. As this list indicates, members of the department stress the development of theories of social phenomena that do not always fit neatly into traditional disciplinary boundaries. There is a complementary emphasis on empirical testing of theory, leading to a common concern with methodology. Much of the research in the department has important and direct public policy implications in areas such as technology policy and health policy. The interdisciplinary style of the department is reflected in its unique teaching programs. All of the department's core offerings for its majors are innovative, interdisciplinary courses. They provide the basis for an exciting, integrated and distinctive curriculum in each of the department's majors.