Study Sociology at Otago

Associate Professor Marcelle Dawson:

Hi, I’m Marcelle Dawson and I’m an Associate Professor in Sociology here at the University of Otago. I’m with Emily today to talk to you about Sociology and why you should come to Otago to study it.

So basically, Sociology is the study of society. Our social realities are made up of various dimensions, including the families we’re born into, the place we go to school, the media that we engage with, and the jobs that we end up doing. We’re interested in finding out more about how these different things shape our identities. Sociology students are also quite curious about how and why people do ordinary things differently, and also how other people respond to people doing things differently.

At the root of the questions that we ask lies a very deep concern with social justice. And I want to bring Emily into the conversation here to talk a little bit about why she took Sociology at the University.

Emily Jagoutz:

So hi, I’m Emily. I’m a third-year student doing a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Sociology and minoring in Criminology. And I actually originally enrolled in a different subject. And I’m sure many of you might change what your major is over the course of your degree, but Otago really helped me find my niche — what I was super interested in. And I’ve better understood the world that I live in from taking Sociology, and even just where I stand in New Zealand. And not only this, but it’s given me the tools to use and the understandings of how I can personally create positive change in the world, which is super important in, like, times like these.

Marcelle Dawson:

Once our graduates have finished at Otago, many of them end up being advisors in ministries, or they end up working for non-governmental organisations, or even as equity officers in corporations. So Sociology helps us to not only understand the world we live in, but also actively shape the world that we want to live in.

So these are some of the things that have interested me as a former Sociology student — as now somebody who teaches Sociology. But why were you interested in Sociology, Emily?

Emily Jagoutz:

So something that’s really interested me about Sociology is just how broad it is. You can study Environmental Sociology, you can study the Sociology of Sports — I’m sure, as you picked up from Marcel, everything in between. And from that, you’re not locked into one narrow pathway or discipline with a job. Once you’ve found your niche at university — sure, it might change afterwards—but you can still apply those tools and those learnings and understandings to any job that you take in the future.

Marcelle Dawson:

Yeah, so if you want to find out more about Sociology, come and visit us here at the University of Otago.