Student experience videos: digitally accessible content
What is Sociology and Social Policy?
Video transcription here:
Karen: I'm Karen Throsby, I'm a Professor in Gender Studies and I'm the Head of the School of Sociology and Social Policy. Welcome to the School.
There are lots of different ways that people think about Sociology, but basically Sociology is the study of human society, it's organisations, it's structures, it's institutions and the implications of those patterns for individuals and for groups. So at its heart, Sociology is the study of people, how they interact in order to make our social worlds, and how we can understand the often profoundly unequal ways in which those social worlds are lived and experienced.
Jess: Hi, welcome, I'm Jess Martin, and I'm a Lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds.
I think Sociology provides us with a critical lens through which we can understand the world around us. So it gives us the language and the tools to be able to intervene in contemporary debates and issues. It's a way of understanding the social forces that are at play in all of our lives. It's a way of understanding power. Who has power and who doesn't and why? And it allows us to challenge some of the injustices that we might associate with power.
Caption: Small group seminars are a great chance to discuss interesting topics.
Li: Hi everyone, my name is Li Sun. I'm Associate Professor of Sociology and Social Policy.
We encourage students to engage with the academic culture in the beginning of the semester until graduation, and we offer every student a personal tutor to help them through this course. And also every Module Convenor and every teaching staff would look after the student and they offer students experience with the different cohorts as well. So they encourage students to interact with academics, with alumni and also with the wider community in the university.
Caption: All our students have an Academic Personal Tutor to support their studies.
Caption: Get help with Academic Literacy at our regular Student Success drop-ins.
Jess: We have a really vibrant academic culture in the School, and partly that's due to our students who are curious and passionate and love to get involved with our research culture here. So students can start their own networks and groups. We have a lot of different student groups who mobilise around particular issues that they're passionate about. So there's lots of ways that students can really get into the life and the heart of the culture here at Leeds.
Abel: Hi, my name is Abel Ugba. I'm an Associate Professor in the School of Sociology and Social Policy.
Well, our School brings together experts, and in addition to that, we have dedicated research centres that are staffed by experts with experience in all these areas. And that means that it provides a platform for our students to engage directly with some of these topic, but also to have this direct conversation with these experts in these various fields.
Caption: Professor Michèle Lamont (Harvard University) giving the annual Bauman Memorial Lecture for the School.
Jess: So here at Leeds, we are really excited to bring our students into the culture of our School. We have a lot of events like Breakfast Clubs.
Caption: We offer a free breakfast to all our students several times a year!
Jess: We have Spring and Summer Balls for students to attend. We have research seminars and we love when our students come and get involved in the culture of the School. It's really important to us that students play a part in everyday life at the School.
Karen: There’s never been a more important time, I think, to study Sociology and to use Sociology in our world. If we think about this period of quite rapid change, of social turbulence, of big global issues like climate change. We've seen the erosion of reproductive rights. We've seen a return to a polarisation of politics.
Sociologists have a huge amount to say and contribute to all of these issues, and one of the things that we want to do in the School is to help nurture and cultivate the next generation of Sociologists to maintain that really powerful and important contribution to managing this time of incredible change.
Meet our students
Video transcription here:
Isaac: So my name's Isaac, I'm studying BA Sociology, and I am a third year undergraduate student.
Caption: Isaac’s dissertation studied trust, expertise and social media in contemporary society.
Isaac: So when I think of Sociology, I think of the study of people and society.
If you look at society as a whole and you look at individuals, Sociology is looking at problems on a society wide level. So, if one person has a problem, that is an individual problem. But if ten, one hundred, a thousand, a million people have a problem, then that becomes a societal issue.
So that's when we're going to be looking at things like racism, sexism, ableism, classism, inequalities. Things that affect, people on a wider grand scale. That's what I think about when I think about what Sociology is, and what we learn and what will be taught here at University of Leeds.
Paula: So, hi, I'm Paula,I'm doing a PhD in Sociology here at University of Leeds, I'm second year.
Caption: Paula is studying housing financialization, debt and gender in Brazil.
Sociology gave me the vocabulary and the knowledge to understand how personal experiences sometimes are not isolated, how they are part of a massive structure that sometimes we are not aware of it. So it helped me to name, and understand social inequalities. And it helped me to expand my imagination to think, oh, what is the alternative? If we're not happy with the world we have at the moment, how can we think about a better future?
And to learn that, you have to understand how things work. And I think Sociology gave me this vocabulary because sometimes you're going through inequality in your life, but it's more like an experience. And I think Sociology gives you the words you need to name, to understand, to break down, and then think about alternative futures.
Freya: I’m Freya, I'm a second year BSc Social and Political Science student at the University of Leeds.
Caption: Our foundation year is an inclusive program offering access to degrees in the school.
So I came through an alternative route to uni, I did the foundation year in BA Sociology. It gives you a really good basis to then build your studies from there. You can find out what you're interested in and you also get a choice of degrees to then go and study.
So I've chosen to do the BSc Social and Political Sciences because while I'm very interested in Sociology, kind of looking at how it interacts with politics in the UK and abroad, I think is an important aspect of study.
Caption: Our school community is more global and diverse than ever before.
Paula: I think Leeds as a city gives me exactly what I need in terms of, I have culture around, it's a multicultural place. We have... I met people from all around the world. I think I fell in love with Leeds the minute that I moved into the city.
The university is welcoming. Everyone that I met here has always made me feel at ease and at home. And the fact that I'm a foreigner here,I didn't feel the difference.
I always felt welcome. So I have friends that are from Britain, from other places around the world. And I've never felt like an outsider. I always felt like, okay, you are welcome in here.
Studying Sociology, it gives you the tools to analyse the social structures that are around us. It's important once you have that knowledge of how your perspective shifts, you see why things have happened and why they are the way that they are. And then it kind of adds a little bit of hope for how you can then maybe change them in the future.
Caption: We have a whole video about careers called: ‘What can I do with a degree from SSP?’
Isaac: So studying Sociology going forward, it has made me think about the world in more of a problem solving way, in a more analytical and critical way of understanding things.
I now look at things in a wider context and not just one particular thing. And I think that's something that Sociology has, especially at University of Leeds, is changing, as it is such a contemporary way of looking at things in the way that it's studied here at University of Leeds.
It's not just looking at old guys and what they did in the past, but it's applying things to how they operate in society now. If you are someone who is, you know, you want to study things on how our world currently is working then I would say that Sociology here at the University of Leeds will expand your mindset and do that.
What can I do with a Sociology and Social Policy degree?
Video description here:
Charlotte: I didn't even know Sociology really was a thing because it wasn't a thing at my school and I didn't study it at A-level or anything. So I think then when I found out about it, I was like, this is like the perfect mix of all the things that I love and I'm interested in, in one degree.
Hi, I'm Charlotte and I studied BA Sociology in the School of Sociology and Social Policy, and I graduated eight years ago. So when I graduated, I went into higher education working in admissions. After a couple of years, I realised that I wanted a job that was more kind of hands-on, working with young people directly, and so I moved into outreach and worked in a further education college. And more recently, I'm supporting mature students and helping them hopefully to overcome additional barriers that they might face whilst at university.
Caption: SSP graduates come back to talk to our current students about their experiences of employment.
Charlotte: My one piece of advice would be that you can do lots of different jobs and go into a really wide range of careers with a Sociology degree. I believe if you have an area that you are passionate about and you can find something that gives you purpose, then that's a great place to start. But also recognising the skills that you're building up with your degree is really important. And understanding where you can connect those with different careers and you can have conversations and build up your confidence in that area by accessing the Careers Service.
Caption: We support our students to identify and record the skills they have for their future career.
Katie: The School of Sociology and Social Policy is a great place for students to develop lots of transferable skills relevant to many careers. It's great for developing critical thinking for analysis skills, the ability to formulate an argument, and communication skills and just how people can work well together and how we can improve our society. All of those skills are relevant to almost every career that you can apply for.
Caption: We also support our students who need to work alongside their studies.
Katie: The most common questions I receive from students are about their job applications. So most of my appointments are answering students' questions, reading over, and giving feedback on CVs, cover letters, application questions for various jobs. Another really common question I get is what can I do with my degree, and with Sociology, the good news is: pretty much anything.
Nick: We are really proud of our students because they graduate and do a lot of different jobs that often focus on making a real positive difference in communities. We have students who work as social researchers, working in local government. We have students who train to be mental health and wellbeing practitioners, HR, market research and also in media industries, any kind of jobs where students are finding creative solutions to problems or working in consultancy where their research skills are really valuable.
Katie: The great thing about the Careers Service and the career support that you have in the School of Sociology and Social Policy is that it's still available to you after graduation. So even if you haven't got a job offer before you graduate, or you're changing jobs in the future, you can come back to us and we can help you with your application and help you get a job at any point in your life. That's true, yeah!
Student dissertation experiences
Access video with full audio description here.
Video description here:
Poppy: I’m Poppy, I study at the University of Leeds, and I'm in my final year doing Sociology. My dissertation was about the causes of guilty pleasure music. So if you listen to music alone and you enjoy it, but you're embarrassed about listening to it in front of others, what causes this embarrassment and guilt?
Melanie: So my dissertation project was about studying the relationship that undergraduate university students have with their disposable or single use vapes, and understanding how this relationship can be codependent and how this ultimately affects their habits towards recycling and the environment.
Emily: My dissertation was about the first drug consumption room in the UK in Glasgow. It was a media analysis comparing how it's been represented in Scottish tabloids versus English tabloids and just sort of looking at the context of drug policy in England versus Scotland and how media representations contribute.
Susannah: So my dissertation project was about access disparities to menstrual healthcare because it's so under researched, as menstrual health is quite an under research topic in itself.
Sophie: Mine was on how gay men contribute to misogyny on TikTok.
Yasmin: Yeah, mine was on how black queer students experience friendship at university.
Ines: And mine was how Reform UK used nostalgia to appeal to voters.
Rosa: It seemed quite daunting at first because it was super new and I didn't really know anything like it. But with the support from my supervisor and other staff members at the university, I was able to conduct the research in my own way that gave me good results, but it was also a bit of fun. So it wasn't too scary.
Caption: All students work in partnership with an academic supervisor on their dissertation project.
Poppy: I really enjoyed my dissertation because it was something that I got to choose. Every other essay is something you're given and a topic, but with this, this was my choice. And it was fun to do interviews and like, analyse data because I'd never got to do that before as well.
Caption: You are free to choose the topic and the research method for your dissertation.
Melanie: So I did a media analysis, and I used critical discourse analysis. So I just analysed, a sample of Scottish based newspapers and English based newspapers, like devices the media use, what they referred to them as, what sort of imagery and who they interviewed.
Caption: You will learn social research and data analysis skills desired by employers.
Susannah: In my dissertation, I used descriptive analytical methods, on top of doing quantitative research. So this involved using mapping techniques, using R in RStudio.
Yasmin: I conducted semi-structured interviews. Yeah, so I did four interviews and then used thematic analysis to identify themes based on black queer students' lived experiences.
Melanie: So I found the experience really, almost like refreshing, to like, understand how people actually were responding. And I feel like doing qualitative research really helped me understand the in depth, more personal reasons. Because everyone's reasonings were different. The research was just really exciting for me to actually conduct, because obviously I've never done that before, so it was very, very exciting.
Caption: Your dissertation can produce insights that matter locally and globally.
Ines: I found it quite rewarding because, not that the lit review was boring. It was really interesting, but, just it got to a point of the dissertation when this actually sort of like sparked joy. I was like, oh, this actually is why I picked the topic, this is why it's interesting. So doing the actual findings for the dissertation, that's what I enjoyed the most.
Caption: We prepare our students to thrive with confidence at a time of rapid social change.
Yasmin: I found it really interesting. It just felt really rewarding and kind of like, okay, this is why I do sociology. This is why I chose this topic, yeah.
Sophia: My one piece of advice for someone doing their dissertation is to think of it as a bigger project and not, kind of, the end all. We still can't really believe that we've completed it, but if you just do a little bit as it goes and embrace the challenges that come with it, it gets better.
Emily: Make sure it's something that you're really interested on and just make sure you start early. Start thinking about things early, like collecting samples, like sources early. And yeah, just make sure it's something you like doing and you're passionate about.
Caption: We’ll help you grow into a confident, socially aware graduate ready to tackle global challenges.
Yasmin: Yeah, I'd say definitely start early. Follow your plan, follow your timeline.
Sophie: Talk to your tutor. They have been assigned to you for a reason. And they're really nice.