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EIU Department of Sociology, Anthropology & Criminology

Teaching, Research, Service play video

Our faculty are award-winning instructors and respected scholars engaged in service that benefits our communities.

Criminology and Criminal Justice program
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Our department graduates have a
90% acceptance rate
to top tier MSW programs.

Welcome to the Department of Sociology, Anthropology & Criminology at Eastern Illinois University.

The department offers a major in Sociology (B.A.), a major in Criminology and Criminal Justice (B.A.), and minors in Anthropology, Criminology and Criminal Justice, and Sociology. Our Sociology curriculum exposes students to the central areas of study in the discipline, challenges them to think critically about society and social behavior, and prepares them for careers in social services, human resources, public planning and administration, and for graduate study in Sociology, Social Work, and related fields. Our undergraduate major in Criminology and Criminal Justice similarly provides a student-centered curriculum that enables students to think critically about the causes and consequences of crime and criminal behavior and prepares graduates for a variety of careers in law-enforcement, corrections, law, and advocacy. Our program offers those students that are interested the opportunity to double major in Sociology and Criminology and Criminal Justice in four years and with little extra coursework.

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Why Choose EIU for Sociology/Anthropology/Criminology

Innovative Teaching

Our professors have received numerous awards for excellence in teaching and bring to their classrooms innovative, exciting, and challenging exercises and activities. Dr. Angela Glaros, for instance, asks students to conduct field observations for her Ethnography class, work together to make butter and pickles in The Anthropology of Food course, and construct a miniature shrine for The Anthropology of Religion. The Shrine in a Tin project invites students to reflect on belief and meaning as they assemble their own sacred spaces in a tiny tin. These miniature creations form the basis of a student exhibit which is displayed on campus.

miniature art in sociology

Student Research

Our students conduct and engage in original research in a variety of ways. Students may work directly with a faculty member on their research project or develop their own independent research or course of study. Some students further develop and enhance papers or research that they completed for a course for publication and presentation. Many students go on to present their research at state, regional, and national conferences. As past President of the Illinois Sociological Association (ISA), Dr. Wade Smith has helped prepare many students to present their research at the Association’s annual conference. Student presentations at the ISA and other meetings not only serve as a momentous capstone experience and celebration of students’ hard work and research, but they also prepare our students for graduate study and research careers in the private and public sectors.

Zoe Bowers

Faculty Scholarship

Our faculty have active research agendas and are respected scholars in their fields of expertise. Dr. Mari Kita, for instance, recently published Offender Care and Support by Families in Contemporary Japan, which focuses on the burdens that the Japanese State imposes on the families of incarcerated individuals, especially the mothers of prisoners. This book is the culmination of Dr. Kita’s extensive research into crime and the criminal justice system in Japan, a topic that Dr. Kita weaves into her teaching and one that continues to inform new directions in her research

Mari Kita

Public Scholarship & Service

Our faculty and students are committed to research and service that benefits our communities. Our two student organizations often volunteer in our communities, and service-learning activities are part of the curriculum in many of our courses. Dr. Michael Gillespie, professor of sociology, has a long-standing research interest in understanding and addressing food insecurity and poverty in East Central Illinois. This work, and his advocacy, was fundamental to the creation of a food bank on the campus of Eastern Illinois University.


Meet our Faculty

Dr. Vernon Woodley

Assistant Professor of Sociology

Dr. Donald Holly

Professor of Anthropology

Dr. Holly, associate professor of Anthropology, is one of two trained archaeologists at Eastern. Holly teaches classes such as Introduction to Anthropology, Archeaology of the Earliest Civilizations, Native American Cultures, Human Evolution, and Hunters and Gatherers.

Dr. Michael D Gillespie

Associate Professor of Sociology

Dr. Gillespie has the distinguished honor to teach the required applied statistics course in the Department of Sociology/Anthropology. This course, for which students most often only enroll because it is a program requirement, is therefore met with much anxiety and skepticism by Sociology majors. However, integrating statistical literacy with a pirate, props, M&M chocolate candies, and real world applications, Dr. Gillespie develops for his students a critical eye toward social statistics that, in hopes, lives and breathes outside of the classroom.

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Related Pages

Criminology Major Alumni Major Requirements

Contact Information

Eastern Illinois University
Department of Sociology/Anthropology/Criminology

Blair 3170
600 Lincoln Avenue
Charleston, IL 61920
(217) 581-3123
soc1@eiu.edu


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