Department of Sociology | University of Maryland

Coordinator: David R. Segal | (301) 405-6439 | dsegal@socy.umd.edu

The study of the relationship between armed forces and society in the University of Maryland’s Department of Sociology was introduced between the Korean and Vietnam wars by the late Professor Charles Coates, who joined the faculty in 1955. He established courses in Military Sociology and the Sociology of War. In collaboration with Roland J. Pellegrin, he also wrote the first textbook in military sociology.

In the early 1970s, as America was re-evaluating the military role it had played in Southeast Asia in the 1960s, a number of new faculty members with interests in peace, war, and military organization were added to the department. In the mid-1970s, the major research focus of the program was the end of military conscription and the establishment of the all-volunteer military force. Through the 1980s, with the volunteer force well institutionalized, our focus shifted to the role that the U.S. military was beginning to adopt in peacekeeping operations, and to the increasingly timely and important issues of the ongoing process of gender integration in armed forces and of the work-family interface in the military context.

In the 1990s, concerns with the maintenance of a large standing force were replaced by a focus on the nature of armed forces in the post-Cold War (and perhaps Postmodern) world. In 1995, the Center for Research on Military Organizations was established. This Center serves as a locus for faculty and graduate student research. At the start of the twenty-first century, the processes of peacekeeping, gender integration, and work-family adaptation remain central research concerns. The program has become more comparative and historical in its approach. In particular, the nature of warfare, ranging from the eighteenth and nineteenth century revolutions that helped define the relationship between citizenship and the state to the asymmetric conflicts of the 21st century have become central research topics.

Faculty Interests

University of Maryland Sociology faculty members especially involved in military sociology are William Falk, Meyer Kestnbaum, Jeff Lucas, David Segal, and Mady Segal. The faculty members in the program are carrying out active programs of research related to the military, war, and peace. Their research interests include military organization, war and the state, peace and peacekeeping, small wars, personnel issues, military families, military women, group processes, and the relationship between military institutions and demographic processes.

Academic Program

The graduate program in peace, war, and military organization, which is unique in its size and scope, is built upon and integrated with the standard degree programs in Sociology. Students seeking a Ph.D. with a specialization in military sociology will fulfill all of the Department’s general Ph.D. requirements, will take a minimum of 9 credits of course work in military sociology, and will take one of their two doctoral exams and write their dissertations in the field of military sociology.

SOCY 652 Diversity in the Military
SOCY 654 Military Families
SOCY 664 Armed Forces and Society
SOCY 699X War, the State and Society
SOCY 869 Research Seminar in Military Sociology

In addition to graduate programs within the Sociology Department, the military sociology program is a major contributor to the interdisciplinary Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) program, which is a one-year professional Masters degree program for Navy and Marine Corps officers who have been selected to be company officers at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis.

Graduate Student Research Opportunities and Employment

Research assistantships are available through the Center for Research on Military Organizations. The military sociology program is also associated with the multidisciplinary Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM). Our location in the Washington area enables us to maintain continuing relationships with the U.S. Institute for Peace, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, the Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, and the Defense Manpower Data Center. These relationships provide opportunities for graduate student support, for participation in ongoing research programs, and for access to data for seminar papers, theses, and dissertations. Our expanding research program has attracted increasing numbers of graduate students to College Park. Most of them have been civilians. However, many military officers have come to the University of Maryland for graduate degrees with the support of the armed forces of the United States and allied nations, and have gone on to become senior personnel managers in their respective forces or to teach at service academies. Civilian alumni have gone on to positions in university teaching and administration or to research organizations. Our alumni have been important contributors to the sociological literature on armed forces and society.