Robert B. Lee 

Sociology

When I enrolled in my first sociology class as an undergraduate I had no idea what to expect. The class was the Sociology of Religion taught by a professor whose lectures I found both difficult and stimulating—I didn’t understand half of what he was saying but I was riveted by what I could understand. That was the beginning of an exciting journey that would take me from UC Berkeley to graduate school at UCLA and eventually into teaching.

My first teaching assignment was as a sociology adjunct at Foothill College in 2002 followed by similar assignments at San Francisco State University, Ohlone College, and Holy Names College. I joined the Cañada College faculty in the fall of 2005. In graduate school I studied the sociology of ethnicity, migration, and social movements and these topics continue to pique my interest and curiosity. But my academic interests within sociology remain varied owing, I think, to the fact that I’ve had to teach a wide-range of classes over the years.

Sociology as the study of people and institutions has a certain universal appeal. It is an amazingly broad discipline that has as its laboratory virtually every domain of social life and it employs a vast array of theoretical and methodological techniques that requires constant learning and innovation. Sociology is also empowering. Sociology can enable individuals and groups to situate and contextualize their lives by providing analytical tools to help interpret what might be going on in and around them, creating new possibilities for social change.

With all that sociology has to offer I feel privileged and honored to have the opportunity to teach at Cañada College. Having had so many wonderful teachers, I aim to bring sociology to life in the same way my teachers did for me.