Although faculty members engage in research on a wide variety of topics, the department has particular strengths in four core research areas:

Families:
USC faculty study family structures and processes; inter-generational relationships over the life course; the politics of family values; families in a postmodern and global context; family solidarity and conflict; differences of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and nationality in family life; causes and consequences of recent changes in family forms and practices.
(Professors: Biblarz, Casper, Hays, Kaplan, and Silverstein.)

Immigration:
USC faculty who study the transnational movement of peoples examine the forces of political economy that spur immigration, and the consequences of immigration at the social, cultural, and individual levels.
(Professors: Emeka, Hondagneu-Sotelo, Terriquez, and Vallejo.)

Social Inequality:
USC faculty in this area examine how power is used by various social groups to monopolize — and sometimes to destabilize — control over valuable resources. Special attention is paid to manifestations of inequality across social markers of identity such as race, class, gender, sexuality, religion, nationality, and age. (Professors: Emeka, Glassner, Gomez-Barris, Hays, Hondagneu-Sotelo, Kaplan, Messner, Ransford, and Saito.)

Culture:
USC faculty in this field study the culture of civic engagement in a variety of sites: community service groups, religious volunteer and activist groups, religious congregations, and a variety of social movements and political organizations. They also study the role of values, ideologies, cultural symbols, and media imagery in social life. (Professors: Eliasoph, Gomez-Barris, Glassner, Hays, and Lichterman.)