
Our Sociology Program
Sociologists are interested in how humans form groups, whether for peace or war, cooperation or conflict, persuasion or domination, development or destruction. They investigate the structure of groups, organizations, and societies, and how people interact within these contexts.
Algoma University’s four-year sociology program provides critical skills for understanding and interpreting the social world. The program offers courses which address a wide variety of areas, such as contemporary media depictions of gender and the body, debates in the environmental movement, health policy analysis, critical assessments of law and social justice, and Canadian policy in relation to multiculturalism and Indigenous rights. Students will use a variety of research methods to gain a vital understanding of social movements, race and diversity, and gender and sexuality, including surveys, interviews, observational studies, polls, personal letters, and focus groups.
Upon graduation, students in Algoma U’s sociology program will have strong written, oral presentation, and research skills – invaluable skills highly sought after in today’s competitive work world and in institutions of higher learning. These refined skills set Algoma U grads apart from the rest. For those who choose to enter the workforce upon graduation, career paths options include: education (primary and secondary, colleges and universities), researcher, affirmative action counsellor, health and safety educator, health promotion, human rights worker, journalist, non-profit housing worker, policy planner or policy analyst, parks and recreation planner, urban planner, and many more.
What You Can Expect
Hands-on learning, a close-knit campus community, and caring faculty.
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Understand society
Students will take part in the disciplined effort to understand society, social and cultural relations, the working of institutions, and the patterns of behaviour that characterize all social life.
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Honours thesis course
The Research and Critical Analysis course is a key element to the sociology program. Students will be guided by a thesis supervisor and are required to perform background research, analyze the collected research, and present and defend their findings at a public presentation.
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Develop Research Methods
Students will use a variety of research methods to gain a vital understanding of social movements, race and diversity, and gender and sexuality, including surveys, interviews, observational studies, polls, personal letters, and focus groups.



Our Courses
For more detailed information on our courses, please visit our courses schedule section
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START NOWMeet our Faculty
Our Sociology faculty are experts in the field. Get to know them!
Dr. Michael Graydon
Faculty Chair, Humanities, Assistant Professor

michael.graydon@algomau.ca
705-949-2301, ext. 4118
Office: CC 3034
Credentials: BA Hons, MA, PhD (Carleton University)
Areas of Expertise: LGBT community, LGBT rights movements, social movements, sexuality, HIV/AIDS, masculinity, male masculinity, health.
Dr. Deborah Woodman
Assistant Professor

deborah.woodman@algomau.ca
705-949-2301, ext. 4354
Office: CC 3302A
Credentials: BA Hons (Concordia University), MA (University of Manitoba), PhD (University of Guelph)
Paulette Steeves
Assistant Professor

paulette.steeves@algomau.ca
705-949-2301 ext. 4339
Office: SH 413
Paulette Steeves. PhD – (Cree- Metis), was born in Whitehorse Yukon Territories and grew up in Lillooet, British Columbia, Canada. She is an Indigenous archaeologist with a focus on the Pleistocene history of the Western Hemisphere. In her research Steeves argues that indigenous peoples were present in the Western Hemisphere as early as 60,000 years ago, and possibly much earlier. She has created a data base of hundreds of archaeology sites in both North and South America that date from 250,000 to 12,000 years before present, which challenges the Clovis First dogma of a post 12,000 year before present initial migration. Dr. Steeves received her BA in Anthropology, Honors Cum Laude from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, and completed a two year internship with the Quapaw NAGPRA program during her undergraduate studies. In 2008 Dr. Steeves was awarded the Clifford D. Clark fellowship to attend graduate studies at Binghamton University in New York State. Dr. Steeves dissertation Decolonizing Indigenous Histories: Pleistocene Archaeology Sites of the Western Hemisphere
is the first dissertation framed in Indigenous Method and Theory in Anthropology within the United States. In 2011 and 2012 she worked with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to carry out studies in the Great Plains on mammoth sites which contained evidence of human technology on the mammoth bone, thus showing that human were present in Nebraska over 18,000 years ago Dr. Steeves has taught Anthropology courses with a focus on Native American and First Nations histories and studies, and decolonization of academia and knowledge production at Binghamton University, Selkirk College Fort Peck Community College, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Mount Allison University , she is currently an Assistant Professor in History and a nominee for a Canada Research Cahir in Healing and Reconciliation at Algoma University in Ontario.
Vancouver Sun Article about Dr. Steeves Research
https://vancouversun.com/news/national/aboriginal-anthropologist
CBC News 2018 Paulette Steeves Migration Theories
Areas of Teaching and Research Interest
My teaching interests are woven through areas of Anthropology, Indigenous Studies, Heritage Studies, Archaeology, and Decolonization. I have training and experience in Anthropology, Archaeology, Physical Anthropology and Genetics, Heritage Studies, Indigenous Studies, Social Cultural Studies, and Museum Curation and Collections. I also have training and experience in osteology, sterile collection and preservation procedures for sensitive and human materials. I have area expertise in North and South American archaeology sites and material remains during the Pleistocene, pre- 11,200 years before present, including published research in Pleistocene archaeology and links to Indigenous heritage and identity. As the only First Nations/ Indigenous scholar working specifically in this Pleistocene of North and South America) area I have been called on by Indigenous communities to support them in defining, protecting and preserving heritage sites and material remains, and to support claims for repatriation. As an archaeologist I have experience in research and excavations in Canada and the USA across time from the Pleistocene to the present day. In teaching I also focus on historical and contemporary processes of colonization, Agnotology, and decolonization to create discussion on challenging discrimination and racism within society.
Teaching Philosophy
My goal in the classroom is to challenge students to apply critical thought and to become active and engaged learners along paths of education with a focus on decolonizing minds and worldviews. I have worked to create a teaching style that is challenging yet, also considers diverse learning styles and student backgrounds. Students in Canada today are challenged to become engaged with and to respond to processes of decolonization and reconciliation. I encourage them to arrive at a deeper understanding of the historical processes of colonization and how their education and future work and scholarship may support processes of reconciliation and decolonization. Providing this historical framework of processes of colonization and decolonization in Canada allows students to become informed of a history many were not aware of until very recently, and to challenge stereotypes and think critically about their future role as peers and scholars. I encourage students to explore areas of interest and study by introducing productive research strategies that highlight practices of learning both in and outside of the class. In teaching about engaged community research and applied scholarship I provide students with contemporary examples of research focused on applied scholarship, community engagement, and collaboration. I aim to instill an understanding of important issues such as the historical background of knowledge production and the opportunity to become informed through a study of multiple perspectives of heritage, identity, history, and teaching and learning. In my classes, I introduce students to social and political processes such as how people acquire their sense of history and nationality. Furthermore, we examine how our understanding of society is expressed in words and events to illustrate issues of social justice. I have included in my class plans, varying perspectives, and other ways of knowing, thereby introducing the value of diversity with the aim of offering students the opportunity to expand their own worldviews through the development of open discourse within the classroom, and the communities in which they interact. Through sessions of classroom debates I encourage students to develop and discuss their own views while considering and respecting the view of others. I strive to develop and include interactive assignments that will be productive and interesting for students of all learning styles. In designing curriculum, I am focused on creating classes and assignments that are decolonized, indigenized, experiential, and intellectually challenging.
In Indigenous ways of being, knowing, and doing the land is central to life and education. As an Indigenous scholar and, I cannot always take students to all the places on the land that we study. Thus, I created a semester long assignment that supports students learning about Indigenous people, places, and events, and guides students through a learning experience linking people, places and events to maps the create. For some classes the maps are of the Americas other classes the entire world. Students on their own time build a data base with pertinent information about the topics we study in each class. Near the end of semester students have worked on their maps in class adding rivers, mountains and oceans and when their data base is completed 120 sites, they map the sites onto the maps. Often students will use Indigenous community’s names, in Indigenous languages, for their places and their names for mountains and rivers. No two maps are ever alike the assignment allows each student to express their individuality in both the map and the data base. This Indigenous pedagogy is experimental and kinetic; maps through their creation become an embedded memory informing student of human and Indigenous diversity, places, events, languages, and interactions with others across time and place. Students learn to create a data base including information on the site location, the community, identity, leadership, site type, language, and a citation or either academic sources or public sources depending on the class. Students learn to categorize their data entries and most importantly link them to the land. The response from students have been very positive, they have shown to be vested in both the content and presentation of assignment.
Academic Publications and Presentations
Journal Articles
Steeves, P. (2017). Unpacking Neoliberal Archaeological Control of Ancient Indigenous Heritage. Archaeologies, 13(1), 48-65.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11759-017-9312-z
Steeves, P. (2015). Decolonizing the Past and Present of the Western Hemisphere (The Americas). Archaeologies, 11(1), 42-69.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11759-015-9270-2
Steeves, P. (2015). Academia, Archaeology, CRM, and Tribal Historic Preservation. Archaeologies, 11(1), 121-141.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11759-015-9266-y
Steeves, P. (2014). Deloria, Jr., Vine. Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, (pp. 2091-2093). Springer New York.
https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-1-4419-0465-2_411
Steeves, P. (2014). Mesa Verde Geography and Culture. Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, (pp. 4776-4780). Springer New York.
https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-1-4419-0465-2_1658
Steeves, P. (2014). Clovis and Folsom, Indigenous Occupation Prior to. Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology (pp. 1508-1513). Springer New York.
https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-1-4419-0465-2_1847
Selected Conference Presentations
The 56th International Congress of Americanist, Salamanca Spain, July 15-20, 2018.
Unerasing an Erased History: Working to protect Indigenous cultural heritage and history.
University of Montana at Missoula, Student Archaeology Conference. Key Note Lecture. Decolonizing Indigenous Histories in Archeology; Pleistocene Archaeology Sites of the Americas. 2016.
Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC. Session: Applying Indigenous frameworks for archaeological analysis. Indigenous Method and Theory in Archaeology. 2017.
University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Student Divest and Native American Student Association, No Dakota Access Pipeline Awareness and fundraising event, Guest Speaker. 2016.
World Archaeological Congress 8. Kyoto, Japan. Archaeology in Education (tertiary) Linking Land to Heart, Mind and Heritage. Session Co- Chair and presenter. 2016.
Association of Critical Heritage Studies. 3rd Biennial Conference, Montreal, Canada. Heritage and the Late Modern State. Un-Erasing the Indigenous Paleolithic: Re-Writing the Ancient Pleistocene Past of the Western Hemisphere (the Americas). 2016.
Organization of American Historians. Providence, RI. Honoring Ancestors: Indigenous Leaders and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA). 2016.
The 48th Annual Chacmool Conference. University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. Shallow Pasts, Endless Horizons: Sustainability & Archaeology. Sustaining a Meaningful Archaeology Through Ceremonies of Research. 2015.
16th Annual American Indian Studies Association Conference. University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, N.M. Sustainability of Traditional Language, Culture and Knowledge”. Since Time Immemorial: Oral Traditions of the Ancient Past. 2015.
Society for American Archaeology 78th Annual Meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii. Symposium, Shifting Archaeological Borders and Boundaries. Decolonizing History and Academia. Rebuilding Bridges to the Indigenous Past. Session organizer and chair. 2013.
Columbia University, New York, N.Y. Indigenous Spaces: Pushing the Boundaries of History, Bodies, Geographies, and Politics. Decolonizing Indigenous Histories. 2012.
American Anthropology Society 111th Annual Meeting, San Francisco. Borders and Crossings. Indigenous Spaces. Pushing the Borders and Boundaries of Histories, Bodies, Geography and Politics. Turning the earth of a Colonial Terra Nullius: Decolonizing Indigenous Histories. Session organizer and co-chair. 2012.
State University of New York at Binghamton. Radicle Archaeology Theory Symposium. Anarchist by Default: Red Anthropologists in a White Academia. 2010.
State University of New York at Binghamton. Anthropology Student Organization Ethics Conference. A Pebble in the Pond. 2008.
To learn more about Paulette Steeves, please visit her website.
Dr. Vivian Jimenez-Estrada
Department Chair, Sociology, Associate Professor

vivian.jimenez-estrada@algomau.ca
705-949-2301, ext. 4352
Office: CC 3033B
Credentials:
BES
MES (York University)
PhD University of Toronto, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE)
Specialization:
Global and Hemispheric Indigenous Studies; Indigenous and Qualitative Research
Methodologies; Decolonizing, Anti-racist, and Indigenous Theories and Discourse; Indigenous
Feminisms; Environmental Sociology, Sociology of Education, Race, Indigeneity and Racialization.
Dr. Nicola Shaw
Associate Professor

nicola.shaw@algomau.ca
705-949-2301, ext. 4751
Office: SH507
Credentials: BSc Hons (University of Central Lancashire), PhD (University of Central Lancashire in collaboration with Oxford PGMET)
Areas of Expertise: Sociology in health, mental health, adverse childhood experiences, research methods.
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“A lot of my program at York involved leading a seminar presentation on weekly readings. The presentations I made during my time in Sociology at Algoma helped prepare me for this. One of the greatest advantages was my ability to complete an undergraduate thesis. Going into my MA, I was already equipped with the knowledge of how to complete a thesis with original research … For me, this was a huge advantage.”
Frank Meraglia
BA & MA, Sociology

“As a sociology student at Algoma U, I have gained insight into the social constructs that shape the world. I have engaged with peers and knowledgeable faculty to unpack the social inequalities that exist and explored the ideologies that influence oppression with the intention to create positive change. As a student, I have expanded my own awareness of intersectional identities resulting in self-growth.”
Lucia Luciani