School Overview
The School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (SSBS), Nanjing University, was established on the basis of the Department of Sociology in October 2008. Currently, the school has three departments, sociology, psychology, and social work and social policy, respectively, with the addition of the Institute of Social Anthropology. Apart from these academic units, the school has also set up the Master of Social Work (MSW) Education Center and a few research institutes.
The SSBS has 57 faculty members, including 25 full professors and 16 associate professors. Our faculty members have obtained doctoral degrees from prestigious universities both in China and overseas, including the US, the UK, Germany and Japan. Furthermore, eight were recognized as outstanding scholars by the Ministry of Education, China.
Now, the school offers undergraduate degrees in sociology, applied psychology, and social work, master degrees in sociology, anthropology, theoretical psychology, applied psychology, social work and demography, and doctoral degrees in sociology and psychology. In addition, the school has a master's program in sociology taught entirely in English.
Department of Sociology
The Department of Sociology traces its roots to two prominent departments of sociology founded, respectively, in 1927 at National Central University and in 1912 at the University of Nanking. These two departments of sociology are influential institutions for the beginning of Chinese sociology research and teaching in the early 20th century. In 1988, the Department of Sociology was re-established in Nanjing University. It has since become one of the best sociology departments and consistently ranks among the top three in China. Its faculty members specialize in the broad areas, including social theory, social stratification and social mobility, computational sociology, social capital and social network, education, international migration, family and gender, rural and urban studies, and so on.
Department of Psychology
The Department of Psychology can be traced back to Nanjing Higher Normal School in the 1920s. In 1993, the first institute of social psychology in mainland China’s university was established in Nanjing University. On this basis, in 2008, the Department of Psychology was officially re-established. It focuses on social psychology, social and cognitive neuroscience, mental health and clinical counseling. The department aims to address significant theoretical and practical issues that arise during China's rapid modernization process from the psychological perspective. More specifically, its staff is conducting research in social cognition and morality, meaning of life and subjective well-being, emotional processing and decision-making, social culture and counseling psychology, human-computer interaction and user experience, social cognition of artificial intelligence, behavioral neuroscience and behavioral pharmacology, and so on.
Department of Social Work and Social Policy
In May 2001, the Social Work Teaching and Research Section was established in the Department of Sociology, and began to enroll undergraduates in social work the following year. In October 2008, the Department of Social Work and Social Policy was launched. The department aims to cultivate advanced professionals with solid theoretical foundation, excellent social work practice skills and strong ability to conduct social investigation, who can engage in social policy research and social work services in various organizations after graduation.
Institute of Social Anthropology
The Institute of Social Anthropology of Nanjing University was established in February 2005, and currently has seven formal teaching and research faculty members. All the members in the institute graduated from prestigious universities at home and abroad, and received systematic and strict academic training. Adhering to the anthropological research and teaching traditions of the National Central University and the University of Nanking, the institute is mainly engaged in urban and rural studies and ethnic studies. In addition, the institute's faculty members are exploring new topics, such as environmental and social change, cognitive anthropology, and citizenship and civic awareness.
Institute of Population and Development Studies
Established in June 2023, the institute has 9 faculty members, including 2 professors and 4 associate professors, all with doctoral degrees from leading universities worldwide.
The institute undertakes major national research projects such as the National Social Science Fund's Research on Active Aging from the Perspective of High-Quality Population Development.