About us
The Faculty of Social Sciences at Goethe University Frankfurt has a long and prestigious tradition and numbers amongst the largest and highest performing social science institutions in Germany. The Faculty comprises 44 professors, 125 research associates, 37 administrative staff, 3,861 major-subject students, 6,135 students who are studying Social Sciences as part of Educational Sciences in the framework of their teaching degree, 780 students who are taking “Politics and Economics” as part of their teaching degree and 10 study programmes (Bachelor, Masters) (as of the 2015/16 winter semester).
At the heart of teaching and research are the two Bachelor programmes in Sociology and Political Science as well as Gender Studies as a minor subject at Bachelor level and the research-based Masters programmes in International Studies/Peace and Conflict Research, Political Science, Sociology, and Economic Sociology and Sociology of Finance. In addition, the Faculty is involved in three interdisciplinary Masters programmes: Modern East Asian Studies, Political Theory, and Environmental Sciences.
The Faculty’s research activities are organized within the framework of two institutes, the Institute of Political Science and the Institute of Sociology, which also includes Social Psychology. The Faculty supports graduate training above all through the Social Sciences Graduate Centre (GRASOC) and the GRADE Education Centre.
The Faculty is committed to its tradition of critical social science studies, whereby the spectrum of scientific and theoretical foci and areas of specialization in the individual disciplines have continuously broadened.
Characteristic elements of Social Sciences in Frankfurt am Main are:
- Distinctly theory-based research and teaching
- Methodological expertise in qualitative and quantitative social research approaches
- Permeability of subject boundaries and partial integration of the Sociology and Political Science programmes
- Reflection on fundamental social science problems
- Analysis of social structures as a whole in both national and global contexts
Since the foundation of the CGC (Cornelia Goethe Center) in 1997, the Faculty has fostered the expansion of research and teaching in the field of gender research. A key feature of the Faculty’s special profile is its integration in interdisciplinary contexts through cooperation with other intramural and extramural institutions.
