The SEU Department of Sociology can be traced back to the original Department of Sociology of National Southeast University which was set up in 1927. In 1928, the National Southeast University was combined with many special Jiangsu schools into the Fourth Zhongshan University, which was renamed the National Central University. Liwen College was set up with the early founded department of sociology. In 1952, the whole school was adjusted and the politics, law, sociology, anthropology, international politics majors of all universities were canceled because of the Great Cultural Revolution. In 1979, with the approval from Deng Xiaoping, the sociology majors of many universities were regained in droves. In 1982, the Department of Philosophy and Sciences of the original Nanjing Institute of Technology was set up. Then kinds of sociology courses were created with over 1000 students, which pays the way for the future development. Because the demand for talents was increasing year by year, SEU planned to set up the undergraduate major sociology. The plan was approved by the Ministry of Education in 2001. SEU enrolled 26 students the same year and about 30 students in later years. Now the direction of reform and opening-up is changed from economic domains to social domains. The thoughts of harmonious society and social construction are more and more popular among people. Under this background, in order to foster the development of SEU sociology, SEU officially set up the Department of Sociology in 5, 13th, 2009. Currently, the department offers the first-level discipline master station of sociology.

Sociology is internationally acknowledged as one of five social sciences (politics, economics, sociology, psychology, anthropology). It plays a primary role in the academic research and human knowledge promotion. Nearly every university in developed countries has sociology. By December, 2009, there are only 82 undergraduate stations of sociology domestically, which accounts for the least in all undergraduate majors. Sociology students are scarce with less than 3000 enrollments each year. We promote a stable and constant development in sociology with the principles of "appropriate scale, distinct characteristics, top-quality" since the establishment of sociology in 2001. Recently we brought in quite some doctors of sociology from domestic and overseas prestigious universities by external school introduction and internal talents flow. Therefore we have formed a professional and sized teaching and scientific research team with youthful spirits. As to the student cultivation, we improved our teaching quality and enhanced sociology attraction by incessantly revising our curricular plan and relocating our teaching faculty. These measures help to spur students' ardor in studying sociology significantly.

As to social internship on the other hand, we have cooperated with many organizations such as the Investigation Team of Nanjing Statistical Bureau, Xinjingxiang Real Estate Consulting Company, Nanjing Daily and NJTV, etc. In the graduate employment area, now we have formed five main occupational orientations, i.e. further study, social administration, market research, real estate industry, cultural and media industry. We launch various types of career guidance to recommend graduated students specific field work with better employment year by year.