Being a social studies student has its ups and downs. It is an incredibly fascinating and important field to study. Yet, it is also incredibly complex and challenging due to its interconnectedness with other academic fields. This is why picking a topic for a term paper here can turn into a real struggle. There are just too many options to choose from! Fortunately for you, we have prepared 40 great ideas you can use for your coursework. Let’s see what those are.
What Is a Term Paper?
At the end of almost every course, students are required to write a paper that would show how much they learned during this time. This work has to showcase their knowledge on the issues they discussed, as well as their critical thinking skills, logic, and writing talent. Overall, a term paper must be a perfect example of academic writing. It should be based on profound research and analyze a lot of academic literature. Also, It must cover important, relevant themes, explore the ways to resolve big social issues and find the answer to the major questions in the field. A term paper must bring valuable insight into the issues you are discussing.
What Areas Does Sociology Cover?
Sociology is a study about life, human society, and its development. It covers how people function within communities. It explores social behavior, human interactions, relationships, culture in all its complexity, and so much more. These studies build awareness about complex human nature and our ability to cooperate and function together as a group. Overall, this discipline helps us reveal and understand the mechanisms that have created society as we know it.
As the human population is expanding, the need for social studies grows along with it. The more people there are, the more complicated and diverse the communities become. Right now, humanity reached an interesting stage where globalization brought all nations closer together. It means that world society is becoming more interconnected. However, it also becomes more challenging to predict and understand how it functions. It takes researching numerous areas of study to build awareness about the current world. We need to understand psychology, military, law, urban and ecological studies, economy, demographics, and so much more. Hence, sociology term paper topics can cover a wide range of various themes, areas, and issues. A student must be well-educated in most of these disciplines to write perfect coursework and become a good specialist.
How to Choose a Perfect Sociology Research Paper Topic?
As you can see, a student can have almost limitless options when it comes to picking a theme for their assignments. Almost everything around us can turn into a sociology paper. You just need to find a proper angle to the specific issue. Down below you can find the list of topics for a sociology term paper for various areas of study and disciplines.
Environmental Sociology Term Paper Topics
People exist within the environment. We would not be there if not for nature, clean air, and sunlight. Yet, humanity is destroying the natural inhabitants year after year. We are polluting our water and air, killing wildlife, and exploiting natural resources to the maximum. Why is it happening? How can we put an end to it? Environmental sociology is trying to answer these and more alike questions. Here are a few ideas for you to choose from:
- The ecological threat to modern societies worldwide.
- The impact of environmental changes on lifestyle in East Africa.
- Why do people continue to produce harmful industrial waste?
- What is ecofeminism, and how to be a part of it?
- An environmental crisis will create a social, political, and military crisis in the first half of the 21st century.
- The ancient Chinese philosophy of living in harmony with nature. What can we all learn from it?
- The power to unite. Global ecological movements around the world.
- Why do people destroy the environment? The unhealthy human-nature relations.
Medical Sociology Term Paper Topics
Even if you are a non-medical student, you can still pick a medical-inspired theme for your coursework. After all, medicine plays a huge role in our society. It keeps us well and healthy. Thus, helps us create prospering and stable communities. As recent years showed, a breach in medical knowledge can change the lifestyle of the entire planet. It demonstrates what a huge impact it has on our lives. Also, medicine can be an interesting field to explore various ethical and social issues.
- The creation of more inclusive communities for people with disabilities.
- The need to increase people’s awareness about mental health.
- How globalization affects the field of medicine?
- Good health improves the quality of life.
- Racism within the healthcare community.
- How to make the lives of our elders better? The role of medical care in it.
- The arguments for and against euthanasia.
- The social class disparities in healthcare.
Relationships and Family
Unfortunately, there are not many academic fields that study such valuable concepts as relationships and family. Such neglecting tendencies seem rather odd considering that family is what holds our communities together. Yet, to this day, we understand so little about it. Well, social science strived to minimize our gaps in knowledge. Here is what you can write about when considering researching family and relationships.
- Does the concept of a nuclear family outlive itself?
- The role of marriages in modern society.
- Do we actually need to define people by gender?
- What is a “traditional family”?
- What effect does family upbringing have on adult life?
- The impact of religion on the concept of a family.
- Why do the ideas of masculinity and femininity no longer work in modern societies?
- Ways to overcome personal conflict situations.
Urban Sociology Term Paper Topics
Being an urban sociologist means being a great observer, analyst, and a great expert in economy, law, gender studies, and psychology all at the same time. Where else can you learn so much about society if not in major cities? This is where so many new patterns of our behavior occur. This is the place where we develop the mechanism that helps us function. If you want to write about it, here are some ideas:
- The changes in demographic trends for the past 100 years.
- The ways environmental processes affect urban life.
- The modern patterns of migration.
- The race relations in the US South.
- How to reduce poverty levels in developing nations?
- The differences in crimes in rural and urban areas.
- The variety of subcultures in urban areas.
- The crisis of loneliness in large cities.
Military Sociology Term Paper Topics
Why do people go to war? Why is humanity so aggressive towards each other? Is there a way we can move past military conflict resolutions? There are so many questions we don’t have the answers to. However, here we can also explore the military as a group of people living in such different ways than the majority of civil society. Overall, it’s an interesting and valuable area to research. So here are some suggestions on sociology term paper topics about the military:
- Do modern democratic nations need armies?
- How to reduce the role of militarization in modern international relations?
- All military conflicts come from unresolved social problems.
- How did the 20th century wars shape the modern world?
- The case study of a military organization (the name of the group) as a social group.
- Why is humanity so interested in combat skills?
- Are military actions always the cases of failed diplomacy?
- Postmodern military: the future of war.
How to Make a Final Decision?
It’s best to be very consistent with your approach. You have to build a strategy and follow it step by step. Hence, first, you better choose an area of study that you would love to use for your inspiration. You can pick anything from urban studies to relationships. However, it’s better to limit your options to at least two or three areas from the very beginning. This way, you’ll be able to focus on narrow, specific, and interesting ideas within those fields.
Next, pick an idea that will be a valuable contribution to the course and reflect the theme of your classes. It must be relevant, cover modern social issues, and be interesting to you. Next, make sure that you can find enough resources and literature to fully explore the theme of your writing. Lastly, develop a unique and insightful approach.
The Bottom Line
The good topics for a sociology term paper writing are everywhere. You just have to look around and see the world with all its complexity, nuances, and unique nature. Our society is full of issues that we have to solve. That’s true. However, it is also full of answers to those issues. We just need to look hard enough to find them.
Overall, when you are thinking about the theme of your future work, try going with something that is close to your heart, relevant to your studies, and valuable for the society we live in today. This discipline aims to help people, all people, live in a peaceful, productive, and prospering community. Try to come up with a paper that can contribute to such a goal.