For success in the contemporary world, no matter what profession is chosen, it is essential that students learn how to live and work in diverse communities. What better preparation for life than to study how people are alike and yet different? 

It is difficult in our time to clearly identify how anthropologists and sociologists differ when it comes to the study of people, since their work overlaps extensively. That is why the anthropology and sociology major, combining both fields, makes such good sense.

Anthropologists often live in remote parts of the world to learn about daily life in distant communities. Students at Mills study with professors who have done fieldwork in many foreign lands as well as with immigrants in the Bay Area. Research in these communities is combined with service to them. Many students elect to do a semester of study abroad.

The emphasis of sociology is on urban-industrial societies. In sociology courses, students learn how to conduct research by developing questionnaires or through first-hand participant observation. Sociologists on the Mills faculty introduce students to an understanding of issues relating to social life, human behavior, and society. Courses explore social problems such as failing schools, racism, poverty, and criminality. Community service is emphasized.

Sociologists, like anthropologists, also do research in distant parts of the world, just as anthropologists, like sociologists, work in urban-industrial American societies, which is why it is almost useless now to attempt to sharply differentiate the two disciplines.