The Institute of Sociology (IfS) was founded in 1960, making it the first institute of sociology in German-speaking Switzerland. Today, the Institute consists of four professorships, a Professorship for Sustainable Society (Prof. Dr. Wojtek Przepiorka »»), a Professorship for Social Structure Analysis (Prof. Dr. Ben Jann »»), a Professorship for Methods of Empirical Social Research (Prof. Dr. Axel Franzen »») and an Assistant Professorship for Social Change and Inequality (Prof. Dr. Benita Combet »»). Around 50 academic staff work in research and teaching at the IfS.

The research and teaching focuses of the IfS include political sociology, economic sociology, cultural sociology, environmental sociology, sociological theory building, network and social capital research, education, labor market and inequality research as well as methods of empirical social research.  

Within the Department of Social Sciences, the IfS is actively involved in the Bachelor (BA »») in Social Sciences and runs a Master (MA »») in Sociology. In addition, the professors at the IfS supervise doctoral theses that are written as part of externally funded research projects and doctoral studies.

Since 2014, the SNSF-funded infrastructure project Transitions from Education to Employment (TREE »») has been based at the IfS. Furthermore, the IfS is closely linked to the Interfaculty Center for Educational Research (ICER »»), which was founded in 2018. The IfS regularly hosts various SNSF-funded Postdoc, Ambizione and Starting Grant projects.