<P> A course entitled `` sociology '' was taught for the first time in the United States in 1875 by William Graham Sumner , drawing upon the thought of Comte and Herbert Spencer rather than the work of Durkheim . In 1890 , the oldest continuing sociology course in the United States began at the University of Kansas , lectured by Frank Blackmar . The Department of History and Sociology at the University of Kansas was established in 1891 and the first full - fledged independent university department of sociology was established in 1892 at the University of Chicago by Albion W. Small ( 1854 -- 1926 ) , who in 1895 founded the American Journal of Sociology . American sociology arose on a broadly independent trajectory to European sociology . George Herbert Mead and Charles H. Cooley were influential in the development of symbolic interactionism and social psychology at the University of Chicago , while Lester Ward emphasized the central importance of the scientific method with the publication of Dynamic Sociology in 1883 . </P>
<P> A course entitled `` sociology '' was taught for the first time in the United States in 1875 by William Graham Sumner , drawing upon the thought of Comte and Herbert Spencer rather than the work of Durkheim . In 1890 , the oldest continuing sociology course in the United States began at the University of Kansas , lectured by Frank Blackmar . The Department of History and Sociology at the University of Kansas was established in 1891 and the first full - fledged independent university department of sociology was established in 1892 at the University of Chicago by Albion W. Small ( 1854 -- 1926 ) , who in 1895 founded the American Journal of Sociology . American sociology arose on a broadly independent trajectory to European sociology . George Herbert Mead and Charles H. Cooley were influential in the development of symbolic interactionism and social psychology at the University of Chicago , while Lester Ward emphasized the central importance of the scientific method with the publication of Dynamic Sociology in 1883 . </P>
the first department of sociology in the united states was established at
the first department of sociology in the united states was established at
the University of Kansas
the University of Kansas