Undergraduate Feature – Blackmun

Katherine Mary Blackmun

What led you to select sociology as a major?

I started at UND my freshman year and originally took general courses. I wasn’t too sure what path I wanted to pursue with my education, so one day I went through the entire list of majors UND had to offer and landed on the majors Sociology, Criminal Justice, and a minor in Psychology. It felt as though these three disciplines were all interconnected and I wanted to learn more about each. When I started taking Sociology courses, I began to realize how applicable Sociology is to almost every aspect of life, whether that’s looking at family, business, the criminal justice system, or everyday life and choices through a sociological lens. As I have continued my journey at UND and learned more about Sociology, with the help of wonderful professors, I have only become more attuned to the sociological world and how taking a sociological perspective can provide new insights to new ideas and opportunities.

What have been your favorite topics to learn about in sociology?

There have been so many topics I’ve learned about in sociology that have sparked my interest, but some of my favorites would have to be the institution of the family and, more specifically, how the family and domestic domain has evolved throughout history, sociological statistics, and applying the sociological perspective to learning about a juvenile’s role in the criminal justice system.

What is your favorite concept, idea, or theory in sociology and why?

I have enjoyed learning about many concepts in sociology, yet one that strikes my interest the most would be the social contract. The social contract is the idea that people in society implicitly agree to behave and think a certain way for the betterment of society, rather than for individual reasons. The reason this is so interesting to me is because we can look at things as simple as facing forward rather than backwards in an elevator to something as complex as following laws as society abiding to the social contract we have set in place. 

What do you plan to do after you graduate (i.e., what kind of job might you be pursuing and/or what graduate-level work might you pursue)?

After I graduate, I plan to pursue a legal career and, hopefully, attend and graduate from UND Law School. While I know that my interests may change and are forever evolving, I’d love to become more knowledgeable about a juvenile’s role in the criminal justice system and the field of family law as these are fields I am especially passionate about. Furthermore, no matter what path I choose to take and what opportunities present themselves, I plan to take all that I have learned about sociology, criminal justice, and psychology throughout my undergrad and implement it into my future everyday life and career.