After several years as a practicing lawyer, Marla Kohlman resumed her undergraduate passion--the study of sociology -- to get her doctorate. "As a lawyer, I wanted more interaction. I wanted to ask a jury member, 'What are you thinking? I see a question on your face. How can I answer it?'" Kenyon's small classes have provided an antidote. "That's what I love about teaching here," says Kohlman, assistant professor of sociology. "It's a continual conversation that encourages all of us in the room to voice our questions, to articulate what we're thinking."

Nor does the conversation end when the class is over. Students follow Kohlman back to her office, continuing the discussion. She excites students' intellectual thirst to explore topics--race relations; experiences of gender, race, and class; marriage and family; contemporary social problems--that are legal as well as social issues. Her sociology courses frequently are offered for credit in interdisciplinary fields such as African and African-American studies, law and society, and women's and gender studies, drawing students from many different majors.

Kohlman challenges her students to see the world as others experience it. "How would this look to you if you had a different sexual orientation?" she likes to ask. "And how would you see it if your skin were a different color?"

Sociology attracts people who want to engage deeply with society and have impact," observes Kohlman. In her own research on sexual harassment in the workplace, she hopes to influence future legislation. But for Kohlman -- and her students -- the business of shaping society starts right here at Kenyon, by engaging deeply with each other.