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The aim of the graduate program in sociology is to prepare students for scholarly and applied research and for teaching in sociology.

Prerequisites

For admission to candidacy for the PhD degree in the Department of Sociology, the applicant must have a bachelor’s degree, or its equivalent, based upon a distinguished record of college work. Applicants who wish to pursue only the master’s degree are not accepted in the graduate program of the department. Undergraduate work in the social sciences, the humanities, the natural sciences, and mathematics are all considered an appro­priate background.

Applicants must take the general test portion of the Graduate Record Examination in time for the results to reach the Admis­sions Office of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences by January 2. Information about taking the GRE may be obtained from the Educational Testing Service, Princeton, NJ 08540, www.gre.org. 

Financial Aid

Harvard intends that all graduate students should have support adequate to enable them to complete their studies while enrolled full-time. Prospective students apply for financial aid at the same time they apply for admission, and are also required to submit a Statement of Financial Resources. The financial aid package for sociology students typically includes tuition and fees plus a stipend for the first two years; tuition and fees plus a combi­nation of teaching fellowships and research assistantships thereafter.

All students in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences must be making satisfactory progress in order to be eligible for any type of financial aid. The Department of Sociology observes the general guidelines outlined in The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Hand­book. 

Academic Residence

For the degree of doctor of philosophy, a minimum of two years (four terms) of full-time graduate study in residence in the Grad­uate School of Arts and Sciences is required. Students must complete all the requirements for the PhD degree within eight academic years after admission.

Academic Review

The committee on higher degrees is charged with monitoring the progress of students in the program. For University rules, students should consult appropriate sections of The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Hand­book. Details on departmental practices and procedures can be obtained in the sociology graduate office.

Course Requirements

Each student is expected to take and com­plete at least 14 half-courses in sociology at Harvard University. These may be 100-level conference courses, 200-level courses, or (a maximum of two) workshops. Teaching Practicum (Soc 305) is also a course require­ment and should be completed within the first or second year. Sociology Research Design (Soc 201) is a full-year course that is required of second-year graduate students while writing their qualifying papers. The Graduate School requires a minimum of a B average each term. Students are encour­aged to take courses beyond these minimum requirements, including offerings outside the Department of Sociology.

First-Year Requirements

All graduate students must take and pass within the first year two half-courses on theo­retical approaches to sociology (Soc 204 and Soc 208) and two half-courses on methods of research (Soc 203a and Soc 209). At the time of admission, a letter will be sent to each stu­dent stating the background that will be presupposed in these courses. If a student does not have the needed background, he or she will be required to take an appropriate course during the first term to remove the deficiency.

In unusual cases, an individual may be excused from one or more required courses by the committee on higher degrees. 

Qualifying Requirement: Written Examination

The department expects that each student will take a written examination in the broad field of sociology. Students must take this exami­nation in the third term in residence. The examinations are graded by a single faculty committee appointed each year by the depart­ment chair. The outcomes are: pass, fail, or honors pass. If a student fails, the examination must be retaken within a year. Students will not ordinarily be permitted to retake the exami­nation more than once.

Qualifying Requirements: Research Paper

Each student must submit one research paper of article length to a committee of three members of the faculty no later than by the end of the sixth term in residence in order to demonstrate the quality of his or her ability to deal systematically with empirical evidence. The faculty committee is appointed by the committee on higher degrees.

Qualifying Requirements: Special Area Examination

The final qualifying requirement is an oral examination in the student’s area of special interest. The field must be approved by the committee on higher degrees, which will then appoint a committee of at least three members of the faculty to conduct the examination. Ordinarily, the special area examination must be taken no later than the end of the eighth term. The outcomes are: distinction, above PhD level, at PhD level, or not acceptable.

Doctoral Dissertation: Prospectus

The candidate is required by the end of the tenth term in residence to submit to the committee on higher degrees a disserta­tion prospectus stating a plan or design for the research on which the doctoral disserta­tion will be written. The prospectus must be approved by a three-person dissertation-reading committee appointed by the committee on higher degrees. The disserta­tion-reading committee should have at least two members from the Department of Soci­ology, including the chair. If the prospectus is not accepted by the committee when first submitted, the student ordinarily is allowed one further opportunity to submit a new or revised prospectus. 

Doctoral Dissertation: Completion

After consultation with the dissertation reading committee and with its consent, the student submits the final draft of the dissertation for a public oral defense before the committee. The outcomes of this hearing are: pass, pass conditional on minor revisions, or fail. If the dissertation is passed conditional on minor revi­sions, the dissertation-reading committee can ordinarily approve the final draft without an additional hearing. The final manuscript must conform to the requirements described in The Form of the PhD Dissertation.

Requirements for the Master’s Degree

The department will not accept for admission to graduate study a student who is a candidate for the master’s degree only. But candidates for the degree of doctor of philosophy are allowed to take a master’s degree in the course of their work toward the doctor’s degree.

A candidate has met the requirements for the AM degree when he or she has taken at least nine half-courses (maintaining a minimum of a B average), of which five must be the department’s required courses; has passed the written examination; and has passed the research paper requirement. Ordinarily, all of these courses will be 200-level seminars in sociology. 

Research Apprenticeships

Each student is required to work as a research assistant in an apprenticeship capacity with a faculty member in the department for at least one term. The apprenticeship is usually completed no later than the end of the fourth term in residence. Students should be engaged actively in research in these assistantships, not merely performing clerical duties.

Teaching Fellowships

Teaching fellowships are available to students who have had at least two terms of residence at the University. Each student is required to be a teaching fellow for at least one term course.

Admissions

For applications for admission and grants, write to the Admissions Office, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Holyoke Center, 3rd floor, 1350 Massachu­setts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138. We encourage online sub mission of the applica­tion; see www.gsas.harvard.edu.

Further information about the program of study offered by the Department of Sociology may be obtained from the Graduate Office, Department of Sociology, William James Hall 540, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA 02138; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

Related Programs

The PhD Program in Organizational Behavior (joint with Harvard Business School) offers training in the theory and methods of sociology or psychology combined with the study of business operations and with empirical research in organizational settings.

The PhD Program in Sociology and Social Policy (joint with the Kennedy School of Government) is particularly suitable for students who wish to combine theoretical and methodological expertise in sociology with policy training in the fields of urban poverty, inequality, segregation, labor market studies, and the like.

Details on these related programs may be obtained by referring to their respective entries in this publication. 

Recent Dissertation Titles

“The Racialization of Latinos in the United States: Racial Options in a Changing Society”

“Elites, Corporations, and the Wealth of Nations”

“Low-Income Fathers: Contexts, Connections, and Self”

“Rethinking Japanese National Identity: Narratives of Japanese Intellectuals”

“To Speak with One Voice: Supra-tribal Amer­ican Indian Collective Identity Incorporation Among the Piscataway, 1500-1998”

“The Rise and Decline of a Mass Movement: American Workers and the Strike Wave of 1886”

“Protestant-Catholic-Buddhist: Korean-Amer­icans and Religious Adaptation in Greater Boston”

“Models of Economic Organization and the New Inequality in the United States”

“Negotiating Black Identities: The Construc­tion and Use of Social Boundaries Among Middle-Class Black Suburbanites”

“Family Types and Marital Power: A Field Study in Taiwan”

“Educational Attainment and the Bayesian Dynamics of Expectation Formation”

“From Entertainment to Art: The Social History of Film in the United States”

“Five Smooth Stones: Strategic Capacity in the Unionization of California Agriculture”

“American Indian Identity Matters: The Poli­tics of Identity and the Political Economy of Ethnic Boundaries”

“A Darker Shade of Pale: The Influence of Local Context and Racial Identity on White Attitudes Towards Black Americans”

“Empowerment or Exploitation? International Migration of Women and State Policies in Asia”

“Gender and Organizational Selection Deci­sions: Evidence from Law Firms”

“Opening the ‘Black Box’ of Neighborhood Effects: A Study of Voluntary Participation and Social Isolation in a Poor, Predominantly Puerto Rican Housing Project”

“Children in Flux: The Frequency, Risk Factors, and Consequences of Children Not Living with Their Parents”

“Why Are the Nurses Crying?: Restructuring, Power, and Control in an American Hospital”

“The Educational Pathways of White Work-ing-Class Students”

“Gender and Organizational Selection Deci­sions: Evidence from Law Firms”

“Becoming an Activist: Believers, Sympa­thizers, and Mobilization in the American Pro-Life Movement”

“Achieving Full Citizenship: An Institutional Approach to the Political Incorporation of Immigrants and Refugees in the US and Canada”

“Direct Democracy and Political Tactics: How Ballot Initiatives Increase the Competitive Dynamism of the Political Process”

“To Speak or Not to Speak: The Multi-Level Leadership Influence in Voice and Silence in Organizations”

“Status Attainment Patterns of Latino and Asian Immigrant Students”

“Black-White Differences in the Gender Wage Ratio”

“The Incomplete Revolution: Constraints on Reform in Welfare Bureaucracies”

“Freedom and Constraint: The Design of Governance and Leadership Structures in British and American Firms”

“The Burning Man Organization Grows Up: Blending Bureaucratic and Alternative Struc­tures”

“The Little Shops of Lhasa: Migrant Busi­nesses and the Formation of Markets in a Transitional Economy”

“Police in the ’Hood: Drug Laws, Police Discretion, and Arresting African-Americans”

“Buffers Against Uncertainty: Material Hard­ship and Poverty”

Faculty List 

Brinton, Mary C., Reischauer Institute Professor of Sociology. Gender stratification; labor market organization, education, economic sociology, Japanese society.

Carter, Prudence, Associate Professor of Sociology. The intersections of race, ethnicity, class and gender; sociology of education; urban poverty and social policy; mixed methods; culture and identity.

Chang, Mariko, Associate Professor of Sociology and of Social Studies. Gender; social stratifica­tion; social policy; work and occupations; comparative sociology.

Christakis, Nicholas, Professor of Medical Sociology (Harvard Medical School), Professor of Sociology. Socio-cultural factors that affect the supply, demand, and outcomes of medical care; role of prognosis in medicine; improving end-of-life care; health benefits of marriage.

Dobbin, Frank, Professor of Sociology. Compar­ative/historical sociology; organizations; policy analysis/public policy.

Good, Mary-Jo Delvecchio, Professor of Social Medicine (Harvard Medical School). Medical sociology; Middle Eastern societies (social hierarchy, social transformation, culture).

Gross, Neil, Assistant Professor of Sociology. Classical and contemporary sociological theory, sociology of ideas, sociology of culture.

Jencks, Christopher, Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy (Kennedy School of Government). Race/ethnic/minority relations; stratification/ mobility/inequality.

Kaufman, Jason A., John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences. Political soci­ology; comparative/historical sociology; medical sociology/public health; urban soci­ology; sociology of law.

Lamont, Michèle, Professor of Sociology. Cultural sociology; inequality; race and immi­gration; comparative sociology; sociology of knowledge; contemporary sociological theory.

Lieberson, Stanley, Abbott Lawrence Lowell Professor of Sociology, Emeritus. Social determi­nants of tastes; logic of social research.

Marsden, Peter V., Professor of Sociology, Harvard College Professor. Social networks; formal organizations; social stratification; methods.

Patterson, Orlando, John Cowles Professor of Sociology. Sociology of economic development with special reference to the Caribbean; historical sociology of slavery and freedom; sociology of slavery; Caribbean and Afro-American culture and social structure; ethnicity from a critical and social-philosophical perspective.

Sampson, Robert J., Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences and Chair. Crime, law, and deviance; community and urban sociology; the life course.

Skocpol, Theda R., Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology. Political soci­ology; social revolutions; modern welfare states; comparative historical sociology.

Sørensen, Annemette, Associate of the Depart­ment and Lecturer on Sociology. Stratification and mobility; family; sex and gender; soci­ology of the life course.

Waters, Mary C., Professor of Sociology. Social demography; race and ethnic relations; social stratification.

Whyte, Martin K., Professor of Sociology and Director of Graduate Studies. Comparative sociology; comparative family systems and family change; the American family; gender roles in comparative context; inequality and stratification; bureaucracy; sociology of China; development.

Wilson, William Julius, Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor (Kennedy School of Government). Race/ethnic/minority relations; urban sociology; social policy.

Winship, Christopher, Professor of Sociology and Director of Graduate Studies. Quantita­tive data analysis; family formation process; transition to adulthood; changes in social and economic status of African Americans.