项目介绍

2022年4月28日

COURSES:

Students’ programs of study are established in consultation with their academic advisers and with the director of graduate studies and vary according to individual interests, capabilities, and prior training.  The program does not accept transfer credits for previous graduate work at other institutions.

Students in the first and second years must take at least fourteen courses total over the two years.  These may include half-semester courses (two of which equal a single course), reading courses, for-credit workshop courses, or precepting (two precepts equal one course).

Students normally establish competency in theory by completing SOC 501 Classical Sociological Theory, and SOC 502 Contemporary Sociological Theory.

All students must take SOC 503 Techniques and Methods of Social Science and at least two semesters of work in quantitative methods, beginning at an appropriate level given their previous training.  In addition to required courses, students are encouraged to consider additional methodological courses (in statistics, as well as such methods as ethnography, historical methods, network analysis, computational modeling, microsociological analysis, or machine learning) offered in the Department of Sociology and throughout the University. 

Students are also expected to attend departmental colloquia and participate in the department’s Proseminar for first-year students.LANGUAGE(S):

Students are expected to master language skills necessary for satisfactory dissertation research.PRE-GENERALS REQUIREMENT(S):

Writing Requirement
Each student is expected to write an empirical paper. The paper must be a quantitative study, written in conjunction with SOC 505 Research Seminar in Empirical Investigation. The paper is advised by the empirical seminar instructor and a second departmental faculty member.

Contract Requirement
Students must submit a contract at least two weeks before taking the comprehensive general examination.  In the contract, students confirm completion of required courses, describe their academic program (coursework and independent study), present areas (with reading lists and examiners) for the comprehensive examination, and describe the qualifying paper (which must be accepted before taking the comprehensive examination).  GENERAL EXAM:

The general examination, or comprehensive examination, is normally taken at the end of the second year or fall of the third year, after all prerequisites have been fulfilled. Students select and prepare to be examined in three substantive fields of sociology, working with a separate faculty member for each field. The general exam includes both a written and an oral component. Several options for the written component are available, including written examination, syllabus preparation, and dissertation-related literature review.QUALIFYING FOR THE M.A.:

The Master of Arts (M.A.) degree is normally an incidental degree on the way to full Ph.D. candidacy and is earned after a student successfully completes all coursework, passes the general examination, and completes the empirical paper at a satisfactory level. It may also be awarded to students who, for various reasons, leave the Ph.D. program, provided that these requirements have been met.TEACHING:

All students are required to serve as “preceptors” (assistants in instruction) in courses taught by department faculty on several occasions, ordinarily during their second and third years of study.POST-GENERALS REQUIREMENT(S):

Students must choose a dissertation committee and submit a draft dissertation prospectus no later than March 15 of the third year of enrollment.  They must submit a revised and final dissertation prospectus to their committee members and successfully complete a prospectus meeting with their committee no later than May 15 of the third year. The prospectus contains a statement of the problem to be studied, an explanation of its theoretical relevance to sociology, a survey of pertinent literature, and a statement about the sources of data and methodological procedures to be employed. Dissertation plans must be approved by the student’s committee before the student is permitted to re-enroll for the fourth year of study.DISSERTATION AND FPO:

In their dissertation, students are expected to demonstrate command of a major theoretical issue in sociology and control of the empirical and theoretical literature relevant to their research topic. They must show high-level competence in research procedures, including design, analysis, and evaluation.  A three-paper option is possible with the agreement of the dissertation committee.

The Ph.D. is awarded only after the candidate’s doctoral dissertation has been accepted and the final public oral examination sustained.