Sociology
140 Prospect, 432.3323
M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Chair
Jeffrey Alexander
Director of Graduate Studies
Ivan Szelenyi
Professors
Jeffrey Alexander, Scott Boorman, Deborah Davis, Bernhard Giesen (Visiting), Paul Gilroy, Riaz Hassan (Visiting), Karl Ulrich Mayer, Ivan Szelenyi, Kenneth Thompson (Visiting), Stanton Wheeler
Associate Professor
Joseph Soares
Assistant Professors
Jennifer Bair, Hannah Brueckner, Lawrence King, Sharon Kinsella, Alondra Nelson (African American Studies), Christopher Rhomberg, Andrew Schrank, Philip Smith
Lecturers
David Apter, Kay Junge, Dieter Plehwe, Vron Ware
Fields of Study
Fields include Comparative Sociology/Macrosociology, Cultural and Historical Sociology, Life Course/Social Stratification, Mathematical Sociology, Methodology (Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches), Networks, Political Sociology, Race/Gender/Ethnic/ Minority Relations, Social Change, Social Movements, Theory (General, Critical, Hermeneutic), Urban Sociology.
Special Requirements for the Ph.D. Degree
Qualification for admission to candidacy for the Ph.D. will take place during the student's first three years of study at Yale. A student who has not been admitted to candidacy will not be permitted to register for the seventh term of study. To qualify for candidacy the student must complete fourteen term courses and demonstrate competence in sociological theory, statistics, and research methods, competence in which may be demonstrated by passing two term courses in each area. After completion of courses, students prepare written and oral comprehensive examinations in two selected fields and defend a dissertation prospectus.
Teaching is an important part of the professional preparation of graduate students in Sociology. Students teach therefore in the third and fourth years of study.
Combined Ph.D. Degree in Sociology and African American Studies
The Department of Sociology offers, in conjunction with the program in African American Studies, a combined Ph.D. degree in Sociology and African American Studies.
Students accepted to the joint Ph.D. program must meet all of the requirements of the Ph.D. in Sociology with the exception that, excluding the courses required to demonstrate competence in sociological theory, statistics, research methods, and comprehensive examination in two substantive fields, joint-degree students may substitute African American Studies courses for six of the fourteen term courses required to qualify for the Ph.D. in Sociology. For further details see African American Studies.
Master's Degrees
M.Phil. See Graduate School requirements.
M.A. (en route to the Ph.D.). Eight term courses are required for the M.A. degree. Two of these courses must include statistics and theory. A grade of High Pass or Honors must be achieved in five of the eight required courses. A student may petition for the M.A. degree in the term following the one in which he/she completes the course requirements.
Program materials are available at www.yale.edu/socdept/.
Courses
[SOCY 501a, Foundations of Sociological Theory.]
[SOCY 502b, Contemporary Sociological Theory.]
SOCY 504b, Research Design and Research Practice. Hannah Brueckner. W 4–6
Survey of (re-)current debates, problems, and innovations in qualitative and quantitative empirical research, including both data collection and data analysis issues. Focus on assessing and improving validity and generalizability within the theoretical and practical limits of social science research. Aims at developing a set of skills necessary for everyone interested in designing and/or providing constructive peer review for empirical research. Familiarity with statistics may be helpful but is not required.
SOCY 506a, Survey Methods. Hannah Brueckner. W 4–6
Focus on theory and practice as well as strengths and weaknesses of quantitative, observational methods of data collection. Depending on participants' interests, we explore problems and issues of survey research such as conceptualization, measurement, sample design, questionnaire construction, interviewing, data analysis, causal inference, and research ethics. Familiarity with the basics of research methodology and statistical inference is required. Students are welcome to contribute survey design or analysis problems from their own work or discipline/field of interest.
[SOCY 510bu, Setting the Scholarly Agenda.]
SOCY 522au, The Sociology of Development. Andrew Schrank. W 1.30–3.20
The seminar asks how and why states, firms, and popular organizations in the developing world use their natural and human resource endowments to generate different social, political, and economic outcomes.
[SOCY 524b, Sociology of Culture.]
SOCY 525b, Cultural Sociology. Philip Smith. W 10–12
The course looks in depth at the tie between culture and society. It reviews the major approaches to this topic within cultural theory over the past one hundred years. We explore diverse understanding of the content and social impact of culture such as functionalism, structuralism, and postmodernism. Emphasis is given to ways we can theorize the autonomy of culture as a determining force in the organization of social life.
[SOCY 526a, Recent Trends in Social Stratification Processes.]
[SOCY 528au, Reading Race and Gender.]
[SOCY 529b, Legislation.]
[SOCY 534a, Writing Sociology.]
SOCY 538a, Discourse Analysis of Politics. David Apter. T 4–6
This seminar examines the "discursive" turn in political analysis. While discourse theory can be applied to the role of authority and state power, the emphasis here is on confrontational situations, protest, and violence. Particularly useful in analyzing some of the factors which lead people to try to change their political circumstances by interpreting and reinterpreting their experiences, part one examines the diverse theoretical strands and components making up contemporary political discourse theory as compared to other approaches, and an intellectual pedigree (much of it drawn from related fields) is mapped. Part two develops hypotheses derived from discourse theory as an analytical approach to show the kinds of questions with which it can be expected to deal. In part three a model framework for analysis is offered while students are expected to develop their own. In part four these frameworks are applied to relevant comparative and case materials. Also AFST 638a, PLSC 570a.
[SOCY 541b, New Theories of Civil Society.]
SOCY 543b, Sociology of Education. Joseph Soares. T 4–6
Modern educational systems are situated at the intersection of social stratification, culture, and politics. This seminar evaluates the major theories and significant empirical literature, both historical and statistical, on the origins, structure, and effects of different educational systems. We focus on the United States, with systematic comparisons to France, Germany, and the UK. Our analytical agenda includes questions on class, race, gender, finance, governance, meritocracy, prestige/status, and private/public goods. Authors include Bourdieu, Halsey, Jencks, Meyers, Riesman, Soares, and Trow.
SOCY 545a, Reading Karl Marx. Ivan Szelenyi. T 1–3
A close textual analysis of some of Karl Marx's work. Also PLSC 607a.
[SOCY 550a, The Future of Work.]
SOCY 552bu, Corruption and Development. Lawrence King, Andrew Schrank. W 1.30–3.20
An exploration of the development of capitalism and the rationalization of legal and political authority in comparative and historical perspective. Topics include the origins of capitalist development, Weber's notion of "political capitalism," the "developmental state," the "predatory" state, contemporary debates over the origins and nature of "crony capitalism," and institution building in the developing and transitional worlds.
[SOCY 557a, Current Debates in Political Sociology.]
SOCY 560a,b, Comparative Research Workshop. Ivan Szelenyi, Lawrence King. M 5–7
This weekly interdisciplinary seminar is devoted to discussions of work-in-progress (forthcoming articles, M.A. thesis drafts, dissertation proposals, dissertation chapter drafts) by distinguished visiting scholars, Yale graduate students, and faculty from various social science disciplines. Papers are distributed a week ahead of time and are also posted at the Web site of the Center for Comparative Research. Students who take the course for a letter grade have to present a paper the semester they are enrolled for credit. Also PLSC 734a,b.
SOCY 561bu, Topics in Contemporary Chinese Society. Deborah Davis. T 1.30–3.20
In the past two decades, the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party have completely jettisoned the socialist blueprint and "warmly embraced" global markets and private entrepreneurship. At the same time they continue to reject all challenges to their monopoly of political power and outlaw unofficial unions, popular religious associations, and Web sites that carry stories unfriendly to the Party. In this seminar students first review the competing elements of post-Mao reforms and then evaluate the consequences of these tensions on rural and urban society. Knowledge of modern Chinese is desirable but not necessary. Prerequisite: at least one course focused on China after 1911.
SOCY 567b, The Performative Turn in Cultural Sociology. Jeffrey Alexander, Bernhard Giesen.
This seminar develops and explores the possibility that we are in the midst of a "performative turn" in the social sciences, particular in that branch of the social sciences concerned with meaning and culture. We begin with some orienting papers by the instructors that draw attention to this development and offer overlapping interpretations, theories, and research programs based upon it. After this introduction, we return to the origins of ideas of ritual performance in classical and modern sociology, tracing a line from Durkheim to Burke, Goffman, Shils, Geertz, and Victor Turner. After looking at some contemporary manifestations and extentions of these thinkers, e.g., in the work of Wagner-Pacific and Edles, we look at developments in the new field of performance studies, beginning with Schechner and going on from there. The course concludes by looking forward to how this developing perspective might be applied to historical, comparative, and contemporary social studies. Students who have been working in these areas are encouraged to participate and present their work.
[SOCY 577a, Topics in Multivariate Data Analysis.]
[SOCY 580au, Introduction to Statistics in Sociology.]
[SOCY 581b, Multivariate Methods for the Social Sciences.]
SOCY 585b, Life Course Research: Theoretical Foundations and Empirical Approaches. Karl Ulrich Mayer. Th 2–4
This course has been designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to the current state of life course research. How do societies structure human lives? What are universal features of age differentiation and what are historically emergent patterns of life courses? How do advanced societies differ in the ways they organize life transitions, life phases, and life trajectories? How do sociologists empirically analyze the complexities of human lives? The course introduces major concepts like aging, generations, and cohorts; examines the interrelated trajectories in the various life domains of family, education, and work; and gives an overview of the methodological tools for the analysis of life courses.
SOCY 597a,b, Special Topics in Sociology. Faculty.
Students enroll in Special Topics if they wish to retake a course for credit when there is a new instructor and a substantially different syllabus from the first time they took the course. Only with the permission of the DGS.
SOCY 598a, 599b, Independent Study.
By arrangement with faculty.
SOCY 607b, Seminar on Field Methods. Deborah Davis. Th 10–12
An introduction to the challenges and problems of doing fieldwork through a series of supervised field experiences as well as close reading of old and new classics. The course begins by discussing questions of ethics, privacy, and consent and then focuses on analytic and practical problems of observations, note taking, interviewing, transcription and coding, focus groups, photographic data, and life histories.
[SOCY 611bu, Historical Approaches in Sociology.]
[SOCY 615bu, Black Communities in the Twentieth Century.]
SOCY 625a, Analysis of Social Structure. Scott Boorman. M 10–12
Develops and integrates a variety of the most promising contemporary approaches to the study of social structure and social organization.
[SOCY 627a, Sociology of the Welfare State.]
[SOCY 627b, Gender and Society.]
SOCY 628a, Workshop in Cultural Sociology and Civil Society. Jeffrey Alexander. F 12–2
This workshop is designed to be a permanent, ongoing part of the graduate curriculum. Meeting weekly throughout both the fall and spring terms, it constitutes an ongoing, informal seminar to explore areas of mutual interest among students and faculty, both visiting and permanent. The core concern of the workshop is social meaning and its forms and processes of institutionalization, with special reference to the problem of civil society, democracy, and inclusion. Meaning is approached both as structure and performance, drawing not only upon the burgeoning area of cultural sociology but on the humanities, philosophy, and other social sciences. Our references are codes, narratives, and metaphors, otherwise known as "values and ideologies," and the elements of their performance. Institutionalization refers to the social processes that provide the context for culture creation and that stratify its effects. Our references here are the normal stuff of sociology—class, race, gender, sexuality, religion, status hierarchies and marginality, centers and peripheries, globality.
SOCY 628b,Workshop in Cultural Sociology and Civil Society. Jeffrey Alexander. F 12–2
Continuation of SOCY 628a; see 628a for course description.
[SOCY 637b, The Transition to Democracy and Capitalism in Eastern Europe.]
[SOCY 643b, Comparative Political Economy.]
[SOCY 644a, Contemporary Racial and Ethnic Formation.]
SOCY 647b, Social Processes. Scott Boorman. M 10–12
Focus is on identifying and exploring robust alternatives/complements to the rational choice models that have come to dominate so much of the analysis of social (including organizational) processes in recent years. Specifically, emphasis is placed on a range of mathematical models and related analytic approaches originating outside the rational choice literature—in fields such as social network analysis, evolutionary biology, organization theory, and the law. Possible starting points include: the Boorman-Levitt network matching model (see, e.g., Scott A. Boorman and Paul R. Levitt, "The network matching principle: A model of efficient resource allocation by informal social networks in nonprofit and other non-market social structures," Economics Letters, 1982, 10, 1–7) and its applications to nonprofits and complex statutes; weak ties model of job information transmission and other information transfer in elite social networks; "garbage can" models of the internal problem-solving dynamics of complex organizations.
SOCY 650b, Modernity and Its Others: Self, Subject, and Cultural Differences. Paul Gilroy. T 9.30–11.20
This social theory course explores aspects of the political, philosophical, and sociological debates that have emerged around the concept of modernity. It looks particularly at articulations of modernity and "race" following four interlinked lines of inquiry: how has the subject of modernity been imagined and articulated; what attributes and experiences have qualified that subject as properly human and rational; where has identity been recognized as coming from, culturally and materially; and where has cosmopolitan loyalty emerged as a demand to see and act beyond the boundaries of immediate particularity? Also AFAM 712b.
[SOCY 651a, Roots and Routes: Identity and Travel in African American Political Culture.]
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