Martin K. Whyte

Professor of Sociology

Biographical Note

I joined the faculty of the Department of Sociology at Harvard in fall 2000, after previously teaching at the University of Michigan and George Washington University. In a sense it is a homecoming for me, since I did my graduate work at Harvard in the 1960s, with many hours logged in William James Hall (and in Coolidge Hall as well). To learn more about my personal and academic history, please consult my Personal Background Statement. For a Chinese interview about my background and research, see Chinese Interview. For more details on my scholarly publications and other activities, please consult my Curriculum Vitae.

My primary research and teaching specialties are comparative sociology, sociology of the family, sociology of development, the sociological study of contemporary China, and the study of post-communist transitions. My most recent writings reflect these divergent interests: an edited volume entitled Marriage in America: A Communitarian Perspective (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000) and an edited collection of papers drawing on a survey project that focused on relations between aging parents and their grown children in urban Chinese families, entitled China's Revolutions and Inter-Generational Relations (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies, 2003). One newer research project involves surveys on Chinese popular perceptions of inequality trends and views about distributive justice issues. A pilot survey for this project was successfully conducted in Beijing in December 2000. A national survey focusing on inequality and distributive justice issues was completed in the summer of 2004.

Since coming to Harvard, I have taught a range of courses reflecting my interests and research. At the undergraduate level I regularly teach a course on social life in contemporary China and a course on the American family. At the graduate level I have offered a seminar on contemporary Chinese society focused on issues of inequality and stratification, a seminar on the sociology of families and kinship, and a seminar on the sociology of economic development. I also teach a new course as part of Harvard's Core curriculum Foreign Cultures 63, China's Two Social Revolutions.

08/17/2009

Curriculum Vitae

Courses Offered This Academic Year

Sociology 217 ( spring )	Families and Kinship
FC63 or GenEd ( spring )	China's Two Social Revolutions

A Sampling of Courses Offered in Other Years

Sociology 141	Social Institutions of Contemporary China
Sociology 107	The American Family
Sociolog 237	Contemporary Chinese Society
Sociology 311	Family and Childhood Research Workshop
Sociology 206	The Sociology of Development