Announcement Jason Beckfield, Director of Undergraduate Studies, and David Ager, co-Director of Undergraduate Studies will be available to speak with you during special Plan of Study Advising Hours on Friday, December 5 from 1pm to 5pm and Monday, December 8 from 1pm to 5pm, in the Department of Sociology, William James Hall, 6th floor.
A Sociology Concentration at Harvard
The concentration is distinguished by its relatively small size and its intellectual flexibility. It allows personal attention to students and ready access to faculty and administrators. Having relatively few requirements (six full courses for the A.B.), it allows students substantial flexibility in meeting individual intellectual agendas.
Course emphases range widely from the theoretical to the applied, and incorporate a broad array of approaches, both quantitative and non-quantitative. The Department has particular strengths of faculty specialization in comparative and historical sociology, the study of culture, Chinese and East Asian studies, Caribbean studies, demography, development/modernization, economy and society, education, mathematical sociology, qualitative and quantitative methods of research, networks, occupations/professions, political sociology, sociology of organizations, race/ethnic/minority relations, social change and social networks, stratification, mobility and social theory, collective behavior/social movements, sex and gender, urban sociology, poverty, housing and homelessness.
Students may elect to do a joint concentration in sociology and another field. This can be done either with sociology as the primary or secondary field. A joint concentration is always an honors concentration and requires a senior honors thesis.
The functioning of the concentration is continuously monitored by the Committee on Undergraduate Degrees (CUD), a faculty-student committee that also discusses all proposed changes to the concentration. Student representatives are chosen each year from among those who volunteer. The names of current representatives are available in the Undergraduate Office.
One of the central concerns of the undergraduate program is to provide students with opportunities to put sociological ideas into practice in research. This concern is reflected in a number of areas of the curriculum: in the junior tutorial, in the optional community research internships, and in the honors thesis.
The Junior Tutorial. Required in the junior year, Sociology 98 is run as a small research workshop in which eight to twelve students undertake a research project or set of related projects under the close supervision of a faculty member. The object of the tutorial is to provide students with research experience on topics of significant concern to sociologists.
Community Based Research. Optional and offered in both fall and
spring terms, Sociology 96 (formerly Community Research Internships)
is one of the few courses at Harvard that integrates students'
participation in activities outside the University with course work.
Students carry out guided research projects in the Boston area. The
course combines readings, discussion, and hands-on inquiry. Topics
and organizations vary from term to term.
The Honors Thesis (Sociology 99). The Senior Thesis is optional in sociology but concentrators wishing to graduate with honors in Sociology must write an Honors Thesis, typically involving extended research in an area of sociology of particular interest to the student, under the supervision of a faculty advisor. Students are supported in their thesis work with a weekly scheduled, optional, group seminar for consultation and discussion about choice of problems, possible data, and procedures. Theses vary widely in their specific topic and in the methods used to do the research. Recent theses have included in depth interviews with poor teen-age mothers, participant observation in a southern civil rights organization, a re-analysis of the original data used for the book The Bell Curve , a study of news groups on the internet, an historical study of the struggle of an Indian tribe for federal recognition, and a sociological autobiography.
Each year the department awards the Albert M. Fulton, Class of 1897, Prize to that Sociology concentrator who submits the best thesis "... judged by its contents," research methods, "... and literary expression, in the field of ... sociology." The amount of the prize varies; in recent years it has been several hundred dollars.
Possible Areas of Focus
Work, Organizations, and Management
Soc 10: Introduction to Sociology
Soc. 21: Work and the New Economy
Soc. 25: Sociology of Organizations
Soc. 95: Research for Non-Profits
Soc. 109: Leadership and Organizations
Soc. 137: Money, Work, and Social Life
Soc. 156: Quantitative Methods in Sociology
Soc. 159: Social Entrepreneurship
Soc. 191: The Politics of Law, Labor and Globalization in the Americas
Law, Criminal Justice, and the Community
Soc. 95: Research for Nonprofits
Soc. 145: Urban Social Problems
Soc. 171: Sociology of Crime and Punishment
Soc. 184: Freedom in America: An Historical Sociology
Soc. 185: Race and Crime in America
Soc. 189: Law and Social Movements
Soc. 191: The Politics of Law, Labor and Globalization in the Americas
Quantitative Reasoning 36: Statistics and Public Policy (counts for concentration elective credit)
Health, Medicine, and Society
Soc. 160: Medicine, Health Policy, and Bioethics in Comparative Perspective
Soc. 162: Medical Sociology
Soc. 163: Science, Technology & Society
Soc. 165: Inequalities in Health Care
Soc. 190: Life and Death in the US: Medicine and Disease in Social Context
Quantitative Reasoning 36: Statistics and Public Policy (counts for concentration elective credit)
Inequality and Social Policy (including Race/Ethnic/Gender Relations)
Soc 10: Introduction to Sociology
Soc. 19: Reinventing Boston: The Changing American City
Soc. 21: Work and the New Economy
Soc. 22: Gender and the Economy
Soc. 24: Introduction to Social Inequality
Soc. 60: Sociology of Race and Ethnicity
Soc. 129: Education and Society
Soc. 154: Culture, Power, and Inequality
Soc. 156: Quantitative Methods in Sociology
Soc. 157. Gender and Social Policy
Soc. 160: Medicine, Health Policy, and Bioethics in Comparative Perspective
Soc. 165: Inequalities in Health Care
Soc. 168: Social Capital and Democracy: Comparative Perspectives
Soc. 171: Sociology of Crime and Punishment
Soc. 176: Immigration and the Transformation of American Society
Soc. 179: Crime, Justice, and the American Legal System
Soc. 191: The Politics of Law, Labor and Globalization in the Americas
Soc. 193: Crime, Community, and Public Policy
Soc. 194: Knowledge Production & Evaluation in the Social Sciences
Social Analysis 54: American Society and Public Policy (counts for concentration elective credit)
Quantitative Reasoning 36: Statistics and Public Policy (counts for concentration elective credit)
Culture, and Social History
Soc. 10: Introduction to Sociology
Soc. 43. Social Interaction
Soc. 107: The American Family
Soc. 119: Learning from Social Settings: Observing and Talking to People
Soc. 139: Religion and Society
Soc. 140: The Sociology of U.S. Foreign Policy
Soc. 154: Culture, Power, and Inequality
Soc. 155: Class and Culture
Soc. 167: Visualizing Rights and Social Change in Documentary Photography and Film
Soc. 184: Freedom in America: An Historical Sociology
Foreign Cultures 46: Caribbean Societies: Socioeconomic Change and Cultural Adaptations (counts for concentration elective credit)
You Can Go Anywhere With a Degree in Sociology
imagine the possibilities . . .
with a wide variety of applications to many fields, a degree in
sociology can prepare you for the challenges you set for yourself and
that the world has set before you.
The faculty contact/advisers for Sociology are the department’s Director of Undergraduate Studies, Jason Beckfield and co-Director of Undergraduate Studies, David Ager.
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