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Department: Sociology

Executive Officer: Professor Lynn Chancer

The Graduate Center

365 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10016

Email: Sociology@gc.cuny.edu

https://www.gc.cuny.edu/Sociology

FACULTY

Richard Alba, Paul Attewell, Deborah Balk, Carolina Bank Munoz, Juan Battle, Mike Benediktsson, Neil Bennett, Andrew Beveridge, Mucahit Bilici, Roslyn Bologh, Christopher Bonastia, Mehdi Bozorgmehr, David Brotherton, Sophia Catsambis, Lynn Chancer, Katherine Chen, Margaret Chin, Erica Chito Childs, Lindsey Churchill, Patricia Clough, Hector Cordero-Guzman, Jessie Daniels, M. Herbert Danzger, Els de Graauw, Rafael de la Dehesa, Thomas DeGloma, Susan Dumais, Hester Eisenstein, Cynthia Epstein, Sylvia Fava, Sujatha Fernandes, Nancy Foner, Mauricio Font, Gail Garfield, Robert Garot, Lior Gideon, Janet Gornick, Kenneth Gould, David Halle, Jean Halley, John Hammond, Gerald Handel, Jessica Hardie, Samuel Heilman, Donald Hernandez, Ramona Hernandez, Michael Jacobson, James Jasper, Charles Kadushin, Robert Kapsis, Philip Kasinitz, Barbara Katz Rothman, William Kornblum, Marnia Lazreg, Mary Clare Lennon, Harry Levine, Tammy Lewis, Ronald L'Heureux Lewis-McCoy, Judith Lorber, Stephanie Luce, Howard Lune, Wendy Luttrell, Susan Markens, Leslie McCall, Rolf Meyersohn, Ruth Milkman, Pyong Min, Jerrold Mirotznik, John Mollenkopf, Jayne Mooney, Tamara Mose, Peter Moskos, Shezad Nadeem, Richard Ocejo, Leslie Paik, Yung-Yi Pan, Yusheng Peng, Victoria Pitts-Taylor, Maritsa Poros, Jeremy Porter, Charles Post, Holly Reed, Robin Rogers-Dillon, Dean Savage, Sanford Schram, Edward Shaughnessy, Catherine Silver, Robert Smith, Ryan Smith, Gregory Smithsimon, Michaela Soyer, Stephen Steinberg, Pamela Stone, Julie Suk, John Torpey, Van Tran, Vilna Treitler, Lucia Trimbur, Bryan Turner, Charles Turner, Elena Vesselinov, Anahi Viladrich, Alexis Vitale, Elin Waring, Dana Weinberg, Esther Wilder, Julia Wrigley, Michael Yarbrough, Betty Yorburg, Sharon Zukin

THE PROGRAM

The Ph.D. Program in Sociology develops sociologists of broad theoretical background and demonstrated research competence. The program is particularly strong in macrosociological, historical, and comparative approaches. Methodologically, the program seeks a balance between quantitative and qualitative techniques. Located in one of the world’s major centers of cultural production, the program has a strong specialization in cultural studies, with faculty who analyze film, the mass media, art, music, and other forms of elite and popular culture. Other specialties include feminist theory and the sociology of gender, urban sociology, and race and ethnic relations, including, increasingly, the study of immigrant groups in New York. Throughout the program, faculty interest is strong in patterns of social inequality, whether in families, workplaces, or societies.

Doctoral work in sociology at the Graduate Center is organized into the following main areas of graduate work:

Race, Ethnicity, and Urban Sociology The program has a strong concentration in urban studies and the sociology of space and culture. It strives to use New York City as an urban laboratory for the investigation of social life in the postmodern metropolis. The program also emphasizes the study of race and ethnicity and, in particular, the incorporation of new immigrant communities.

Social and Critical Theory Studies in classical sociological theory (Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Simmel), critical social theory and the Frankfurt school, and contemporary social theories (Merton, Giddens, Habermas, Foucault, Offe, Stinchcombe, and feminist theorists). Sociology of the State, Social Class, Political Economy Training in neo-Marxist and neo-Weberian approaches; comparative study of social stratification and social mobility in capitalist and socialist countries; research on legitimation problems of modern states; political economy of fiscal crisis and international capital, problems of development and underdevelopment.

Sociology of Culture, Mass Media, and the Arts Studies in the social and cultural production of knowledge, ranging from science and technology and political ideologies to mass communications and everyday linguistically mediated practices. Exploration of the social basis of aesthetic discourse (e.g., the distinction between high and low/mass culture, popular culture, subcultures, and folk cultures). Studies of emerging discourses and cultural practices in various subcultures, with particular emphasis on marginal and marginalized groups.

Sociology of Work, Occupations, Organizations Research ranging from ethnographic and interview-based studies to survey-based and quantitative analyses, in a variety of workplace and organizational settings. Topics include business elites, work and personality, theories of the labor process, the sociology of labor unions, workplace culture, work and technology, and studies of individual occupations and professions.

Sociology of Gender Studies in family interaction and the psychosocial interior of the family; macro- and microstructural, Marxist, socialist-feminist, and psychoanalytic approaches to gender study.

Medical Sociology Studies in development of modern medical institutions, history of medical sociology, social construction of illness, gender, and health care, political economy of health care, and the sociology of mental illness.

Other Areas Methods (survey research, ethnomethodology, urban ethnography, sociohistorical methods); Deviance (social responses to crime, drug abuse); the Family and Education; the Sociology of Religion.

En-route M.A.

Upon completing 45 credits with an average grade of B, passing the First Examination, and satisfactorily completing a major research paper, the student may apply for an M.A. degree. The degree is awarded formally by one of the participating senior colleges.