Department of Sociology

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Graduate Program Areas

The Department's graduate program is organized around five broad areas:

• Culture & Identity
• Political & Economic Institutions, Social Movements, and Public Policy
• Social Control & Deviance
• Social Inequalities
• Theory, Knowledge, and Critical Inquiry
    (Specialization can be accommodated within these broad areas.)


Culture & Identity

Faculty:
Wayne Brekhus (convener), David Brunsma, Brian Colwell, Jay Gubrium, Victoria Johnson, Clarence Lo, Tola Pearce, Amit Prasad, and Rebecca Scott.

Culture and identity are terms packed with meaning. The faculty represent varying theoretical and methodological orientations in the debates regarding these terms. Interest extends to cultural institutions, language and social interaction, personal and collective identity construction, and related discursive processes. Contexts of application range from everyday life to cultural contact and hegemony in global perspective. Particular emphasis is placed on the ways in which identity, culture, social institutions, and the organization of mass media intersect with issues of social inequality, social control, social change, and the everyday production of subjectivities.

Core and Supporting Courses

Core Course:
Soc 7320: Culture, Identity, and Interaction

Supporting Courses:
Soc 7230: Global Perspectives on Women and Development
Soc 7340: Self, Language, and Social Life
Soc 7510: Social Movements and Conflicts
Soc 7587: Seminar in Culture and Mass Media
Soc 8387: Seminar in Narrative and Identity
Soc 9300: Social Interaction Seminar


Political & Economic Institutions, Social Movements,
and Public Policy

Faculty:
Eric Brown, John Galliher, Victoria Johnson, Byung-Soo Kim,
Clarence Lo (convener), Tola Pearce, Amit Prasad and Takeshi Wada

This area deals with political and economic institutions, including the state, the economy, the organizations in those sectors, the social movements shaping the institutions, and the policy formation process. The area is centrally concerned with power in and around the institutions and processes, and with the cultures of institutions and movements that shape the exercise of power. Representative research and theoretical concerns within the area include: (1) Power structures and administrative arrangements within state bureaucracies, political parties, firms, unions, nonprofit organizations, and social movements; (2) Comparative institutional arrangements, e.g., forms of linkage between states and economies, forms of linkage between interest groups and the state, and forms of capitalism; (3) Cultural frameworks embedded in and shaping institutions and social movements; (4) Comparative studies of revolutions shaping political and economic institutions; and (5) The emergence and structure of social movements, including the mobilization of resources, strategies, ideologies, and effects on institutional arrangements.

Core and Supporting Courses

Core Courses:
Soc 7510: Social Movements and Conflicts
Soc 7520: Political Sociology
Soc 7700: Social Organization

Supporting Courses:
Soc 7087: Seminar in State and Economy
Soc 7287: Seminar in Comparative Social Institutions
Soc 7487: Seminar in Sociology of Organizations
Soc 7500: Sociology of Social Policy
Soc 7530: Social Organization of the Industrial Societies
Soc 7587: Seminar in Culture and Mass Media
Soc 9687: Topical Seminar in Historical Sociology


Social Control & Deviance

Faculty:
Wayne Brekhus, Brian Colwell, John Galliher (convener), Jay Gubrium, and Clarence Lo

The program area focuses on social control, interpersonal categorization, symbolic boundary maintenance, and patterns of social domination and deviance, in diverse social contexts, including the role that human identity plays in related social processes. Central to the area are institutional discourses and their mediations of everyday life. Critical analysis extends to the level of social class, society, national, and international influences. The sociology of law is also featured, as is the history of punishment, control in psychiatric hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, and other totalized institutional settings. Medical and legal control is of special interest to students and faculty members in the areas, extending to the sociology of illness and health, the sociology of crime, and the sociology of human rights. Students are expected to assist in developing their professional specializations and in compiling reading lists appropriate to their research interests.

Core and Supporting Courses

Core Courses:
Soc 7610: Society and Social Control
Soc 8687: Seminar in Criminology and Deviant Behavior

Supporting Course:
Soc 7600: Contemporary Corrections


Social Inequalities

Faculty:
Eric Brown, David Brunsma, Jay Gubrium, Joan Hermsen (convener), Byung-Soo Kim, Clarence Lo, Tola Pearce, Rebecca Scott, and Takeshi Wada

The notation of inequality is central to the field of sociology and figures prominently in our research and teaching. We explore the origin, structure, reproduction, and outcomes of social inequality arising from various sources: class, gender, race and ethnicity, age, global economy, etc. The field of social inequalities is highly diverse and intersects with many other domains of sociological study such as family, health, community, and culture. A focus on social inequalities will complement and enhance coursework and research in other program areas. The department maintains links with Women and Gender Studies, Black Studies, and Peace Studies programs on campus.

Core and Supporting Courses
Students specializing in social inequalities are required to take an overview course on the study of social inequalities (Soc 7200) as well as 2 additional courses in one of the specialty tracks. These courses are:

Gender:
Soc 7110: Feminist Research and Criticism
Soc 7230: Global Perspectives on Women and Development
Soc 9587: Feminist Theory
Soc 9887: Seminar in Sociology of Gender

Race and Ethnicity:
Soc 7220: Race and Ethnic Relations
Soc 8087: Seminar on Race Relations

Class:
Soc 7087: Seminar in State and Economy
Soc 7387: Seminar in Sociology of Work
Soc 7510: Social Movements and Conflicts
Soc 7520: Political Sociology
Soc 7530: Social Organization of Industrial Societies

Students are also encouraged to take other courses related to social inequalities, including:
Soc 7210: Sociology of Aging
Soc 7410: Sociology of Education
Soc 7500: Sociology of Social Policy


Theory, Knowledge, and Critical Inquiry

Faculty:
Wayne Brekhus, Edward Brent, David Brunsma (convener), Jay Gubrium, Victoria Johnson, Clarence Lo, Amit Prasad, and Rebecca Scott

The program deals with the critical understanding of theoretical and methodological approaches of sociology and the related social and behavioral sciences. This extends to the diverse forms of theoretical reasoning and methodological strategies in these disciplines and the connection to the philosophy of social science and to broader debates about knowledge claims in other disciplines such as law, medicine, the humanities, and history. The range of the relevant discourse is indicated by the scope of important scholarly journals such as Theory and Society, Sociological Theory, and The Philosophy of Social Science. The task of the area committee is to provide training in these wide ranging areas of discourse that may be developed in relation to various substantive specializations. The area emphasizes linkages between theories and methodologies. Students will explore underlying assumptions of theories and their implications for methodological choices along with the ways in which methodologies enable and constrain theorizing. Students develop a capacity to think analytically and critically about a wide range of theories and methodologies. Students explore how underlying assumptions of theories affect methodological choices and how methodologies enable and constrain theorizing. Students will develop a capacity to evaluate a range of epistemological positions relevant to analyzing and criticizing the production of knowledge.

Courses

Students must take at least three relevant courses beyond those theory and methodology courses required of all Ph.D. students in Sociology. At least one of these three courses must be a theory course, and at least one must be a methodology course. The courses that are chosen to fulfill departmental requirements may not also be counted toward the two area requirements. The three courses meeting the area requirement may be chosen from the following:

Theory:
Soc 7110: Feminist Research and Criticism
Soc 8435: Seminar in Science and Technology in Society
Soc 9487: Seminar in Sociological Theory II
Soc 9587: Topical Seminar in Contemporary Sociological Theory
Soc 9787: Seminar in Sociological Theory Construction

Methodology:
Soc 7100: Expert Systems
Soc 8187: Seminar on Interview Theory and Technique
Soc 9287: Seminar in Qualitative Methods in Sociology
Soc 9687: Topical Seminar in Historical Sociology
Soc 9837: Seminar in Multivariate Analysis Techniques

Students may take a number of relevant courses in other university departments with approval of the area committee. Some possible topics in other departments include philosophy of social science, historiography, feminist theory, and social and political philosophy.

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University of Missouri
Columbia, MO 65211-6100
(573) 882-8331
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