Graduate Program
The Department of Sociology at the University of California, Davis, offers a Ph.D. graduate program. Currently 29 faculty are affiliated with the department, which enrolls an average of 40-50 graduate students in any given quarter.
Theoretical, methodological, and substantive pluralism characterize faculty research interests and departmental course offerings. The graduate program emphasizes rigorous preparation in sociological theory and research methodologies as the basis of sound scholarship. Students are encouraged to begin active research early in their graduate careers.
The multiplicity of specializations of faculty allows students the opportunity to design individualized degree programs. Some of these include community/urban sociology; complex organizations; culture, religion, and ideology; demography and ecology; family and kinship; law, deviance, criminology and social control; political economy/development/economic sociology; political sociology; race and ethnic relations; sex and gender; social movements and collective behavior; social psychology; social stratification; work, occupations and professions. In addition, students may pursue a designated emphasis in one of the following areas: critical theory, feminist theory, Native American studies, social theory and comparative history, and economy, justice and society. The department is home for Theory and Society: Renewal and Critique of Social Theory, an international journal of interdisciplinary social science.
Departmental administration and decision processes are characterized by decentralization and openness. The Graduate Sociology Students Association (GSSA) represents graduate student interests in areas of departmental policy-making. The department attempts to provide students with facilities necessary for study, work, and social interaction. Currently, limited office space is available as well as access to telephones, individual mail boxes, and a computer room, in addition to extensive campus facilities.
Applicants accepted into the sociology graduate program are admitted directly to the Ph.D. program. The Masters degree is awarded to students in the course of working toward the Ph.D. Continuation in the Ph.D. program is contingent upon satisfactory completion of all MA degree requirements. Students who wish only to complete the requirements for the MA may do so.
For more information about the graduate program, use the links to the left or send email inquiries to the Graduate Program Coordinator.
News & Announcements
Brian Dick Awarded Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellowship Brian Dick was awarded the Spencer Dissertation Fellowship for Research Related to Education in the amount of $25,000 for the writing of his dissertation, Legitimating Superstring Theory: A Sociological Analysis of a Theory of Everything. The Spencer Foundations Dissertation Fellowship Program seeks to encourage a new generation of scholars to undertake research relevant to the improvement of education.
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Eileen Otis publishes "Beyond the Industrial Paradigm: Market-Embedded Labor and the Gender Organization of Global Service Work in China" Eileen Otis (Ph.D. 2003) has published a new article based on her dissertation research. This article examines how local consumer markets impact staff-customer relationships. Are relationships and interactions between staffs and customers influenced by gender and local communities and markets? Why, in service work, such as hospitality services where women constitute the majority of the workforce, do workers display different gender norms or organize customer relations differently in different settings?
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Melanie Jones Awarded UC-ACCORD Dissertation Grant Melanie Jones was awarded a UC ACCORD Dissertation Fellowship in the amount of $20,000 to support work on her dissertation, "Educational Advantages: Race, Class, and Teacher-Student Relationships."
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Article on Community Development by Lucas Kirkpatrick Lucas Kirkpatrick's article titled "The Two 'Logics' of Community Development: Neighborhoods, Markets, and Community Development Corporations" was published in the June 2007 issue of Politics and Society.
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