Ph.D Requirements

Home Graduate Program Ph.D Requirements

Areas of Concentration

The Sociology Ph.D program offers concentration in the following areas:

• Economy, Development, and Environment: This area is related to long-standing sociological concerns with the nature of modernity and the transition from feudalism to capitalism; and to sociology's familiar interest in large-scale social organization and the processes of historical change. It is also related to more recent literature analyzing industrialization, underdevelopment, colonialism, and the world system, and to orthodox sociological subfields such as political sociology and social movements. It applies well-established methods of political economy and comparative and historical analysis.

• Inequality and Identity: Race, Class, Gender, Sexuality: This area is also related to familiar mainstream concerns in sociology. The study of class structure is the intellectual forerunner of revised notions about the central axes of inequality. We conceptualize this area largely in terms of social stratification, but with an eye toward more recent theoretical and empirical studies of race, gender, and sexuality. Indeed, social stratification is a central empirical concern of sociology, while gender (at least in the form of the sociology of the family) and race/ethnicity are traditional subfields. Our intention is to move toward the cutting edge of theory in linking these axes together, and away from the purely descriptive focus of traditional stratification studies.

• Culture, Knowledge, and Power: This third area is represented in several traditional sociological concerns-culture, knowledge, religion, and art, as well as in methodological topics in fieldwork, ethnographic analysis, and other qualitative studies- and culture and the symbolic, linking together cultural studies, media studies, postcolonial studies, women's studies, and area and ethnic studies. Many of the topics studied under this rubric-symbolic interaction, social problems theory, the sociology of science, culture, and knowledge, and the study of language-are current specialties of our existing faculty.

The program also offers students a choice of specialized courses and research seminars. They may be taken from the first quarter of the second year (in the normative program).

Each student must be in residence for at least six quarters and complete at least two courses per quarter in order to qualify for Ph.D. candidacy. Most students can expect to be enrolled in course work, independent study, and thesis research and writing for a six-year period.

Students are required to take a minimum of twelve courses as follows:

1. A three-course core group: 201-The Making of Classical Theory; 202-Contemporary Sociological Theory; and 203-Sociological Methods;

2. Two methods courses: 204-Methods of Quantitative Analysis and one of the following seven courses: 205-Field Research Methods; 206-Comparative Historical Methods; 209-Analysis of Cultural Form; 241-Cross-National and Cross-Cultural Research; 242-Feminist Research Seminar; Survey Methods, (Psychology 248); or 282-Social Policy Research.

3. Three area foundation courses: 220-Global Transformation; 240-Inequality and Identity; and 260-Culture, Knowledge, Power;

4. At least one writing course (208 or 250);

5. A minimum of three elective seminar courses which may be from either area or, with approval, from outside the Sociology program (socy 250 and socy 293 can not be taken electives).

Areas of Faculty Expertise

Students are able to do more advanced work through independent study with particular faculty members who have similar research interests. Generally such studies follow preparatory course work with the faculty members. Sociology faculty at the University of California, Santa Cruz specialize in the following areas:

Beginning at least by the end of the first year, students initiate work on their master's paper; an original theory, research, or methods paper that demonstrates an ability to do independent work. The paper is normally the length of a journal article. The student's academic adviser in the graduate program will serve as the supervisor of this paper. Completion of the master's paper is required at the end of the second year.

Students may work on the paper in conjunction with a class or as a continuation of work begun in a class. The paper may have been written previously (for example, as a thesis or masters paper for another university), but it must be read, evaluated, and accepted by two UCSC faculty.

The master's paper, along with a student's overall performance in course work, is used by the faculty to determine whether the student continues on toward a Ph.D. or receives a terminal M.A. degree.

In addition to completing course work and the master's paper, students need to fulfill three other requirements leading to the Ph.D.: field statements, qualifying exam, and dissertation. More detailed information and suggestions regarding these requirements are provided in the Internal Guide to the Sociology Graduate Program, which is distributed to all students in the graduate program.

During the sixth quarter of residency (normally spring quarter of the student's second year), the sociology faculty as a whole meet to determine whether the student may proceed to work toward the Ph.D., and oral qualifying examination; or should work to obtain a terminal M.A.

Preparation for the Ph.D. oral qualifying examination is contingent upon a faculty review of the student's total UCSC sociology graduate program course work. In addition, the faculty considers whether the student has:

2. Achieved an M.A. or Ph.D. pass for Methods of Quantitative Analysis and one of the two other required methods courses. Students enrolled in Methods of Quantitative Analysis may be permitted to proceed in their doctoral studies upon obtaining a Ph.D. pass in the course.

3. Successfully completed the foundation courses and at least one writing practicum.

4. Obtained approval from two Sociology Department readers for a sociology master's paper completed at UCSC, or a master's paper/thesis from another institution.

5. Obtained agreement from three of the four members of the students' orals committee that they will work with the student on specific areas of the oral exam. Students may change the composition of the orals committee at a later date, as long as the committee is composed of three faculty members from the Sociology Department and one faculty member from outside the department. The committee nominations, which must be filed in the Sociology Department Office, serve as a preliminary faculty commitment to the student.

The Qualifying Exam

Students are expected to take the qualifying exam at the end of the third year (student must be advanced to candidacy before the begining of the fifth year in the program). The oral exam is administered by a four-person committee selected by the student and approved by the graduate director and the Graduate Dean. The exam committee often includes UCSC faculty from related disciplines. Papers, as defined below, must be completed, approved by the committee, and copies submitted to the department's graduate assistant four weeks prior to the oral examination.

The traditional field statement requirement has been redesigned to ensure breadth of demonstrated sociological expertise, to deepen the nature of that expertise, and to render more practical the tangible products that result from the expertise. Graduate students will now prepare field statements in two distinct areas of sociology and, in addition, will prepare a detailed course outline and a grant proposal in one or the other of these areas. The combinations of possible areas of specialization are many and should reflect a students career goals in teaching, research, or applied sociology.

The qualifying examination will be oral and based on the student's field statements. After completing the qualifying examination, students begin work on their dissertation (typically, at the end of the third and throughout their fourth and subsequent years).

The Dissertation Project

After passing the qualifying examination, a student is advanced to candidacy and begins work on the dissertation with the aid of a three person dissertation committee. The committee, selected by the student and approved by the graduate director and the Graduate Dean, may include a faculty member from a related discipline as well as faculty from other universities. Normally, two members of the committee are from UC Santa Cruz, and the chair is a member of the Sociology Department.

No later than one quarter after completing the oral qualifying examination, students submit a dissertation prospectus to their dissertation adviser and file it with the department's graduate assistant following approval. The prospectus must bear the signatures of the adviser and the other two members of the dissertation committee.

Teaching

Because the skills required for good teaching-the ability to articulate ideas, to organize and present materials in logical sequence, and to listen attentively and discern someone else's comprehension-are fundamental to many human activities and occupations, the sociology program particularly emphasizes teaching experience. Students are normally required to serve as teaching assistants for at least three quarters, whether or not they plan academic careers. In addition, graduate students who have been advanced to candidacy can apply to design and teach their own one-quarter lower-division courses.

Teaching assistant training is provided for all graduate students prior to their first assignment. There is usually two days of T.A. training prior to the beginning of fall quarter, which is coordinated by the department. This training exposes new teaching assistants to issues and procedures of general concern and gives them a broad overview of the campus and their duties, responsibilities, and rights. In addition, the Graduate Students Association provides a half-day long seminar which introduces new graduate students to the UAW contract.

For more information about specific Ph.D. requirements, please contact the department's graduate advisor, Ann McCardy .