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The concentration in Sociology (leading to a Bachelor of Arts) provides a foundation in sociological theory and methods and the opportunity to cultivate more specialized knowledge in the discipline’s substantive interests. Students develop that focus through their coursework, taking courses in diverse areas such as social inequality, family and gender, organizations, environmental sociology, race and ethnicity and globalization.  Students refine their interests during the senior seminar and through their completion of a senior thesis or capstone project.

Standard program for the A.B. degree

Ten courses are required to complete the concentration.

Organizational Studies Track

Ten courses to complete the concentration

Additional Restrictions to the Organizational Studies Track:

Lower-level Coursework: Students may count no more than two 0100-level courses toward the Organizational Studies and Concentration Elective requirements (combined).

Upper-level Coursework: At least three of the five courses counted toward the Organizational Studies and Concentration Elective requirements (combined) must be at the 1000-level, and at least one must be a substantive seminar (1870-1873).

Interdisciplinary Coursework: Students may petition to count non-Sociology courses beyond the Organization-Relevant Elective list toward the Concentration Elective requirement. This will be allowed only when the proposed course makes sense given the interests of the student, and the Department of Sociology offers no equivalent course. 

“***See the Sociology website http://www.brown.edu/academics/sociology/ for details regarding Honors and Independent Studies”

The Senior Seminar  SOC 1950

Sociology requires all concentrators to complete a thesis or capstone project in their senior year. The purpose of the thesis or capstone project is to allow students an opportunity to apply the knowledge they acquired through the concentration curriculum on a topic of their own interests.  (Students in the Organizational Studies track are expected to focus their senior thesis or capstone project on an Organizational Studies topic.) To fulfill this requirement students enroll in SOC 1950  – Senior Seminar. Participation in this seminar allows each cohort of concentrators to discuss their diverse interests and expose students to the wide range of applications of Sociological knowledge.

A  senior thesis  must ask an original research question, answer it with appropriate evidence, and place that work within relevant scholarly literature in sociology. The thesis is supervised by a faculty member who serves as the primary advisor and one additional faculty member who serves as a reader. By the end of the sixth semester, students must submit a prospectus for the senior thesis (not more than four pages) accompanied by the signature of one faculty member indicating that he or she is willing to serve as the primary advisor on the thesis to the Director of Undergraduate Studies in their concentration. Only a senior thesis qualifies the student for Honors.

A  capstone project  is an independent, student-initiated project or experience developed during the Senior Seminar (SOC 1950) that connects in a meaningful way to learning in the concentration. A capstone project differs from a thesis in its scholarly content and form, and it depends only on the evaluation of the senior seminar instructor. Whereas the senior thesis follows the form of a conventional research paper, the capstone project allows a wider array of research and creative outputs, including but not limited to video documentaries, photographic exhibitions, and applied or policy-related reports for an off-campus organization. Projects are complemented by a poster presentation, literature review, and report that situates the central subject matter of the project within the context of sociological scholarship.

Independent Study

Students can use no more than one (1) Independent Study course ( SOC 1970 ) to meet the concentration course requirements. This course counts towards a 1000-level substantive requirement and will not serve as a substitute for any of the core concentration requirements.

In order to be considered for honors, students must (1) be in good standing with the College, (2) have completed at least half of the concentration coursework, and have earned a majority of “A” grades in the concentration. Honors also require a senior thesis, with a recommendation of Honors by the advisor and reader, that demonstrates an understanding of empirical research.

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Anthropology

Ph.d. program.

• Graduate Studies

The graduate program in Brown’s anthropology department encourages a diversity of doctoral research agendas in socio-cultural anthropology, anthropological archaeology, and linguistic anthropology.

Our program balances a rigorous curriculum of core classes with more specialized training in advanced courses. Our graduate seminars and independent study courses provide an engaging and rigorous tutorial approach to training. Graduate courses offered this academic year are listed on  Courses@Brown .

Brown’s graduate program is primarily PhD granting; students are not admitted to the department solely to seek a Master’s degree. Doctoral students complete requirements for a Master’s degree during their course of study, as well as additional requirements described below.

Degree Requirements

Generally awarded as part of the overall requirements for a Ph.D.

Four core courses

• ANTH2010: Principles of Cultural Anthropology
• ANTH 2020: Methods of Anthropological Research (or equivalent)
• ANTH 2501: Principles of Archaeology
• ANTH 2800: Linguistic Theory and Practice
• Four approved electives
• A Master’s Thesis
• 12 additional elective courses beyond the 8 required for the Master’s Degree (or the fulfillment of equivalent through coursework at another university) 
• Preliminary examinations in three topics
• One year of teaching experience, usually as a teaching assistant
• Approved research proposal for doctoral research
• Foreign language requirement (if required by the candidate’s doctoral committee)
• Dissertation, based on independent field research

More detailed information about the program, including a general outline of the timeline for completing the program, can be found in the Anthropology Graduate Handbook . 

Specialized Ph.D. Tracks

They choose a topic within Anthropological Demography as one of their preliminary examination topics, participate in the activities of the Working Group in Anthropology and Population, and attend the regular colloquia of the Population Studies and Training Center (PSTC). PSTC also has a set of requirements trainees must meet. Special fellowships are available to students in this program.

More information @ PSTC

The program offers specialized courses, funds field-based research, provides fellowships, hosts visiting faculty, and promotes collaborative research initiatives with partner institutions in the global south. The program builds on a core group of faculty internationally renowned for their research and scholarship in the area of development and inequality. Program activities are open to all PhD students at Brown. All trainees and fellows are eligible for summer fieldwork research grants.

More information @ Watson

Medical anthropology is a subfield of anthropology that seeks to understand human experiences of health, illness, and suffering. Medical anthropologists study topics such as global health, local health systems, indigenous medicine, violence and trauma, disability and the body, gender and sexuality, biotechnology, bioethics, and social suffering. Brown’s PhD program offers an array of opportunities for students seeking specialized training in medical anthropology. Brown’s anthropology faculty are actively engaged in researching a wide variety of topics within the subfield of medical anthropology, including HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, mental illness, reproductive health, gender and sexuality, violence and trauma, biotechnology, language and medicine, anthropology of drugs, and bio-archaeology.

For more information, contact  Professor Daniel J. Smith or  Professor Katherine A. Mason.

Researchers@Brown

Advanced search… Manage your Profile

Jennifer Candipan

Website information, assistant professor of sociology.

Jennifer is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Brown University and a faculty affiliate at Brown's Population Studies and Training Center, Spatial Structures for the Social Sciences, and Urban Studies Program. In 2019-20, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology at Harvard University.

Her broad research and teaching interests are in stratification, urban sociology, race/ethnicity, and sociology of education, with specific interests in how social and spatial contexts, like neighborhoods and schools, produce racial/ethnic, health, and economic inequalities. Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institues of Health, Spencer Foundation, National Academy of Education, and Russell Sage Foundation, among others.

You can find her current CV here .

Brown Affiliations

Research Areas

• Personal Site

Research Overview

Research Keywords

• Stratification; Urban Sociology; Sociology of Education; Neighborhoods and Schools; Neighborhood Change; Gentrification; Segregation; Racial/Ethnic Inequality; Health Disparities; Policy; Quantitative Methods; Spatial Analysis

Research Statement

Jennifer’s work is guided more generally by understanding connections between people and places, with a broad research agenda that investigates:

• the demographic processes and mechanisms of neighborhood change
• gentrification and school choice
• spatial and temporal dimensions of urban inequality
• changing neighborhood dynamics over time
• effect heterogeneity in neighborhood and school research
• residential and school sorting of households with and without children
• connections between individual processes and macro-level trends.

Funded Research

Russell Sage Foundation Presidential Research Grant (2023-2025) - $50,000 (co-PI Chantal Hailey)

National Institutes of Health LRP Award (L60) for Health Disparities Research (2023-2025)

Spencer Foundation Large Research Grant in Education (2021-2024) - $350,000 (co-PIs Katrina Walsemann and Nicole Hair)

Education and Training

Postdoctoral/other training, affiliations visualize it , affiliations.

Population Studies and Training Center

Spatial Structures in the Social Sciences (S4)

Urban Studies

Teaching Overview

SOC 2960G Spatial Data Analysis Techniques in the Social Sciences (Spring 2021)

SOC1100 Statistics for the Social Sciences (Fall 2022)

SOC 1874G The Geography of Urban Inequality (Spring 2022, Spring 2024)

SOC 2010 - Multivariate Statistical Methods I (Fall 2023)

SOC 2960C - Urban Sociology (Fall 2023)

Graduate Programs

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Social sciences menu, social sciences.

PhD Degree Requirements

Phd overview.

PhD students receive training in qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, sociological theory, and major substantive fields within sociology such as gender, sexuality, environment, race and ethnicity, culture, social networks, labor, immigration, and political economy. The department places a strong emphasis on research, and many students will find opportunities to participate in projects conducted by faculty members.

MA or MS and PhD in Sociology

Students are required to complete 55 credit hours of graduate-level work for the master’s degree, and an additional 20 credits, plus 18 dissertation credits, for the PhD. Students who have earned a master’s degree from another program must still complete the master’s paper requirement from the department as one of the steps toward earning the PhD. 

Students having completed graduate-level work in sociology prior to admission to the department may transfer credits to fulfill department requirements if a formal request is submitted to and approved by the Curriculum Committee. Most graduate courses are five (5) credit hours. All required courses must be taken on a graded basis. Students who are Graduate Employees (almost all students their first few years) usually take two or three (2-3)courses per term. The minimum number of credits required for students to enroll in is nine (9) if they have a contract, and three (3) if they do not.

Required Courses

Sociology 607 (Introduction to Graduate Sociology) All incoming students must take this seminar for three (3) credits. The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the department and the university community and should be taken their first term.

• Sociology 512 and 513 (Sociological Research Methods): These courses cover quantitative methods, including hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, multiple regression, regression methods with dichotomous and limited dependent variables, and an overview of other advanced quantitative methods. 
• Sociology 612 (Research Design): This course provides hands-on coverage of research design issues, including problem/question formulation, literature review, hypothesis construction, sampling decisions, choice of method for data collection, and strategies for data analysis. The final assignment is a comprehensive proposal for research suitable for the master’s paper requirement. To assist their progress toward the proposal, students work through exercises resulting in draft components of the proposal. Enrollment is normally restricted to sociology graduate students. 
• Two (2) advanced methods courses (Sociology 613), one (1) of which can be taken post-master’s. Advanced methods classes taken must include two (2) separate methods, as determined by the judgment of the student’s advisor.
• One (1) advanced theory course (Sociology 615): These courses focus on specialized traditions of social theory or the works of a major theorist. A second advanced theory course can be substituted for one of the substantive graduate seminars (see G below), as long as the content differs substantially from the first 615 course, as determined by the student’s advisor. The second course may be taken post-master’s. 
• Sociology 617 and Sociology 618 (Sociological Theory I and II): These courses cover major 19th, 20th, and 21st century social theorists, especially Marx, Weber, and Durkheim, and major themes in contemporary sociological theory.

Substantive Seminars

Students must take four (4) substantive graduate seminars or three (3) substantive seminars and a second advanced theory course. In either case, at least two (2)substantive seminars must be taken pre-master’s. 

The substantive seminars are: 

• Sociology 616 (Environment and Resources)
• Sociology 644 (Race and Ethnicity)
• Sociology 646 (Work and Organizations)
• Sociology 656 (Issues in the Sociology of Gender)
• Sociology 664 (Political and Economic Sociology)

Any of the above seminars may be taken more than once, so long as the class content differs substantially each time. Both syllabi must be submitted to the Curriculum Committee to confirm the difference.

Master’s Paper and Electives

To meet the master’s requirement, students take two (2) classes (10 credits) of electives in sociology at the 500- or 600-level. Only one (1) independent study course (SOC 601 - Research or SOC 605 - Reading), taken for a grade, can  be used to meet elective requirements.

Students register for five (5) credits of SOC 608 - Master’s Paper in the term they complete their master’s paper.

Master’s Paper

• All students must complete a master’s paper. Students should be able to complete the course requirements for a master’s degree and the master’s paper requirement in their first six (6) terms of enrollment. Students can be granted an extension to a seventh term without consequence if they make a formal request in writing before the end of their sixth term providing a brief explanation of the reason the extension is required, and so long as this request is approved by both committee members and the director of graduate studies. Students who have not completed the requirements within the first six (6) terms will not be in good standing and will not be assured of a GE position until they complete the requirements (they may receive one if a position is available). Students who do not complete the requirements by the end of nine (9) quarters of enrollment will need to appeal for an extension. This extension will only be granted if both committee members, the director of graduate studies, and the department head agree that it is warranted. 
• The paper is to report original empirical research with an appropriate theoretical context. The paper should be of a style, length, and content appropriate for submission to a peer-reviewed journal in the social sciences. The standard of assessment is whether the paper is worthy of submission to the selected journal. 
• The student may base the paper on research conducted for an academic degree at another institution or in another program at the University of Oregon. With the approval of the committee, the student may also submit for this requirement an article already published or accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed social science journal. A student who has completed an empirically based master’s thesis that is sociological in content in another program may revise it so that it fits with the department’s expectations and format and submit it for the master’s paper requirement. 
• For the master’s paper, the student will need to select a committee of two faculty members, one of whom is the chair. The thesis committee does not require an outside member or an oral defense. The Master’s Paper requirement is met when both committee members approve the paper.

Comprehensive Examination 

The Comprehensive Examination (c-exam) will determine the degree to which a student has gained a mastery over the substantive knowledge, theory and methodology of one area of sociological inquiry distinct from the area to which the master’s paper contributes as determined by the c-exam committee. 

• The area of the examination is selected by the student in consultation with a special committee consisting of at least three (3) faculty members, two (2) of whom must be sociology faculty; the chair of the committee must also be a sociology faculty member. The committee will be responsible for preparing and evaluating the examination. The examination is a three-day (3-day) written examination of the student’s mastery of a reading list approved by the committee. Although the student may suggest a list of questions for the examination, the committee decides on the questions. The committee poses the questions to the student at the start of the exam, and the student has three (3) days to submit their answers.
• In defining the areas of examination, the committee has the responsibility of guarding against both narrow specialization and unrealistically broad aspirations on the part of the student. The current list of sections within the American Sociological Association should serve as models for balancing breadth and depth.
• Students who fail to pass an examination on the first attempt will be permitted to take the examination a second time. Students failing an examination twice will be terminated from the program. 
• To remain in good standing, a requirement for assurance of departmental funding, students must complete the c-exam by the end of their ninth term of enrollment (excluding summers) in the department based on the regular academic calendar.
• Students should negotiate in advance with the c-exam committee for when they can commit to completing the evaluation. The committee should be given at least three (3) weeks to complete its evaluation.
• Students are advanced to candidacy after completing coursework and passing the c-exam. Students will be promoted to GE 3 the term after advancement.  

Doctoral Dissertation 

Once the c-exam and coursework are complete, students are advanced to candidacy and begin work on their dissertation proposal.

• The doctoral dissertation committee will be composed of at least three (3) sociology faculty members and an additional outside member of the UO graduate faculty not affiliated with the Department of Sociology who serves as a representative of the Dean of the Graduate School. This committee should be proposed to the Dean of the Graduate School by the fall of the student’s fifth year of enrollment and no later than six (6) months before the date of completion of the Ph.D. degree.
• The dissertation committee will be formed at the student’s initiative after passing the Comprehensive Examination (c-exam). All PhD candidates must prepare a dissertation proposal and formally defend it before their committee no later than the fall of their fifth year of enrollment, or they will not be in good academic standing, potentially making them ineligible for departmental funding. Students are encouraged to defend before the end of their fourth year in the program.
• The student should refer to the Style Manual for Theses and Dissertations published by the graduate school. This manual includes regulations for the dissertation and a checklist of timing for completion of certain administrative procedures.
• Students are required to enroll in at least three (3) credits of SOC 603 both the term before they defend AND the term they defend.

Apply to Our Graduate Program

Ready to apply? Start your application on Slate, the centralized application portal for graduate admissions at the University of Oregon.

Graduate Program Director

Kari Marie Norgaard Email: [email protected] Phone number: 541-346-8615 Office hours: By appointment

Graduate Coordinators

Sharon Kaplan Email: [email protected]

Rachel Claric Email: [email protected]