Don't do a PhD in sociology unless you are going to an elite program and do Crim, race or health. There are no jobs.
Math graduate going into Sociology - reading list?
-
Check out the summer institute in computational social science. Look at their presentations and reading lists etc. Market yourself accordingly. People want your skills. Best computational sociology programs are at duke and Chicago I feel like, followed by Irvine and Arizona probably?
-
Check out the summer institute in computational social science. Look at their presentations and reading lists etc. Market yourself accordingly. People want your skills. Best computational sociology programs are at duke and Chicago I feel like, followed by Irvine and Arizona probably?
-
Check out the summer institute in computational social science. Look at their presentations and reading lists etc. Market yourself accordingly. People want your skills. Best computational sociology programs are at duke and Chicago I feel like, followed by Irvine and Arizona probably?
This misses Princeton (how can you miss Princeton? Salganik alone would make it a good choice, but now they’ve got Stewart as well), NYU, UCLA, Michigan, and heck even UNC has some strength here too
-
Lol, it's obviously late at night for me, but I did skip Princeton since they're not admitting this year. Thanks for filling out the schools to apply to list for OP!
Check out the summer institute in computational social science. Look at their presentations and reading lists etc. Market yourself accordingly. People want your skills. Best computational sociology programs are at duke and Chicago I feel like, followed by Irvine and Arizona probably?
This misses Princeton (how can you miss Princeton? Salganik alone would make it a good choice, but now they�ve got Stewart as well), NYU, UCLA, Michigan, and heck even UNC has some strength here too -
Lol, it's obviously late at night for me, but I did skip Princeton since they're not admitting this year. Thanks for filling out the schools to apply to list for OP!
Check out the summer institute in computational social science. Look at their presentations and reading lists etc. Market yourself accordingly. People want your skills. Best computational sociology programs are at duke and Chicago I feel like, followed by Irvine and Arizona probably?
This misses Princeton (how can you miss Princeton? Salganik alone would make it a good choice, but now they?ve got Stewart as well), NYU, UCLA, Michigan, and heck even UNC has some strength here too“It’s obviously late at night for me”
1) no it isn’t “obvious” and 2) nobody at all gaf that you haven’t had your beauty sleep -
econ soc at Chicago is no good, and that's been true for many years. with those interests they will take you and turn you into a drone doing JE's knowledge stuff or a babbling lunatic in the KKC mold. don't do this to yourself.
and NYU has one econ soc person who hasn't done econ soc in 20 years and another one who will only take you on if you adhere to his very specific brand of Marxism. do not recommmend.
-
Lol everyone just assumed OP wanted to do mathematical soc just because they're a math major. I'd recommend checking out the top journals in the subfields. There's a thread somewhere on this site that ranks them. I would read some articles from the top subfield journals that interest you.
-
Why do you want to study sociology in the first place?
You should ask yourself this question many times before applying (especially since Fall 2021 will be the most competitive year of all time (by far) with programs cutting accepted student lists).
You should also look at threads on this site about job prospects when considering where to apply. I would link to them but my post keeps getting deleted. Search for "20-30" and "30-40" and you should see what I mean.
-
Lol everyone just assumed OP wanted to do mathematical soc just because they're a math major. I'd recommend checking out the top journals in the subfields. There's a thread somewhere on this site that ranks them. I would read some articles from the top subfield journals that interest you.
I guess I should be specific about what i was trying to say. APPLY as if you want to do mathematical soc. That's your strength and expertise and will help you get admitted at these top programs in such a competitive year. Transition to whatever you want afterwards, but a math major saying they want to do an ethnography of rural food production would raise some questions as this is outside (probably) anything you've ever studied.
-
thanks for the advise
what if in addition to being a math graduate i am also an economic graduate, and i want to specialize in computational sociology and/or economic sociology? is it feasible? what should I read?Yes this is definitely feasible. Look closely at Michigan, Cornell, Duke, Arizona, and Columbia’s faculty in networks/computational sociology and econ soc. Northwestern might be solid too but you’ll mostly have to work with people outside the department for computational stuff (though they have someone strong in networks if that’s your interest). Berkeley and Harvard are potentially worth applying to as well, given their general strength, but they’re not really especially strong in those two areas. Princeton has strong computational folks as well as strong economic sociology folks — provided you’re interested in a more cultural approach to economic sociology.
-
Perhaps I'm old fashioned, but I think there is still value in getting exposed to the classic canon of the discipline. To get a sense of the types of questions sociologists have tried to solve, if not for the approach that are now somewhat outdated due to availabity of new methods.
I personally would recommend following a good "classical theories in sociology" syllabus, or maybe a general syllabus on social science theories. Among them, I personally find Weber and C Wright Mills to be still very relevant to mainstream sociology topics today. Reading a couple of their classic works may help you read sociology literature, an activity that will be repeated many times if you're to enter the field.
Otherwise, just read as widely as you can on substantive topics you're interested in. I'd say don't get limited by disciplinary boundaries on that. If you're interested in a topic in econ soc, read up the books/paper on that topic in econ soc and other disciplines as well.
And, try to make notes, because unlike math, you'll forget what you read. Notes will guide you back to your memories of reading.
-
So I have to wonder a bit about Berkeley and Harvard.
Harvard doesn't have much in the way of computational faculty but they have produced a number of grads who do it, so it makes me wonder how they're getting trained. They have a computational approaches to society research center but all of the faculty there are computer scientists.
Berkeley also doesn't have much in the way of computational faculty. They have the D-Lab and Harding is the director there or at least was recently, but he doesn't do anything like what the institute does. I know PhD students there have done computational work but as far as I can tell none of them have gotten academic jobs with it or even published.
I would wonder how much of these are the same or different from Northwestern. All 3 have excellent econ soc but not sure about the rest. I strongly agree with the other suggestions.
Yes this is definitely feasible. Look closely at Michigan, Cornell, Duke, Arizona, and Columbia�s faculty in networks/computational sociology and econ soc. Northwestern might be solid too but you�ll mostly have to work with people outside the department for computational stuff (though they have someone strong in networks if that�s your interest). Berkeley and Harvard are potentially worth applying to as well, given their general strength, but they�re not really especially strong in those two areas. Princeton has strong computational folks as well as strong economic sociology folks � provided you�re interested in a more cultural approach to economic sociology.
-
^oh shoot I forgot about RW. She got a ton of interviews doing some topic modeling work and was a Berkeley grad. But I think she started when Willer was still there and still had him in her network? But topic modeling work is pretty basic as far as computational work goes.
-
So I have to wonder a bit about Berkeley and Harvard.
Harvard doesn't have much in the way of computational faculty but they have produced a number of grads who do it, so it makes me wonder how they're getting trained. They have a computational approaches to society research center but all of the faculty there are computer scientists.
Berkeley also doesn't have much in the way of computational faculty. They have the D-Lab and Harding is the director there or at least was recently, but he doesn't do anything like what the institute does. I know PhD students there have done computational work but as far as I can tell none of them have gotten academic jobs with it or even published.
I would wonder how much of these are the same or different from Northwestern. All 3 have excellent econ soc but not sure about the rest. I strongly agree with the other suggestions.Yes this is definitely feasible. Look closely at Michigan, Cornell, Duke, Arizona, and Columbia?s faculty in networks/computational sociology and econ soc. Northwestern might be solid too but you?ll mostly have to work with people outside the department for computational stuff (though they have someone strong in networks if that?s your interest). Berkeley and Harvard are potentially worth applying to as well, given their general strength, but they?re not really especially strong in those two areas. Princeton has strong computational folks as well as strong economic sociology folks ? provided you?re interested in a more cultural approach to economic sociology.
Andrei Boutyline, Rachel Wetts have both graduated from Berkeley recently and gotten HRM jobs. Both use computational methods. Just FYI :-)