Maxwell School of Syracuse University

The Maxwell School’s social science program was established in 1946 as the nation’s first interdisciplinary doctoral program in the social sciences. It continues to be a leading center for creative scholarship for students whose intellectual interests transcend the confines of a single discipline. With guidance from their faculty advisers, social science doctoral students develop their own programs of interdisciplinary study. Recent graduates and current students have chosen research and dissertation areas as diverse as urban affairs, international relations, national security studies, conflict resolution, media and culture, public education, network theory, immigration, labor relations, gerontology, women’s studies, social services and policy, African American studies, citizenship, environmental policy, social movements, Native American studies, health policy, popular culture, peace studies, and globalization, among others.

The social science program was founded in the conviction that a broad interdisciplinary education would often better prepare scholars in the social and policy sciences than would narrower, more specialized training in one of the traditional disciplines. The founders of the program believed that many questions about the nature of society rested not just in one discipline, but required the integrated contributions of political science, geography, sociology, anthropology, history, international relations, economics, and public administration. This conviction is today being even further reinforced by the growing complexity and interdependence within and among societies in the modern world.

The Ph.D. in Social Science requires completion of 72 credit hours. A maximum of 30 credit hours may be transferred in from other graduate programs. Credits may be earned by combining courses, seminars, independent studies, and dissertation research, all of which may be chosen from the various academic departments and professional programs at the Maxwell School, as well as from other schools and colleges of the university, to fit the student’s program of study. Coursework includes three major components: general courses in social science theory (12 credits minimum), research methodology courses (12 credits minimum), and the balance in courses in or related to the student’s areas of interest.

Decisions on admissions and financial aid are governed by three criteria: evidence of superior academic ability, evidence of focused interdisciplinary research interests, and availability of Maxwell School faculty with interest and scholarly expertise in the areas the applicant wishes to pursue.

While many students in the program follow a conventional full-time graduate schedule, some study part time while continuing to work. Some enter directly from graduate or undergraduate programs, while still others come at mid-career seeking either a change in profession or growth within their current one. Most arrive with master’s degrees.

While preserving its core commitment to prepare college and university faculty (most graduates take up academic careers), the program mission has broadened over the years to include educating doctoral students who have professional interests in research and institutional leadership outside the academy as well. Since its inception in 1946, the doctoral program in social science has graduated more than 500 scholars who work throughout the world.

Selected Student Research Topics

In sickness and in health: elderly men who care for wives with Alzheimer’s disease
Water over the dam: a social scientist examines how ecologists and engineers negotiate the past, present and future of outflow regulation on the St. Lawrence River.
Self matters: the rhetoric of emotional suffering in public culture
The recyclables marketplace: a transaction cost economics approach
Society and nature: alternative models from the environmental movement
Networks and population in rural and peripheral areas: a network theory of business and population

Social Science contact:

Vernon Greene, Chair
Social Science Program
413 Maxwell Hall
Syracuse University
Syracuse NY 13244-1090
USA

Telephone 315-443-2275
Fax 315-443-1463
Email socialscience@maxwell.syr.edu