Research Areas
Globalization, Immigration, and Transnational Studies
This
focal area deals with the movement of people, goods, capital, ideas,
political-economic systems, and cultures across national borders, the factors
leading to such movement, as well as the outcomes of such movement.
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Population and Place
Research in this
area encompasses a range of theories, methods, and insights for understanding
population processes, social structures, inequalities, and lived experiences
across a range of geographic scales in the U.S. and internationally.
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Education and Family
Faculty in this focal group have interest in the sociological studies of
education and family, in the areas of education stratification, care work and
intergenerational relations.
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Health, Aging & Life Course, Disability
Faculty
working in this area examine social inequalities and life-course processes
linked to aging, disability, health and health care, family relationships, care
work, and welfare state policies.
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Inequalities
Faculty working in this area examine the causes and
consequences of disparities based on race, ethnicity, class, education, gender,
and sexuality across individuals, groups, and geographies.
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Power, Capital, and Politics
Faculty in this area draw on a variety of
methodological approaches, interdisciplinary literatures, and theoretical
perspectives to interrogate the relationship between the state and capital, the
impacts and implications of social policies, and the punitive as well as the
productive effects of power throughout society. We pay particular attention to
the ways in which race, class, gender, and citizenship both shape and are
shaped by ongoing political struggle. The faculty in this cluster are
especially concerned with linking macro-analyses of political economy to
questions of culture, identity, experience, and struggle.
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Methods
Rigorous training in both qualitative and quantitative methods is
a hallmark of our graduate training program. We have a large number of faculty with deep expertise in both
qualitative and quantitative methods. During the PhD program, all graduate
students take core courses in both qualitative and quantitative methods and
then specialize in one or more methods through advanced coursework. Students
not only learn the methods in the classroom, they also gain invaluable
experience applying these methods through coursework and collaborations with
faculty.
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Theory
The focal area in theory
uses analytic frameworks to understand how the social world
works and how social structures and individual lives are connected.
Learn more about Theory