Social movement people: soc or anth?

[RefurbedScientist]

Hi all,

This is a cross-post from the sociology forum. I have a question about the disciplinary differences between sociology and anthropology in the study of social movements. Briefly, my research interests are social movements, especially when considered in reference to culture, politics, symbolic meaning. I need the perspective of anth. students. Any advice is welcome!

My background (BA) is in political science and I've done original research on social movements in Chile and Bolivia. I know I want to study social movements as a professional academic and I know my methods will be qualitative (ethnography, participant obs, interviews). The question is, sociology or anthropology?

I know this is the sort of thing I should have figured out by now, as I am well on my way to applying to sociology programs this Fall (taken the GREs, drafted my SOP, identified POIs, spreadsheet of all my programs). I have a pretty good background in canonical sociology and social movement literature from coursework, research, and self-education. There are a number of professors at several soc. departments who interest me. But the more I casually investigate anthropology programs, the more I see some professors doing exciting work at the intersection of social movements, culture, semiotics, etc., which is where I locate my own research interests precisely. So in each discipline, there are professors with whom I could see myself working. Hence my dilemma.

Pros and Cons:

The pros for sociology include my extant comprehension of the literature, and that I would be sharing a department with sociologists of gender, stratification, economics, culture, race, etc.; all topics in which I am conversant and interested. The con is, as I see it, an apparent methodological bias toward quant methods at many departments and my weakness in that area.

The pros for anthropology include the relative heterodoxy of theory and methods, higher esteem/seriousness for ethnographic research, and less of an admissions emphasis on quant. reasoning GRE (on which I scored a mediocre 670). The cons are my absolute lack of background in anth literature (besides theorists common to the social sciences) and that I will be studying in the same department as people doing, for example, forensic anth and archeology, areas that I am not into. Not that I have any antipathy for these areas, but I might feel more out of place in the department/discipline over the long-run if I don't share interests with my colleagues.

More about my interests: contentious politics, power and social change, Latin America, urban space, symbolic meaning, media and culture. Overall strong admissions profile, so consider this question on the basis of fit.

So, social movement scholars, am I destined for sociology or anthropology?

[m41]

I say push the fit question just a bit more. That is: why not decide on the basis of a potential adviser or advisers? Search out your dream professors - regardless of what department gives him or her office space. I think that should help.

For whatever it is worth, I proceeded in a similar fashion to you. I had my project first, and then I needed to find a program. In my opinion, that's the way to go. But, of course, I'm biased

[samjones]

at many schools, you don't rub elbows that often with students studying in the other anth fields. i mean, there may be requirements that make you take a class or two in another field (like ling, phys, arch) but other than that, the fields have their own program agendas and do their own thing. i say that to say that the con you gave for anthro is a non-issue (from my experience- maybe others can share something different below?).

[RefurbedScientist]

I think those are both good pieces of advice, thanks.

@m41: That's a good approach and works well generally, except for some instances where more than one of my "dream professors" are at the same school, but in different departments. I've read elsewhere on this board that it's in bad form to apply to two separate programs in the same school at the same time. The best example in my case would be NYU, which has some rocking social movement people in sociology and anth, plus I'm really digging the anth/media certificate program offered. The other issue is just burdening my recommendation writers to make two copies of my letters, one saying "xxx will make a great sociologist because..." and another for anthropology. I know that's more of a minor etiquette issue, though.

Can anyone confirm my impression that it's discouraged to apply to two departments at the same school? Am I way off base? Is this a non-issue or a big faux pas?

Edited September 3, 2011 by SocialGroovements