What's your background? (votes are anonymous)

[Chuck]

Continuing in the fine tradition of the oh-so-popular poll...

[Darth.Vegan]

Done and done.

[ohhello]

The research topics listed leave much to be desired... At least include an "other" category.

[violet.]

On research topics I could not answer. Work, organizations, cities, economic soc, and culture were omitted.

[Chuck]

The research topics listed leave much to be desired... At least include an "other" category.

Agreed! Sorry about that.

Unfortunately, only 20 "answers" are allowed per "question" and I ran out of room.

Want to take a stab at another poll entirely about research topics? Would be pretty interesting to see the results of that one.

[ThisSlumgullionIsSoVapid]

Oh, how I loathe thinking about my student loans.

[RefurbedScientist]

Whoa, social movement scholars represent!

Do we think this poll could be even close to representative of applicants at large? My impression has always been that social movements is sort of a smaller niche, usually classified under political sociology (in the same way, perhaps, that queer studies falls under sociology of gender, at conferences and such). I've been studying social movements since I started my UG, so I have dibs!

[sciencegirl]

I didn't think social movements was that niche now.. my impression is that there are a lot more graduate students right now working in dissertations in that area. It's probably similar to what immigration/ethnic studies was in the 1980s, where suddenly it exploded into a gigantic field. Also, in regards to LGBTQI studies, there are more sociologists studying this area as well (where previously, I think queer studies was relegated to an English/cultural studies/Judith Butler niche, where now there are dissertations being done on actual trans- experience as opposed to just "queering gender"

[RefurbedScientist]

I didn't think social movements was that niche now.. my impression is that there are a lot more graduate students right now working in dissertations in that area. It's probably similar to what immigration/ethnic studies was in the 1980s, where suddenly it exploded into a gigantic field. Also, in regards to LGBTQI studies, there are more sociologists studying this area as well (where previously, I think queer studies was relegated to an English/cultural studies/Judith Butler niche, where now there are dissertations being done on actual trans- experience as opposed to just "queering gender"

You're absolutely right. I think a lot of cross cutting work is happening that ties social movements increasingly to other areas, such as organizations, fields, networks, law and policy, technology, so on and so forth. But it's nice to pretend I'm unique now and then

[sleepycat]

Technically, I graduated with a interdisciplinary degree that I created that included the soc and anthro in the social sciences and religion in the humanities, so I picked degree in social science and humanities.

I also see a shift in what is being done in the LGBTQI sector where it is shifting to more of a Sociology of Sexuality, analyzing behavior and the like, vs. queer theory. Personally I like the critical theory based stuff because it validates my experience of the world (I'm LGBTQI) and my research on categories comes from my problematic relationship with them.

I really like this poll because it shows how diverse the forums here are and by extension the rest of the field.

[kbirch]

@Socialgroovements, I think part of why there are so many "social movements" people is that some categories weren't included. For myself, I checked the "Social Movements" box, but that was mainly because I'm most interested in critical & public sociology.

I think your dibs are definitely solidly in place! : )

[Chuck]

I really like this poll because it shows how diverse the forums here are and by extension the rest of the field.

Thanks, Sleepycat! I really appreciate learning from fellow folks on gradcafe as well. My background is rather unusual, and not in sociology at all, so It's really heartening for me to learn that others also are coming from myriad different life and educational experiences as well. In my master's program, I learned the most from folks with backgrounds different from my own, and I hope my PhD program will be the same!

Things that I'm really heartened to learn:

- almost half of us will be entering PhD programs with a prior master's degree

- a full 2/3 of us also are dogged by student loans (hey, misery loves company I guess)

- A good proportion of us are "diverse" in the demographic sense

- At least half of us have experience working in the "real world."

And... my favorite (because it shows how truly pluralistic sociology is):

- A large majority of us are coming to the PhD with prior academic degrees outside of sociology.

Now, if someone can make a poll with more comprehensive options for research interests, I'd be really curious to learn more about how we stack up there! (as someone who is a relative newcomer to the field, I don't think this task should be left up to me).

[Supernovasky]

The half entering with a masters degree scares me. Makes me a weaker applicant, I think, on contrast to them.

[ThisSlumgullionIsSoVapid]

The half entering with a masters degree scares me. Makes me a weaker applicant, I think, on contrast to them.

This might depend from department to department. Who knows, maybe a department would like people coming straight from a bachelors because they are more docile and malleable.

In all honesty, this is something that's been lingering in my mind a lot in the past few days - being the cohort baby. I'm coming straight from undergrad and, while I know there are a handful of people that do the same as well, what I fear is being placed in a cohort without anyone from the same type of transitional background I am undergoing.

Edited February 8, 2012 by ThisSlumgullionIsSoVapid

[sociology27]

I think the shift to social movements could be a general trend because of the worldwide movements happening right now. See Greece, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen, the US, Great Britain, Russia, Bahrain... just to name a few. And they are all connected historically and ideologically. So I think it's just an exciting time to be a social movements person and hence, people are gonna shift a bit towards that subdiscipline.

Culture realllly needs to be on the list of subdisciplines.

[sleepycat]

This might depend from department to department. Who knows, maybe a department would like people coming straight from a bachelors because they are more docile and malleable.

In all honesty, this is something that's been lingering in my mind a lot in the past few days - being the cohort baby. I'm coming straight from undergrad and, while I know there are a handful of people that do the same as well, what I fear is being placed in a cohort without anyone from the same type of transitional background I am undergoing.

Looking at the grad students page can give an indication if this is true of the department. I didn't apply to Boston U because of it and I know BU, Columbia and Brandeis prefer an MA for the Phd. program.

[ThisSlumgullionIsSoVapid]

Looking at the grad students page can give an indication if this is true of the department. I didn't apply to Boston U because of it and I know BU, Columbia and Brandeis prefer an MA for the Phd. program.

I just gave ND's current students a looking over and I think all but 2 or 3 profiles I read came from master's programs. Hmmmm

[Supernovasky]

Looking at the grad students page can give an indication if this is true of the department. I didn't apply to Boston U because of it and I know BU, Columbia and Brandeis prefer an MA for the Phd. program.

Interesting...

If I could do this all over again, I'd put an extra month into researching things like that. I didn't even THINK to research the grad student's backgrounds to see if they matched mine.

[calamaria]

Awesome, interesting poll. Enjoyed it.