Marxist Sociology

[herbie77]

Hi. I'm new to this website and I figured I would see if anyone can help me out. I just graduated from the University of Oregon and I'm planning on applying to grad school this fall. I'm mostly interested in Marxist sociology but also interested in political soc, political economy, and social movements and I also have an interest in critical theory. I'm researching sociology PhD programs now and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions of schools to look into. Right now I am thinking about applying to University of Wisconsin, NYU, Johns Hopkins, UC Irvine, University of Washington, CUNY, and my alma mater, UO, only in hopes to work with John Bellamy Foster again (he was my advisor for my undergrad thesis). I know these are all good schools and I probably don't have great chances of getting into many and I am still looking through schools of interest. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

Edited July 23, 2012 by kadie77

[ThisSlumgullionIsSoVapid]

UNC, ND, Pitt are all social movements programs worth checking out too

[Darth.Vegan]

You could also add Michigan and The New School to your list.

[penpen]

If your main interests are political economy and social movements within a Marxist framework, I'd look into the following programs in this order:

1. NYU: From speaking to folks in the program, it looks like the best program for Marxists.There are faculty members like Vivek Chibber as well as a number of grad students who do related work. The downside is it's a really hard program to get into.

2. Wisconsin: This should be fairly obvious because Erik Olin Wright is there. However, I hear NYU would probably still be better in terms of training. Again, really hard to get into.

3. UC-Berkeley

4. Johns Hopkins

I have similar interests but I'm also interested in development. I wasn't able to get into NYU, Wisconsin or Johns Hopkins (didn't apply to Berkeley).

Edited July 30, 2012 by penpen

[herbie77]

Thank you all for the helpful suggestions. Those are all places I'm interested in and planning on applying to, penpen, I'm just not sure I have the best chances at getting in to any of those schools. Could anyone tell me how looked down upon it is to go to grad school at the same place I went to undergrad? I would possibly have a chance to work with John Bellamy Foster again and I would try to contribute to the Monthly Review. There seems to be a tendency of UO to place recent grads at better ranked schools. I'm just not sure if it would be the best option?

[TheBoxInspector]

You could also consider Brown. They are strong in political economy, although their focus does tend toward development...they have people like Mark Blyth, Patrick Heller, Nitsan Chorev, and I believe Peter Evans has a part-time position at the Watson Institute. People there also tend to be a bit sympathetic Marx (or more modified approaches of those who came after him), although I don't know if you could call them Marxists.