Astrosociology Programs/Professors

[sthompso1701]

I am interested in asrosociology but am having trouble finding schools/faculty with that research focus. Does anyone have any information? I have seen the ASR website but it does not have much content. Thanks!

[jmu]

It seems there are very few people at universities doing astrosociological research. As a result, finding a specific person to work with may not be the best route (though if you do find someone contact them and apply.)

 

Instead, I would suggest finding some substantive area of astrosociology that you are interested in. This might be the political economy of space travel, or something to do with media representations of space travel. Find some specific field and find people working on the same empirical area (in these cases political economy or media studies) and contact them.

 

A word of warning: some of these fields (astrosociology, paranthropology, etc) are not considered legitimate by everyone. Be prepared to get brushed off and don't take it to heart.

[gilbertrollins]

You will not be able to make a career specializing in astosociology.  I would recommend you study sociology independently as a science fiction writer and try to publish novels.  

[gilbertrollins]

I think encouraging people to pursue research interests which aren't taken seriously by even a significant minority of researchers in any accredited academic field, which have no theoretical base, and have no empirical data to study, with any method, is reckless and unethical.

 

If OP has a substantive case for why astrosociology is relevant, or what it even is (the website astrosociology.org is a ridiculous mess of empty, abstract statements), we could potentially help him figure out where he can insert himself into sociological dialogue.  

 

I'm aware of the incentives and institutional realities of pursuing an academic career.  There is no uptick in "hegemonic discourse . . . today which says 'you must study this subject or you will not get a job.'"  It has always been the case that academics have created ideas among a community of peers and worked on questions that were relevant to that community.

[mybattleship]

I think it's a gross overstatement to say that nobody is interested in this type of work. Science and technology studies is a growing field of interest among many scholars and there is plenty of room for this type of inquiry.

My advice to the original poster would be to consult some of Bruno Latour's work and go from there. He doesn't deal with 'astro-sociology' specifically but could probably provide some insights into how to approach this field of research. If you wanted to go the Latourian route, then there are more than a few scholars out there you could potentially work with.

Also, York University and Cornell have PhDs in Science and Technology studies. Those might also be worth looking into.

[gilbertrollins]

I think it's a gross overstatement to say that nobody is interested in this type of work. Science and technology studies is a growing field of interest among many scholars and there is plenty of room for this type of inquiry.

 

Can you point to anyone in STS who is talking about astro-sociology?

[mybattleship]

No I can't, but it doesn't mean that there aren't scholars out there with overlapping interests.

[gilbertrollins]

Right well if I came to the board and said I was interested in measuring cross-sectional variation of electricity utility pricing and its affects on weekly grocery expenditure -- someone may well see "economy" in what I was writing and recommend I apply to economic sociology heavy programs.  I would be best served, however, concentrating on industrial organization in an economics proper program with that interest, though.  

[mybattleship]

Apples and oranges. It would be more similar if you came on the board and said you are having trouble finding 'economic sociology' programs.

[Dragon]

I think this conversation also moves us away from what (in my point of view) may be more important - that telling someone they should abandon the idea of getting a PhD without any idea of their background, interests, field of study, etc, isn't very helpful.

Edited September 11, 2013 by Dragon

[yorglow]

Janet Vertersi at Princeton might be a person to take a look at - she's done work on the Mars Exploration Rover mission and is now working on a comparison to the Saturn Cassini mission.

[gilbertrollins]

Apples and oranges. It would be more similar if you came on the board and said you are having trouble finding 'economic sociology' programs.

 

Economic sociology is a large subfield that mainline professors at a variety of institutions list in their mini-CV interests.  Find me a similar sized group of faculty profiles that list "astrosociology" as a mini-CV interest.  

 

I think this conversation also moves us away from what (in my point of view) may be more important - that telling someone they should abandon the idea of getting a PhD without any idea of their background, interests, field of study, etc, isn't very helpful.

 

I didn't say anything about OP's background and don't care.  My statements were conditioned on his statement of his interest and field of study: astrosociology.  And I was trying to be helpful -- telling someone "that's not a good idea" when they're about to cross an interstate highway on foot doesn't demonstrate some kind of unfounded prejudgment and lack of respect and encouragement for that person's wishes.  

 

Janet Vertersi at Princeton might be a person to take a look at - she's done work on the Mars Exploration Rover mission and is now working on a comparison to the Saturn Cassini mission.

 

Good find.  Still, she doesn't talk at all about astrosociology proper.  It's no clearer even after 10+ posts in this thread what astrosociology even is, yet people continue to defend that it is a legitimate interest for which OP can potentially find an audience for.  Has anyone here looked at the website?  http://www.astrosociology.org

[faculty]

To say that one is interested in astrosociology is a rookie move. Luckily, most faculty were (and realize it) rookies once too. We had interests in substantive topics that others might balk at and had to figure out how to situate them in sociology. I almost wrote an undergraduate thesis on paranormal beliefs because the data was in the GSS. There's no way that I knew how to make it sociological at that time, but others--with more training and creativity--effectively did so.

 

As previous posters in the thread note, there are many ways that one could study astrosociological topics without studying "astrosociology," per se. It would be easier for all of us to be more helpful to the OP if they stated what, exactly, they were interested in about astrosociology. They note in their profile that they're also thinking about organizational behavior. There are many organizations devoted to topics of space, astronomy, etc. and there is interesting work that has been done on them (When Prophecy Fails  and The Challenger Launch Decision being two often referred to in Sociology). 

 

Above all, I think it's important (especially as sociologists) to remember that we're all at different stages in this process and that it can be helpful to ask OPs for clarification and also to couple advice based on experience (that few, if any, think of astrosociology as legitimate) with helpful suggestions that lead others to engage in dialogue (much like jmu did above) rather than abandon their ambitions. 

[gilbertrollins]

The deeply ironic thing about my responses in this thread is that I made a public spectacle of myself on this board once, complaining about people being dismissive of my research interests.  Is there an established silo for pro-market economic sociology within sociology already?  Barely.  But with perseverance I've found that I might be able to carve a niche using methods from text analysis, talking with cultural sociologists, debating with historical comparative sociologists, and of course people in economic sociology proper.  I got a similar reception on economics boards when I first started talking about doing verbal theory and culture in economics (anathema).  

 

The takeaway for me is that it's imperative upon the aspiring UG who wants to do unconventional research (God help us we need more!) to dig deep early and define her interests and potential methods in order to make a reasonable yet hazy decision on which programs to apply to and where the next few years will take them.  Hence my calls for a definition of what astrosociology is, and for OP to expand, like faculty mentioned, on what specifically he hopes to ask and answer.  

 

If OP is thinking about the social implications of space travel via Star Trek, e.g. a unified Earth-based polity, nearly unlimited resource constraints via make anything you want from thin air voice commands, etc., then I think my original advice to speculate in science fiction novels is decent advice.  There are simply no data to study these implications beyond conjecture (notably, conjecture can be prophetic -- see Star Trek's flip phones in the 1960's).  If we're talking the nature of science and discovery generally, and how social structure bears on those processes, then you bet -- there is ample room for OP in STS, sociology of knowledge, and so forth.  

 

I think these UG boards are a godsend in their ability to provide nubile UG's a place (someone I still technically am!) to get a feel for where they stand relative to professional discourse and how that bears on their admissions chances.  And I think above all the constructive criticism here serves a noble purpose in the stepping up of games and improvement of said admissions chances.  So let's have less shock and horror every time someone posts about studying Occupy, space travel, or other conceived utopias, and more practical consideration of whether and where there is an audience for such work.