No one does what I want to do.

[AmityDuPeuple]

Okay, so my title is a little overdramatic and probably not true. 

I am looking to apply to PhD programs next fall and I am having a hard time finding one that fits. That's not entirely true either. I have two schools that I really would like to attend (Harvard and U of Toronto) and at each school there is a primary professor with whom I would like to work. The problem I am having is that I need to find other programs that can be considered safety schools but I am not having much luck. 

In a nutshell I would like to study the way that culture influences food movements (namely agroecological movements) in the US and France. I need to find programs with professors interested in the sociology of food, social movements, cultural sociology, and historical sociology. If it was a sociology program with an emphasis on gender studies that would be an added bonus for me. 

If you read this, thanks for letting me rant for a second. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. 

 

 

[Neist]

13 minutes ago, AmityDuPeuple said:

Okay, so my title is a little overdramatic and probably not true. 

I am looking to apply to PhD programs next fall and I am having a hard time finding one that fits. That's not entirely true either. I have two schools that I really would like to attend (Harvard and U of Toronto) and at each school there is a primary professor with whom I would like to work. The problem I am having is that I need to find other programs that can be considered safety schools but I am not having much luck. 

In a nutshell I would like to study the way that culture influences food movements (namely agroecological movements) in the US and France. I need to find programs with professors interested in the sociology of food, social movements, cultural sociology, and historical sociology. If it was a sociology program with an emphasis on gender studies that would be an added bonus for me. 

If you read this, thanks for letting me rant for a second. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. 

I feel your pain. I have somewhat esoteric research interests, and I'd had problems finding programs that fit me well. Also, like you, I found a few programs that were fairly good fits, but little else.

Have you considered looking outside of sociology departments for less-desirable options? Perhaps there's faculty members within other programs that wouldn't be against a student approaching their research from a sociological slant.

 

[mrbmrbmrb]

Sociology PhD:

http://sociology.ucsc.edu/graduate/

http://socant.chass.ncsu.edu/sociology/graduate/

http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/soc/grad/fac-interest.php

Agroecology PhD:

http://www.agroecology.wisc.edu/

Anthropology PhD:

http://www.indiana.edu/~anthro/grad/foodStudies/

http://anthropology.emory.edu/home/about/specialization/nutrition.html

Food Studies PhD:

http://foodstudies.uoregon.edu/about/

Hopefully some of these help!

[any5]

Wisconsin sociology has a great agro foods subspecialty. Cornell also in dev. Soc. And thru their ag school

[notthatgood]

http://cla.umn.edu/about/directory/profile/schurman

[AmityDuPeuple]

Thanks for all of the support and suggestions. It is greatly appreciated. 

[qeta]

I am interested in something related to this, so thought I'd throw some names in the ring. Marie Gaytan (University of Utah) works on Mexican and Mexican-American food/cultural production. Priscilla Prankhurst Ferguson (Columbia) works on the emergence of French national identity and cuisine. Julie Guthman (UCSC Feminist Studies and also affiliated with the Sociology department) has written about organic farming in California. I found a lot of these folks by reading the citations in Josee Johnston--I'm not sure if that's the professor you're thinking of at Toronto--, so her bibliographies might be worth a look. You might also find Frederic Wherry's book on handicraft production in Thailand and Costa Rica interesting.

[thegreenking]

I earned my MA from University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee and there are a couple of people here that might interest you. First, Jennifer Jordan does a ton of work in both sociology of food and cultural sociology, and she also has interest in European food movements. Second, Kent Redding studies social movements and does historical/comparative research. Their PhD program is relatively new, and it's not as competitive as many other programs. Although there's not an emphasis on gender studies (there are only a couple of faculty who study gender), it's something to consider. Good luck!

http://uwm.edu/sociology/graduate-program/

http://uwm.edu/sociology/people/jordan-jennifer/

http://uwm.edu/sociology/people/redding-kent/

[MaxWeberHasAPosse]

Yale would be the place for this. Seriously check them out.

[turtle<3]

I am interested in similar research (sociology of food/ social movements). I applied to Cornell in Development Sociology, UC Davis and University of Kentucky in Sociology, and NYU and Syracuse University in Food Studies.

[MaxWeberHasAPosse]

Also, Jeff Haydu at UC San Diego is a food movements scholar.

[AmityDuPeuple]

Thanks again for all of the great suggestions. I have a rather large list of possible programs and professors compiled. Now all I have to do is get through the existential crises that are bound to come about as I whittle down the possibilities and begin the process of preparing to apply. 

[Mr. X]

Maybe also look into the work of Alyshia Galvez from Lehman College, CUNY!

Edited October 13, 2016 by Mr. X