GRADUATE STUDIES IN SOCIOLOGY

UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY

  • Offers both MS and PhD degrees
  • Provides students with a solid foundation in both sociological theory and research methods
  • Organized around three primary areas of specialization:
    • DEMOGRAPHY
    • ENVIRONMENT & COMMUNITY
    • SOCIAL INEQUALITY

The department is widely regarded as one of the friendliest and most communitarian PhD-granting sociology programs in the U.S. Our faculty has a healthy mix of well-established and productive scholars with strong national reputations and a vibrant group of early-career sociologists developing their research and teaching portfolios.

Our department takes graduate student training and mentoring very seriously, and the program is designed to provide opportunities for sustained personal interactions between faculty and graduate students. All of our students have opportunities to work on research projects, develop classroom teaching skills, and collaborate on academic publications and professional meeting presentations. Doctoral candidates regularly teach undergraduate courses.

Nearly all of our students receive financial assistance from the department through a variety of research and teaching assistantships and fellowship awards.

http://sociology.usu.edu/academic_program/graduate-studies/index

 

DEMOGRAPHY

The Demography program is administered through the Yun Kim Population Research Laboratory, a cluster of faculty and students housed in the sociology program working on funded research projects. Graduate training is oriented toward:

  1. Basic and policy-oriented research on sociological aspects of demographic structure and processes, including migration, marriage and fertility, and morbidity and mortality;
  2. Providing technical skills to conduct applied demographic analyses, such as population estimates and projections; and,
  3. Facilitating student interests to provide training for domestic and international students that is relevant to their respective settings.

Core Faculty

E. HELEN BERRY (PhD, Ohio State). Professor. Demography, Disability, Population and Environment, Research Methods/Statistics, Rural and Urban Sociology.

GABRIELE CICIURKAITE (PhD, Kentucky). Assistant Professor. Medical Sociology, Research Methods, Aging and the Life Course, Mental Health.

ERIN HOFMANN (PhD, Texas). Assistant Professor. Demography, Migration, Gender, Russia and Eurasia.

SOJUNG LIM (PhD, Wisconsin). Assistant Professor. Demography, Family, Health, Work and Inequality, East Asia.

GUADALUPE MARQUEZ-VELARDE (PhD, Texas A&M). Assistant Professor. Demography, Health, Latino/Latina Studies.

ERIC REITHER (PhD, Wisconsin). Professor. Demography, Health Disparities, Determinants and Consequences of Obesity, Innovative Research Methods and Statistics.

Core Graduate Courses

  • Social Demography
  • Advanced Seminar in Social Demography
  • Global Migration
  • Techniques of Demographic Analysis
  • Population and Health
  • Advanced Sociological Analysis

Examples of Recent and Ongoing Faculty Research Projects

  • Sleep Duration and Health Outcomes among U.S. Children and Adolescents
  • Gendered Migration Patterns to New U.S. Destinations
  • Environmental Consequences of Immigration
  • Gender, Work, and Family Changes in the U.S. and East Asia
  • Medicalization of Obesity and Health
  • Food Insecurity and Psychological Distress
  • Disability and Migration
  • Maternal Depression Differentials by Rural or Urban Residence

ENVIRONMENT & COMMUNITY

Utah State is home to one of the country’s largest and most active groups of social science faculty working on Environmental and Natural Resource problems, and on their linkage to varying
community contexts in both urban and rural settings. Our doctoral specialization in Environment & Community provides strong disciplinary training in social theory and research methods, together
with substantive coursework and research opportunities exploring a wide range of environmental and natural resource issues.

Core Faculty

E. HELEN BERRY (PhD, Ohio State). Professor. Demography, Population & Environment, Rural and Urban Sociology

STEVE DANIELS (PhD, Duke). Professor. Rural & Natural Resource Community Development, Collaborative Learning & Conflict Mediation, Natural Resource Policy.

COURTNEY FLINT (PhD, Pennsylvania State). Professor. Natural Resource, Community and Rural Sociology; Interdisciplinary, Mixed-Methods Research.

JENNIFER GIVENS (PhD, Utah). Assistant Professor. Environmental Sociology, Global and Comparative Sociology, Development, Political Economy.

PEGGY PETRZELKA (PhD, Iowa State). Professor. Environmental & Natural Resource Sociology, Rural Sociology, Qualitative Methods.

Core Graduate Courses

  • Environment, Technology and Social Change
  • Natural Resources and Social Development
  • Public Sociology: Ecological Justice and Community Action
  • Community Theory and Research
  • Environmental Conflict Management

Recent and Ongoing Faculty Research Projects

  • Amenity-based development, social well-being, and landscape change
  • Cross-national comparisons of the carbon intensity of well-being
  • Drivers of environmental concern and beliefs about climate change
  • Local and regional water resource sustainability in rural-to-urban mountain landscapes
  • Ecosystem disturbance, climate adaptation, and managing socio-ecological change
  • Social and community dimensions of environmental health
  • Public response to renewable energy development
  • Deconstructing the multidimensionality of environmental attitudes and beliefs
  • Power and powerlessness played out on land
  • Social dynamics of women landowner and male tenant relations on leased agricultural land

SOCIAL INEQUALITY

The area specialization in social inequality allows graduate students to explore how states, policies, organizations and labor markets come together to create differing opportunities and outcomes for diverse groups within society, as well as across societies. Our faculty conduct research on gender, racial, and class inequalities within the United States and other countries, as well as comparative, cross-national research. Many of our faculty specialize jointly with the other two specialization areas in the sociology program (Demography and Environment & Community), as
well as collaborating with colleagues in other disciplines (including Environment & Natural Resources, Management, and Political Science).

Core Faculty

LEON ANDERSON (PhD, Texas). Professor. Social Inequality, Crime & Deviance, Homelessness.

E. HELEN BERRY (PhD, Ohio State). Professor. Demography, Human Ecology, Urban Sociology.

GABRIELE CICIURKAITE (PhD, Kentucky). Assistant Professor. Medical Sociology, Research Methods, Aging and the Life Course, Race, Gender and Class, Mental Health.

CHRISTY GLASS (PhD, Yale). Professor. Work and Inequality, Organizations, Gender.

JENNIFER GIVENS (PhD, Utah). Assistant Professor. Environmental Sociology, Global and Comparative Sociology, Development, Political Economy.

ERIN HOFMANN (PhD, Texas). Assistant Professor. Demography, Migration, Gender, Russia and Eurasia.

SOJUNG LIM (PhD, Wisconsin). Assistant Professor. Demography, Health, Work, East Asia.

GUADALUPE MARQUEZ-VELARDE (PhD, Texas A&M). Assistant Professor. Demography, Health, Latino/Latina Studies.

MARISELA MARTINEZ-COLA (PhD, Emory). Assistant Professor. Race and Ethnic Relations, Race and Law, Culture and Inequality, Historical Sociology.

PEGGY PETRZELKA (PhD, Iowa State). Professor. Environmental Sociology, Rural Sociology.

Core Graduate Courses

  • Theory & Research in Inequality
  • Public Sociology
  • Work and Occupations
  • Political Sociology
  • Global Migration
  • Social Policy & Inequality

Recent and Ongoing Faculty Research Projects

  • Aging in Rural America
  • Bias and Discrimination in the Workplace
  • Job Quality and Family Outcomes in the U.S.
  • Chronic Illness Prevention and Management among Vulnerable Populations
  • Cross-National Comparison of the Carbon Intensity of Well-Being
  • Consequences of Immigration in the U.S. West
  • Gender, Work, and Family Changes in East Asia
  • Global Migrants, Guest Workers & Good Mothers: Gender and Labor Migration in Spain

SOCIOLOGY GRADUATE FACULTY

LEON ANDERSON (PhD, Texas). Professor. Social Inequality, Qualitative Methods, Homelessness, Crime and Deviance

E. HELEN BERRY(PhD, Ohio State). Professor, Director of Graduate Studies. Demography, Ecology, Methods, Urban Sociology

GABRIELE CICIURKAITE(PhD, Kentucky). Assistant Professor. Medical Sociology, Research Methods, Aging and the Life Course, Mental Health

STEVE DANIELS (PhD, Duke). Professor. Rural and Natural Resource Community Development, Collaborative Learning and Conflict Mediation, Natural Resource Policy

COURTNEY FLINT(PhD, Pennsylvania State University). Professor. Natural Resources, Community and Rural Sociology; Interdisciplinary, Mixed-Methods Research

JENNIFER GIVENS (PhD, Utah). Assistant Professor. Environmental Sociology, Comparative International Sociology, Political Economy

CHRISTY GLASS (PhD, Yale). Professor. Inequality, Social Change, Work and Occupations, Gender

ERIN HOFMANN(PhD, Texas). Assistant Professor. Demography, Migration, Gender, Labor Markets

JASON LEIKER(PhD, Southern Illinois) Lecturer. Criminology, Deviance

SO-JUNG LIM (PhD, Wisconsin-Madison). Assistant Professor. Social Inequality, Work, Family, Demography

GUADALUPE MARQUEZ-VELARDE (PhD, Texas A&M). Assistant Professor. Demography, Health, Latino/Latina Studies

MARISELA MARTINEZ-COLA (PhD, Emory). Assistant Professor. Race and Ethnic Relations, Race and Law, Culture and Inequality, Historical Sociology

PEGGY PETRZELKA (PhD, Iowa State). Professor. Environmental and Natural Resource Sociology, Community, Rural Sociology, Qualitative Methods

ERIC REITHER (PhD, Wisconsin-Madison). Professor. Demography, Health, Obesity, Mortality

STEPHEN VAN GEEM (PhD, South Florida). Lecturer. Mental Health, Criminology

http://sociology.usu.edu/academic_program/graduate-studies/index