The Graduate Field in Sociology enrolls about 6-7 doctoral students each year, with about 40 graduate students in the program at any given time. Graduate Students in Sociology are advised by the Sociology Graduate Field Faculty more than 30 eminent sociologists from across the Cornell campus. Most, but not all, of these sociologists have their primary appointments within the Department of Sociology. Graduate students in Sociology can be advised by any member of the Sociology Graduate Field Faculty. Applicants are encouraged to review the list of Sociology Graduate Field Faculty and their areas of ongoing research and to reach out to faculty whose research interests are relevant. (However, applicants should note that students are admitted in a general pool, not to work with specific faculty or in particular labs.) Doctoral students in Sociology register in general sociology initially, and during the first year of study, they take a sequence of core courses in theory and methods. Then, students select two areas of concentration within which they develop a strong foundational knowledge of theory and research. These areas are chosen from the list below, students may focus on two major areas or one major area and one minor area.
After completing the required course sequence in the first year, students take two concentration examinations (one for each area of concentration) and then develop a Qualifying Paper. The Qualifying Paper should be a solo-authored research paper that could be revised and submitted to a journal for publication. After the paper is drafted, students are prepared to apply for Admission to Doctoral Candidacy. Students in full-time residence are normally expected to take the examination for Admission to Candidacy in the summer prior to the third year or in the fall of their third year. This examination is followed by the dissertation prospectus, the dissertation, and the oral defense of the dissertation.
Sociologists of inequality study the distribution of income, wealth, education, health and longevity, autonomy, status, prestige, political power, or other desired social goods, often (though not exclusively) across groups defined by social classes and occupations, race, gender, immigrant status, age, or sexual orientation. The focus of their research is on describing patterns of inequality, understanding its political, social, and economic consequences, and understanding how the various dimensions of inequality interact with each other, change over time, vary across geopolitical space, persist across generations, and are affected by families, schools, neighborhoods, prisons, employers, cities and communities, local and national labor markets, unions and other labor market institutions, and taxation and redistribution policies.
