Applied Statistics

Culture and Social Analysis

Economic Sociology

Sociology of Education

Health and Social Structure

History, Culture, and Society

Inequality and Social Policy

Migration and Immigrant Incorporation

Social Networks and Social Capital

Urban Social Processes

Work, Organizations & Markets

Graduate Workshops

Below is information about the graduate workshops currently offered by faculty in Sociology and affiliated faculty. Students interested in participating in a workshop are encouraged to sign up for the workshop mailing list.

Research Workshop in Applied Statistics (GOV 3009/SOC 303a)

A forum for graduate students, faculty, and visiting scholars to present and discuss work in progress. Features a tour of Harvard’s statistical innovations and applications with weekly stops in different disciplines. Occasional presentations by invited speakers.

Culture and Social Analysis Workshop (SOC 304)

The Culture and Social Analysis workshop’s purpose is to bring together, and facilitate exchange between, faculty, graduate students, and visitors working on a range of topics pertaining to the study of cultural products, forms, and processes. We encourage each participant to circulate a paper in progress and to discuss various aspects of his/her work. We also host a number of outside speakers – local, national, and international. Racial identity, poverty and inequality, collective memory, meaning-making, symbolic boundaries, cultural capital, class culture, disciplinary cultures, scientific and intellectual movements, media studies, popular culture, and cognition are illustrative of the topics that are on our agenda. You can take the workshop for credit, or not. While regular attendance is the norm, visitors are welcome.

Economic Sociology Seminar (w/ MIT) (SOC 308)

Inaugurated at the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1997, the Economic Sociology Seminar aims to be the home for cutting-edge economic sociology in the greater Boston social science research community. Since 2003, the seminar has been jointly run by faculty from the Sloan School's Economic Sociology Program and the Harvard Department of Sociology. Meeting at MIT and Harvard in alternating weeks during the academic year, presenters and participants represent a diverse array of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches. What we share is a commitment to engage the array of research that has recently come under the heading of economic sociology and thereby to improve upon existing models of organizations, markets, and other key economic institutions.

Sociology of Education Workshop (SOC 320)

A forum for students and faculty across the university interested in the sociology of education, primarily for the discussion of research in progress. Domestic and comparative topics welcome. Meets bi-weekly, Fall and Spring.

Health and Social Structure (SOC 390)

Considers advanced topics in how supra-individual factors, such as social networks, neighborhoods, and health care organizations, contribute to individual health and longevity. Students develop and present original research plans and research..

History, Culture and Society Workshop (SOC 317)

The Workshop in History, Culture, and Society provides a forum for the exploration of new developments in historical social science, especially in the fields of Anthropology, Economics, History, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology. The workshop's primary methodological goal is to initiate a discussion of what constitutes acceptable historical evidence in each of the social sciences. Its main substantive goal is to understand how the past influences the present. Among other topics, we will hear presentations on the effect of institutions on economic development, the degree to which the economic and political development of Sub-Saharan Africa can be predicted by its historical involvement in the slave trades, and the origins of homicide rates in Western and developing nations over time. The workshop is open to students and faculty from all departments across the University as well as from other institutions.

Malcolm Wiener Center Inequality and Social Policy Seminar Series (Soc 315)

A seminar series designed to stimulate interdisciplinary discussion of social science research on the causes and consequences of inequality and social policy, broadly defined. The seminar draws leading scholars to campus from the fields of economics, political science, sociology, and public policy to share their work on issues such as wage and labor market inequality, urban poverty and residential segregation, families and children, race and immigration, education, crime and criminal justice policy, political inequalities, and comparative welfare state institutions.

Migration and Immigrant Incorporation Workshop (SOC 309)

Members of the Harvard Migration and Immigrants Incorporation workshop share a common interest in international migration and the incorporation of immigrants into host societies. This broad topic includes questions of race and the integration of the second generation (the children of immigrants). While the majority of participants focus on the United States, the workshop includes and is open to researchers studying other immigrant-receiving countries.
The primary purpose of the workshop is to circulate works-in-progress in order to elicit feedback and suggestions for improving scholarly work such as dissertation chapters or proposals, journal article submissions, interview schedules and conference papers. The workshop is home to a broad range of interests under the general rubric of immigration studies. It and its email list also serve as a venue to disseminate information about data sources and recent publications of interest to participants.

Social Networks and Social Capital: Advanced Modeling and Empirical Applications (SOC 312)

The workshop brings together quantitative sociologists working with advanced descriptive, computational, causal or network models to empirically analyze issues broadly related to social networks and social capital.

Urban Social Processes Workshop (SOC 314)

Forum for discussion of analytic sociological research on urban sociology. Covering a range of topics with a focus on social mechanisms, processes, and structures that occur in urban settings or that are impacted by neighborhood/community contexts. The workshop aims to support the presentation of graduate student research but will also include discussion sessions on selected readings and work-in-progress by faculty at Harvard and colleagues around the country.

Work, Organizations, and Markets Seminar

The long-standing interdisciplinary research workshop on “Work, Organizations, and Markets” (WOM) brings together faculty and graduate students from several Harvard departments and programs in the social sciences that study organizational phenomena, especially the Sociology Department and the GSAS Joint Program in Organizational Behavior. Its subject matter includes all three levels of analysis of concern in organizational research: individual behavior and interaction in organizational settings; the structure and action of organizations as collectivities; and the characteristics of groups, networks, or populations of organizations. Participants seek both to understand why organizations are as they are, and to understand determinants of organizational effectiveness. The workshop aims to (a) provide a supportive environment for doctoral students to present and get feedback on their work, and (b) build a community of peers whose research covers topics in macro-OB / sociology. It welcomes research at all stages of development – from preliminary research proposals to first-pass data analyses to more polished job talks.

Updated: September 19, 2011

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