The Department of Sociology at Yale University provides concentrations in the fields of Comparative and Historical Sociology (CCR), Cultural Sociology and Social Theory (CCS), and Social Stratification and Life Course Research (CIQLE). In addition our faculty publish and teach in the areas of Gender and Sexuality, Political Sociology, Sociology of Religion, Economic Sociology, Urban Sociology and Ethnography, and Chinese Society.
Department News
Hollingshead Lecture: “A Journey Through French Style Critique”
February 24, 2010 “A Journey Through French Style Critique”, Luc Boltanski Groupe de Sociologie Politique et Morale, EHESS. Friday, April 9, 2010, 4:00 PM, Room 208, Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St. A reception will follow the lecture.
Yale Sociology Ph.D. wins the Stockholm Prize in Criminology
February 24, 2010 The 2010 Stockholm Prize has been awarded by its international jury to Professor David L. Weisburd for a series of experiments showing that intensified police patrol at high crime "hot spots" does not merely push crime around. This line of research encourages police around the world to concentrate crime prevention efforts at less than 5% of all street corners and addresses where over 50% of all urban crime occurs, yielding far less total crime than with conventional patrol patterns. The jury selected Weisburd's work on spatial displacement as the most influential single contribution of his wider body of work that has helped to bridge the gap between criminology and police practice. The jury noted that Weisburd has been a leader among the growing number of criminologists whose evidence shows how the application of research findings can help to reduce not only crime, but also the unnecessary impositions on public liberty from policing activities that do not address a predictable crime risk. David Weisburd is the Walter E. Meyer Professor of Law and Criminal Justice and Director of the Institute of Criminology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a distinguish professor in the Administration of Justice Department at George Mason Univeristy. Professor Weisburd explains the concept of hot spots policing.
Elijah Anderson Edits Special Double Issue of Ethnography
January 11, 2010 The articles collected in this just published special issue are based on papers presented at the inaugural Yale Urban Ethnography Conference, ‘Urban Ethnography: Its Traditions and Its Future’, held at Yale University in the spring of 2008. (View Poster.) The conference has grown continuously from the initial gathering, held at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2002, and the University of Pennsylvania in 2003 and again in 2005. At the initial meeting, Jack Katz and Robert Emerson honored the traditions of the Chicago School and underscored the vital importance of fieldwork for understanding the social conditions of people living in cities, setting the stage for future conferences. Over the years, these conferences have been bringing together up-andcoming sociologists and seasoned scholars who bond through sharing the craft of ethnographic fieldwork. The recent conference at Yale was a continuation of these efforts and at the same time it inaugurated the Yale Urban Ethnography Project. Link: Urban Ethnography: Its Traditions and Its Future.
Anna Jo Bodurtha Smith Receives Marshall Scholarship
December 26, 2009 Congratulations to Sociology Major Anna Jo Bodurtha Smith '10 for a Marshall scholarship! The Marshall Scholarships were established in 1953 as a British gesture of thanks to the people of the United States for the assistance received after the Second World War under the Marshall Plan. Financed by the British government, the scholarships provide an opportunity for American students who have demonstrated academic excellence and leadership to continue their studies for two to three years at the British university of their choice. Anna will pursue a master's degree in public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a second master's degree in public policy and management from the London School of Economics.
Julia Adams Gives SSHA Presidential Address
December 15, 2009 Julia Adams’ presidency of the Social Science History Association came to a close November 12-15, 2009, with the association's annual conference. This year's gathering, dedicated to the theme of "Agency and Action," was held on the Queen Mary, docked in Long Beach, California. For more on the conference, click here... Adams' presidential address, "1-800-How-Am-I-Driving? Agency in Social Science History," available, with images, in audio format, is forthcoming in extended form in the journal Social Science History. Next year's SSHA conference will be held November 18-21 at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago.
Karl Ulrich Mayer Elected President of Leibniz Association
November 29, 2009 Uli Mayer, Stanley B. Resor Professor and Chair of the Department, has been elected as the new President of the Leibniz Association, one of Germany's biggest research organizations. He will start his 4-year term on July 1 in 2010. The Leibniz Association plays a unique role in Germany’s research landscape, complementing the universities and the other research organizations. It comprises 90 research facilities with a total annual budget of more than 1.1 billion Euro. The 90 extramural research sites of the Leibniz Association conduct research ranging from astrophysics, plasma physics and marine biology to nutrition and diabetes, but also include institutes on contemporary history, economic research and the social sciences as well as major research museums. They also provide infrastructure and services for science and research like the German Primates Center and research-based services for the public, policy makers, academia and business. More than 14,000 people are currently employed at Leibniz research sites.
Jeffrey Alexander – In The Company of Scholars Lecture
November 10, 2009 Jeffrey Alexander will give a lecture titled “Barack Obama Becomes a Hero: Performing the Democratic Struggle for Power in 2008,” at the Graduate School’s In the Company of Scholars Lecture series. The event will take place on Tuesday, November 17, at 4 p.m. in room 119 of the Hall of Graduate Studies. A reception will follow in the McDougal Center Common Room. Hosted by Jon Butler, Dean, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Poster.
Mourning Burton R. Clark - Professor of Sociology at Yale 1966 - 1980
October 30, 2009 Burton R. (Bob) Clark died yesterday after five months of illness. Bob Clark served as a Professor of Sociology at Yale for 14 years, beginning in 1966. While here, he was Director of Graduate Studies and Chair of the Department. He left in 1980 to become the Allan M. Cartter Professor of Higher Education at UCLA, where he had received one of the first Ph.D.s ever awarded by the UCLA Department of Sociology. Bob wrote many books about higher education and in 2008 the Johns Hopkins Press brought out a collection of his selected writings from 1956 through 2006. Bob was a dear friend to his former colleagues and will be missed. Adele Clark, his wife of many years, survives him. Burton Clark Bio.
Immanuel Wallerstein Receives 15th Honoris Causa
October 23, 2009 Immanuel Wallerstein, Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Sociology has recently returned from an October 12-17th visit to Bolivia. Professor Wallerstein was there at the invitation of Vice-President and Sociologist Alvaro Garcia Linera’s office and the Ministry of Economics and Finance to give a public seminar. His seminar consisted of three lectures in Spanish on the "Causes and Consequences of the Present World Economic Crisis." During Professor Wallerstein’s visit, the Universidad Mayor San Andrès, Bolivia's leading university, awarded him a Doctor H.C. This is his 15th honorary degree.
Jeffrey Alexander Releases New Volume: Remembering the Holocaust: A Debate
September 22, 2009 Remembering the Holocaust explains why the Holocaust has come to be considered the central event of the 20th century, and what this means. Presenting Jeffrey Alexander’s controversial essay that, in the words of Geoffrey Hartman, has already become a classic in the Holocaust literature, and following up with challenging and equally provocative responses to it, this book offers a sweeping historical reconstruction of the Jewish mass murder as it evolved in the popular imagination of Western peoples, as well as an examination of its consequences. Remembering the Holocaust: A Debate, with Elihu Katz and Ruth Katz, Martin Jay, Bernhard Giesen, Michael Rothberg, Robert Manne and Nathan Glazer, Oxford University Press. Read more...
Yale Graduate Students Ates Altinordu and Sebastian Schnettler Receive Awards
August 18, 2009 Ates Altinordu has won the 2009 Reinhard Bendix Student Paper Award of the Comparative and Historical Sociology Section of ASA for his paper ‘The Politicization of Religion: Political Catholicism and Political Islam in Comparison.’ Sebastian Schnettler has won a Returning Scholars Fellowship (Rückkehrstipendium) from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
Hannah Brückner and Natalie Nitsche Paper Highlighted in ASA Press Release
August 10, 2009 The American Sociological Association featured research by Natalie Nitsche and Hannah Brückner in a press release announcing their paper, Opting out of the family? Social Change in Racial Inequality in Family Formation Patterns and Marriage Outcomes among Highly Educated Women. The paper was presented at the annual meeting of the ASA in San Francisco, CA, August 8th 2009.
