yale sociology phd students

• Doctoral Programs

Current PhD Students

Dhruv Aggarwal (Law/Finance) B.A. Economics, Yale University [email protected]

Richard Archer (Quantitative Marketing) B.S. Statistics, University of Chicago [email protected]

Aslihan Asil (Law/Finance) B.A. Economics, Princeton University [email protected]

Mohin Banker (Behavioral Marketing) B.S. Economics & Mathematics, Carnegie Mellon University [email protected]

Michael Blair (Operations) B.Math, University of Waterloo B.B.A., Wilfrid Laurier University [email protected]

Geoffrey Borchhardt (Organizations & Management) B.S. Business Administration, Copenhagen Business School M.S. Sociology, University of Oxford [email protected]

Alexandra Bray (Organizations & Management) B.A. Sociology, New York University [email protected]

Megan Burns (Organizations & Management) B.A. Psychology, University of Michigan [email protected]

Joseph Leland Bybee (Finance) B.A. Economics, University of Chicago M.S. Statistics, University of Michigan [email protected]

Adam Callister (Law/Finance) B.S. Mathematics, Brigham Young University [email protected]

Brett Campbell (Accounting) B.S. Accounting, Brigham Young University M.S. Accounting, Brigham Young University [email protected]

Xugan Chen (Finance) B.S. Mathematics, Zhejiang University [email protected]

Yen-Shao Chen (Operations) B.S. Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University [email protected]

Mujin Choi (Law/Finance) B.A. Economics, Amherst College Doctor of Law, Yale Law School [email protected]

Hemanshu Das (Operations) B.Tech. Electronics & Communication Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology MBA Management, Indian Institute of Management [email protected]

Leandro de Miranda Gomes (Finance) B.S. Economics, State University of Santa Catarina M.S. Economics, Pontificia U Catolica Rio De Janeiro [email protected]

Abhishek Dev (Finance) B.S. Finance, Bard College [email protected]

Tania Diaz-Bazan (Finance) B.A. Economics, Universidad Catolica de Cuyo M.S. Economics, Universidad de La Plata [email protected]

Lal Eda Erensoy (Behavioral Marketing) B.A. Management, Bogazici University Master of Public Policy, University of Chicago [email protected]

Eunice Han Eun (Organizations & Management) B.A. English Language & Literature, Brown University Masters, Management, Harvard Extension School [email protected]

Alexander Fulmer (Behavioral Marketing) B.S. Hotel Administration, Cornell University Post-Baccalaureate Psychology Certificate, Columbia University [email protected]

Ben Gardner (Finance) B.S. Computer Engineering, Brigham Young University [email protected]

Pranav Garg (Finance) B.A. Economics, University of Delhi M.S. Economics, Paris School of Economics [email protected]

Ping Gong (Accounting) B.Com. Accounting, University of New South Wales [email protected]

Andrew Luis Granato (Law/Finance) B.A. Economics, Stanford University [email protected]

Taylor Holdaway (Organizations & Management) B.A. Economics & Mathematics, Reed College [email protected]

Allen Hu (Finance) B.E. Industrial Engineering, Tsinghua University [email protected]

Daniel (Zongsheng) Huang (Finance) Other Bachelor Level, Economics, Tsinghua University M.S. Finance, University of Chicago [email protected]

Dong Huang (Finance) B.S. Economics and Mathematics, Tsinghua University M.S. Finance, Tsinghua University [email protected]

Dennis Helding Jacobsen (Organizations & Management) B.S. Business Administration, Copenhagen Business School M.S. Business Administration, Copenhagen Business School [email protected]

Barry (Shikun) Ke (Finance) B.S. Applied Mathematics, Columbia University [email protected]

Jin Kim (Behavioral Marketing) B.A. Economics, Berkeley M.S. Marketing, Seoul National University [email protected]

Doris (Do Kyung) Kwon (Organizations and Management) M.S. Business Administration, Seoul National University BBA Business Administration, Seoul National University [email protected]

Lucas C. Lee (Accounting) M.Ph. Finance, University of Cambridge [email protected]

Peter (Sangwoo) Lee (Quantitative Marketing) B.S. Operations Research, Columbia University [email protected]

Seung Yoon Lee (Quantitative Marketing) B.S. Industrial & Systems Engineering, KAIST M.S. Information Systems, KAIST [email protected]

Soonbong Lee (Operations) B.A. Business Administration, Yonsei University M.S. Operations Research Management, Yonsei University [email protected]

Ari Lerner (Operations) B.S. Mathematics, Tufts University [email protected]

Pengcheng Liu(Finance) BS Finance, Renmin University of China MS Finance, Chinese University of Hong Kong [email protected]

Zikun Liu (Quantitative Marketing) BS Mathematics, Fudan University [email protected]

Tianshu Lyu (Finance) BS Computer Science, New York University Shanghai MS Finance, Massachusetts Institute of Technology [email protected]

Geoffrey Martin (Operations) BS Statistics, Yale-NUS College MA Statistics, Yale University [email protected]

Tendai Masaya (Accounting) BS Accounting, Ithaca College MS Accounting, University of Virginia [email protected]

Belisa Pang (Law/Finance) BS Finance, University of Virginia Doctor of Law, Yale Law School [email protected]

Hillary Parent (Behavioral Marketing) BA, Psychology, University of Waterloo [email protected]

Khizar Qureshi (Operations) BS Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology [email protected]

Jamil Abdur Rahman (Finance) BA Economics, Cornell University [email protected]

Michael Robinson (Quantitative Marketing) BA Political Science, Yale University MBA, Yale School of Management [email protected]

Paul Schmidt-Engelbertz (Finance) BA Economics, University of Oxford [email protected]

Yu Shi (Operations) MS Biostatistics, Yale University BS Mathematics, Hong Kong Polytechnic University [email protected]

Sally (Myung Jin) Shin (Behavioral Marketing) BA Communications, University of Pennsylvania MS Computer Science, Columbia University [email protected]

Hassan Siddiq (Accounting) BA Engineering Science, Yale University [email protected]

Ankit Sisodia (Quantitative Marketing) MBA, Indian Inst. of Management-Ahmedabad BE, Inst. of Technology, Banaras Hindu Univ. [email protected]

Huifeng Su (Operations) BE Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison [email protected]

Akshaya Suresh (Operations) BS Astronomy & Physics, Yale University MA Social Science, University of Chicago [email protected]

Fei Teng (Quantitative Marketing) BA Economics, Johns Hopkins University [email protected]

Brittany Torrez (Organizations & Management) BA Psychology, Stanford University [email protected]

Kaushik Vasudevan (Finance) BA, Statistics, Univ. of Chicago [email protected]

Chi Ying Wang (Quantitative Marketing) Bachelor Finance, National Taiwan University MA Economics, National Taiwan University [email protected]

Yi Wang (Finance) Bachelor's of Finance, Wuhan University MS Finance, New York University [email protected]

Ian Weaver (Quantitative Marketing) MA Economics, University of Toronto BD Economics and Mathematics, University of Toronto [email protected]

Jared Jenson Wong (Behavioral Marketing) BA Economics, Duke University [email protected]

Hongyu Wu (Finance) BBA Economics, Chinese University of Hong Kong MA Mathematics, Columbia University [email protected]

Elizabeth (Bu Deul) Yang (Organizations & Management) BA Business Administration, Yonsei University MA Communications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne [email protected]

Yiftach Yarmar (Organizations & Management) BA Economics, Columbia University [email protected]

Laiyi Yin (Accounting) BCom Economics & Accounting, McGill University [email protected]

Dolly (Yang) Yu (Finance) BS Economics, University of Toronto MA Economics, Yale University [email protected]

Daojing Zhai (Finance) BS Physics, Nanjing University [email protected]

Kangying Zhou (Finance) BS Economics Huazhong University of Science MS Applied Mathematics, University of Chicago [email protected]

Keyan Zhu (Quantitative Marketing) BEcon Finance, Peking University MEcon Finance, Peking University [email protected]

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Graduate handbook, department of sociology  graduate handbook, table of contents.

· Course requirements

·   Second-year Research Paper

· Field Exam

· Dissertation Prospectus

· Teaching Fellowships

· Dissertation Research and Writing

· Submitting the Dissertation

· Mentoring and Advising

· Sociology Department Grants

· Office Space

Welcome to the graduate program in Sociology at Yale University. We are thrilled you are here! We have prepared this Handbook to provide a thorough overview of the program and our requirements. Please review it carefully and always feel free to contact the DGS and Departmental Registrar with any questions.

Course Requirements

12 courses to be completed in first two years, including 4 required courses and 8 electives. One of the 8 electives must be a workshop taken for credit.

Course Waivers. Students entering the program with a masters degree will be eligible for a reduction of up to two courses, with the DGS and Dean’s approval. These reductions may apply to electives or to the statistics requirements, but may not apply to Theory or Logic of Social Research. Please contact the DGS and Departmental Registrar to discuss possible waivers.

Online course selections are due before the beginning of the semester. You can use Yale Course Search to identify classes and will need to log into Yale Hub to access the registration system. To make changes to your course selections after the deadline, you will need to complete the Course Schedule Change Notification Form and return it to the Departmental Registrar (the Registrar can send you a copy). The deadline to change enrollment in a Fall-term course from Credit to Audit and from Audit to Credit is October 29. The deadline in the Spring term is March 6. You may not add a course after the OCS deadlines, except with the Dean’s permission.

Joint Degrees: Special arrangements will be worked out for students enrolled in joint Ph.D. or professional programs.

Temporary Incompletes: Arrangements between students and instructors concerning incomplete work are  constrained by deadlines set by Graduate School regulations: in a single term, only one TI is permitted. Students should complete the Temporary Incomplete form and have their instructor sign it (by the grading deadline each semester) and send it to the Departmental Registrar.

Temporary Incompletes received in an academic year must be converted to final grades by October 1st of the following academic year. If a grade is not received by the Graduate Registrar by this date, a TI will be converted to a permanent Incomplete (I) on the student’s record.

Leave of Absence: See Programs and Policies on Graduate School site.

Requirements – Fall Semester of First Year

-Statistics I (SOCY 580). This course provides an introduction to probability theory, sampling theory, distribution and measurement theory, linear regression and the general linear model.

-Theory (SOCY 542). This seminar will be taught by a rotating group of faculty. Rather than specializing in one or another theorist or perspective, it will survey theoretical ideas from classical to contemporary debates. The course may be organized around themes or consider significant theorists one by one. It will provide a synthetic overview of conceptual issues and ways of thinking that mark the sociological imagination.

-Logic of Social Research (SOCY 578). This seminar is an intensive introduction to the methodology of the social  sciences. It covers such topics as concepts and indicators, propositions and theory, explanation and understanding, observation and measurement, methods of data collection, types of data, units of analysis and levels of variables, research design inference, description and causal modeling, verification and falsification. The course involves both the study of selected texts and the analysis and evaluation of recent research papers.

- Proseminar. Offered biweekly during the first semester, students will be presented with the full range of current faculty work. Very little student preparation will be required, and there are no examinations or papers. Students must register as Audit for this required course.

-1 elective. A course of your choosing, can be outside of the department with DGS’s approval.

Requirements – Spring Semester of First Year

-Statistics II (SOCY 581). Continuation of work from Statistics I.

-3 electives. Must have DGS approval if outside of department.

-Departmental Workshop. May audit.

Requirements – Second Year:

-The number of electives necessary to reach 12 required courses, typically 1 or 2 in the fall and 1 or 2 in the spring.

-Departmental Workshop for credit, either in fall or spring of second year. One semester of workshop is required. Credit will be conferred when students do the full range of readings and present a draft of the second-year paper in the workshop. Students are encouraged to audit workshops outside of their specialties.

-Second Year Research Paper preparation and completion by May 5th (details below).

Second-Year Research Paper

In addition to finishing the course requirements, which should be no more than four courses in the second year, the student’s second year focus will be on formulating, researching, writing, presenting, and revising an extended paper. This paper must be solo-authored by the student, who will be supervised by a committee of two faculty members, one of whom is the student’s Academic Advisor (see “Mentoring and Advising” section).

Initial discussion of this paper should begin at the conclusion of the student’s first year in the program, and a proposal will be formally developed at the beginning of the student’s second year. A draft of this paper must be presented in a Workshop in the course of the second year. After receiving feedback from Workshop participants, students will revise the paper in consultation  with their committee, who will evaluate it by the end of the second year of study.

The aim of the Second Year Research Paper is to kickstart the process of writing for publication. This paper should identify a theoretical controversy, methodological problem, or empirical puzzle. By making use of systematically generated evidence – whether gained from theoretical argument, secondary literature, or data (e.g. surveys, archives, interviews, participant observations) – the student should adjudicate between these theoretical claims, address the methodological problem in a new way, or solve the empirical puzzle. Primary research will not be expected.

The result of this effort will not necessarily be itself a publishable paper, but it will be a significant step towards this goal. Limited to around 30 pages, it will represent a reasonable product of one year’s part-time work. The second year Research Paper may or may not be related to the student’s subsequent graduate work. The Departmental Registrar has sample copies, please email with any requests.

The second-year paper is due on May 5 . This is a strict deadline and students should not plan on any extensions. Submission procedure: The student submits the paper to the committee, copying the Registrar, with a request that the committee email the Registrar with their approvals by June 3.

M.A. and M.Phil. Degrees : After completing one year of the program leading to the Ph.D. degree, the student may petition for the Master of Arts degrees. Two of the  eight term courses required for the M.A. must include statistics and theory. A grade of High Pass or above must be achieved in five of the eight required courses. A student may petition for the M.A. degree in the semester following the completion of the requirements.

After all requirements for the Ph.D. degree have been met except submission of the prospectus and the writing of the dissertation, and after at least one year of academic resident graduate study at Yale, the student will be eligible for the Master of Philosophy degree.

Students can petition online at the Yale Graduate School website by clicking into Forms, Degree Petitions, and returning the completed form to the Departmental Registrar. Please review your academic record to ensure you qualify before submitting the form.

Third Year Requirements

-Field Exam Completion – Fall Semester. The Field Exam must be completed by December 9 (details below).

-Dissertation Prospectus Completion – Spring Semester. The prospectus must be defended by May 20 (details below).

-Teaching Fellowship. Required for all 3rd year students in the fall and spring semesters (details below).

The general goal of the field exam is to ensure that students are familiar with the breadth of a particular subfield in sociology, which will aid them in developing a dissertation proposal and could eventually provide the basis for developing a course in that subfield.

Timeline . By the beginning of the third year, students must identify a committee of two faculty members with whom to work closely in developing their field exam. The field exam involves developing a reading list of approximately 50 items (books and articles), reading those items during the fall semester, and then writing a 15-25 page, double-spaced, review essay that a) provides a general overview of the development of the subfield and b) critical reflections on unresolved issues. The definition of the subfield can be broad (e.g. Health and Medicine, Culture and Theory, Political Sociology, Sociology of Gender, etc.) or slightly more narrow. 

Students must consult with their two advisers in defining the subfield and developing a reading list. To create a draft of the reading list, students may wish to search for review articles in Annual Review of Sociology and look up current graduate syllabi on courses related to the subfield (taught at Yale and elsewhere). The list of 50 items should include “classic” works in the subfield and more recent work. Examples of past reading lists can be found here: Race ; Inequality and Life Course ;  Culture and Theory ; Political and Historical ;  Economic and Organizational ; Health and Medicine .

The field exam essay will be evaluated similarly to the Second Year Paper by a committee of two faculty members. The field exam essay is due December 15 . This is a strict deadline and students should not plan on any extensions. Submission Procedure:  The student submits the essay to the committee, copying the Registrar, with a request that the committee email the Registrar with their approvals by January 13.

Dissertation Prospectus

Students will be required to appoint the Chair and two other members of the dissertation committee. The student will work closely with the committee to develop a Dissertation Prospectus. By the end of the 3rd year, the student will be expected to defend the Dissertation Prospectus in an oral examination with the committee. The Prospectus should include (a) statement of the research problem, (b) elaboration of how the student will go about solving the problem, i.e. research design or equivalent, (c) discussion of sources or data to be used and, if appropriate, the methodology, (d) an outline of the planned chapters.

The prospectus defense must be completed by May 20. This is a strict deadline and students should not plan on any extensions. Extensions must be approved by the DGS. Submission Procedure : After the defense, the student should email the completed dissertation prospectus form (signed by each member of the committee) and a copy of the prospectus to the Departmental Registrar.

Teaching Fellowships

Serving as a Teaching Fellow after the second year of full-time study is viewed as an integral part of graduate education. The Graduate School requires that all students teach in each semester of their 3rd and 4th years unless there are no teaching positions available in the department or if the student has research obligations elsewhere (in which case they can register in absentia and defer their teaching positions). Every effort is made to provide teaching positions within the Sociology Department, but if positions are not available, students may be asked by the Teaching Fellow Program office to fulfill their teaching obligations in other departments in the University. Please refer to the Teaching Fellow Program information at the Yale Graduate School site.

First-time TFs are expected to attend the Teaching at Yale orientation, offered by the Center for Teaching and Learning at the beginning of each semester.

Expectations for Sociology Department Teaching Fellows . Teaching fellows should be present for all lectures, sections, and examinations without exception. In other words, you should plan your schedule around your teaching responsibilities rather than the other way around, even if this causes some occasional inconveniences. Department policy is that TF absences or substitutes must be cleared by the instructor in charge. If you have to miss a lecture, section or exam due to illness or emergency, you should communicate this to the instructor, and you should only arrange for a substitute with their permission.

Fourth Year Requirements

-Dissertation Research/Writing (details below).

-Teaching Fellowship. Required of all 4th year students in the fall and spring semesters (details above).

Fifth Year Requirements

-University Dissertation Fellowship (UDF). The UDF is now automatic, applications are no longer necessary. Please contact gradfinaid@yale.edu during the summer before your 5th year to verify the UDF.

Sixth Year Requirements

Teaching fellowships are now guaranteed for sixth-year students who are planning to submit their dissertation by the end of the sixth year. The stipend will end in May of that year.

Dissertation Research and Writing

While all students are expected to adhere to the same deadlines in their first three years, we recognize that student progress through the subsequent dissertation phase of the program will be variable.

The dissertation represents a test of the candidate’s ability to select and carry out a major research project of professional quality. It should show the student’s mastery of the field of specialization, and it must demonstrably contribute to the body of sociological knowledge. The evaluation of the dissertation by the faculty is not a matter of whether or not the prospectus, as approved, was carried out. Rather, it is an independent assessment of the quality and intellectual contribution of the completed research itself as reported in the dissertation.

As well as the traditional style of dissertation, the department also permits essay-style dissertations (normally three essays on a given topic together with an introduction and conclusion).

Students will be required to complete a Dissertation Progress Report (DPR) online annually.

Submitting the Dissertation

Step 1: The student must notify the Sociology Department of their intent to submit the dissertation. The deadline to do so for the fall semester is September  1 and for the spring semester is February 14 . Procedure: Email the Department Registrar with your intent to submit and include contact information for all the members of your dissertation committee (Name, title, email, address, phone, institution, and department).

Step 2: Submit a PDF of your dissertation by March 15 for spring degree conferral or October 1 for fall degree conferral. A PDF copy of your dissertation may be submitted using the degree petition page in the Dissertation Progress Reporting and Submission (DPRS) site at any time within the academic year. Dissertations submitted after the above semester deadlines will be processed for the following degree date.

There are specific formatting rules that must be followed. See Yale’s Guide to Formatting the Dissertation .

Upon submission of your dissertation and approval of readers by the DGS, a pdf copy of your dissertation will be automatically sent to all readers.

Final changes must be uploaded in DPRS within 30 days of the submission deadline. To make changes to your dissertation after it has been submitted, email dissertationreaders@yale.edu . More information can be found on this page , including an instructional video.

Mentoring and Advising

The Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) will be the “general advisor” for entering first year students and will continue to be responsible for monitoring students’ progress through the program. However, during their first year, students may request, after consulting with the DGS, an Academic Advisor, who will replace the DGS as the student’s academic mentor. By the end of the first  year, students will, in fact, be required to designate such an Academic Advisor if they have not done so before.

The Second Year Paper will be supervised by a two-person committee. The chair will be the student’s Academic Advisor, the second member will be a faculty member chosen by the student in consultation with the advisor. This committee will make the final decision about whether the Second Year Paper is accepted. The same procedure will apply to the Field Exam, although the composition of the faculty committee can be changed at the student’s request.

Faculty will meet at the conclusion of every Spring semester to evaluate the progress of graduate students. The DGS will conduct this meeting and will consult with students’ Academic Advisors in preparation. Students in Years 2 and 3 will be required to complete a progress report, due in early April.

Each semester, the DGS will conduct at least one “Professional Development Workshop” in conjunction with other relevant faculty. These will cover requirements for the graduate program, such as Second Year Papers and Field Exams. They will also address the preparation and submission of professional papers, applying for research grants, and job market issues. The Graduate Division has produced a very helpful Guide to Advising for Students and Faculty , including overviews of when and how to seek out advising and suggested topics for students and faculty to discuss. We encourage all students and faculty to read it in full. 

Sociology Department Grants

Registered graduate students are eligible to apply for a one-time Camp Grant for up to $500. Camp Grants are intended to offset the costs of research-related expenses. Detailed information is circulated to all students at the beginning of the fall and spring semesters.

Sociology Department Travel Funds

Graduate students presenting papers at conferences are eligible to apply for travel reimbursements. The department will reimburse for domestic and international travel expenses for amounts determined on a case-by-case basis. Travel fund requests must be submitted by designated deadlines. Deadlines and required application details are circulated to all students at the beginning of the fall and spring semesters.

Office Space

Students are expected to keep their office space clean at all times, especially when leaving for extended periods, such as over the summer. If necessary, department staff may inspect office space and/or reassign office space. When moving offices or leaving after graduating, please make sure all of your belongings are discarded and/or cleared out of the office. Keys must be returned to the Departmental Registrar so they can be used for new occupants.

Virtual Quick Question appointments end Friday, April 26th. Advising Appointments are available throughout the summer and year-round.

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Humanities and Social Sciences PhD Pathways

Exploring pathways: finding your match(es).

As graduate students and postdocs in the Humanities or Social Sciences, you have a wealth of resources to help you explore careers that could be a great fit for you. At Yale, you are developing subject matter expertise as well as a broad set of skills in high demand in many job functions and industries.  These skills include critical and innovative thinking, written and oral communications, project management, and qualitative and/or quantitative analysis.  Start by taking stock of your transferable skills, interests and values. This self-reflection will help you structure your career exploration process and develop a professional development strategy to maximize your time at Yale. 

Once you have performed an initial self-assessment, use the resources on this page to explore the diverse array of career paths that are open to Ph.Ds. Thinking broadly about job functions beyond a particular sector or industry can expand your set of opportunities; doing so will be particularly important if you face other constraints, such as geographical limitations, in your search. For example, companies in the tech sector need content writers, project managers, and educators. 

As you go through this process, be sure to dedicate significant time to making connections with alums and others in your careers of interest.  There is no substitute from hearing first-hand from practitioners in the field about their work, the skills required, their path to their current position, and their advice about how to prepare for this career. Read our advice on networking and informational interviewing , and be sure to take advantage of the many opportunities on campus to connect with alums and employers . Even if you are not yet approaching the job market, attending career fairs can be an efficient way to learn from employers about opportunities for Ph.Ds.

As part of your process, consider professional development opportunities that can help you do a deeper dive into career paths of interest and develop relevant skills to fill in gaps on your current resume. There are many ways you can invest in your professional development without disrupting your academic priorities, so review our resources and think carefully abut your objectives. OCS advisers can also help you develop a plan that works for you. 

It is never too early to begin this career exploration process!  Meet with an OCS adviser to help hone a professional and career development strategy to maximize your time at Yale.Make an appointment with us via the Yale Career Link.   For other career exploration resources, see:

• STEM PhD Pathways
• the OCS career community pages with resources by industry and sector

Preparing for an Academic Job Search in the Humanities

• Preparing for an Academic Job Search in the Social Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences Career Development Activity Packets

These six modules offer activities to jump start your career development. Find easy-to-follow tips and resources to get started on networking, crafting a resume, interviewing, and more. You may follow the curriculum independently, or form your own small group of peers to share findings, discuss challenges, and productively reflect on the completed activities.

• Activity #1:   Self-Assessments and Career Exploration
• Activity #2:   Networking & Informational Interviewing
• Activity #3:   Communicating your Skills and Experience
• Activity #4:   Converting your CV to a Professional Resume
• Activity #5:   Preparing for the Behavioral Interview
• Activity #6:   Improving your LinkedIn Profile

Search Office of Career Strategy

Upcoming events, 3-minute thesis competition (2021) third-place winner & audience selection “best in humanities/social sciences” dana hayward, 3-minute thesis competition (2020) audience choice winner amelia kennedy, yana speaker series: impacting the future: social sector job & internship search with jen leybovich, som ’13, yale school of art alumni panel: living and sustaining a creative life, yale careers in theater panel: producing & theater management, what are creative careers creative entrepreneurship, featured news.

Craft & Career – Zina Ellis, YC ’15, actor, performer, educator – Parts 1 & 2

Certification: One Way to Transition to a Data Science Career

Wanted: Non-Finance Recruits who Can See the Forest From the Trees

Public Relations Careers: Options, Job Titles, and Descriptions

Outside The Matrix: Paul Litvak

Career exploration resources, from doctoral study to … institutional research.

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Advice from Jennifer S. Furlong and Julie Miller Vick, published in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

PhD Pathways in Faculty

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Sign up for a free ImaginePhD account to access career exploration, networking, skill-building, and job search resources.

PhD Pathways in Translation and Interpretation

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PhD Pathways in Research and Analysis

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OCS is pleased to announce new resources to support your academic job search!  These resources are intended to supplement the …

PhD Pathways in Organizational Management

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Employment Data and Trends

Yale gsas program statistics and outcomes.

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Yale GSAS data about Ph.D. admissions, enrollment, degree completion, and employment, by program.

Yale Postdoc Career Outcomes

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Results from a voluntary exit survey given over the  period of January 2015 to March 2021. 

Survey of the Labor Market for New Ph.D. Hires in Economics

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Annual survey conducted by the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas

Occupational Outlook Handbook – Post-Secondary Teachers

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Wage, employment trends, and job openings for post-secondary teachers, by discipline and georgraphical region, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library’s fellowship program aims to facilitate research in Yale Library’s special collections by the …

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Learn from Other PhDs

Alissa Ardito Ashcroft (PhD ’04, Political Science)

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• Assistant General Counsel Congressional Budget Office

Ellen Babby (PhD ’80, French Literature)

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• Independent Consultant Nonprofit Management

Ariel Bardi (PhD ’15, Comparative Literature)

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Lauren Bierbaum (PhD ’08, American Studies)

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• Senior Research Analyst CREDO, Stanford University

Peter Blodgett (PhD ’07, History)

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• H. Russell Smith Foundation Curator of Western American History Huntington Library

George Camp (PhD ’67, Sociology)

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• President, Executive Director Criminal Justice Institute, Association of State Correctional Administrators

Huiting Chan (Masters ’06, International & Development Economics)

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• Head of Central Bank, Public Sector & Bank Sales, Americas Standard Chartered Bank

Carol Chiodo (PhD ’14, Italian Language and Literature)

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• Director of Distinctive Collections and Digital Scholarship The Claremont Colleges Library

Andrew Cohen (PhD ’17, Sociology)

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• Advertising Strategist Phenomenon

Dina Dommett (PhD ’93, Italian)

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• Director of Student & Programme Services Oxford Saïd Business School

Emily Early (PhD ’11, Anthropology)

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• Associate Curator of Anthropology Arizona Museum of Natural History

Federico Galizia (PhD ’98, Economics)

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• Chief Risk Officer Multilateral Development Bank

Vault Career Guides

This is just a sampling of the many career and industry guides available through Vault/Firsthand, a resource free to Yale students and postdocs.

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews

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The Vault Guide to Finance Interviews (9th Edition) provides advice on preparing for interviews as well as in-depth sample questions and …

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Undergraduate Students : Use Yale email and netID sign-on for undergraduates

Other New Users : Use this URL to make a new …

Vault Guide – Investment Management

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The  Vault Guides to Jobs  series provides essential information about key careers and industries, with an emphasis on preparing for …

Vault Guide – Wealth Management

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Vault Guide to Library and Information Science Jobs

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Yale College Programs of Study 2024–2025

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• Summary of Requirements

Director of undergraduate studies: Rourke O'Brien ; sociology.yale.edu  

Sociology provides the theoretical and empirical foundation for understanding how societies function and how they change over time. Sociologists are interested in the causes and consequences of processes such as the social construction of groups and identity, the evolution of culture, intersubjective meanings, intergroup relations, and hierarchies and social norms. They conduct research on individual behavior and outcomes such as educational attainment, jobs and careers, religious commitment, and political involvement; interpersonal processes such as intimate relationships, sexuality, social interaction in groups, and social networks; the behaviors of organizations and institutions; the causes and consequences of group differences and social inequality; and social change at the societal and global level.

The Sociology major provides both a solid foundation for students interested in careers in the social sciences and a strong background for a variety of professions in which knowledge about social processes and how societies work is relevant. Many recent graduates have gone on to law school, medical school, or graduate programs in public health, business, education, urban planning, criminology, and sociology. Others work in finance, consulting, publishing, marketing, city planning, teaching, research, and advocacy.

The Sociology department offers six undergraduate pathways leading to the B.A. degree: (1) the standard major focuses on sociological concepts, theories, and methods; (2) the concentration in economy and society focuses on the cultural frameworks, relationships, and social institutions that give rise to markets and shape economic behavior; (3) the concentration in health and society emphasizes social processes as they affect health and medicine; (4) the concentration in data and society studies methods of analysis; (5) the concentration in inequality, race, and society considers the dimensions of how discrimination shapes society; and (6) the student-designed program combines sociology with a concentration in a different subject area. Students interested in the major are encouraged to contact the director of undergraduate studies (DUS) early in their academic careers to discuss potential options.

Course Numbering

Courses in Sociology are divided by level, with introductory courses numbered from 001–149, courses in sociological theory from 150–159, courses in sociological methods from 160–169, intermediate courses from 150–299, advanced courses in the 300s, and individual study and research courses in the 400s. 

Prerequisite

There are no prerequisites for the Sociology major. Completing either a first-year seminar or one introductory course by the end of the sophomore year is recommended.

Requirements of the Major

Students in the standard major get broad exposure to the sociological imagination, methods, and substantive areas of inquiry. Students are provided with theory and methods used to diagnose and resolve social problems, understand and analyze social processes, and describe and investigate collective behavior and its determinants. Requirements for the standard major include the following:

• Thirteen term courses in sociology (including the senior requirement). At least one must be an introductory Sociology course, but no more than two introductory courses may count toward the total.
• Two courses in sociological theory ( SOCY 151 and 152 )
• One course in research design ( SOCY 160 ), usually completed in spring of junior year.
• One course in a social science methodology (e.g., S&DS 105 ).
• The senior requirement

Students are held to the  concentration-specific  requirements  that were  in  place when they declared their major .   However, with approval from   the  DUS, the following requirements, updated for the academic year 2024-2025, may be fulfilled by students who declared the  major  in a prior term.

Concentration: Economy and Society  Students in the Economy and Society concentration gain a broad understanding of the social dimensions of economic behavior, including the relational dimensions of market interactions, the relationship between the state and markets, religious and cultural effects, valuation processes, social networks, and the causes and consequences of inequality and discrimination in markets. Requirements for the concentration include the following:

• Thirteen term courses in sociology (including the senior requirement). Up to four courses relevant to the concentration (i.e. economic processes and/or their social dimension) may be drawn from outside the Sociology department with approval from the DUS. 
• One course in sociological theory ( SOCY 151 or SOCY 152 )
• One intermediate or advanced course in microeconomics (e.g. ECON 121 or 125 )
• Two intermediate or advanced courses on inequality or economic sociology (e.g. SOCY 234 , 314 , 321 , or other)
• The senior requirement, integrating research on markets, businesses, economic behavior, or inequality

Concentration: Health and Society   Students in the Health and Society concentration gain a broad understanding of how factors such as socioeconomic inequality, demographic processes, neighborhood environments, cultural norms, and social networks affect health and medical care. Students explore the fields of medical sociology, stratification, demography, and network science. The core courses in the concentration satisfy the social science requirements of premedical programs while also providing a solid foundation for students interested in public health, health policy, and global health. Requirements for the concentration include the following:

• Thirteen term courses in sociology (including the senior requirement).  Up to five courses relevant to the concentration may be drawn from outside the Sociology department with approval from the DUS. 
• SOCY 126 or SOCY 127 , the gateway courses for the concentration (or other similar course, with approval of DUS)
• One course in research design ( SOCY 160 ), usually completed in spring of junior year.
• In order to build a broad base of interdisciplinary knowledge on health, students may take up to five course credits from outside the Sociology department, with approval from the DUS. It is recommended that students select at least one course credit from the following: BIOL 101 , 102 , 103 , 104 ; MATH 112 or higher-level MATH course; ECON 170 .
• Two intermediate or advanced Sociology courses relevant to the concentration
• The senior requirement, integrating sociology with health and medicine

Concentration: Data and Society  Students in the Data and Society concentration gain a broad understanding of the methods used to analyze systematic features of social behavior and the wide range of possible sources that can  be used to research social patterns. This concentration focuses on methods of analysis, such as  social networks, computational sociology, statistics, computational modeling, natural language  processing, and others, but students are expected to also expose themselves to substantive areas  of research to gain insight in the application of these methods to social problems. Requirements  for the concentration are the following:

• Thirteen term courses (including the senior requirement).  Up to four courses relevant to the concentration may be drawn from outside the Sociology department with approval from the DUS. 
• One course in sociological theory ( SOCY 151  or 152 )
• One course in research design ( SOCY 160 ), usually completed in spring of junior year
• One introductory course in statistics (e.g. S&DS 105 ,  GLBL 121 )
• One intermediate or advanced course in statistics (e.g. SOCY 580 , 581 )
• Two additional methods courses
• One semester of independent study as a research assistant on a sociological topic,  ideally with Sociology faculty
• The senior requirement, integrating data-intensive approaches to social science

Concentration: Inequality, Race, and Society  Students in the Inequality, Race, and Society concentration gain a broad understanding of the ways in which inequality, race, and various forms of discrimination shape society. Inequality will be considered on numerous dimensions including race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and religion. Requirements for the concentration are the following:

• Thirteen term courses (including the senior requirement). Two courses relevant to the concentration (i.e. economic processes and/or their social dimension) may be drawn from outside the Sociology department with approval from the DUS. 
• SOCY 144 , the gateway course for the concentration (or other similar course with  approval of DUS)
• One course in sociological theory ( SOCY 151 or 152 )
• Five courses related to race or inequality, up to two from outside the  department
• The senior requirements, integrating research on race and/or inequality

Concentration: Student-Designed This program allows students to combine the study of sociology with the study of another discipline or substantive area and to create a program that satisfies their own interests and career plans. By the beginning of the junior year, participants in the self-designed program are expected to consult with the DUS to obtain approval for their course of study. 

• Thirteen term courses (including the senior requirement). 
• Up to four courses relevant to the concentration (i.e. economic processes and/or their social dimension) may be drawn from outside the Sociology department with approval from the DUS. The courses outside Sociology must constitute a coherent unit alone and form a logical whole when combined with the Sociology courses.
• One intermediate or advanced seminar in Sociology 
• The senior requirement must integrate sociology and the other subject chosen

Credit/D/Fail courses A maximum of two courses taken Credit/D/Fail may be counted toward the requirements of the major.

Searchable attributes YC SOCY: Sociological Methods , YC SOCY: Economy & Sociology , YC SOCY: Health & Society , YC SOCY: InequalityRaceSociety

Senior Requirements

For the non-intensive major Students electing the non-intensive major take one additional seminar in Sociology (SOCY 300–399) and write a one-credit senior essay during the senior year ( SOCY 491  or SOCY 492 ). The senior essay for non-intensive majors is intended to be an in-depth scholarly review and critical analysis based on secondary sources. Students select an important topic in any sociological field and write a literature review that evaluates what is known about the topic. All non-intensive majors are required to enroll in SOCY 491  or SOCY 492 to receive credit for the senior essay. To register for this course, students must submit a written plan of study approved by a faculty adviser to the DUS no later than the end of registration period in the term in which the senior essay is to be written. Non-intensive majors are not eligible to graduate with Distinction in the Major.

For the intensive major The intensive major gives students an opportunity to undertake a yearlong program of original research resulting in a contribution to sociological knowledge. The yearlong project requires substantial independent research and knowledge of a sociological sub-field. Students use research methods such as data gathering through participant observation, in-depth interviewing, administration of small-scale surveys, or secondary analysis of existing data. They may present findings in a variety of forms, from ethnographic narratives to analytical statistics. Students select primary and secondary advisers from the faculty. Students in the intensive major enroll in SOCY 493 , 494  during their senior year. The colloquium provides a forum for discussing the research process and for presenting students' research at various stages. Intensive majors are eligible to graduate with Distinction in the Major if they meet the grade standards for Distinction and submit a senior essay written in SOCY 493 , 494 . See The Undergraduate Curriculum, Honors .

All students interested in the Sociology major should meet with the DUS no later than the beginning of the junior year to elect a program of study. Qualified students may petition to enroll in graduate courses, with permission of the instructor and the director of graduate studies. A list of graduate courses and descriptions is available from the DUS.

Admission to the intensive major Candidates for the intensive major should indicate interest to the DUS by registration period in the spring for the fall term of their senior year. The intensive major is especially recommended for students considering graduate school or social research. The DUS and the senior essay adviser serve as advisers to seniors in the intensive major.

Study Abroad

Students planning to study abroad in their junior year are strongly encouraged to begin meeting specific requirements in their sophomore year. They should also discuss the options for their course of study with the DUS before finalizing their plans.

SUMMARY OF MAJOR REQUIREMENTS

Prerequisite None

Number of courses 13 term courses (incl senior req) for standard major and all concentrations

Distribution of courses  Standard major —at least 1, but no more than 2 intro courses, SOCY 151 , 152 ,  160 , and a course in social science methods;   E conomy & Society concentration — SOCY 151 or 152 , SOCY 160 , 1 intermed or adv course in microeconomics, 1 social science methods course, 2 intermed or adv courses on inequality or economic sociology ; Health & Society concentration — SOCY 126 or  127 , SOCY 151 or 152 , SOCY 160 , 1 social science methods course,  2 intermed or adv seminars, relevant to concentration;  Data and Society concentration — SOCY 151 or  152 , SOCY 160 , 1 intro stat course, 1 intermed or adv stat course,  2 quantitative methods courses, 1 indep study; Inequality, Race, and Society concentration — SOCY 144 , SOCY 151 or 152 , SOCY 160 , 1 social science methods course, 5 courses related to race or inequality;  Student-designed concentration —  SOCY 151 ,  152 ,  160 , and a course in social science methods, 1 intermed or adv sociology course

Substitution permitted   Economy & Society, Data & Society, and Student-Designed concentrations— up to 4 courses from other depts, with DUS approval; Health & Society concentration— up to 5 courses from other depts with DUS approval; Inequality, Race, and Society concentration —up to 2 courses from other depts with DUS approval

Senior requirement Standard major and all concentrations —1 addtl intermed or adv Sociology sem and senior essay ( SOCY 491  or SOCY 492 ); Intensive major —two-term senior essay ( SOCY 493 , 494 )

Requirements for the Standard Major

13 courses (13 credits), including the senior requirement 

• 1 additional sociological methods course
• 7 electives, at least 1 of which, but no more than 2 should be an introductory course 
• Senior requirement:  SOCY 491 or SOCY 492  and 1 300-level Sociology seminar

Requirements for the Intensive Major

Students follow the same requirements as for the standard major or one of the concentrations, only the senior requirement is different. 

• SOCY 493  and  SOCY 494   

Concentration Specific Requirements

Economy and Society concentration

• SOCY 151 or SOCY 152
• 1 microeconomics course, such as  ECON 121 or ECON 125 (counts toward the 4 courses allowed outside the sociology department)
• 1 course in social science methodology
• 2 intermediate or advanced courses in economic sociology (e.g.,  SOCY 234 , SOCY 314 , SOCY 321 )
• 5 relevant electives, 4 of which may be drawn from outside the Sociology department
• 2 courses for the senior requirement (see standard major or intensive major), integrating research on markets, businesses, economic behavior, or inequality

Health and Society concentration

• SOCY 126 or SOCY 127 or a comparable course 
• 2 intermediate or advanced sociology seminars relevant to the concentration
• 5 electives courses relevant to the concentration may be drawn from outside the Sociology department
• 2 courses for the senior requirement (see standard major or intensive major), integrating health and medicine

Data and Society concentration

• 1 introductory statistics course
• 1 intermediate or advanced statistics course
• 2 methods courses
• 1 independent study course as a research assistant on a sociological topic,  ideally with Sociology faculty
• 4 electives c ourses relevant to the concentration may be drawn from outside the Sociology department
• 2 courses for the senior requirement (see standard major or intensive major), integrating data-intensive approaches to social science

Inequality, Race, and Society concentration

• 1 social science methods course (see Overview)
• 5 electives  related to race or inequality, 2 of which may  be drawn from outside the Sociology department 
• 2 additional electives
• 2 courses for the senior requirement (see standard major or intensive major), integrating research on race and inequality

Student-Designed concentration

• SOCY 151 and SOCY 152
• 1 social science methods course
• 7 relevant electives to include 1 intermediate or advanced SOCY seminar and up to 4 of which may be drawn from outside the Sociology department
• 2 courses for the senior requirement (see standard major or intensive major), integrating sociology and the other chosen subject

Sociology provides the foundation for understanding how societies function and how they change over time. Sociological research involves the study of individual behavior and group outcomes, such as educational attainment, jobs and careers, health outcomes, religious commitment, and political involvement; of interpersonal processes, such as intimate relationships, sexuality, social interaction in groups, social networks, economic transactions, and behavior of organizations and institutions; causes and consequences of group differences and social inequality; and social change at the societal and global level.

The Sociology major provides a solid foundation for students interested in careers in the social sciences, but knowledge about social processes and how societies work is also relevant for students in other fields. Recent graduates have attended law school, medical school, or graduate programs in public health, business, education, urban planning, public policy, criminology, and sociology. Others work in advertising, finance, consulting, publishing, marketing, city planning, teaching, research, and advocacy.

The Sociology department offers (1) the non-intensive and intensive programs, (2) a concentration in economy and society, (3) a concentration in health and society, (4) a concentration in data and society, (5) a concentration in inequality, race, and society, and (6) a student-designed combined program that pairs sociology with another subject. Students in the economy and society concentration take intermediate economics and use sociological tools to study economic behavior. Those in the health and society concentration do coursework in sociological analysis and take courses recommended for the MCAT. Interested students are encouraged to contact the director of undergraduate studies (DUS) early in their academic careers to discuss program options.

First-year seminars in Sociology include:

• SOCY 081 , Race and Place in British New Wave, K-Pop, and Beyond
• SOCY 086 , China in the Age of Xi Jinping

Introductory courses that provide a broad overview of sociological thinking include:

• SOCY 151 , Foundations of Modern Social Theory
• SOCY 152 , Topics in Contemporary Social Theory

Other courses focus on particular topics:

• SOCY 133 , Computers, Networks, and Society
• SOCY 144 , Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration
• SOCY 147 , Introduction to Social Policy Analysis

FACULTY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY

Professors  Julia Adams, Jeffrey Alexander, Elijah Anderson, †James Baron, Scott Boorman, Nicholas Christakis, †Paul Cleary, Philip Gorski, Grace Kao, †Marissa King, †Peter Salovey, †Vicki Schultz, Philip Smith

Associate Professors  Rene Almeling, †Monica Bell, Emily Erikson, †Justin Farrell, †Issa Kohler-Hausmann, Jonathan Wyrtzen

Assistant Professors  †Julie DiBenigno, Daniel Karell, †Balázs Kovács, Alka Menon, Rourke O'Brien, Emma Zang

†A joint appointment with primary affiliation in another department or school.

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• Reserve WLH 309

Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Combined phd program in wgss.

The WGSS Program at Yale is proud to announce our new Combined PhD degree! We are thrilled to work with a new generation of scholars committed to feminist and queer inquiry, and to researching gender and sexuality across axes of difference and inequality. Our faculty work on questions of gender and sexuality from a wide range of theoretical and methodological locations, concentrating our attention on transnational politics and security regimes, public law and sexual violence, reproduction and reproductive technologies, incarceration, social movements and protest, race and racism, neoliberalism, and Islam. We hope you will join us to pursue your WGSS scholarship.

Students may pursue a Combined PhD in WGSS with one of our five spartnering departments: African American Studies , American Studies , Anthropology , English or Sociology .

Program Requirements

In their first two years of study, students in the Combined PhD program will complete Introduction to Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies (WGSS 600), Feminist and Queer Theory (WGSS 700), Methods in Gender & Sexuality Studies (WGSS 800)* and one elective.  Typically, electives taken in the student’s partnering Department will be cross-titled with WGSS or will substantively examine gender and sexuality.  Students will enroll for two sequential semesters in WGSS 900, Colloquium & Working Group.  The Colloquium and Working Group convene several Monday evenings throughout the semester; faculty and graduate students present works in progress.

*The WGSS DGS will determine, case-by-case, whether or not the methods course offered by the student’s primary department fulfills our methods requirement.

WGSS 600: Introduction to Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies (typically offered fall semester)

Introduction to women’s, gender, and sexuality studies as a field of knowledge and to the interdiscipline’s structuring questions and tensions. The course genealogizes feminist and queer knowledge production, and the institutionalization of WGSS, by examining several of our key terms.

WGSS 700: Feminist & Queer Theory (typically offered spring semester)

Survey of feminist and queer theoretic contestations, focusing both on historical foundations and contemporary articulations. Students examine the Marxist, critical race, postcolonial, transnational and liberal philosophical coordinates of feminist and queer theories.

WGSS 800: Methods in Gender & Sexuality Studies (offered alternate years)

A practical forum that explores interdisciplinary methods and modes of analysis and evidence building for research in WGSS. Examines interventions from cultural studies, archive studies, ethnography, STS and media studies. Foci on the historicity of knowledge production, ethical research, and scholarship examining (what’s “feminist” or “queer” about) feminist and queer methods.

Teaching Fellowship

WGSS Combined PhD students will typically teach or serve as a teaching fellow in their third and fourth years in the program, unless their dissertation research plans require other arrangements. The courses will usually be WGSS-titled and undergraduate level.

Dissertation Proposal

Students in their third year of study will undertake a dissertation proposal workshop with faculty from the WGSS program.

Dissertation

Students will typically research and write their dissertations in their final two- to three-years of study. At least one faculty committee member of the student’s dissertation will hold a primary, tenured or tenure-track appointment in WGSS.

How to Apply

To apply to the Combined PhD in WGSS (and AFAM, AMST, ANTH, ENGL or SOCY), please visit the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences admissions page .   The deadline to submit an application to a combined program is always the earlier deadline of the two individual programs, or December 15, whichever comes first.

Requirements for Transfer into the Combined Ph.D. Program

Students already pursuing a Ph.D. in one of the five partnering departments and programs listed above may apply for transfer into the combined Ph.D. in WGSS.

Interested students should submit a departmental transfer request form and a 2-3 page statement of interest describing why you wish to pursue the Combined Ph.D. to wgss.dgs@yale.edu .  Please indicate whether you have completed WGSS 600 and/or WGSS 900, and if not, when you intend to do so.  Your statement of interest should also outline a plan of completion for any outstanding WGSS course requirements.     Only current students in the first or second year of their degree study in American Studies, Anthropology, English, and Sociology are eligible to apply.  (Interested students in their *first* year of other Ph.D. programmes may apply to do an ad hoc combined degree with WGSS, but must first get permission from their current DGS.  See here for more information about ad hoc joint degrees.) 

For admission in fall 2024, please submit your form and statement of interest to wgss.dgs@yale.edu by 15 December 2023. The WGSS graduate admissions committee hopes to inform applicants of its decisions in early March 2024.

Still have questions? Please see the  Combined PhD FAQs .

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Institution for Social and Policy Studies

Advancing research • shaping policy • developing leaders, graduate students.

Carlo received their Master’s degree from the Reproductive Sociology Research Group (ReproSoc) with distinction at the University of Cambridge in 2019. They are currently a Health Policy Research Scholar with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, an affiliate in the Yale Research Initiative on the Histories of Sexuality, a fellow with the Yale Ethnography Hub, and co-run the WGSS Colloquium and Graduate Policy Fellows Program at Yale. Their work has been published in Social Science and Medicine and Population Studies.

Paul Lendway is a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in political science at Yale University studying inequality, populism, and social movements. His research has been accepted for publication at American Politics Research, Environmental Politics, and the Yale Journal of International Affairs. He has presented his research at a wide range of organizations, including the American Political Science Association, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University.

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The collection’s primary function is to support research and teaching in the field of sociology and as it relates to other subjects. 

Departments/disciplines/programs/subject areas supported

Departments and Programs

The Department of Sociology at Yale University provides Ph.D. concentrations in the fields of Comparative and Historical Sociology, Cultural Sociology and Social Theory, and Social Stratification and Life Course Research.

Graduate student work is oriented to one or more of the following departmental clusters: Comparative and Historical Sociology; Culture/Knowledge; Economic Sociology and Organizations; Family/Gender/Sexuality; Global, Regional and Transnational Sociology; Health, Medicine, and Biosocial Interactions; Law and Criminology; Methods; Political Sociology and Social Movements; Race and Ethnicity; Religion; Social Networks; Social Stratification; Theory. Also, the department encourages students to pursue work in any unit of the university that furnishes additional dimensions to sociological analysis, including:

• Institution for Social and Policy Studies
• Program on Nonprofit Organizations
• MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies
• School of Management
• School of Public Health

The Sociology Department offers three undergraduate programs leading to the B.A. degree: (1) the standard program focuses on sociological concepts, theories, and methods; (2) a combined program allows students to combine sociology with a concentration in another field; (3) a concentration in markets and society focuses on the cultural frameworks, social ties, and social institutions that give rise to markets and that shape economic behavior.

The Sociology Department offers joint degree programs with the School of Law (J.D./M.A.), and the School of Medicine (M.D./PhD).

The collection also supports related programs in Women’s Studies, School of the Environment, Urban Studies, and area studies.

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Formats and materials acquired generally

• Scholarly journals (electronic preferred),
• Scholarly monographs (print and online)
• Conference proceedings

Formats and materials collected selectively or by request

• Collected works

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• Instructor’s manuals
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• Juvenile works
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Primarily English, with a limited number of sociological resources collected in other languages, including Spanish, French, Italian, and German.

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The library collects both current and historical materials. Primary and secondary historical resources are collected by and about classical theorists. 

Coverage is worldwide, with an emphasis on the United States, Canada, Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and East Asia.

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Government Documents

The Library’s extensive holdings of United States government publications and United Nations and international documents constitute important resources for sociological research. 

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The Data Librarian at Marx Library can acquire and provide access to statistical data sets used for primary research by faculty and graduate students if they are deemed to be of general use.  

Related Collections

“The Law Library is the primary collecting unit at Yale for criminology, criminal justice administration, penology, police science, and forensic science.  In particular, [they] purchase significant books of a scholarly or innovative nature, as well as significant books on “true crime” or famous trials.  [They] collect only lightly in the areas of social work with delinquents and criminals, police science, penology, and juvenile delinquency, and also collect foreign-language materials only lightly.” (See  http://library.law.yale.edu/criminal-justice )

Subject Librarian

Jennifer Snow Program Director for Instruction Marx Science and Social Science Library (203) 432-5132

• African American Studies

The Department of African American Studies offers a combined PhD in conjunction with several other departments and programs: currently, American studies; anthropology; English; film and media studies; French; history; history of art; music; political science; psychology; religious studies; sociology; Spanish and Portuguese; and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. Within the field of study, the student will select an area of concentration in consultation with the directors of graduate studies (DGS) of African American studies and the joint department or program. An area of concentration in African American studies may take the form of a single area study or a comparative area study. Students may focus on the history or artistic productions of any region within the African diaspora. Students are encouraged to draw from multiple disciplines in their intellectual pursuits, both in preparation for their qualifying examinations and in their dissertation research and writing. An area of concentration may also follow the fields of study already established within a single discipline, for example, race/minority/ethnic studies in a combined degree with sociology; the study of Black political thought, or voting patterns, in a combined degree with political science; a study of racial bias in a combined degree with psychology; or an ethnography in a combined degree with either anthropology, or sociology. An area of concentration must either be a field of study offered by the joint department or fall within the rubric of such a field. Please refer to the description of fields of study of the prospective joint department or program.

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Erica Edwards

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Naomi McWilliams

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Standardized testing requirements.

GRE is not accepted.

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A writing sample is required by this program. 

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TOEFL iBT or IELTS Academic is required of most applicants whose native language is not English.

You may be exempt from this requirement if you have received (or will receive) an undergraduate degree from a college or university where English is the primary language of instruction, and if you have studied in residence at that institution for at least three years.

Combined Degree Program Application Deadline

*The deadline to submit an application to a combined program is always the earlier deadline of the two individual programs, or December 15, whichever comes first.

Academic Information

Combined phd information.

African American Studies offers a combined PhD in conjunction with several other departments and programs including: American Studies , Anthropology , English , Film and Media Studies , French , History , History of Art , Music ,  Political Science , Psychology , Religious Studies , Sociology , Spanish and Portuguese , and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies .

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The Graduate School's academic calendar lists important dates and deadlines related to coursework, registration, financial processes, and milestone events such as graduation.

Featured Resource

Registration Information and Dates

https://registration.yale.edu/

Students must register every term in which they are enrolled in the Graduate School. Registration for a given term takes place the semester prior, and so it's important to stay on top of your academic plan. The University Registrar's Office oversees the systems that students use to register. Instructions about how to use those systems and the dates during which registration occurs can be found on their registration website.

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Phd stipend & funding.

PhD students at Yale are normally full-funded for a minimum of five years. During that time, our students receive a twelve-month stipend to cover living expenses and a fellowship that covers the full cost of tuition and student healthcare.

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Alumni Insights

Below you will find alumni placement data for our departments and programs.

Department of African American Studies

Graduate students.

Iman AbdoulKarim

Minali Aggarwal

Joshua Aiken

Stephane Andrade

Kaelyn Apple

Hamzah Baig

Jorge Banuelos

Andie Berry

Ruthie Block

Candace Borders

Da'Von Boyd

Tyler Campbell

Shefali Gauri Das

Elizabeth Durrant

Alex Fialho

Dustin Gavin

William Glasspiegel

Kristine Guillaume

Alycia Hall

Gabrielle Hill

Conor Hodges

Josie Hodson

Isaac Jean-Francois

Michelle Johnson

Kassidi Jones

Micah Jones

Alison Kibbe

Jeong Yeon Lee

Demar F. Lewis IV

Sophia Lindner

Faith Macharia

Jathan Martin

Cedric McCoy

Christoph' McFadden

Jessie Modi

Lucia Olubunmi Momoh

Jeania Ree Moore

Tauren Nelson

Maryam Parhizkar

Olivia Polk

Katherine Ponds

Yasmina Price

Jocelyn Proietti

Maurice Rippel

Gabriel Rivera Cotto

Ben Slightom

Babette Thomas

Alexandra Thomas

Taylor Thompson

Christopher Valentine

Nala Williams

Devin Williams

Connor Williams

Department of Anthropology

Graduate students.

Center for Cultural Sociology

Yale’s Center for Cultural Sociology (CCS) provides a focus for meaning-centered analysis in the social science tradition. The CCS incorporates scholars from diverse backgrounds, sharing an interest in understanding how culture informs and structures social life and its problems. Read more…

Conference Announcement ~ Working towards Meaning Together: Jeffrey Alexander’s Legacy for Sociology

Ccs faculty fellow anna lund shares newest publication, ccs junior fellow nicolás rudas' new article in cultural sociology.

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Former MIT researcher who killed Yale graduate student sentenced to 35 years in prison

FILE - In this Monday, Feb. 8, 2021, file photo, a memorial for Yale School of the Environment student Kevin Jiang near the scene of his shooting at the corner of Nicoll and Lawrence Street in New Haven, Conn. Qinxuan Pan, a former researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is being sentenced Tuesday, April 23, 2024, to 35 years in prison for killing Yale grad student Kevin Jiang in New Haven in 2021. (Arnold Gold/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP)

• Copy Link copied

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A former researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was sentenced Tuesday to 35 years in prison for the killing of a Yale University graduate student found shot outside his car on a Connecticut street.

Qinxuan Pan, 33, who pleaded guilty to murder in February, apologized during a hearing in a New Haven courtroom packed with family and friends of the victim, Kevin Jiang.

“I feel sorry for what my actions caused and for everyone affected,” Pan said. “I fully accept my penalties.”

Jiang, 26, a U.S. Army veteran who grew up in Chicago and a graduate student at Yale’s School of the Environment, had just left his fiancée’s apartment in New Haven on the evening of Feb. 6, 2021, when he was shot multiple times by Pan, according to police and prosecutors. The couple had just gotten engaged days earlier.

Several of Jiang’s relatives and friends spoke in court before the judge handed down the sentence, which Pan agreed to as part of his plea bargain.

“My son was a remarkable young man who cherished life and held deep (belief) in God. He had a bright future ahead — one that promised to spread God’s love far and wide,” said Jiang’s father, Mingchen Jiang.

A motive for the killing was never made entirely clear. Investigators said they discovered that Pan and Jiang’s fiancée were connected on social media and had met while at MIT, where both had graduated from and where Pan was working as a researcher at the time of the shooting.

According to the documents, Jiang’s fiancée told authorities she and Pan “never had a romantic or sexual relationship, they were just friends, but she did get a feeling that he was interested in her during that time.”

After the shooting, Pan fled the scene and eluded police for three months before being apprehended in Alabama , where officials said he was caught living under a fake name with $19,000 in cash, a passport and several cellphones.

Former MIT researcher who killed Yale graduate student sentenced to 35 years in prison

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A former researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was sentenced Tuesday to 35 years in prison for the killing of a Yale University graduate student found shot outside his car on a Connecticut street.

Qinxuan Pan, 33, who pleaded guilty to murder in February, apologized during a hearing in a New Haven courtroom packed with family and friends of the victim, Kevin Jiang.

“I feel sorry for what my actions caused and for everyone affected,” Pan said. “I fully accept my penalties.”

Jiang, 26, a U.S. Army veteran who grew up in Chicago and a graduate student at Yale’s School of the Environment, had just left his fiancée’s apartment in New Haven on the evening of Feb. 6, 2021, when he was shot multiple times by Pan, according to police and prosecutors. The couple had just gotten engaged days earlier.

Several of Jiang’s relatives and friends spoke in court before the judge handed down the sentence, which Pan agreed to as part of his plea bargain.

“My son was a remarkable young man who cherished life and held deep (belief) in God. He had a bright future ahead — one that promised to spread God’s love far and wide,” said Jiang’s father, Mingchen Jiang.

A motive for the killing was never made entirely clear. Investigators said they discovered that Pan and Jiang’s fiancée were connected on social media and had met while at MIT, where both had graduated from and where Pan was working as a researcher at the time of the shooting.

According to the documents, Jiang’s fiancée told authorities she and Pan “never had a romantic or sexual relationship, they were just friends, but she did get a feeling that he was interested in her during that time.”

After the shooting, Pan fled the scene and eluded police for three months before being apprehended in Alabama , where officials said he was caught living under a fake name with $19,000 in cash, a passport and several cellphones.

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• Residents & Fellows
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Immunobiology Graduate Student Mackenzie Bender awarded an NSF Graduate Fellowship

• Mackenzie Bender

Mackenzie Bender, a second year Immunobiology Graduate Student in the laboratory of Dr. Carrie Lucas, was recently awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRFP) for Life Sciences. The NSF GRFP recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported STEM disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited US institutions. The five-year fellowship includes three years of financial support including an annual stipend and a cost of education allowance to the institution.

Mackenzie's research focuses on the ETS transcription factor E74-like factor 4 (ELF4), which has been revealed as a pivotal regulator of inflammation and immune cell differentiation. Yet, the impact of ELF4 on CD8 + T cell fate and function remains enigmatic. Preliminary data Mackenzie has generated demonstrates an ELF4-dependent population of CD8 + T cells that are restrained and weakly activated early after TCR/CD28 stimulation. In concert, CD8 + T cells lacking ELF4 exhibit reduced effector function and stemness over time during acute and chronic antigen stimulation in vitro. Further, she found CD8 + T cell-intrinsic ELF4 is necessary to maintain tumor control in preclinical colorectal cancer, suggesting ELF4 is necessary for maintaining potent, long-term immunity. Based off these observations, she will study the role of ELF4 in the development and maintenance of an antigen specific, restrained CD8 + T cell population during acute and chronic infection, and the subsequent role of this population in downstream CD8 + T cell fates. Congratulations Mackenzie!

Featured in this article

• Carrie L Lucas, PhD Associate Professor of Immunobiology

Former MIT researcher who killed Yale graduate student sentenced to 35 years in prison

A former MIT researcher has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for the killing of a Yale University graduate student in Connecticut

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- A former researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was sentenced Tuesday to 35 years in prison for the killing of a Yale University graduate student found shot outside his car on a Connecticut street.

Qinxuan Pan, 33, who pleaded guilty to murder in February, apologized during a hearing in a New Haven courtroom packed with family and friends of the victim, Kevin Jiang.

“I feel sorry for what my actions caused and for everyone affected,” Pan said. “I fully accept my penalties.”

Jiang, 26, a U.S. Army veteran who grew up in Chicago and a graduate student at Yale's School of the Environment, had just left his fiancée's apartment in New Haven on the evening of Feb. 6, 2021, when he was shot multiple times by Pan, according to police and prosecutors. The couple had just gotten engaged days earlier.

Several of Jiang's relatives and friends spoke in court before the judge handed down the sentence, which Pan agreed to as part of his plea bargain.

“My son was a remarkable young man who cherished life and held deep (belief) in God. He had a bright future ahead — one that promised to spread God’s love far and wide,” said Jiang's father, Mingchen Jiang.

A motive for the killing was never made entirely clear. Investigators said they discovered that Pan and Jiang's fiancée were connected on social media and had met while at MIT, where both had graduated from and where Pan was working as a researcher at the time of the shooting.

According to the documents, Jiang’s fiancée told authorities she and Pan “never had a romantic or sexual relationship, they were just friends, but she did get a feeling that he was interested in her during that time.”

After the shooting, Pan fled the scene and eluded police for three months before being apprehended in Alabama, where officials said he was caught living under a fake name with $19,000 in cash, a passport and several cellphones.

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Former MIT researcher sentenced to prison in murder of Yale graduate student

April 24, 2024 / 10:20 PM EDT / CBS/AP

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- A former Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher has been sentenced in the 2021 murder of a Yale graduate student .

Thirty-three-year-old Qinxuan Pan pleaded guilty in February to murdering 26-year-old Kevin Jiang .

Pan was sentenced Tuesday to 35 years in prison. During the hearing, he apologized and took responsibility for his actions.

"I feel sorry for what my actions caused and for everyone affected," Pan said. "I fully accept my penalties."

Yale grad student Kevin Jiang fatally shot

Police say on the evening of Feb. 6, 2021, Jiang was shot multiple times in the East Rock neighborhood of New Haven , near the Yale campus, after leaving his fiancée's apartment. He was found dead near his car, which had rear-end damage.

Jiang was a Chicago native, an Army veteran and had gotten engaged just days before he was killed.

Police determined the shooting was not random and soon named Pan, who was a graduate student at MIT at the time, as a person of interest .

Pan was eventually arrested in Alabama in May 2021 after a nationwide manhunt.

A motive was never made clear, but investigators were at one time looking into whether romantic jealously led to the deadly shooting. Jiang's fiancée had also attended MIT and was acquainted with Pan .

According to documents, Jiang's fiancée told authorities she and Pan "never had a romantic or sexual relationship, they were just friends, but she did get a feeling that he was interested in her during that time."

• Yale University

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Award-Winning Statistician Joins Yale School of Public Health Leadership

Bhramar mukherjee appointed inaugural senior associate dean of public health data science and data equity, award-winning statistician joins ysph.

From left to right: YSPH Dean Megan L. Ranney, Bhramar Mukherjee, and Steven (Shuangge) Ma.

Award-winning statistician Bhramar Mukherjee, PhD, has been appointed Yale School of Public Health’s inaugural Senior Associate Dean of Public Health Data Science and Data Equity, an important new leadership position that reflects the school’s focus on data science as a critical pillar for the future of public health. She joins YSPH on Aug. 1, 2024.

Mukherjee currently holds a number of distinguished academic positions at the University of Michigan School of Public Health where she is the John D. Kalbfleisch Distinguished University Professor, Siobán D. Harlow Collegiate Professor of Public Health, and chair of the Department of Biostatistics. She is also a professor of epidemiology, and of global public health. In addition, Mukherjee serves as associate director for quantitative data Sciences at the University of Michigan’s Rogel Cancer Center and, last year, she was appointed assistant vice president for research, designing a comprehensive research data analysis service infrastructure for all three U-M campuses.

YSPH Dean Megan L. Ranney, MD, MPH, said Mukherjee’s appointment aligns with the school’s strategic goal of advancing public health data science, a critical part of YSPH’s leadership of the transformation of public health.

“This new role symbolizes our commitment to both rigor and equity in data science as the foundation of the future of public health,” Ranney said in an April 8 schoolwide announcement. “Dr. Mukherjee’s arrival will allow us to coordinate across public health disciplines and across the university in achieving our shared, future-focused, consequentialist vision of public health.”

At YSPH, Mukherjee will also hold the positions of Anna M.R. Lauder endowed professor of biostatistics and professor of chronic disease epidemiology. She will be a member of the Yale Cancer Center director’s cabinet. Additionally, she will hold a secondary appointment in the Department of Statistics and Data Science and will have affiliations with the MacMillan Center and the Institute for the Foundations of Data Science.

This new role symbolizes our commitment to both rigor and equity in data science as the foundation of the future of public health. Dean Megan L. Ranney

As senior associate dean, Dr. Mukherjee will work with Dean Ranney, the school’s senior leadership team, and the broader university community to develop and realize a strategic plan for public health data science and data equity that will enable transformational and impactful research in the face of quickly changing methods, technology, and societal shifts. In doing so, she will lead the development of resources to support the school’s public health data science and data equity research enterprise. She will also work to elevate YSPH’s data science and data equity education programs, with a goal of enhancing the pipeline of diverse scholars in this field. Additionally, representing YSPH’s commitment to global public health, she will support and create international collaborations that enhance the global practice, teaching, and science of public health data science and data equity.

She also plans to continue her own research and teaching.

Mukherjee said she felt “a strong intellectual resonance” with the Yale community when she visited YSPH in August 2023 as the inaugural speaker for the Dean’s Leaders in Public Health lecture series.

“I was inspired by the transformative vision Dean Ranney has for YSPH and more broadly for academic public health,” Mukherjee said. “Data is a quintessential quantum of research, but we often forget to ask the fundamental question: who is in my study? I believe everyone should have equal opportunity of benefitting from data resources and data products.”

“Data equity, both in terms of quantity and quality of data, is a critical pillar of health equity, climate equity and more broadly, societal equity,” Mukherjee continued. “I am deeply honored to have this inaugural leadership position underscoring the importance of data to improve the human condition. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with the Yale community to advance our collective pursuit of creative, impactful, fair, and equitable data science.”

Mukherjee said the decision to leave the University of Michigan after 18 years was “exceptionally hard”. She thanked her students, friends, and colleagues at U-M for “shaping my vision for public health data science.”

Mukherjee joins a strong team of data scientists at YSPH. Faculty in the Department of Biostatistics are considered international leaders in their field and have been extensively recognized for their pioneering work. YSPH’s acclaimed public health modeling unit , which exists across multiple departments in the school, is particularly acclaimed for its deep and direct impact in Connecticut and internationally during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing policymakers with timely data-driven insights to help guide emergency response. YSPH’s core data science centers such as the Yale Center for Analytical Sciences , the Center for Methods in Implementation and Prevention Science , and Center for Perinatal, Pediatric and Environmental Epidemiology , bring researchers and scholars together to spur development of innovative statistical tools and techniques that are used to address today’s most pressing public health and biomedical challenges.

Biostatistics Department Chair Steven (Shuangge) Ma said Mukherjee’s leadership and research strengths will elevate YSPH data science work to a new level.

“Bhramar is a remarkable researcher and a true leader in the field,” Ma said. “She has made profound methodological contributions to the foundation of biostatistics and equally importantly public health practice. We are thrilled to have her join us.”

Mukherjee’s methodological research interests include statistical methods for analysis of electronic health records, studies of gene-environment interactions, shrinkage estimation, data integration, and analysis of multiple pollutants. Her collaborative contributions have focused on cancer, cardiovascular diseases, COVID-19, exposure science, environmental epidemiology, and reproductive health. She has co-authored more than 380 publications in statistics, biostatistics, medicine, and public health and has served as a principal investigator on multiple NSF and NIH grants. She is the founding director of the University of Michigan’s undergraduate Big Data Summer Institute and has been leading the program for the past nine years.

Mukherjee’s innovation and leadership in data science has been widely recognized. She is a fellow of the American Statistical Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2022. She is the recipient of many awards for her scholarship, service, and teaching at the University of Michigan and beyond, including the Gertrude M. Cox award, the L. Adrienne Cupples award, the Janet L. Norwood award, the Karl E. Peace Award for Outstanding Statistical Contributions for the Betterment of Society, the Jerome Sacks Award for Outstanding Cross-Disciplinary Research in statistics and, most recently, the 2024 Marvin Zelen Leadership Award. She also is a recipient of the Outstanding Statistics Alumnus award, Distinguished Woman Scholar award, and Distinguished School of Science Alumnus award from her alma mater, Purdue University.

During her distinguished academic career at the University of Michigan, Mukherjee received many prestigious institutional awards including the School of Public Health Excellence in Teaching Award, Rackham Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award, the Sarah Goddard Power award for improving the work environment for women, and the highly coveted Distinguished University Professorship. Mukherjee and her team took an active role in modeling the SARS-CoV-2 virus trajectory in India during the COVID-19 pandemic. She has been featured in many major media outlets including the BBC, Der Spiegel, Forbes, NPR, the New York Times, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, and the Times of India.

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Featured in this article

• Megan L. Ranney, MD, MPH Dean of Yale School of Public Health and C.-E. A. Winslow Professor of Public Health (Health Policy) and Professor of Emergency Medicine
• Shuangge Steven Ma, PhD Department Chair and Professor of Biostatistics; Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health; Director, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Shared Resource

Former MIT researcher who killed Yale graduate student sentenced to 35 years in prison

N EW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A former researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was sentenced Tuesday to 35 years in prison for the killing of a Yale University graduate student found shot outside his car on a Connecticut street.

Qinxuan Pan, 33, who pleaded guilty to murder in February, apologized during a hearing in a New Haven courtroom packed with family and friends of the victim, Kevin Jiang.

“I feel sorry for what my actions caused and for everyone affected,” Pan said. “I fully accept my penalties.”

Jiang, 26, a U.S. Army veteran who grew up in Chicago and a graduate student at Yale's School of the Environment, had just left his fiancée's apartment in New Haven on the evening of Feb. 6, 2021, when he was shot multiple times by Pan, according to police and prosecutors. The couple had just gotten engaged days earlier.

Several of Jiang's relatives and friends spoke in court before the judge handed down the sentence, which Pan agreed to as part of his plea bargain.

“My son was a remarkable young man who cherished life and held deep (belief) in God. He had a bright future ahead — one that promised to spread God’s love far and wide,” said Jiang's father, Mingchen Jiang.

A motive for the killing was never made entirely clear. Investigators said they discovered that Pan and Jiang's fiancée were connected on social media and had met while at MIT, where both had graduated from and where Pan was working as a researcher at the time of the shooting.

According to the documents, Jiang’s fiancée told authorities she and Pan “never had a romantic or sexual relationship, they were just friends, but she did get a feeling that he was interested in her during that time.”

After the shooting, Pan fled the scene and eluded police for three months before being apprehended in Alabama , where officials said he was caught living under a fake name with $19,000 in cash, a passport and several cellphones.