What Do You Want to Know About Sociology Departments or Programs?

This year, the ASA Research Department will be conducting a new survey of sociology departments and programs. We are asking departments for their input as we begin drafting the 2012 questionnaire. What would you like to see addressed in the new survey? What are the issues that your department or program are currently facing? What information does the Dean want to know?

Please post your comments.

PhDs in the Job Market: Comparing Sociology With Other Disciplines

We began the new year with our annual study of the sociology job market. In this two-part study, we will first be looking at the number and types of jobs advertised through the ASA in 2011. Findings will be reported this year. For the second part of the study, we will be surveying departments that advertised assistant rank positions to determine how many searches were conducted and jobs were filled in 2011. Survey results will be reported this summer. (Findings from last year’s study is available on our website).

In the meantime, early data from this study was reported in this week’s Chronicle of Higher Education article on job market trends in select disciplines. **Please note that you will need an account to view the article.

For Departments Participating in the New Survey of Sociology Majors

The Research Department has begun a new longitudinal study of senior sociology majors from the class of 2012. To conduct this study, the ASA has asked participating departments for the names and email addresses of students that will be invited to take the survey in the Spring. Department chairs and undergraduate program directors tend to face obstacles in providing this information, including sometimes strict Institutional Review Board requirements. We invite faculty to use this space as a forum for questions and to share experiences that might help other departments facing the same obstacles.

For those of you unfamiliar with the study, visit our website to learn more, download the Phase I questionnaire, and view a list of participating departments.

Looking for Data on Sociology?

Want to know how many bachelors degrees were awarded in sociology in 1990? Or maybe how sociology faculty salaries compare to political science? You can find this, and other data on sociology and social science degrees and enrollment, employment, funding, and sociology programs, as well as ASA membership on our Trend Data page. Links to similar datasets can be found on our Data Resources page.

Join the ASA Wikipedia Initiative (Updated 1/6/2012)

The ASA is calling on members to use the power of Wikipedia to represent the discipline of sociology as fully and as accurately as possible. Additionally, we seek to promote the free teaching of sociology worldwide.

The broad goals of the ASA Wikipedia Initiative are:

• Ensure that articles about sociological research, terminology, and theory are accurate, up-to-date, complete, and written in a style appropriate for the general public,
• Ensure that articles are based on independent reliable secondary sources
• To represent scientific controversies from a social science perspective, writing articles in a neutral style
• Improve and review articles to Good Article and Featured Article quality
• Assess sociology-related articles and tag them appropriately when there are problems

All ASA members are encouraged to participate by adding new entries and enhancing existing ones with more complete and accurate information with references. This is an especially exciting initiative for teachers and students who can make updating or creating Wikipedia entries part of coursework.

Such work can teach students:

• that even the simplest ideas are hard to communicate to general audiences
• the importance of logic, strength of argument, flow and clarity of writing, and citations of the appropriate literature
• the significance of accuracy in scientific writing

To get started, visit the ASA website.

Tutorials are available, introducing you to Wikipedia, its community, and editing process. There are also tools available to match ASA members and students to appropriate volunteer opportunities in Wikipedia, and easy ways to connect contributors to fellow volunteers and Wikipedia experts.

Feel free to download and distribute the ASA Wikipedia Initiative Information Flyer.

 

Technology and Faculty Networks

The latest findings from our longitudinal study of the diffusion of innovation in and adoption of cutting-edge teaching materials by teaching and learning networks are now available in the Powerpoint presentation, The Effects of Technology on the Growth of a Teaching and Learning Network. These findings were presented last month at the 2011 Research and Evaluation on Education in Science and Engineering (REESE) PI Meeting in Pentagon City.

(photo credits: EERA_ECER)

The ASA Research Department is Now on Facebook

The ASA Research Department has a Facebook page! Give us your thumbs up to receive updates about new publications, meetings, funding opportunities, and other happenings in the department. Also, if your department or organization has a Facebook page, please let us know.

The Impact of Cross-Race Mentoring on PhD Careers

A new research brief, “The Impact of Cross-Race Mentoring for ‘Ideal’ and ‘Alternative’ PhD Careers in Sociology” is now available on our website. As always, we invite your comments and questions.

Improvements in the Academic Job Market

Moving Towards Change: Findings from the 2010 Job Bank Survey is now available on our website. In it, we discuss what happened to the jobs available to newly minted PhDs that were advertised through the ASA in 2010. This year, we also compare specializations requested by employers to the academic interests of our student membership, as indicated on membership forms. Have a read and feel free to post your comments here. We are always interested to hear what you may be interested to learn from these surveys in the future.

New Findings on Masters Degree Programs

We have just posted a new data brief on the survival of masters programs. Are Masters Programs Closing? What Makes for Success in Staying Open discusses findings from a follow-up to our 2009 survey of graduate program directors. Findings from that earlier survey are available in What Can I Do With a Masters Degree in Sociology? The Department in Context.

For additional research on masters programs, visit the What Can I Do With a Masters Degree in Sociology? webpage.