Sociology Major and Minor

Major Requirements

A total of at least eleven courses, including:

Students should consult their advisor about the possibility of receiving major credit for sociology courses taken at other campuses, including Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore and the University of Pennsylvania. Normally, the department will grant such credit if the courses enhance the integrity of a program grounded in the Haverford curriculum.

Senior Project

Sociology majors must complete a senior thesis, which is a year-long research project. The thesis serves as a culmination of the department’s aims of having students “do sociology.” In preparation they will have taken many classes inside the department that have provided them with opportunities to understand critical theoretical debates in the literature and have introduced them to different research traditions within the discipline. These courses also provide the opportunity to examine shorter theoretical topics, as well as write shorter research papers. The senior thesis is the longest and most involved writing assignment, and as such presents students with an opportunity to complete a real research project.

The senior thesis consists of two courses, SOCL H450A and SOCL H450B. Each senior is required to formulate a research topic that addresses a theoretical problem that they evaluate through empirical investigations. Each senior selects and works regularly with a primary advisor, with whom they meet weekly, as part of a group and/or individually. They spend the fall semester refining their argument, working to construct an answerable research question that is generally based on concerns that have come from their previous coursework. Each senior also presents their work periodically to all department faculty and seniors. Students present their research problem, a report on how the work is developing, and a draft of a theoretical or an empirical section. This process provides the opportunity for students to develop their oral presentation skills. The process also encourages and facilitates the ability of students to work with more than one member of the faculty on their theses. These meetings also serve to foster cooperation and support among the students.

The spring semester is spent further backing up their argument with their empirical work, and revising the thesis into a completed form. Students continue to meet with their primary thesis advisors, collectively and/or individually every week. They continue to make oral presentations to the faculty and seniors in the department, culminating in a final public presentation before the department, including junior and newly declared sophomore majors, as well as invited guests.

Senior Project Learning Goals

The goals of the senior thesis process are to:

• provide students with an opportunity to pursue an original research question.
• allow them to develop arguments that are longer in length and more empirically supported than in research papers submitted in lower-level courses in the major.
• further develop research skills, including literature review and empirical analysis.
• improve their writing and oral presentation skills.

In regular classes faculty specify the nature of the work to be undertaken. Here students assume responsibility for their own work. They define their own research agenda autonomously—even if assisted by their advisors, and other faculty in (and outside of) the department—and they are expected to create a masterwork that manifests their ability to “do sociology.”

Senior Project Assessment

Each student’s work is then evaluated by all faculty in the department. Evaluation is based on whether the thesis:

•  formulates a research problem in theoretical terms.
• makes a cogent, sophisticated theoretical argument.
• masters literature relevant to the main argument, and contextualizes the argument within it.
• completes systematic empirical work appropriate to the research question
• is presented well, in both oral and written formats.