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This virtual book launch will celebrate the publication of The Routledge Handbook of Refugee Narratives (2023), co-edited by Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi and Vinh Nguyen. This open-access Handbook presents a transnational and interdisciplinary study of refugee narratives, broadly defined. Interrogating who can be considered a refugee and what constitutes a narrative, the thirty-eight chapters included in this collection encompass a range of forcibly displaced subjects, a mix of geographical and historical contexts, and a variety of storytelling modalities. This book launch will feature presentations from eight of the volume's authors: Bishupal Limbu, Asha Varadharajan, Regina Marie Mills, Veronika Zablotsky. Himadri Chatterjee, Emily Hue, Hadji Bakara, and Erin Goheen Glanville.

March 16th, 2023 12:30pm - 1:45pm

Featured book: Leisy J. Abrego, Duke University Press (with Genevieve Negrón-Gonzales). The widely recognized “Dreamer narrative” celebrates the educational and economic achievements of undocumented youth to justify a path to citizenship. While a well-intentioned, strategic tactic to garner political support of undocumented youth, it has promoted the idea that access to citizenship and rights should be granted only to a select group of “deserving” immigrants. The contributors to We Are Not Dreamers—themselves currently or formerly undocumented—poignantly counter the Dreamer narrative by grappling with the nuances of undocumented life in this country. Theorizing those excluded from the Dreamer category—academically struggling students, transgender activists, and queer undocumented parents—the contributors call for an expansive articulation of immigrant rights and justice that recognizes the full humanity of undocumented immigrants while granting full and unconditional rights. Illuminating how various institutions reproduce and benefit from exclusionary narratives, this volume articulates the dangers of the Dreamer narrative and envisions a different way forward. More...

Featured book: Cecilia Menjívar, The Oxford Handbook of Migration Crises (with Marie Ruiz and Immanuel Ness). The objective of The Oxford Handbook of Migration Crises is to deconstruct, question, and redefine through a critical lens what is commonly understood as "migration crises." The volume covers a wide range of historical, economic, social, political, and environmental conditions that generate migration crises around the globe. At the same time, it illuminates how the media and public officials play a major role in framing migratory flows as crises. The volume brings together an exceptional group of scholars from around the world to critically examine migration crises and to revisit the notion of crisis through the context in which permanent and non-permanent migration flows occur. More...

Featured book: Kelly Lytle Hernández's book, City of Inmates: Conquest, Rebellion, and the Rise of Human Caging in Los Angeles, 1771–1965 Los Angeles incarcerates more people than any other city in the United States, which imprisons more people than any other nation on Earth. This book explains how the City of Angels became the capital city of the world’s leading incarcerator. Marshaling more than two centuries of evidence, historian Kelly Lytle Hernández unmasks how histories of native elimination, immigrant exclusion, and black disappearance drove the rise of incarceration in Los Angeles. In this telling, which spans from the Spanish colonial era to the outbreak of the 1965 Watts Rebellion, Hernández documents the persistent historical bond between the racial fantasies of conquest, namely its settler colonial form, and the eliminatory capacities of incarceration. More...

Featured book: David Yoo's edited volume, The Oxford Handbook of Asian American History (with Eiichiro Azuma) The  Oxford Handbook of Asian American History  offers the first comprehensive commentary on the state of the field, simultaneously assessing where Asian American studies came from and what the future holds. In this volume, thirty leading scholars offer original essays on a wide range of topics. The chapters trace Asian American history from the beginning of the migration flows toward the Pacific Islands and the American continent to Japanese American incarceration and Asian American participation in World War II, from the experience of exclusion, violence, and racism to the social and political activism of the late twentieth century. The authors explore many of the key aspects of the Asian American experience, including politics, economy, intellectual life, the arts, education, religion, labor, gender, family, urban development, and legal history. More...

Featured book: Cecilia Menjívar and Leisy Abrego's book, Immigrant Families (with Leah Schmalzbauer) There is no quintessential immigrant experience, as immigrants and their families arrive with different levels of economic, social, and cultural resources, and must navigate various social structures that shape how they fare.  Immigrant Families  highlights the hierarchies and inequities between and within immigrant families created by key axes of inequality such as legal status, social class, gender, and generation. Drawing on ethnographic, demographic, and historical scholarship, the authors highlight the transnational context in which many contemporary immigrant families live, exploring how families navigate care, resources, expectations, and aspirations across borders. Ultimately, the book analyzes how dynamics at the individual, family, and community levels shape the life chances and wellbeing of immigrants and their families. More...

Featured book: Roger Waldinger's edited volume, A Century of Transnationalism: Immigrants and their Home Connections (with Nancy L. Green) The burgeoning literature on immigrant transnationalism is one of the academic success stories of our times. Yet having reminded scholars that migrants, in leaving home for a new life abroad, inevitably tie place of origin and destination together, scholars of transnationalism have also insisted that today's cross-border connections are unprecedented. This collection of articles by sociologically minded historians and historically minded sociologists takes aim at that contention. Looking back over the past century and more, the book highlights both the long-term persistence and the continuing instability of home country connections. More...

Featured book: Ruben Hernandez-Leon's book, Skills of the "Unskilled": Work and Mobility among Mexican Migrants (with Jacqueline Hagan and Jean-Luc Demonsant) Most labor and migration studies classify migrants with limited formal education or credentials as “unskilled.” Despite the value of migrants' work experiences and the substantial technical and interpersonal skills developed throughout their lives, the labor-market contributions of these migrants are often overlooked and their mobility pathways poorly understood. Skills of the “Unskilled” reports the findings of a five-year study that draws on research including interviews with 320 Mexican migrants and return migrants in North Carolina and Guanajuato, Mexico. The authors uncover these migrants’ lifelong human capital and identify mobility pathways associated with the acquisition and transfer of skills across the migratory circuit, including reskilling, occupational mobility, job jumping, and entrepreneurship. More...

Featured book: Lorrie Frasure-Yokley's book, Racial and Ethnic Politics in American Suburbs Racial and Ethnic Politics in American Suburbs examines racial and ethnic politics outside traditional urban contexts and questions the standard theories we use to understand mobility and government responses to rapid demographic change and political demands. This study moves beyond traditional scholarship in urban politics, departing from the persistent treatment of racial dynamics in terms of a simple black-white binary. Combining an interdisciplinary, multi-method, and multiracial approach with a well-integrated analysis of multiple forms of data including focus groups, in-depth interviews, and census data, Racial and Ethnic Politics in American Suburbs explains how redistributive policies and programs are developed and implemented at the local level to assist immigrants, racial/ethnic minorities, and low-income groups - something that given earlier knowledge and theorizing should rarely happen. Lorrie Frasure-Yokley relies on the framework of suburban institutional interdependency (SII), which presents a new way of thinking systematically about local politics within the context of suburban political institutions in the United States today. More...

Featured book: Marjorie Faulstich Orellana's book, Immigrant Children in Transcultural Spaces: Language, Learning and Love Immigrant Children in Transcultural Spaces speaks to critical social issues and debates about education, immigration, multilingualism and multiculturalism in an historical moment in which borders are being built up, torn down, debated and recreated, in both real and symbolic terms; raises questions about the values that drive educational practice and decision-making; and suggests alternatives to the status quo. At its heart, it is a book about how love can serve as a driving force to connect people with each other across all kinds of borders, and to motivate children to engage powerfully with learning and life. More...

Featured book: Carola Suarez-Orozco's edited volume, Transitions: The Development of Children of Immigrants (with Mona M. Abo-Zena and Amy K. Marks) How are immigrant children like all other children, and how are they unique? What challenges as well as what opportunities do their circumstances present for their development? What characteristics are they likely to share because they have immigrant parents, and what characteristics are unique to specific groups of origin? How are children of first-generation immigrants different from those of second-generation immigrants? Transitions offers comprehensive coverage of the field’s best scholarship on the development of immigrant children, providing an overview of what the field needs to know—or at least systematically begin to ask—about the immigrant child and adolescent from a developmental perspective. More...

Featured book: Min Zhou's book, The Asian American Achievement Paradox (with Jennifer Lee) Asian Americans are often stereotyped as the “model minority.” Their sizeable presence at elite universities and high household incomes have helped construct the narrative of Asian American “exceptionalism.” While many scholars and activists characterize this as a myth, pundits claim that Asian Americans’ educational attainment is the result of unique cultural values. In The Asian American Achievement Paradox, sociologists Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou offer a compelling account of the academic achievement of the children of Asian immigrants… While pundits ascribe Asian American success to the assumed superior traits intrinsic to Asian culture, Lee and Zhou show how historical, cultural, and institutional elements work together to confer advantages to specific populations. An insightful counter to notions of culture based on stereotypes, The Asian American Achievement Paradox offers a deft and nuanced understanding of how and why certain immigrant groups succeed. More...

Featured book: Roger Waldinger's book, The Cross-Border Connection: Immigrants, Emigrants, and Their Homelands International migration presents the human face of globalization, with consequences that make headlines throughout the world. The Cross-Border Connection addresses a paradox at the core of this phenomenon: emigrants departing one society become immigrants in another, tying those two societies together in a variety of ways. In nontechnical language, Roger Waldinger explains how interconnections between place of origin and destination are built and maintained and why they eventually fall apart. …Although widely studied, cross-border connections remain misunderstood, both by scholars convinced that globalization is leading to a deterritorialized world of unbounded loyalties and flows, and by policy makers trying to turn migration into an engine of development. Not since Oscar Handlin’s classic The Uprooted has there been such a precisely argued, nuanced study of the immigrant experience. More...

Featured Article

The UCLA distinguished professor of sociology answers questions about the current state of global migration...

A conference in Roger Waldinger's honor, to be held at UCSD on May 5, with...

Catherine Crooke, a talented Ph.D. student in sociology, is thriving at UCLA with the support...

Sophia Ángeles and Tianjian Lai have each been awarded a $20,000 Haynes Foundation doctoral award...

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The graduate program in Social Psychology features a distinguished faculty and numerous research opportunities in laboratory and field settings within a culturally diverse and multifaceted metropolitan area. Our faculty areas of expertise are broad and center on basic research on close relationships, intergroup relations, and social cognitive neuroscience. In addition, faculty interests include political psychology, positive psychology, sport psychology, stress and coping, and issues pertaining to culture, ethnicity, gender, and evolutionary psychology. A long tradition of interest in social problems and the applicability of rigorous, theory-driven research to addressing such issues is a distinctive feature of our program.

Familiarity with social psychology is gained through a two-quarter course sequence during the first year of graduate work, and followed by seminars in close relationships, intergroup relations, and social cognition. Students concentrate on a single research project in the first and second years (Psych 251) culminating with the receipt of the Master’s degree. As training progresses thereafter, social psychology students typically work with several faculty members to develop an increasing focus on their own particular topics in research, and expertise in the associated methods.

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Most social psychology faculty members run weekly small lab meetings with graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and visiting professors in which important training experience is gained above and beyond individual research supervision and coursework. Seminars and biweekly colloquia presentations by distinguished visiting speakers, students, and faculty are also offered and round out the course of studies.

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• Sociology Forum

UCLA Sociology PhD

By caligurl59 January 20, 2022 in Sociology Forum

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Hi everyone! I applied to UCLA for the sociology PhD program, and my portal was recently updated with a University ID number. I was wondering if anyone else had the same experience - does this indicate anything or is it given to all applicants? 

Feel free to use this thread to talk about the UCLA sociology program or anything else related!

FuturePhDPls

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Jeff Guhin said on twitter that "we're nowhere near announcing here."

4 hours ago, caligurl59 said: Hi everyone! I applied to UCLA for the sociology PhD program, and my portal was recently updated with a University ID number. I was wondering if anyone else had the same experience - does this indicate anything or is it given to all applicants?  Feel free to use this thread to talk about the UCLA sociology program or anything else related!

 I just checked my UCLA application, and it has the same thing. Unfortunately, I don’t think it means anything in regards to admittance. I received a UM ID from Michigan and a subsequent rejection letter after in 2019. 

12 hours ago, caligurl59 said: Hi everyone! I applied to UCLA for the sociology PhD program, and my portal was recently updated with a University ID number. I was wondering if anyone else had the same experience - does this indicate anything or is it given to all applicants?  Feel free to use this thread to talk about the UCLA sociology program or anything else related!

CinnamonCream

Hi all, I saw it on the latest results page for UCLA that someone wrote to the grad coordinator and received the response as follows: 

"Some decisions may be released in January and others will come in February. Our admissions committee meet weekly to make decisions but I cannot tell you the exact timeline. We should be able to notify everyone by mid-February. Good luck."

Additionally, I agree that the University ID is probably assigned to all applicants. 

• 2 weeks later...

Saw several offers posted on the result board so far; does it seem like all offers are out? Is it safe to assume rejection if haven't heard anything? 

2 hours ago, wzzzzzz said: Saw several offers posted on the result board so far; does it seem like all offers are out? Is it safe to assume rejection if haven't heard anything? 

May be there is a little possibility since they send out offers after conducting interviews which means that there are still some applications are currently under review.

However, if i stand back and think about situation, i don't have much hope to myself. 

venusasaboy

I don't think it's safe to assume rejection at all! Just looking at CinnamonCream's message directly from a grad coordinator, it looks like they do review and notification in waves. Some schools may do everything all acceptances at once but UCLA does not look like one of them.

• wzzzzzz and caligurl59

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Sociology ma, cphil, phd.

• PhD in Social Welfare

About Our Doctoral Program

Chair Todd Franke, PhD 

Our doctoral program in social welfare at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs is among the finest in the nation. Each year, we select a small group of scholars from diverse disciplines to join us for a rigorous, tailored study program that includes personalized instruction and applied research experience. Expert mentors guide our doctoral students during their time in the program, and our graduates go on to secure academic positions at top-tier research universities across the world.

Our department has an active plan to address racism and anti-Blackness which can be viewed here . We invite PhD students who are interested in anti-racism work to join us as we continually seek to reflect on and improve our educational and scholarly practices in social work.

Students take advantage of the rich learning resources in the Social Welfare Department and other departments within the Luskin School during their time at UCLA. A distinct advantage of our program is its connection to the larger UCLA campus. Each year, students can take courses in allied disciplines, including medicine, nursing, public health, psychology, and sociology. The purpose of this interdisciplinary approach is to enable our students to develop substantive and methodological knowledge consonant with cutting-edge scholarship in their area of specialization.

Throughout the program, we offer professional development seminars and workshops on a variety of topics. In recognition of the considerable knowledge and skills required of those contemplating academic careers, our students are encouraged to publish in scholarly journals, present at national conferences, and submit extramural proposals to support their independent research. Through these efforts, our students enter the job market with competitive records of scholarly productivity. Students are invited to join our job seekers program in their final year, which provides personalized mentorship to success in the academic job market.

Financial aid packages include full tuition plus stipends in the first four years in the form of fellowship support and paid teaching assistantships. Full-time students will be expected to enroll in twelve units of study each quarter. It is possible to complete the program in four years, although some take a year longer. We also offer a small combined MSW/Ph.D.** program in which prospective students without a master’s degree in social welfare can apply for acceptance into a program of study that leads to both the MSW and the Ph.D. degrees.

The pandemic exerted tremendous pressure on American society, including higher education. It forced a host of changes to how we live, teach and conduct research. Some of our adaptations have accelerated already existing trends, like online teaching and the increase in remote mentoring and advising. Much of the most lasting impact may turn out to be invisible. While it’s likely that the coming-of-age generation will bear long-term consequences, it’s less clear what those might be relative to the Academy. Today’s young scholars may think of health and job flexibility differently from earlier generations, as more common good than something intrinsically personal. Our department is prepared to help our students consider all their options

The due date for application materials is December 15th. For more information, please contact me by email at [email protected]  or by phone at (310) 206-6102. We look forward to receiving your application and welcome your questions of inquiry.

The program has several significant features. Research training, both formal and experiential, is at the core of the program. Flexibility is provided to help students attain in-depth competence in a substantive area of social welfare. Students progress from a common foundation in scholarship and research methods toward a high degree of individualized specialization. This common foundation emphasizes the acquisition of analytic tools needed to understand, appraise and advance knowledge in social welfare. With these analytical tools, the students select a specific area of specialization and develop expertise in that area. Considerable emphasis is placed on the individualized instructional relationship between students and faculty mentors. The learning process involves more than classroom instruction. Students are expected to work closely with faculty in their roles as scholars and researchers. The program is interdisciplinary and students are encouraged to use the rich learning resources of the entire University.

Full-time students usually will be expected to enroll in twelve units of study each quarter. There are approximately two years of coursework prior to the dissertation. Although diversity of backgrounds makes it difficult to predict, students are expected to complete the program in about four years.

Financial Aid

The Doctoral Program of the Department of Social Welfare provides various sources of financial aid, including fellowships, tuition waivers, research and teaching assistantships, and training grants. The basic financial aid package for all new students accepted into the program consists of tuition coverage and at least two years of stipend support.  Additional funding is possible after year two through research and teaching assistantships, private fellowships, competitive campus grants, among other sources. Our students are typically funded for at least the first four years of study.

Eugene V.   Cota-Robles Fellowship   provides 4 years of support for entering doctoral students from cultural, racial, linguistic, geographic and socioeconomic backgrounds that are currently underrepresented in graduate education and who are interested in a career in college or university research and teaching.  Applicants must submit a Diversity Statement by December 15.  Instructions are available at Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship | UCLA Graduate Programs.

UCLA Graduate Student Financial Support Travel Grants

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Other tuition and stipend award packages are available from the following sources: 

• Luskin Graduate Fellowship Fund
• Olive M. Stone Scholarship Endowment
• Leon and Toby Gold Endowed Fellowship in Care of the Elderly
• James and Judy Bergman Endowed Fellowship

Doctoral students who are interested in acquiring experience in teaching as preparation for an academic teaching role are provided with the opportunity to assist faculty members in the instruction of selected undergraduate and graduate courses. Interested students are encouraged to apply for teaching assistantships after completion of the second year in the program.

The UCLA Financial Aid Office administers grants-in-aid and loans to students. The Fellowship and Assistantship Office of Graduate Division administers University fellowships and is a source of information and application materials for fellowships offered by private foundations and agencies.

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Appointment of Abel Valenzuela Jr. as Dean of UCLA’s Division of Social Sciences

Dear Colleagues:

I write to share that following a comprehensive search process, Abel Valenzuela Jr. has been appointed dean of the UCLA College Division of Social Sciences.

Serving as interim dean of the division since Sept. 1, 2022, Dean Valenzuela has provided steadfast leadership and oversight of the division. Among his accomplishments in his interim capacity, he has moved the division forward with key ladder-rank faculty hires and retention, supporting divisional and campuswide priorities around equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives; and he has appointed new chairs and research center directors that will support the division. Dean Valenzuela has also secured multiple gifts for the division, raising more than $5 million and nurturing other potential gifts that will enhance the social sciences. He has worked closely with the Social Sciences Advisory Board, adding several new members and partnering to shape divisional priorities, including securing the endowed Lifka Staff Excellence Award in the social sciences — the first such endowment at UCLA.

A member of our faculty for a remarkable 30 years, Dean Valenzuela holds appointments in the César E. Chávez Department for Chicana/o and Central American Studies as well as in Labor Studies in the UCLA College Division of Social Sciences. He also holds an appointment in the Department of Urban Planning at the Luskin School of Public Affairs. In addition to serving as interim dean, he has held several other academic leadership positions including chairing Chicana/o and Central American studies for two terms and directing the Center for the Study of Urban Poverty. Dean Valenzuela was also special advisor to the chancellor on immigration policy, contributing to student success among immigrant, undocumented and international students.

As director of UCLA’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) for six years, he oversaw labor studies, the Labor Center, the Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program (LOSH) and the Human Resources Round Table, which are dedicated to advancing research, teaching and service on labor and employment issues in Los Angeles and beyond. During his leadership, IRLE successfully purchased and renamed the downtown labor center as the UCLA James Lawson Jr. Worker Justice Center. The Labor Center and LOSH generated millions in extramural research grants and contracts under Dean Valenzuela’s leadership, and the IRLE and labor studies launched a successful major for undergraduates — the first of its kind within the University of California.

A leading expert on immigrant and low-wage workers, Dean Valenzuela continues to contribute to national public and policy conversations and has published numerous articles and reports on immigrant settlement, labor market outcomes, urban poverty and inequality. His scholarship has shaped research on itinerant workers, worker centers and immigrant work. His studies have engaged local stakeholders and community-based organizations, and influenced policy and legislation on issues related to labor, social stratification, race, poverty and neighborhood change. Dean Valenzuela earned his B.A. from UC Berkeley and his master’s and Ph.D. in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

I wish to thank the search/advisory committee members for assembling an outstanding pool of candidates for this position and for their role in recruiting Dean Valenzuela. Miguel A. García-Garibay, senior dean of the College, dean of the Division of Physical Sciences and distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry, chaired the committee. Other members were:

• Andrew Atkeson – Stanley M. Zimmerman Professor of Economics and Finance
• Lorrie Frasure – director, Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies; Ralph J. Bunche Endowed Chair; professor of political science and African American studies
• Jamie M. Goodwin-White – associate professor of geography
• Tobias Higbie – professor of history and labor studies; director of the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment
• Kerri L. Johnson – professor of communication and of psychology; associate vice chancellor for faculty development
• Purnima Mankekar – professor of anthropology; Asian American studies; gender studies; and film, television and digital media
• Megan Sweeney – professor of sociology
• Chris Zepeda-Millán – associate professor of Chicana/o studies, sociology, political science and public policy

Looking ahead, Dean Valenzuela plans to continue prioritizing staff excellence in social sciences with development activities and investments; supporting faculty recruitment and retention efforts to secure, maintain and enhance UCLA’s core mission and excellence in research, teaching and service; and to advance graduate student support, including strengthening our connections and resources for international students.

Given his longstanding leadership and commitment to UCLA, Chancellor Block and I are confident that Abel will continue to help the Division of Social Sciences reach new heights. Please join us in congratulating Abel on his many achievements as he takes on the role of permanent dean.

Darnell Hunt Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost

Former UCD Ph.D. elected into the National Academy of Science

• by Joanna I Kaminski
• May 10, 2024

History of the Summer School

In order to promote quantitative social science teaching, and to provide a systematic training curriculum for graduate students and junior scholars, CASER Director, Professor Xiaogang Wu, initiated the Summer School in Applied Social Science Research Methods in 2012, in partner with School of Sociology and Political Science at Shanghai University (SHU). The summer school, subsequently expanded to training classes in other cities such as Guangzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan, and Shenzhen, and in 2024, has now reached its 13 th  year.

The following training classes have been completed from 2012-2023:

Our past instructors included: Tianji CAI (University of Macau), Feinian CHEN (Univ. of Maryland, College Park), Shenyang Guo (Washington U, St. Louis), Guanglei Hong (Univ. of Chicago), Ge Lin Kan (Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas), Qing Lai (Florida International Univ.), Yongren Shi (Univ. of Iowa), Donald Treiman (UCLA), Raymond Wong (HKUST), Jun Xu (Ball State Univ.), Claire Yang (Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), Min Zhou (Univ. of Victoria), Yongjun Zhang (State Univ. of New York, Stony Brook), Hongwei Xu (City Univ. of New York, Queens College).

The majority of courses are taught in Chinese. Since 2012, the Summer School has offered 49 courses to over 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students, junior researchers and practitioners in a wide range of disciplines, including sociology, economics, political science, psychology, demography, education, public health, business, and communication. Participants have come from more than 300 universities and institutions around the world and the Summer School has been recognized as a main training program and platform for fostering an expansive research community for quantitative social science in China.

To provide students with learning materials, junior scholars and graduate students from the program translated 67 books from SAGE Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences (QASS) into Chinese ( https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/qass ), published by Truth & Wisdom Press (格致出版社) in Shanghai.

Professor Stuart Soroka in the Daily Bruin!

In the final episode of Code Red, Podcasts contributors Zoë Bordes and Alicia Ying sit down with UCLA professors Sarah Roberts and Stuart Soroka to get their perspective on the causes and consequences of online extremism. Correction: This podcast and the original version of its description incorrectly referred to Stuart Soroka as Robert Soroka.

Zoë Bordes : Welcome to the third episode of Code Red. In episode one, we explored the different definitions of online extremism, the reasons people turn to extremism and a few real-life examples. Then in episode two, we discussed how algorithms and misinformation contribute to online extremism. Today, we’ll be talking with experts to get their opinions on these topics.

Alicia Ying : In this episode, we have two amazing speakers lined up. First, we’ll hear from Dr. Sarah Roberts – an assistant professor at UCLA who’s a leading scholar on social media policy, commercial content moderation and the role of the internet in perpetuating global inequities. She’s also the faculty director of the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry, co-director of the Minderoo Initiative on Technology and Power, and a research associate of the Oxford Internet Institute. Dr. Roberts brings a unique perspective informed by feminist science and technology studies, and we’re excited to have her on the show.

ZB : Our second speaker is Dr. Stuart Soroka, a professor in the departments of communication and political science at UCLA. He is also the series editor for Cambridge Elements in Politics and Communication and an associate member of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship. Dr. Soroka specializes in political communication and political psychology, as well as the relationships between public policy, public opinion, and mass media. He is mainly interested in negativity and positivity within news coverage and the role of mass media in shaping representative democracy.

So, we’re going to begin by hearing Dr. Roberts’ take on the ethics of Big Tech.

AY : We live in a world where technology is seamlessly integrated into our lives, leading us to pay little attention to the hidden tools and algorithms designed to hook us into these online platforms. To understand Big Tech companies thriving off their users, we went to Dr. Roberts.

She says that users’ endless clicks, scrolls, swipes and content interactions themselves aren’t the endgame for companies.

Sarah Roberts : The companies are all about taking our activity, our preferences, our behavior, our networks of friends and others, and monetizing. And they monetize it, because it’s true. Their true clientele is other companies. So these are really what you would call like business to business corporations. They are trying to sell ad space, not an unfamiliar model to, you know, people who work in news media, but they’re trying to sell ad space, they’re trying to sell ads aligned with particular users and particular behaviors or particular preferences. And the thing with social media is because we do so much and all of that is tracked and analyzed to an absurd degree, the way in which those ads can be targeted and sold, the value that’s placed on them, is predicated on that specificity. We are being commoditized and sold. So that is what I mean when I say that we’re not really users, we’re being used.

AY : Basically, the main method of understanding how material is really evaluated is in the context of its monetary value in this ad marketplace.

ZB : Understanding this concept is crucial to grasp how economic models and user engagement expectations drive the decisions of platforms. These decisions impact the visibility of content. Whatever social media platform we decide to open, it’s really natural to anticipate fresh and engaging content that’s tailored to our past interactions. Dr. Roberts emphasized that at the end of the day, users are part of a production chain that shapes content. Content moderation, in essence, is an editorial practice that is driven by the platform’s economic interests. This perspective reveals that decisions on content moderation are driven not just by safety concerns but also by a need to maintain user engagement and satisfy advertisers. This alignment can lead to inconsistencies and challenges in moderating content effectively.

AY : With all of this in mind, we wonder at what point will these companies feel some sort of responsibility for all of the misinformed, extremist, violent and hateful content on their platforms.

SR : I think the answer is in, you know, the history of other industries that caused harm. They are disinclined to change a business model that is basically turning on a faucet from which, you know, Benjamins pour out, right? It’s just, “Hey guys, can you maybe make less money?”

AY : In our interview, Dr. Roberts listed off some previous examples when companies only acted when they were pressured. For example, despite the tobacco industry knowing that smoking caused cancer, they didn’t say anything. Another example is that the automobile industry didn’t always have safety features such as seatbelts and airbags in the event of accidents. People needed to educate and push for elected officials in Congress to add such regulations.

With all of this in mind, our crucial question is: At what point will social media companies acknowledge their responsibility for the spread of misinformed and extremist content on their platforms? The history of other industries suggests that companies are often reluctant to alter profitable business models, even in the face of harmful outcomes. Just as the tobacco industry long denied the dangers of smoking and the automobile industry resisted adding essential safety features, social media companies may need significant external pressure – whether from the public, regulators, or both – to implement meaningful changes.

As we’ve seen throughout this series, the ease with which users can be drawn into extremist content underscores the urgent need for a proactive approach. Social media platforms must consider their ethical responsibility to monitor and manage their content effectively not only to improve user safety but to foster a healthier digital environment for all of us. Understanding the complex dynamics of content moderation, which is driven by economic incentives, is essential in this endeavor. Only through informed advocacy and demanding accountability can we hope to influence these powerful entities to prioritize the well-being of their users over mere profit.

And with that, we turn to Dr. Soroka.

ZB : So, Dr. Soroka has done a lot of work on the negativity bias. This is how he defines it:

Stuart Soroka : So mammals have evolved with brains that prioritize negative information over positive information. And we attach valence to information, we identify the valence of information very, very quickly within milliseconds. And that identification of valence then structures how that information then finds its way through our brains and how we think about things, whether we pay attention to them, whether we believe them or don’t believe them, and all kinds of other things. So we along with other mammals exhibit negativity biases. And that means that when we go to read news, like any other situation in which we’re receiving information, when we go to read news, we’re going to be more attentive, more responsive to that negative information. So means we mean, we basically set media up to do this for us, right? The whole notion of media as a fourth estate, monitoring error and identifying error and letting us know, we kind of set media up so that media processes information, in the same way that our brains do, right? We’re all – we are and the media that we read – are prioritizing negative information. And that might make sense in an information environment in which we have to make decisions about what to pay attention to and what not to pay attention to. Right, it might make sense because the consequences of negative information are bigger than the consequences of positive information. But it might also make sense because in a very complex information environment, we can’t pay attention to everything all the time. We have to decide what to pay attention to. We have to have some kind of quick way of deciding, like not deciding by reading all of it, but some kind of quick, within milliseconds decision like, “This is the thing I’m going to be attentive to, and this is the thing I’m not going to be attentive to.” Because we just don’t have enough attention for all of it. So for all of those reasons, what you get is media consumption that prioritizes negative information and media production that prioritizes negative information.

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PhD Degree Requirements

Phd overview.

PhD students receive training in qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, sociological theory, and major substantive fields within sociology such as gender, sexuality, environment, race and ethnicity, culture, social networks, labor, immigration, and political economy. The department places a strong emphasis on research, and many students will find opportunities to participate in projects conducted by faculty members.

MA or MS and PhD in Sociology

Students are required to complete 55 credit hours of graduate-level work for the master’s degree, and an additional 20 credits, plus 18 dissertation credits, for the PhD. Students who have earned a master’s degree from another program must still complete the master’s paper requirement from the department as one of the steps toward earning the PhD. 

Students having completed graduate-level work in sociology prior to admission to the department may transfer credits to fulfill department requirements if a formal request is submitted to and approved by the Curriculum Committee. Most graduate courses are five (5) credit hours. All required courses must be taken on a graded basis. Students who are Graduate Employees (almost all students their first few years) usually take two or three (2-3)courses per term. The minimum number of credits required for students to enroll in is nine (9) if they have a contract, and three (3) if they do not.

Required Courses

Sociology 607 (Introduction to Graduate Sociology) All incoming students must take this seminar for three (3) credits. The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the department and the university community and should be taken their first term.

• Sociology 512 and 513 (Sociological Research Methods): These courses cover quantitative methods, including hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, multiple regression, regression methods with dichotomous and limited dependent variables, and an overview of other advanced quantitative methods. 
• Sociology 612 (Research Design): This course provides hands-on coverage of research design issues, including problem/question formulation, literature review, hypothesis construction, sampling decisions, choice of method for data collection, and strategies for data analysis. The final assignment is a comprehensive proposal for research suitable for the master’s paper requirement. To assist their progress toward the proposal, students work through exercises resulting in draft components of the proposal. Enrollment is normally restricted to sociology graduate students. 
• Two (2) advanced methods courses (Sociology 613), one (1) of which can be taken post-master’s. Advanced methods classes taken must include two (2) separate methods, as determined by the judgment of the student’s advisor.
• One (1) advanced theory course (Sociology 615): These courses focus on specialized traditions of social theory or the works of a major theorist. A second advanced theory course can be substituted for one of the substantive graduate seminars (see G below), as long as the content differs substantially from the first 615 course, as determined by the student’s advisor. The second course may be taken post-master’s. 
• Sociology 617 and Sociology 618 (Sociological Theory I and II): These courses cover major 19th, 20th, and 21st century social theorists, especially Marx, Weber, and Durkheim, and major themes in contemporary sociological theory.

Substantive Seminars

Students must take four (4) substantive graduate seminars or three (3) substantive seminars and a second advanced theory course. In either case, at least two (2)substantive seminars must be taken pre-master’s. 

The substantive seminars are: 

• Sociology 616 (Environment and Resources)
• Sociology 644 (Race and Ethnicity)
• Sociology 646 (Work and Organizations)
• Sociology 656 (Issues in the Sociology of Gender)
• Sociology 664 (Political and Economic Sociology)

Any of the above seminars may be taken more than once, so long as the class content differs substantially each time. Both syllabi must be submitted to the Curriculum Committee to confirm the difference.

Master’s Paper and Electives

To meet the master’s requirement, students take two (2) classes (10 credits) of electives in sociology at the 500- or 600-level. Only one (1) independent study course (SOC 601 - Research or SOC 605 - Reading), taken for a grade, can  be used to meet elective requirements.

Students register for five (5) credits of SOC 608 - Master’s Paper in the term they complete their master’s paper.

Master’s Paper

• All students must complete a master’s paper. Students should be able to complete the course requirements for a master’s degree and the master’s paper requirement in their first six (6) terms of enrollment. Students can be granted an extension to a seventh term without consequence if they make a formal request in writing before the end of their sixth term providing a brief explanation of the reason the extension is required, and so long as this request is approved by both committee members and the director of graduate studies. Students who have not completed the requirements within the first six (6) terms will not be in good standing and will not be assured of a GE position until they complete the requirements (they may receive one if a position is available). Students who do not complete the requirements by the end of nine (9) quarters of enrollment will need to appeal for an extension. This extension will only be granted if both committee members, the director of graduate studies, and the department head agree that it is warranted. 
• The paper is to report original empirical research with an appropriate theoretical context. The paper should be of a style, length, and content appropriate for submission to a peer-reviewed journal in the social sciences. The standard of assessment is whether the paper is worthy of submission to the selected journal. 
• The student may base the paper on research conducted for an academic degree at another institution or in another program at the University of Oregon. With the approval of the committee, the student may also submit for this requirement an article already published or accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed social science journal. A student who has completed an empirically based master’s thesis that is sociological in content in another program may revise it so that it fits with the department’s expectations and format and submit it for the master’s paper requirement. 
• For the master’s paper, the student will need to select a committee of two faculty members, one of whom is the chair. The thesis committee does not require an outside member or an oral defense. The Master’s Paper requirement is met when both committee members approve the paper.

Comprehensive Examination 

The Comprehensive Examination (c-exam) will determine the degree to which a student has gained a mastery over the substantive knowledge, theory and methodology of one area of sociological inquiry distinct from the area to which the master’s paper contributes as determined by the c-exam committee. 

• The area of the examination is selected by the student in consultation with a special committee consisting of at least three (3) faculty members, two (2) of whom must be sociology faculty; the chair of the committee must also be a sociology faculty member. The committee will be responsible for preparing and evaluating the examination. The examination is a three-day (3-day) written examination of the student’s mastery of a reading list approved by the committee. Although the student may suggest a list of questions for the examination, the committee decides on the questions. The committee poses the questions to the student at the start of the exam, and the student has three (3) days to submit their answers.
• In defining the areas of examination, the committee has the responsibility of guarding against both narrow specialization and unrealistically broad aspirations on the part of the student. The current list of sections within the American Sociological Association should serve as models for balancing breadth and depth.
• Students who fail to pass an examination on the first attempt will be permitted to take the examination a second time. Students failing an examination twice will be terminated from the program. 
• To remain in good standing, a requirement for assurance of departmental funding, students must complete the c-exam by the end of their ninth term of enrollment (excluding summers) in the department based on the regular academic calendar.
• Students should negotiate in advance with the c-exam committee for when they can commit to completing the evaluation. The committee should be given at least three (3) weeks to complete its evaluation.
• Students are advanced to candidacy after completing coursework and passing the c-exam. Students will be promoted to GE 3 the term after advancement.  

Doctoral Dissertation 

Once the c-exam and coursework are complete, students are advanced to candidacy and begin work on their dissertation proposal.

• The doctoral dissertation committee will be composed of at least three (3) sociology faculty members and an additional outside member of the UO graduate faculty not affiliated with the Department of Sociology who serves as a representative of the Dean of the Graduate School. This committee should be proposed to the Dean of the Graduate School by the fall of the student’s fifth year of enrollment and no later than six (6) months before the date of completion of the Ph.D. degree.
• The dissertation committee will be formed at the student’s initiative after passing the Comprehensive Examination (c-exam). All PhD candidates must prepare a dissertation proposal and formally defend it before their committee no later than the fall of their fifth year of enrollment, or they will not be in good academic standing, potentially making them ineligible for departmental funding. Students are encouraged to defend before the end of their fourth year in the program.
• The student should refer to the Style Manual for Theses and Dissertations published by the graduate school. This manual includes regulations for the dissertation and a checklist of timing for completion of certain administrative procedures.
• Students are required to enroll in at least three (3) credits of SOC 603 both the term before they defend AND the term they defend.

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Ready to apply? Start your application on Slate, the centralized application portal for graduate admissions at the University of Oregon.

Graduate Program Director

Kari Marie Norgaard Email: [email protected] Phone number: 541-346-8615 Office hours: By appointment

Graduate Coordinators

Sharon Kaplan Email: [email protected]

Rachel Claric Email: [email protected]