Professor Binder Explains Why Going to Harvard Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up To Be
While many believe that attending an Ivy League university opens up endless possibilities, Professor Amy Binder and UCSD graduate student Dan Davis discover there is a dark side to enrolling at Harvard and Stanford. In their current research project, they find that nearly 1/3 of all undergraduates at these universities go into just two professional fields directly upon graduation: financial services (especially investment banking) and consulting. To many this may not seem like a bad thing—these jobs offer high wages, great name recognition, and bragging rights. But students also find these jobs soul killing and meaningless and can’t wait to exit these fields. As Amy Binder writes in a recent issue of The Washington Monthly, our universities should do a better job of getting students into jobs that are meaningful to students and good for the country.
Read Professor Binder’s article:
Undergrads – New Fall Course Network Data and Methods
The Sociology Department is offering a new course this Fall quarter- SOCI 102 Network Data and Methods which will be taught by Professor Kevin Lewis. Course description: When we hear the word “social network,” we tend to think about contemporary social media such as Facebook and LinkedIn. But social network analysis as a sociological method existed long before the creation of the internet. Rather than viewing society as an aggregation of individuals, social network analysts focus on relationships between people as the central unit of analysis. This course will provide students with an introduction to social network analysis as a method of social scientific inquiry. Students will learn how to design a network study; collect, analyze, and visualize network data; and use these methods to answer an original sociological research question. In short, this class is something of a methodological complement to SOCI 122 (though either class can be taken independently of the other); while students in SOCI 122 learn about social network research, students in SOCI 102 learn the basics of how to conduct this research themselves.
Open Assistant Professor Position- Sociology of Science or Technology
The Department of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego (http://sociology.ucsd.edu/ ) is committed to academic excellence and diversity within the faculty, staff, and student body. We are searching for an assistant professor to begin July 1, 2015. The successful candidate will focus on the Sociology of Science or the Sociology of Technology, and will be expected to also affiliate with the Science Studies PhD Program at UCSD. The preferred candidate will have experience or a willingness to participate in teaching, mentoring, research or service towards building an equitable and diverse scholarly environment. We are open to a wide variety of theoretical and methodological approaches.
Applicants should submit a CV, samples of their written work, and contact information for three people who we will ask to write letters of reference. Applicants should also submit separate statements about their research agenda and their teaching. Finally, we ask applicants to include a separate statement describing past experience in activities that promote diversity and inclusion and/or plans to make future contributions. For further information about contributions to diversity statements, see http://facultyequity.ucsd.edu/Faculty-Applicant-C2D-Info.asp
Applicants should submit application materials electronically via UCSD’s Academic Personnel On-Line RECRUIT (https://apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/ ). Please select the following job title: SOCIOLOGY Assistant Professor (10-801) JPF00604.
Application deadline is now Monday, September 29, 2014.
Salary is commensurate with qualifications and based on University of California pay scales.
The University of California is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age or protected veteran status.
For applicants interested in spousal/partner employment, please visit the UCSD Partner Opportunities Program website: http://academicaffairs.ucsd.edu/offices/partneropp/ .
Cindy Schairer accepts postdoc at UCSD Medical School
Cindy Schairer, who recently defended her dissertation in the department, has accepted a position as a postdoctoral scholar in the UCSD Medical School. She will be part of a project examining public discourse about privacy risks and public health benefits of HIV transmission network analyses. Congratulations to Cindy.
Department of Sociology 