Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Development Sociology

The graduate program in Development Sociology is noted for its ability to provide training that is tailored to the research interests of each individual student while simultaneously ensuring a sound grounding in sociology. Graduate students, in conjunction with their Special Committee, craft a program of study that draws from all across the university. The core courses provide a sociological foundation from which to pursue this course of inquiry. Overall, the graduate program is organized into three concentrations: Population and Development is focuses on theoretical, methodological and applied aspects of population and development in both developing countries and the United States from a social demography perspective; emphasis on links between population, food and environmental sustainability, fertility, and population movements; Rural and Environmental Sociology; emphasis on environmental equity and rural sustainability, social carrying capacity and the nexus between poverty and resource allocation, access and use, and devolution of power and responsibility. State, Economy, and Society is combines themes of political and economic sociology, within macro- and micro-comparative and historical approaches; emphasizes general training in the social change and development area to enhance students' credentials for general sociology programs; views development as less the analysis of the Third World, and more the analysis of global and local processes with broad variation