Undergraduate A.B. Concentration Requirements
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The Sociology Concentration
The A.B. concentration in Sociology provides a broad liberal arts education focusing on critical thinking and analysis and excellence in written and oral communication. Students who concentrate in Sociology develop a set of analytical skills and understanding of theoretical concepts that will help them critique social issues and consider ways to address social problems. These skills and concepts include:
- A basic knowledge of statistics and their use for understanding social inequalities and for the design of social policies.
- A basic knowledge of research techniques for the collection and interpretation of data.
- A deep analytical knowledge of the major social and political issues of our time.
- Students can elect broad sociological training, but construct an individualized program of study within that training to suit their own intellectual and personal goals. They can also focus on one of five special areas of study: Diversity and Inequality, The Individual and the Social Order, Globalization and Development, Social Policy, or Research Methods.
Requirements
Nine courses and a capstone project are required:
- An introductory course, to be chosen from the following three:
- SOC 0010 Perspectives on Society
- SOC 0020 Perspectives on Social Interaction
- SOC 0130 The American Heritage: Democracy, Inequality, and Public Policy
- SOC 1010 Sociological Theory
- SOC 1020 Methods of Social Research
- SOC 1100 Introductory Statistics for Social Research
- SOC 1950 Senior Seminar
- Five electives divided in the following way:
- At least two 1000-level sociology courses
- One undergraduate seminar (SOC 1870) or, with permission, a graduate seminar
- Up to two 0100 level courses
- An optional course outside the concentration (with prior approval of the concentration advisor)
The Capstone Experience
Sociology requires all concentrators to conduct a capstone project in their senior year. The purpose of this hand-on experience is to allow students an opportunity to apply the knowledge they have acquired to a project of their own interests. To fulfill the capstone requirement students have to take Soc. 1950 – Senior Seminar. Participation allows each senior cohort to discuss their diverse interests and exposes them to a wide range of applications of Sociological knowledge. The capstone project can take many forms, including an honors thesis, as well as other traditional and alternative projects as described below.
- Doing a semester-long research project on a topic of interest.
- Working with a faculty member in an Odyssey program to design a new course.
- Producing a video ethnography.
- Assisting in organizing an academic conference.
- Producing a photographic exhibit on a sociological issue.
- Interning in a community or private sector organization or a policy agency and reflecting sociologically on your experience.
- Using sociological analysis to write journalistic articles and op-ed pieces or an internal evaluation or a policy report for an organization.
You should decide your capstone project in consultation with the concentration advisor and the instructor of the Senior Seminar. You may also need to approach a specific faculty member to advise you on your project. At the beginning of the semester in which the senior seminar is offered you should file a written statement with the Concentration advisor describing your capstone project and listing your advisor for the project.
Honors
Sociology concentrators who want to graduate with honors are required to write a thesis. The honors thesis requires that the student apply sociological knowledge and theories to a chosen topic of interest, and conduct independent research to gather and analyze data. The concentration encourages all the students interested in writing an honors thesis to do so. If you are interested in honors you should choose an advisor and a reader to help guide your project by the end of your junior year. At the beginning of your senior year, you file a written statement with the Concentration Advisor that describes the topic of your honors thesis and the questions that will guide your research, and lists the names of your faculty readers.
As an honors student, you are expected to enroll in SOC 1980 and 1990 (independent research courses) in order to develop the substantive integration of your concentration studies, and to prepare your thesis. With your advisor’s consent, you may substitute other courses for those listed above (these courses do not count towards the fulfilling of concentration requirements). Students who want to graduate with honors should maintain a GPA of 3.5 in concentration courses and 3.0 overall.
Sociology concentrators have addressed a wide variety of important topics in their honors theses including the effects of poverty on young mother’s education, the analysis of the power of polluters, and the study of the use of condoms among urban youth in Kenya. From the struggle to matter of Korean comfort women through the study of black identity to perspectives on the female body, sociology concentrators deal with central problems in contemporary social and political life. The list of honors theses from the past few years demonstrates this range:
2011
- How Does a Family's Socioeconomic Status Affect How a Child in that Family Participates in the Classroom? by Lindsay Priam
- What Do the Millennials Think of Marriage and the Family? by Abigail Schreiber
2010
- Pervasive Effects of Poverty on Young Mothers’ Educational Achievement in New York City Schools by Hannah Wohl
- Dimensions of Poverty and Inconsistent Condom Use among Youth in Urban Kenya by Alena Davidoff-Gore
2009
- Which Parent Matters More? An Analysis of the Importance of Parental Education to the Educational Attainment of Sons and Daughters by Saskia R. DeVries
- The Power of Polluters: A look at Why a Few Facilities Dominate the Production of Pollution by Kirsten B. Howard
- Silenced Pain: The Korean Comfort Women’s Struggle to Matter by Soyoung Park
- Brown Students’ Evaluations of the Brown University Police: A Case Study by Joshua D.R. Unseth
2008
- Black Ambivalence Reconsidered by Dzigbodi Agbenyadzie
2007
- Militants in Democracies: How Armed Insurgencies Persist in the Democratic System by Rukmini Girdharadas
- Representations of Africans in Film: The Case of Health by Thalia Julme
- The Authority of the Ulama in the NWFP: A Study of the Madrassa Institution by Sameer Sami Khan
- A Multiracial Perspective on Female Body Image by Shelley Li Lei
- Exercise and the Self: A Study of Gym Attendance Among Adult Males and Its Relation to Self-Esteem, Social Anxiety, and Internalized Homophobia by Chase C. Rolls
For information on applying to Brown University , you may want to e-mail Admission_Undergraduate@brown.edu or call (401) 863-2378 to receive an application.