Social Policy
Faculty of the Committee on Higher Degrees in Social Policy
Bruce Western, Professor of Sociology (Chair)
Jennifer L. Hochschild, Henry LaBarre Jayne Professor of Government and Professor of African and African American Studies, Harvard College Professor
Christopher Jencks, Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy (Kennedy School)
Jeffrey B. Liebman, Malcolm Wiener Professor of Public Policy (Kennedy School)
William Julius Wilson, Lewis F. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor
Christopher Winship, Diker-Tishman Professor of Sociology
Other Faculty Offering Instruction in Social Policy
Mary C. Brinton, Reischauer Institute Professor of Sociology
Peter A. Hall, Krupp Foundation Professor of European Studies (on leave spring term)
Torben Iversen, Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy
Michèle Lamont, Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies and Professor of Sociology and of African and African American Studies
Robert D. Putnam, Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy
Robert J. Sampson, Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences
Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology and Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (on leave spring term)
Mary C. Waters, M. E. Zukerman Professor of Sociology
Martin K. Whyte, Professor of Sociology, Acting Director of the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research
Julie Boatright Wilson, Harry S. Kahn Senior Lecturer on Social Policy (Kennedy School)
This program awards two different degrees: the PhD in Government and Social Policy and the PhD in Sociology and Social Policy. Both of these programs are joint degrees that provide students a thorough grounding in one of these two traditional disciplines and then move them into a series of interdisciplinary seminars on social policy based at the Kennedy School of Government. Students submit applications for admission to the Committee on Higher Degrees in Social Policy, which must be accepted as well by the admissions committee of either the Department of Government or the Department of Sociology. From the very beginning of their graduate careers, then, students are taught and supervised by faculty from government, sociology and the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy in the Kennedy School.
This degree is intended for students who have central interests in problems of economic inequality; segregation; poverty; changing family structure; immigration, race, and labor market segmentation; educational inequality; and historical and comparative studies of inequality in the US and abroad (especially Western Europe). It will be of particular interest for students who wish to combine solid training in the fundamental theoretical perspectives and methodological traditions of either government or sociology with advanced study of policy responses to these social problems. Students who would like the flexibility to pursue careers in departments of sociology or government, in schools of public policy, and in policy and other non-profit organizations may find these joint degrees especially suitable.
Students in the joint degree programs are eligible to apply for the Multidisciplinary Program on Inequality and Social Policy at the end of their first year of study. This training and fellowship program provides for summer institutes, research apprenticeships, and a variety of other opportunities. Please see the website www.ksg.harvard.edu/inequality for more details.
Applications for admission to the PhD programs in Social Policy may be obtained from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Admissions Office, Byerly Hall, 2nd Floor, 8 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138. Further information about the joint degree programs may be obtained from the program website (www.ksg.harvard.edu/socialpol). Questions or requests for additional printed materials should directed to Pamela Metz, Director, via e-mail (socialpolicy@harvard.edu) or correspondence addressed to her attention at the Kennedy School of Government, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Graduate Courses of Reading and Research
*Social Policy 300. Reading and Research
Catalog Number: 6290
Members of the Committee
*Social Policy 301. Research and Social Policy Seminar
Catalog Number: 3704
Robert J. Sampson 4546
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Fall: Tu., 12–1:30.
Presentation of dissertation prospectus or chapters-in-progress in a seminar/workshop format. Required of doctoral candidates in Social Policy.
*Social Policy 302. Doctoral Dissertation Research
Catalog Number: 9707
Members of the Committee
Cross-listed Courses
*Government 2340. Proseminar on Inequality and Social Policy ll
*Sociology 296a. Proseminar on Inequality and Social Policy I
*Sociology 307. Workshop on Inequality and Social Policy III