phd in medical sociology

Department of Sociology

Medical Sociology

Medical Sociology  focuses on the social context of health, illness, and health care provision, including health care settings and professionals. Within this broad sociological subarea, UCR’s medical sociology faculty—one of the largest medical sociology collectives among US sociology graduate programs—study a diverse range of health issues using quantitative and qualitative methods. Some of these topics include:

• the existence and (re)production of physical and mental health disparities by socioeconomic status/social class, race-ethnicity, immigrant status, sex and gender, sexual identity, and social capital
• stigma regarding health behaviors, diagnoses, and disease conditions
• health effects of neighborhood and local community social conditions
• health and non-health policy impacts on the health of populations and vulnerable subgroups
• health implications of discrimination and other stressors faced by marginalized persons
• life adversities contributing to disease risk over the life course
• political conflict and macro-level social conditions impacts on population health
• the role of culture and acculturation for health and health disparities

UCR’s training environment reflects how medical sociology engages with other health-related disciplines and practitioners. Complementing the coursework and research training offered in Sociology are many other faculty and training and research opportunities throughout the UCR campus and region. These include opportunities in the UCR School of Public Policy; School of Medicine’s Department of Social Medicine, Population, & Public Health; and the School of Medicine’s Center for Healthy Communities, among other campus programs. There also are connections that can be made with local area government agencies, non-profit health organizations, and medical care providers, such as Riverside County Department of Public Health.

Medical Sociology

Content tagged with medical sociology, malcolm williams.

Dissertation Title： "Individual, Clinical, and Contextual Factors Affecting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care Quality"Current research indicates that there are significant racial and ethnic disparities in the risk factors, incidence, and...

Dissertation Title： "Quality of Life, Health-Related Stigma, and The Social Context: Longitudinal Analyses of PLWHA in Uganda and a Literature Review"The dissertation examines the experience of living with stigmatized health conditions in the social...

Annie Steffenson

Dissertation Title： "Toward a Better Understanding of HIV Risk among Young South Africans: Risk Perceptions and the Risk of Concurrent Sexual Partnerships"South Africa is in the midst of a severe HIV epidemic and prevention efforts to date have had only...

Emily Shortridge

Dissertation Title：  "Gender and Health: The Influence of Psychosocial Factors on Health"

The medical literature presents many examples of differences in health care use by men and women. The roots of these differences include biological, social, and...

Cleo Samuel-Ryals

Dissertation Title:  "Essays on Health Care Quality and Access: Cancer Care Disparities, Composite Measure Development, and Geographic Variations in Electronic Health Record Adoption"Racial/ethnic disparities in cancer care are well documented in the...

Hector Rodriguez

Dissertation Title： "Continuity and Team Approaches to Care: Effects on Physician-Patient Relationship Quality, Patients’ Experiences, and the Technical Quality of Care"

Team approaches to care are increasingly being considered critical to improving...

Rebecca Anhang Price

Dissertation Title： "Adoption of New Medical Technologies: The Case of Cervical Cancer Prevention"

New medical technologies have the potential to improve health outcomes substantially and cost-effectively, if used appropriately. This dissertation uses the...

Jessica Perkins

Dissertation Title： "Conducting Social Network and Social Norm Research in Low-Resource Settings: Food Insecutiry, Depression, and HIV Testing in Rural Uganda"

This dissertation examines the role of social networks and social norms in health outcomes and...

Jessica Mittler

Dissertation Title ："Medicare Beneficiaries and Market Variations in Service Use, Quality of Care, and Plan Choice"Paper 1 examined relationships between an area’s intensity of service use and patient experiences, complementing research that showed...

Dissertation Title:  "Investigating Socioeconomic Disparities in Patient Experiences of Infertility in the US"

Infertility is a common problem in the US, affecting approximately 1 in 8 couples of childbearing age, or over 7 million women nationwide. But...

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Sociomedical Sciences

The Sociomedical Sciences Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) program is interdisciplinary , with study divided between the Mailman School of Public Health and one social science department (Anthropology, History, Psychology, or Sociology) in Columbia’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) .

The PhD is designed for individuals who wish to combine training in a social or behavioral science discipline with a focus on research and teaching in public health and medicine. Students undertake course work in a social science discipline of their choice and a similar length of training in public health. Faculty mentors are drawn from the Department of Sociomedical Sciences , as well as from other Mailman School faculty with social science training, and faculty from social science departments in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences .

Upon satisfactory completion of the PhD, students will be able to conduct independent and scholarly research that advances knowledge in public health applying the theory and methods of their chosen social science discipline. The successful PhD graduate will be an independent scholar with the ability to teach in either a social science department or a school of public health.

Course Requirements | Program Milestones  

SMS Course Requirements for the PhD

• P6104 Biostatistics
• P6499 Epidemiology
• P8788 Theoretical Foundations of Sociomedical Sciences
• P8789 Contemporary Debates in Sociomedical Sciences
• Quantitative Methods
• Qualitative Methods

Choose two of the following five:

• P8704 Medical Sociology
• P8755 Medical Anthropology
• P8767 Health Psychology
• P8773 Social History of American Public Health
• P6503 Introduction to Health Economics
• Public Health Electives

GSAS Requirements

PhD candidates must complete 30 course work credits and fulfill language proficiency requirements within the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

For information on specific social science discipline course work and language proficiency requirements, please consult the Doctoral Student Handbook (PDF) .

Comprehensive Exams

The comprehensive examinations are intended to assess the candidate’s proficiency in the composite disciplines of the Department of Sociomedical Sciences, as well as her or his social science, and to determine readiness to undertake work on a dissertation.

The four examinations required for the PhD are:

• The Standardized Research Methods Examination (written)
• The Health Behavior/Population Health Examination*
• The Healthcare Systems Examination*
• Examination in the student's social science concentration (written or oral, either taken together with the Health Behavior/Population Health and Healthcare Systems examinations or separately)

Students are eligible to take the Standardized Research Methods Examination upon completion of course work requirements for the PhD degree. Students may take the methodology examination during the semester in which course requirements are being completed, but all methodological requirements must be completed prior to that semester. Students may take the Methods Examination before completing language requirements in those departments which have such requirements. All course requirements, language requirements, and the Research Methods Examination must be successfully completed before the other comprehensive examinations are taken.

*The Health Behavior/Population Health and Healthcare Systems Examinations are oral exams taken together following successful completion of the Research Methods Examination.

Program Milestones

Other requirements.

In addition to successfully completing the four comprehensive examinations, PhD candidates must fulfill the Master’s Essay/Research Paper requirement.

General Requirements for all SMS PhD students:

• Rigorous disciplinary training comparable to that received by PhD candidates in Columbia's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences;
• A two-semester course in the major traditions of social theory that support and frame contemporary practice in the sociomedical sciences and its application to health-related research;
• Training in epidemiology and biostatistics; and
• To progress to the dissertation stage of doctoral studies, students are examined in four areas: a written methods examination, oral examinations in health systems and population health/health behaviors; and an examination specific to the student's social science concentration.

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Medical Sociology

The Medical Sociology program at The University of Alabama at Birmingham provides the opportunities and core training that enable you to effectively design and carry out research projects in a variety of contexts (clinical settings, health agencies, communities, regions, and nations) in order to give you research career options both within and outside of academia.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham Multiple locations Birmingham , Alabama , United States Top 4% worldwide Studyportals University Meta Ranking 3.8 Read 13 reviews

The Medical Sociology PhD program at The University of Alabama at Birmingham aims to:

• Provide an atmosphere for the development and dissemination of new information relating to the role of social, cultural, and psychological factors on the health of individuals and groups.
• Provide core courses in general sociology as well as advanced training in medical sociology that prepare you for the option of teaching in university sociology departments, medical schools, and other health professional schools such as public health and nursing.

Community Engagement

In addition to the program's major emphasis on high-quality health-related research, the department takes seriously its relationship to the community and state by developing research projects which not only address critical local issues but incorporate these research problems into larger issues of importance to the disciplines of sociology, public health, and medicine.

Programme Structure

Courses include:

• Advanced Medical Sociology
• Body and Health
• Global Health
• Race/Ethnicity and Health
• Gender and Health
• Place and Health
• Sociology of Health and Illness
• Health Care Delivery Systems
• Family and Health
• Health Disparities
• Sociology of Mental Health

Key information

• 84 months

Start dates & application deadlines

• Apply before 2024-08-01 00:00:00
• Apply before 2024-12-01 00:00:00

Disciplines

Academic requirements, english requirements, student insurance.

Make sure to cover your health, travel, and stay while studying abroad. Even global coverages can miss important items, so make sure your student insurance ticks all the following:

• Additional medical costs (i.e. dental)
• Repatriation, if something happens to you or your family
• Home contents and baggage

We partnered with Aon to provide you with the best affordable student insurance, for a carefree experience away from home.

Starting from €0.53/day, free cancellation any time.

Remember, countries and universities may have specific insurance requirements. To learn more about how student insurance work at The University of Alabama at Birmingham and/or in United States, please visit Student Insurance Portal .

Other requirements

General requirements.

• A bachelor's or master's degree from an accredited institution in sociology or a related field with a minimum of 18 hours of social science coursework, preferably including social theory, statistics, and research methodology.
• An overall grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 based on a 4.0 system, or a 3.2 GPA for the last 60 semester hours in a BA/BS program.
• A 3.0 GPA in all previous graduate coursework.
• Evidence of scholarship
• Statement of career goals, with emphasis on research and scholarship
• Evidence of quantitative preparation/ability
• Letters of recommendation
• Professional experience

Tuition Fee

Living costs for birmingham.

The living costs include the total expenses per month, covering accommodation, public transportation, utilities (electricity, internet), books and groceries.

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Scholarships Information

Below you will find PhD's scholarship opportunities for Medical Sociology.

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You are eligible to apply for these scholarships but a selection process will still be applied by the provider.

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COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Visit the registrar’s site for the  Sociology’s course descriptions

GRADUATE DEGREES

The Department of Sociology offers the Master of Arts (M.A.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Sociology.

Admissions Requirements

MASTER’S DEGREE

Entering graduate students are assigned a faculty member as an entrance adviser. Students may change advisers at any time if they find another faculty member who agrees to serve as the new adviser. Students are advised to meet with faculty members as regularly as needed for their level of research, at least once per quarter. Any problems in the adviser-advisee relationship should be discussed with the Director of Graduate Studies.

Areas of Study

Computational Sociology; Conversation Analysis; Economic Sociology; Ethnographic Methodology; Ethnomethodology; International Migration; Political Sociology; Race/Ethnicity; Social Demography; Social Stratification and Social Mobility; Sociology of Culture; Sociology of Education; Sociology of the Family; Sociology of Gender; Urban and Suburban Sociology.

Foreign Language Requirement

Course Requirements

In addition to the departmental requirements outlined below, some field examinations have their own course requirements for students who plan to take that field examination.

Before the Master’s Paper Review

Departmental Requirements.  For departmental requirements, all students are required to take a total of 42 units of course work (12 courses) as outlined below:

• Sociology 201A-201B-201C. These courses introduce students to the range of theoretical and research interests represented by departmental faculty and must be taken in the first year.
• Sociology 202A-202B. These courses constitute an examination of the interrelations of theory, method, and substance in exemplary sociological works, and must be taken in the first year.
• Sociology 204, topics in sociological theorizing.
• A two-quarter graduate-level methodology sequence of which there are several alternatives such as the survey methods course or the demographic methods course. The methodology series is numbered Sociology 208A-208B-208C, 211A-211B through M213C, 216A-216B, 217B-217C, 244A-244B. Students are required to take one methods sequence before the master’s paper review and one methods sequence before taking the University Oral Qualifying Examination. Only one of Sociology 212A-212B or 216A-216B may meet the two-quarter methodology sequence requirement. In choosing a methodology sequence, students should note some of the Ph.D. field examinations require particular methodology sequences. If students have equivalent methodological training elsewhere, they should file a petition (along with pertinent evidence and an adviser’s recommendation) with the Director of Graduate Studies for exemption from the methodology requirement.
• Four additional 200-level courses (16 units) in Sociology as electives (i.e., not 201A-201B-201C, 202A-202B, 204, 210A-210B, and two-quarter methodology sequence).
• While there is no statistics requirements for the M.A. degree, Sociology 210A-210B must be completed before students are permitted to take the first doctoral field examination, which typically occurs in the third year. Students are advised to take Sociology 210A-210B early in their graduate training. Students whose interests are in areas with substantial quantitative literature should take Sociology 210A, 210B, and 210C in their first year.

All required courses must be taken for a letter grade, except 201ABC, which is S/U grading only. 500 series courses may not count toward the 42 units of course work for the M.A. degree. Students who want to take courses outside the department may petition to count them either as elective units or, in the case of a two-quarter methods sequence, as a replacement method. The petition must be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Advancement to Candidacy

Candidates have one calendar year from the date of advancement to M.A. candidacy in which to complete all requirements for the M.A. degree.

Capstone Plan

No later than in the sixth quarter of residence, students must submit an acceptable master’s paper for approval by the general faculty. The paper must demonstrate general competence in sociological theory, methodology, and selected substantive areas.

As early in the graduate career as possible, students select two faculty members who consent to serve as their master’s paper advisers. The master’s paper is reviewed first by the master’s committee, which is comprised of the two master’s paper advisers and overseen by the Director of Graduate Studies; then it is reviewed by the Graduate Committee, which is comprised of the Director of Graduate Studies and at least two additional faculty members; finally, the paper is reviewed and approved by the full faculty. Faculty serving should represent a broad range of professional interests. Formation of the master’s committee may not be postponed beyond the beginning of the fourth quarter of residence in graduate work. For more specific guidelines, deadlines, and procedures regarding the master’s review, students should contact the graduate adviser.

Under the direction of the master’s committee, students develop a paper, often one that was originally written for a course that demonstrates intellectual attainment. For example, the paper may show that the student (1) has an accurate grasp of the intellectual traditions of sociology; (2) can bring evidence to bear on theoretical problems; (3) can describe how some aspect of the social order works; and (4) can adequately handle research and methodological issues. The main concern is with the student’s capacity to do Ph.D.-level work.

When the master’s committee determines that the paper demonstrates the required level of intellectual attainment, they submit the paper and an evaluation of it to the Graduate Committee. Based on the advisers’ evaluation of the paper and their own assessment of the student’s academic record, the Graduate Committee makes a recommendation to the department about the awarding of the degree. Recommendations are: 1) acceptance of the paper and award of the M.A. degree, with eligibility to continue in the Ph.D. program; 2) recommendation for academic disqualification from the doctoral program, with the M.A. degree awarded; or 3) recommendation for academic disqualification from the doctoral program without awarding the M.A. degree. Students should consult with the department for specific guidelines, procedures, and deadlines regarding the M.A. review.

In exceptional circumstances, during the student’s sixth quarter, their M.A. Committee may request an extension to no later than the beginning of the student’s seventh quarter.

Students who enter graduate study in this program with an M.A. degree in sociology from another institution normally come up for a master’s paper review in the first quarter of residence at UCLA, and under no circumstances later than the third quarter of residence. The standards for the quality and content of such M.A. papers is consistent with all other M.A. papers as described above. This review is carried out by an M.A. committee in accordance with the standards for all M.A. committees described earlier, and, similarly, is in turn reviewed by the Graduate Committee and the full faculty. Students with M.A. degrees from prior institutions may consult with their selected committee about whether their prior M.A. paper meets the standards of our department (or if, instead, an additional paper needs to be done, which will also be the case by default for students with M.A. degrees that did not include a paper requirement). Aside from the M.A. paper, students with a prior M.A. are also expected to consult with the Director of Graduate Studies by no later than early in the first quarter at UCLA in order to assess additional courses that may be needed for breadth purposes, which courses taken at prior institutions may substitute for departmental course requirements, and initial plans for field examinations.

Thesis Plan

Time-to-Degree

Students are allowed two years from entrance into the department to complete the M.A. requirements. This means that students must submit their M.A. paper and complete all related requirements no later than the sixth quarter of residence, regardless of the state of the paper. In exceptional cases, the department may permit an extension on the M.A. paper into the seventh quarter of residence; such extensions require approval by the Graduate Committee and the full faculty.

NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters): 6

NORMATIVE TTD: 6

MAXIMUM TTD: 9

DOCTORAL DEGREE

When students submit their proposals for the field examinations, they select an adviser. Students may change advisers at any time if they find another faculty member who agrees to serve as the new adviser. Students are advised to meet with their faculty adviser as often as needed for their stage of research, but a minimum of once per quarter.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Computational Sociology. This field exam is designed for students to demonstrate competence and expertise in the emerging methodologies that fall under the umbrella term “computational sociology.” To accommodate the breadth of approaches, students have the option of pursuing two default recommended tracks, with substitutions at the discretion of the reading committee: social network analysis or data science.

• Required courses: at least two courses from a three-course methods sequence: 208A-208B-208C.

Conversation Analysis . Conversation analysis is a field of inquiry addressed to talk and other forms of conduct in interaction studied through the detailed examination of naturally occurring instances or specimens of its occurrences. Talk-in-interaction is taken to be that primordial site of sociality in which much of what composes the life of a society and its institutions is realized. Although conversation has been the most intensively and extensively examined domain of talk-in-interaction, the field comprehends a broad range of settings and specialized genres of talk or speech-exchange systems, including talk in work settings.

• Required courses: Sociology 244A, 244B, 244C, and C258

Economic Sociology. This field provides an overview of the major debates in economic sociology, at both the macro and micro level. Topics include precapitalist economies and the development of capitalism; modernization, dependency, development and the world system; globalization; the economic institutions of advanced economies; labor, work, and entrepreneurship; and class, stratification, and inequality.

• Required courses: Sociology 260.

Ethnographic Methodology . Sociology in the U.S. was largely created through a series of ethnographic studies. Over the last twenty-five years, ethnographic research has been the focus of some of the most probing self-examination in social science as a whole, featuring debates over reflexivity, human subjects’ consent in narrow and broad senses of the issue, the importance of context for understanding individual acts and items of culture, social constructionism and relativism, and bias (gender, cultural, and so forth) in research procedures and the conceptualization of data.

• Required courses: Sociology 217A, 217B and one substantive graduate course that uses ethnographic studies.  

Ethnomethodology. Ethnomethodology is a field of sociology which studies the common sense resources, procedures and practices through which the members of a culture produce and recognize mutually intelligible objects, events and courses of action. Studies in the field are directed to the investigation of social processes underlying the construction of social phenomena ranging from factual knowledge, social organization, and attributes such as race and gender, through the acquisition of skills and management of memory.

• Required courses: Sociology 597 co-mentored by at least two of the field exam faculty members.

International Migration . This field is concerned with the causes and consequences of international migration, that is, the movement of peoples from one territorially defined, self-consciously delimited nation-state to another. The actors include not just the migrants but also their descendants, as well as the states that seek to control (encourage, impede, constrain) their flows, and the domestic entities of various kinds that react to the immigrants’ arrival in ways both positive and negative. The issues in play involve both migration and its aftermath. In particular, the field seeks to understand both those forms of social inequality that impinge immigrants and their descendants and the new identities and collectivities that the latter effect as settlement progresses. Thus, the field takes up a set of issues specifically associated with migration, denoted by the (contested) terms of integration or assimilation, while also engaging in a broader set of questions involved in the study of race, ethnicity, and nationalism.

The study of international migration is, perhaps, unique in its interdisciplinarity and methodologically pluralist nature: stretching from the demography and economics of migration, through political science, sociological and geographical approaches, to the ethnography and oral history of migrants. Migration is also a crucial research site for exploring the possibility of doing sociology beyond the bounded nation-state-society focus of most sociological research. And, while opening the door to a crucial dimension of globalization, the comparative study of immigration and immigrants opens up fresh perspectives on conceptions of nationhood, citizenship, and the state. While the examination and the related courses principally focus on two migration systems, the North American and the European, extension to other systems, such as the Persian Gulf or the East Asian, adds much to our understanding of the phenomenon. Students who previously have taken examinations in the related race and ethnicity or comparative ethnicity and nationalism fields must submit questions previously answered at the time when they declare the intent to take this examination; overlapping questions are not allowed.

• Requirements: Students who have previously taken examinations in the related race and ethnicity or comparative ethnicity and nationalism fields must submit questions previously answered at the time when they declare the intent to take this examination; overlapping questions are not allowed.
• Required courses: Sociology 236A, 236B and at least two quarters of Sociology 295.

Political Sociology. This field examination is organized around a reading list in which the first section, foundations of political sociology, is required. Students are expected to read in five of the following sections: theories of the state; the development of modern states with special focus on democratization; welfare states and neo-liberalism; citizenship, nation-building and nationalism; collective action; revolution; political categorizations – class, race, ethnicity, and gender; and globalization and the nation-state.

• Required courses: Sociology 233.

Race/Ethnicity. The race/ethnicity field examination focuses on the nature and persistence of ethnic and racial categories and groupings in contemporary societies, and on how these structures relate to social stratification systems and political and economic dynamics. The field includes a variety of perspectives and concerns including race relations, racism, ethnic, stratification, immigration, ethnic economies and ethnic politics. While race and ethnicity in the U.S. today are the central substantive concerns, the field is explicitly comparative historical, viewing contemporary ethnic and racial structures in the context of the spread of European colonialism and imperialism. Students who have previously taken examinations in the related comparative ethnicity and nationalism or international migration fields must submit questions previously answered at the time when they declare intent to take this examination; overlapping questions are not allowed.

• Requirements: Students who have previously taken examinations in the related comparative ethnicity and nationalism or international migration fields must submit questions previously answered at the time when they declare the intent to take this examination; overlapping questions are not allowed.
• Required courses: Sociology 235A, 235B.

Social Demography. Social demography examines key issues and debates related to the biological, economic, social, and environmental causes and consequences of trends and patterns in demographic behaviors such as fertility, marriage, divorce, migration, social stratification, health and mortality. Particular attention will be paid to the rapidly growing literature on racial and socioeconomic differentials in demographic behavior, aging, the causes and consequences of population growth, and family and household structure and composition.

• Required courses: Sociology M213A-M213B or M213A-M213C, 226A-226B.

Social Stratification and Social Mobility. The major issues in stratification are the determinants of who gets greater and lesser amounts of scarce resources, in particular, the extent of which those resources are passed on from generation to generation within families, and the extent to which those answers depend on the organization of families, schools, labor markets, and other institutions.

• Required courses: Sociology 239A-239B.

Sociology of Culture . The domain of this field examination is social activity by which people negotiate meaning, express and interpret symbols, and construct the aesthetic dimension of societies. It addresses both the cultural dimension that permeates all social life and the specialized institutions that specifically engage in symbolic expression. The scope of study spans the broadly macrosociological comparison of entire societies to the more microsociological probing of small groups and individual minds. While insisting that all inquiry is theoretically informed, the emphasis is on empirically based analysis using a variety of methods. The field also emphasizes the continuity of culture to other sociological themes such as race, class, gender, institutions, interaction, language, power and change.

• Required courses: Sociology 245.

Sociology of Education. This field provides an overview of the major debates in the sociology of education, at the micro, macro, and meso levels. The field pays special attention to theoretical approaches and stratification, but students can also focus on a variety of other elements of the sociology of education, including higher education, secondary schools, primary schools, culture, race, gender and sexuality, immigration, measurement, organizations, neighborhoods, and the state.

• Required courses: Sociology 239A, 240.

Sociology of the Family. Sociologists conceptualize the family as a social institution – meaning it involves a set of social roles (such as parent, partner, or child), with some shared understanding of expectations regarding how we should behave in these roles and what kinds of obligations are associated with them. As with any social institution, the family is malleable over time, across contexts, and can be difficult to define at its margins. Students who take this field examination are expected to be familiar with the wide variety of substantive topics and methodological approaches reflected in the work of family sociologists.

• Required courses: At least two courses from: Sociology M238, 241, M252, M253.

Sociology of Gender and Sexuality. This field examination is concerned with gender inequality and gender differences and the social processes producing and reproducing them. It includes both macrosociological and microsociological perspectives on these processes. It also encompasses the growing scholarship on the intersection between race, class, and gender.

• Required courses: Any two courses from: Sociology M238, 241, M252, M255.

Sociology of Medicine and Science . This topic-based field examination draws from the traditional fields of medical sociology and sociology of health and illness and the interdisciplinary field of science and technology studies as it relates to knowledge production in health and other scientific fields.

• Required courses: One course from Sociology 227, 250, or 283 and one Sociology 596 course focusing on an agreed upon topic related to the examination.

Urban and Suburban Sociology. This field comprises the major topics in urban and suburban sociology. It addresses two main issues: (1) historical and comparative perspectives of urbanization, and (2) urbanization and suburbanization in the U.S.

• Required courses: Sociology C297.

N.B.: A student who fails a field examination may retake that examination only once.

There is no departmental foreign language requirement for the Ph.D. degree. However, students may choose, in consultation with their faculty advisers, to take additional language study depending on their area of research.

Doctoral students should complete the M.A. coursework (12 courses, or 42 units) as well as the master’s paper review before completing the doctoral coursework listed below.

Departmental Requirements.  Sociology 210A and 210B must be completed before students are permitted to take the first field examination. Students are advised to take Sociology 210A and 210B early in their graduate training. All students are required to take two courses (eight units) of an additional methodology sequence (Sociology 208A-208B-208C, 211A through M213C, 216A-216B, 217B-217C, 244A-244B), which must be completed before the oral qualifying examination. In order to ensure breadth and diversity of methodological training, only one of Sociology 212A-212B and 216A-216B may meet the two-course methodology sequence requirement. All required courses (210A and 210B, and the two courses of an additional methodology sequence) must be taken for a letter grade. Courses in the 500 series (Sociology 595, 596, 597, 599) are normally taken in preparation for the master’s paper review, the field examinations, and dissertation research. While these courses may be taken to maintain enrollment, they do not count toward the course requirements.

In addition to the department-wide course requirements listed here, students must also complete the required coursework for each of their two selected field examinations, as specified above under “Major Fields or Subdisciplines.”

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the  Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution .

Two specialized field examinations are administered and evaluated according to guidelines specified by each field examination area. Students should consult the department for details regarding field examinations.

In the first week of the quarter following acceptance of the master’s paper, students must submit a proposal to the Director of Graduate Studies specifying two of the field examinations listed above and a time table for completing these examinations. These plans must be consistent with program benchmarks, which specify that students are expected to complete their first field examination by the end of the third year and the second field examination by the first quarter of their fourth year. Such proposals must be submitted to the Director at least four weeks before the beginning of the quarter in which the student intends to take an examination not previously included in the field examination plan. The Director must approve the proposed examinations. The Director assesses whether the two proposed fields, considered in tandem, are rigorous, coherent, and broad; plans that involve fields with substantial overlap will not be approved. Any proposed revision of an approved field of examination plan must be endorsed by the student’s adviser and approved by the Director.

If the performance on the field examinations is satisfactory and the foreign language requirement (if stipulated by the field examination area) has been fulfilled, students may nominate a doctoral committee and proceed to take the University Oral Qualifying Examination; the department expects that this will be completed by no later than the end of the student’s fourth year in the program. This examination covers general sociology, and the student’s specific fields and plans for the dissertation. In addition to a project abstract, a full-length dissertation proposal is required at the time of the oral qualifying examination.

In the event of a major revision in the topic or methodology of the dissertation, a revised dissertation proposal approved by the committee is required. Minor changes in the methodology and hypotheses, which normally take place as students carry out the dissertation research, do not call for a revised proposal.

When the field examinations, dissertation proposal, and oral qualifying examination are successfully approved, students are advanced to candidacy by the Graduate Division.

Students are advanced to candidacy and awarded the Candidate in Philosophy (C.Phil.) degree upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of Dissertation)

Not required for all students in the program. The decision as to whether a defense is required is made by the doctoral committee.

• From graduate admission to completion of the master’s review (i.e., the master’s degree stage): three quarters for students entering the program with an M.A. in Sociology; six quarters for students entering the program without an M.A. in Sociology.
• From completion of the master’s paper to field examinations: four quarters.
• From field examinations to advancing to candidacy: two quarters.
• The dissertation and final oral examination (if required) should be completed during the fifth and sixth years of graduate study.
• Normative time-to-degree for the Ph.D. degree: eighteen quarters.

DEGREE:  Ph.D.

NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters):  12

NORMATIVE TTD:  18

MAXIMUM TTD:  30

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in  Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA .

Special Departmental or Program Policy

The decision to recommend a student for academic disqualification for reasons other than failure to maintain a grade point average of 3.0 is made by the full faculty at the quarterly master’s paper review meeting or the annual student review meeting. In the event of such a recommendation, the student would be notified by the Director of Graduate Studies. A recommendation for academic disqualification may be forwarded to that meeting by the Graduate Committee, which serves as the review body making recommendations to the full faculty concerning disposition of candidacies for completion of the master’s paper and awarding of master’s degree. The elected Executive Committee of the department is the mechanism by which a student may appeal (within two weeks of notification by the Director of Graduate Studies) for a review of the disposition of the student’s case; the Executive Committee may make a recommendation for reconsideration to the department where it deems such reconsideration warranted. The departmental by-laws provide for an alternative method of appeal to full faculty review of Executive Committee action, by way of two voting faculty members jointly requesting a faculty meeting on any action within the department.

In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, specific conditions that may lead to a recommendation for academic disqualification include: submission of graduate work which is, in the judgment of the full faculty review, unsatisfactory for either the granting of the master’s degree or further pursuit of the doctorate; unsatisfactory progress toward the completion of the master’s paper and/or doctoral work. Such unsatisfactory progress may involve requiring repeated extensions of time for completion of program requirements, receiving numerous Incomplete grades, and/or failure to remove Incomplete grades; repeated failure to pass any of the required steps of the doctoral program (for example, specialty field examinations, oral examination) or failure to complete the doctoral degree within seven years after advancement to candidacy.

UCLA is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and by numerous special agencies. Information regarding the University’s accreditation may be obtained from the Office of Academic Planning and Budget, 2107 Murphy Hall.

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History and sociology of science.

M.D./Ph.D. Program

The Department offers a combined MD-PhD program in coordination with the Medical School. Students must be accepted by both Penn Medical School and the Department of History and Sociology of Science, and must complete all requirements for both degrees.  The program has many advantages, integrating technical and historical training and preparing students for careers as both historical scholars and practicing physicians or researchers. Interested applicants can visit the website of the Medical Scientist Training Program for general information about the MD-PhD program (which includes PhDs in the History and Sociology of Science), and can contact Maggie Krall , Director of Administration, for more information.

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Medical Sociology

Related research.

• Louie, Patricia, Terrence D. Hill, and Laura Upenieks. Do Early Life Stressors Moderate the Impact of Cumulative Pandemic Stress on Anger? Advances in Life Course Research . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.alcr.2023.100576
• Louie, Patricia, Terrence D. Hill, and Laura Upenieks. Do Early Life Stressors Moderate the Impact of Cumulative Pandemic Stress on Anger? Advances in Life Course Research . 
• Leung, ManChui R. 2018. "Gender In Context: Immigrant Routes to Healthcare Access." Ph.D. Dissertation. Department of Sociology, University of Washington.
• Leia, Madison Paige. 2017. "Not So Black and White: The Association Between Allostatic Load and Residential Racial/Ethnic Segregation in a Multi-Ethnic Cohort." M.A. Thesis. Department of Sociology, University of Washington.
• Morris, Julia M. 2017. "Aging-as-Leveler for Mental Health?: Stressful Life Transitions and CES-D Trajectories in Late-Life." PhD Dissertation, Department of Sociology, University of Washington.
• Young, W.C., Raftery, A.E. and Yeung, K.Y. (2014). “Fast Bayesian Inference for Gene Regulatory Networks Using ScanBMA.” BMC Systems Biology, 8:article 47.
• McCormick, T. H., Ferrell, R., Karr, A., and Ryan, P. B. (2014) Knowledge Discovery in Output from Large-Scale Medical Analytics. Statistical Learning & Data Mining, 7: 404-412.
• Palazzo, Lorella. 2011. "The Role of State and Markets in the Integration of Complementary and Alternative Medicine into American Health Care: An Institutional-Level Perspective." PhD Dissertation, Department of Sociology, University of Washington.
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Course type

Qualification, university name, doctorate degrees in sociology of health and sickness.

9 degrees at 7 universities in the UK.

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Select the start date, qualification, and how you want to study

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• Doctorate Sociology of Health and Sickness
• Doctorate African Studies
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• Course title (A-Z)
• Course title (Z-A)
• Price: high - low
• Price: low - high

Epidemiology and Population Health PhD

London school of hygiene & tropical medicine, university of london.

& Structure The MPhil and PhD are aimed at students who anticipate a career in which research plays a major role and who want to focus on Read more...

• 4 years Full time degree: £6,740 per year (UK)
• 8 years Part time degree: £3,370 per year (UK)

Population Health Sciences PhD, MPhil

University of leicester.

The Department of Population Health Sciences offers supervision for the degrees of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) - full-time and Read more...

• 3 years Full time degree: £4,786 per year (UK)
• 6 years Part time degree: £2,393 per year (UK)

Primary Care and Population Health MPhil/PhD

Ucl (university college london).

The Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care brings together five research departments whose interests span the life course from Read more...

• 3 years Full time degree: £6,035 per year (UK)
• 5 years Part time degree: £3,015 per year (UK)

DPhil in Population Health

University of oxford.

The DPhil in Population Health is a doctoral research programme intended to provide you with training in research, an in-depth knowledge Read more...

• 3 years Full time degree: £9,500 per year (UK)
• 6 years Part time degree: £4,750 per year (UK)

Disability Studies PhD

University of bristol.

The School for Policy Studies links theory, policy and practice in a multidisciplinary, research-intensive environment. Our research Read more...

• 4 years Full time degree: £4,758 per year (UK)
• 8 years Part time degree: £2,379 per year (UK)

Life Course & Population Health Sciences MPhil/PhD/MD(Res)

King's college london, university of london.

The School of Life Course Sciences encompasses four research and teaching units in the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine which span and Read more...

• 3 years Full time degree: £6,936 per year (UK)
• 6 years Part time degree: £3,468 per year (UK)

Population Health Sciences PhD

The university of edinburgh.

Research profile The Usher Institute supervises postgraduate research students in a wide range of population health disciplines, including Read more...

Population Health Sciences MD

The Department of Population Health Sciences is part of Bristol Medical School. Staff in the department participate in extensive national Read more...

• 5 years Distance without attendance degree: £4,758 per year (UK)
• 8 years Distance without attendance degree: £4,758 per year (UK)
• 5 years Full time degree: £4,758 per year (UK)
• 8 years Part time degree: £4,758 per year (UK)
• 6 years Distance without attendance degree: £2,379 per year (UK)
• 4 years Distance without attendance degree: £4,758 per year (UK)
• 6 years Part time degree: £2,379 per year (UK)

Course type:

• Distance learning Doctorate
• Full time Doctorate
• Part time Doctorate

Qualification:

Related subjects:.

Sociology, PhD

• Program description
• At a glance
• Degree requirements
• Admission requirements
• Tuition information
• Application deadlines
• Program learning outcomes
• Career opportunities
• Contact information

Science, Scientist, cultures, human, inquiry, social

Admission standards for this program are changing for Fall 2024 applicants. Interested students should contact the department for more information.

Engage in ongoing research projects with individual faculty, research teams, and research institutes and centers from throughout ASU.

The PhD program in sociology provides advanced training in theory, research methodology and substantive fields to prepare sociologists for teaching and research with special emphasis on inequality and power; law and society; race and ethnicity; Latino sociology; health; and children, youth and families.

• College/school: The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
• Location: Tempe

84 credit hours, a written comprehensive exam, a prospectus and a dissertation

Required Core (6 credit hours) SOC 603 Perspectives in Sociological Inquiry (3) SOC 685 Applied Social Theory (3)

Theory (3 credit hours) SOC 585 Sociological Theory (3)

Methods (3 credit hours) SOC 591 Qualitative Research Methods (3)

Statistics (3 credit hours) Other Requirements (3 credit hours) SOC 791 Topic: Integrative Research (3)

Elective and Research (54 credit hours)

Culminating Experience (12 credit hours) SOC 799 Dissertation (12)

Additional Curriculum Information When approved by the student's department and the Graduate College, 30 credit hours from a previously awarded master's degree are allowed to be used toward this degree.

A minimum of 30 credit hours of the approved doctoral program, exclusive of dissertation and research hours, must be completed after admission to the program.

A qualifying exam, a written comprehensive exam, a prospectus and a dissertation are required.

Applicants must fulfill the requirements of both the Graduate College and The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Applicants are eligible to apply to the program if they have earned a bachelor's or master's degree in sociology or related field from a regionally accredited institution.

Applicants must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 (scale is 4.00 = "A") in an applicable master's degree program.

All applicants must submit:

• graduate admission application and application fee
• official transcripts
• current resume or curriculum vitae
• personal statement detailing professional goals and research experiences
• writing sample
• three letters of recommendation from persons familiar with the applicant's academic background
• proof of English proficiency

Additional Application Information An applicant whose native language is not English must provide proof of English proficiency regardless of their current residency.

A personal statement is required. It must be three pages or less, double-spaced, and it must address the applicant's professional goals and reasons for desiring to enroll in the program; describe strengths that will help the student succeed in the program and reach professional goals; describe research experience (a description of the master's thesis should be included, if applicable) and relevant responsibilities held; indicate personal research interests as specifically as possible; and include any additional information that will help the committee evaluate the application.

Three letters of recommendation are required, including at least two from instructors at the applicant's institution where undergraduate or graduate work was completed. These letters should be from people who know the applicant as a student or in a professional capacity. Letters from family members or friends do not meet this criterion.

Students should see the program website for application deadlines.

Program learning outcomes identify what a student will learn or be able to do upon completion of their program. This program has the following program outcomes:

• Evaluate contemporary sociological perspectives in original written work.
• Apply sociological research methods to the analysis of data to create an original empirical research paper.
• Conduct research resulting in empirical papers that have an impact on relevant communities that are determined by the subjects of the research.

Professionals with expertise in research methodologies and data analysis as well as an understanding of cultural and social change, various social issues and phenomena are sought-after in many areas, including human services, business, education, public policy, and community service and nonprofit sectors.

Career examples include:

• demographers
• research professionals
• social and community service managers
• sociologists
• sociology instructors
• urban and regional planners

Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics | SS 144 [email protected] 480-965-6875

Our New PhDs!

Congratulations to Dr. Clark, Dr. Collins and Dr. Zhang!

Fernando Clark successfully defended his dissertation, "Are Latinx Neighborhoods So Different? A Test of Racial Invariance Thesis and Latino Paradox." This research was completed under the direction of Tom McNulty. Fernando has accepted a faculty position at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Cerenity Collins successfully defended her dissertation, "Double Consciousness, Mixed Emotions, and Social Interaction: Examining the Racialized Experiences of Black STEM Students." Dawn Robinson served as major professor throughout Cerenity's graduate studies. Cerenity has already accepted a tenure track position at Clemson University.

Yue Zhang successfully defended her dissertation, “Family Relationships and Health across the Life Course: Understanding Intergenerational Dynamics.” Her research was completed under the supervision of major professor, Ron Simons.

We are proud of the hard work they and all our graduate students are putting in.

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