PhD Program

The PhD program is open to students with research interests in one or more of the following core areas and their intersections:

• aging
• gender
• health
• political sociology/social movements
• social inequality
• cultural, social and political thought (CSPT)

The PhD degree requires 30 units in accordance with the following program.

Course requirements

All students are required to complete six 1.5 unit graduate courses beyond the MA degree. Unless taken as part of a previous graduate program in Sociology, students will, by the end of their doctoral program, be required to complete two graduate-level social theory courses (SOCI 503 and 504) as well as graduate-level courses in qualitative (SOCI 515) and quantitative (SOCI 508) method. These four courses have prerequisites at the upper-undergraduate level. To ensure mastery of theory and method, students with grades below B+ in any of the four designated courses must pass a written supplementary examination before the theory/method requirements will be deemed to have been met. Students deficient in basic social theory and methods will be asked to complete the prerequisite courses (additional to the 9.0 required graduate-level units) before taking SOCI 503, 504, 508 and 515. CSPT courses taught by a Sociology faculty member are considered Sociology courses. Sociology doctoral students are encouraged though not required to take graduate courses from other disciplines to enhance their studies. They may take 3.0 units from other departments, selected from a list of approved courses. Doctoral students must also be registered in SOCI 693 (PhD Candidacy Examinations) for the duration of their preparation for their candidacy exams. This begins at the time a student first enrolls in the PhD program and continues until candidacy requirements have been completed. 

	Unit Values
Total:	33.0
Courses:	9.0
PhD Candidacy Exams:	3.0
Dissertation:	21.0

Comprehensive exams

Comprehensive examinations are offered in each of the Department's five core areas as well as in CSPT. Students must complete any two of these. Each comprehensive examination includes a written and an oral examination component. The written component entails an in-depth review essay, critically engaging with the literature, based on a bibliography agreed to by the student and the examination committee. The oral examination is based upon the review essay and normally is held within one month of the submission of the essay. Each examination (in both its written and oral components) is administered by a committee of three faculty members. CSPT comprehensive exams are set by the CSPT program.

Guidelines for PhD Comprehensive Examinations

Dissertation

Students are required to complete and defend a dissertation proposal before their supervisory committee, normally within six months of passing the comprehensive exams. The proposal and oral defense must be considered satisfactory before the student may proceed to the dissertation. All students are required to submit and defend a dissertation worth 21 units of credit.