Workshops
Introduction:
Workshops at Penn are offered as part of the cluster system, established around 1990 to identify the strengths of the department for both internal and external audiences. Cluster groups evolve according to faculty and student interests, with the establishment and closing of clusters approved by the Chair. Currently, Penn clusters include Sociology of Culture; Demography; Family and Gender; Medical Sociology; Race, Ethnicity and Immigration; Education and Inequality; and Economic Sociology. Clusters sponsor one or more ongoing workshops. Workshops offer opportunities for students to participate, as audience members and as speakers, in presentations of cutting edge research in cluster areas, by scholars at Penn and visitors. Current workshops include:
Culture and Interaction
Organizers:
Culture is largely instantiated and reproduced through face-to-face interaction. At the same time, culture can be created and transformed in such encounters, when new ideas are infused with significance and old ones are found to be inadequate to the interactional challenges at hand. This workshop brings together faculty and students from several Penn and other Philadelphia-area colleges and universities for informal talks and discussion about culture and interaction. Some speakers present polished work, but the workshop aims to be useful to early-stage research, so most sessions center on research proposals and early drafts of papers. For further information and schedule visit the Culture and Interaction page.
Family / Gender
Organizers:
The family is an important institution through which a host of social processes get played out. Thus, understanding family formation and functioning is especially important, particularly given the dramatic demographic changes of the last five decades. This workshop gives faculty members from various departments across the university, as well as graduate students in the Sociology and Demography graduate groups, the opportunity to present ongoing research on families and gender. Occasionally, individuals from outside of the university are invited to present their research. The workshop presentations are generally informal, and presenters are encouraged to leave time for feedback. For further information and schedule visit the Family/Gender page.
Education and Inequality
Organizers:
The Education and Inequality workshop focuses on issues of inequality in educational opportunity. These issues have long been central to the field of sociology. Penn Sociology has a broad representation of faculty working in this area, with particular strengths in the areas of race, ethnicity, gender, and comparative international research. Faculty members affiliated with this cluster are listed below, along with a brief summary of their areas of expertise. We have had a number of accomplished graduates in recent years. In addition to the faculty based in the Sociology Department, students interested in this area of study have access to faculty located in Penn’s nearby Graduate School of Education. A joint-degree Ph. D. program in Sociology and Education is available for those who are interested in scholarship at the intersection of sociology and education. Graduate students from Penn’s Graduate School of Education are often enrolled in sociology graduate courses, and sociology graduate students avail themselves of expertise available in GSE.. For further information and schedule visit the Education & Inequality page
Population Studies
The population studies workshop provides a direct link between the sociology department and the Population Studies Center. In its original incarnation, population studies mainly concerned demography: the study of the growth and structure of human populations, primarily in terms of fertility, mortality, and migration. As the field of population studies has evolved, so too has the PSC at Penn, which is a major national resource for our understanding of the dynamics of human populations, including health and well-being, human resources, networks, and policy evaluation. For additional information, please visit the Population Studies Center. For a full list of presenters please visit the PSC colloquium.
Race, Ethnicity and Immigration
Organizers:
Scholars have come to appreciate the complex, dynamic, and fluid nature of the concepts of race and ethnicity and the process of immigration—leaving a field that can seem disjointed, confusing, and at odds with itself. The race, ethnicity, and immigration workshop brings together interested graduate students and faculty to discuss and consider the critical sociological questions with which research continues to grapple in these fields. Through both formal presentations and informal discussion, the workshop strives to challenge assumptions, highlight important work, and engage theory and empirical work from both within and outside the academy on these topics. The workshop hopes to both offer members of the group the chance to present early-stage research and to bring in outside speakers to offer fresh insight from outside the workshop's membership. For further information and schedule visit the Race, Ethnicity and Immigration page.
Economic Sociology
Organizers:
The Economic Sociology workshop brings together faculty, students, and outside speakers around on-going research in economic sociology. We define the field inclusively, as the sociological study of economic activity. For more information visit the Economic Sociology page.
Urban Ethnography
Organizers:
The broad mission of this workshop is to promote and support social science research on urban affairs using participant observation and other ethnographic methods and techniques. This workshop brings together faculty and students from the entire University community as well as neighboring institutions in the Philadelphia area to present and discuss current research on a variety of issues relevant to contemporary urban life and the culture of cities. Past presentation and discussion topics include the religious diversity of urban neighborhoods; the political economy of civic arts and cultural festivals; the social lives of heroin users; and the relationship between community-based organizations and the urban poor. The workshop attracts an interdisciplinary group of regular participants not only from Sociology but also Anthropology, City Planning, Communication, Criminology, Family and Community Medicine, Folklore, History, Social Policy and Practice, Urban Studies, and Women’s Studies. For more information and schedule visit the Urban Ethnography page.
