Program on Social Inequality

What are the causes and consequences of social inequality for individuals lives and what are the social processes that sustain it? How can social policies reduce social inequality? These and related questions are the focus of the Departments Program on Social Inequality. They are addressed in terms of class, gender, race, ethnicity, and immigration status/citizenship.

The Program on Social Inequality (PSI) focuses particular attention on the role of social institutions in generating and mitigating inequality. Institutional coverage includes, but is not limited to, the family, the school, the workplace, the community, labor markets, and health institutions. The family, for example, provides the context for human development in nearly all societies. It can transmit social inequality from generation to generation, but it can also provide the environment for transcending it. The educational system and the workplace likewise play important roles by affecting later life chances, cognitive functioning, and other facets of personality. These institutions are important not only individually but also through the connections among them. The family, for example, affects the quality and character of schooling; parents experiences at work affect their values for their children and their child-rearing practices, which in turn influence their children's development and socioeconomic prospects; educational attainments affect job conditions, which in turn affect cognitive functioning and personality; and, changes in the workforce have altered family life in many ways.

The Program is designed to train students in the sociological analysis of social inequality among individuals and groups. This training includes course work in areas such as social stratification, the sociology of the family, the sociology of education, sociology of immigration, social structure and personality, social policy, and research design and methods. It also includes research experience with faculty members who are studying aspects of social inequality.

The Program functions as a field of doctoral specialization within the Department of Sociology at Johns Hopkins. Students may obtain a certificate of concentration in social inequality by completing (with a grade of "B-" or higher) the Seminar in Social Inequality (230.612) and three other courses from among a list of approved courses (see below). These courses may also be used in partial fulfillment of the Ph.D. program requirements. Most students will choose to take additional elective courses relevant to the program as part of their Sociology Ph.D. requirements.

In order to gain practical research experience, students are required to complete a professional-level research apprenticeship, lasting at least one semester, with an affiliated faculty member (as part of the Sociology Ph.D. requirement of two such research experiences). In addition, students in the program normally will have an affiliated faculty member as the primary doctoral dissertation adviser.

Candidates will be evaluated competitively according to regular departmental standards for graduate admission, and they must be admitted into the Ph.D. program in order to affiliate with PSI. Financial support is available in the form of research and teaching assistantships.

New application materials are available in August of each year.  Apply online at https://app.applyyourself.com/?id=jhu-grad. 

For additional information, please contact the Department of Sociology, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore MD 21218-2685, E-mail: sociology@jhu.edu, or telephone (410) 516-7627.

Faculty and Associated Faculty

Required and elective courses

PSI Students