We have been hiring sociologists with the explicit goal of fostering a synergistic intellectual environment at UC Merced, with a program that emphasizes issues central to the university's mission and connects well with other programs on campus.  The Sociology program focuses on the study of social inequality, including race, class, gender and sexuality, political participation and social movements, education, health and immigration. We have emphasized hiring faculty who are a good fit for the university's mission to bring needed expertise to the Central Valley on topics such as immigration, education and health. In addition, we have been hiring in a way that enables us to form interdisciplinary connections with other programs on campus, such as political science, the humanities, psychology, public health, and the natural sciences.  

The Sociology program is focusing on a unique combination of areas compared to other sociology programs in the UC system and nationally. While some sociology programs such as UCSB, for example, study race, immigration and political participation, they do not also focus on education and health. The Sociology program at Notre Dame University emphasizes education and political participation, but they do not also include a focus on social inequality (race and gender) and health. Ohio State's Sociology Department includes a strong emphasis on political participation and health, but they do not also study immigration and race. Thus, our program emphasizes a unique combination of areas which will help us attain national distinction while providing graduate students with one of a kind training. The areas we emphasize are synergistic, so that a graduate student interested in immigrant experiences within the educational system, for example, can train with experts in immigration, race and education, in a way that they would be unable to do at any other university in the country.  We have been hiring sociologists with the explicit goal of fostering a cohesive intellectual environment in order to provide excellent graduate training that addresses issues at the cutting edge of sociology, and that are relevant to California and the Central Valley.

Sociology, perhaps more than any other discipline, is inherently interdisciplinary. Sociologists study topics that overlap with virtually every other discipline in the social sciences and humanities, including politics, education, and health, among others. We also collaborate with natural science on topics such as the study of scientific disciplines, STEM field education, health, environment, and medicine, and the interaction between biology and the social world. Current Sociology faculty are involved in a range of interdisciplinary collaborations. Van Dyke and Dodson are collaborating with Stephen Nicholson in political science on ballot initiatives and hate crimes. Valdez is working with public health and biology faculty on issues of economic inequality and obesity. Beattie is collaborating with math faculty and graduate students on a study of minorities in STEM fields. Almeida has also worked with a graduate student in Environmental Systems on GIS mapping techniques. Golash-Boza is leading a speaking series with UCM Humanities Faculty to bring internationally renowned race and ethnicity scholars to campus. These cross-disciplinary collaborations have the potential to generate new insights into important social issues, while also providing opportunities for graduate students to receive interdisciplinary research training.

Sociology is also participating in interdisciplinary graduate coursework. Most of the sociology graduate students are taking a course in introductory graduate level quantitative methods in Political Science (POLI 210). Several students from the World Cultures graduate groups are enrolled in our current sociology graduate seminars, including Sociological Theory and a Seminar on Race and Ethnicity. We are in discussions with the Public Health faculty about the possibility of making Sociology Statistics courses (Soc 210, 211) a requirement for the Public Health graduate students. We also anticipate graduate students from several other disciplines enrolling in our graduate statistics and research methods courses because of Sociology’s leading roles in these fields within the social sciences generally. Thus, the graduate program in Sociology is providing training for graduate students in a range of disciplines across the university.

UC Merced was placed in the Central Valley specifically because of the social challenges facing its residents, social challenges which are the direct focus of sociological research. We would argue that more than any other program at UC Merced, we are developing the capacity to study and train students on issues that are important to the Central Valley.  We are hiring scholars who study race, ethnicity and social class:  disparities along these lines are fundamental to the nature of life in the Central Valley.  We are hiring sociologists who study education: low educational attainment and racial disparities in attainment are critical problems in the Central Valley.  Our research and graduate training address issues of political participation: minorities in the US typically have disproportionately low rates of political participation, in spite of the fact that political action would help address many of the challenges faced by their communities.  We are hiring sociologists who study health disparities: the region has high rates of obesity, diabetes, and other health problems.  The areas of strength and the combination of areas we are developing are unique for the UC system and nationally, and will help us draw graduate students and attain national and even international standing.

Situating Sociology within UC Merced

Sociology fits centrally in the fifth strategic research theme identified in UC Merced’s current Strategic Academic Vision - the Dynamics of Social and Economic Progress. We also contribute to the research themes: Human Health; Community, Culture, Identity; and Environmental Sustainability.

Some of the university's strengths might be better captured by a research theme of Central Valley/the World. The campus has multiple disciplines building strength in the study of issues important to the Central Valley, including those we describe above. The World Cultures faculty and Sociology study social inequality, including race/ethnicity and gender. Economics, Psychology, and Sociology faculty are building strength in education, an interest also shared by faculty in Natural Science. Psychology, Economics, Public Health and Sociology are developing expertise in health disparities. The population of the Central Valley, with more than 6 million residents, is larger than that of 10 US states. The challenges it faces in terms of health, education, poverty and immigration, are all issues affecting California, and the nation. By emphasizing our expertise in these issues, we can demonstrate that our research programs are important and worthy of support, with implications for the region, the state and beyond.

Interdisciplinary research on inequality, health, education, immigration and politics would be strengthened by the formation of additional research centers on campus.  The Health Science Research Institute and Humanities Center have already begun fostering interdisciplinary connections on campus. Sociology faculty have initiated research projects with faculty in Public Health and World Cultures through the HSRI, and have co-sponsored a speaker series with the Humanities Center.  The addition of several more research centers on campus would similarly facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations on other topics.  The Sociology faculty are in discussion with faculty in Psychology and Economics about the possibility of starting an Education Research Center. The UC does not have any research centers with this focus, and the Central Valley would benefit from its presence. A Center for the Study of Comparative Inequalities would connect the Humanities and Sociology faculty while addressing a topic that cuts across many other interest areas on campus, such as Public Health.  Finally, faculty from across SSHA, the Natural Sciences and Engineering have already begun planning a Center for Quantitative and Survey Research. This Center will foster cross-disciplinary collaborations by bringing together faculty who share different quantitative research skills.  These Centers would not necessarily require significant resources, beyond a shared meeting space and possibly funds to bring in speakers and seed research projects, and the pay off would be visible through research collaborations and grant dollars.

Metrics for Assessing Graduate Program Standing

We are building a strong and unique sociology program at UC Merced.  Our seven current faculty members have already established a foundation of research excellence, and our goal is to continue building to become a nationally ranked sociology program within 15 years.  We have every confidence that we can achieve this goal.  Among the faculty we have on campus thus far, all have published articles in top sociology journals; 5 of our 7 faculty have been elected to national office within the discipline; 4 have received national awards for their work, and two have received Fulbright Awards.  Several of our faculty have published books with leading academic presses. These are all markers of excellence. In the future, the success of our graduate students will also be an important indicator of the strength of our program, and will be evident by graduate students presenting their research at conferences, publishing their work, and by their post-graduation job placement. 

Program Demand

On the UC Merced campus, undergraduate sociology courses fill to near capacity every semester and more quickly than those of almost any other discipline. In the 2012-13 academic year, sociology undergraduate enrollments were the 2nd highest in SSHA, and the 4th highest in the university (not counting math or writing). The number of sociology majors has grown steadily since the program's inception 3 years ago. We currently have 190 majors and more than 130 minors. In spite of our high enrollments, we are one of the smaller programs on campus in terms of faculty numbers. Thus, we have the same number of faculty as some other programs (or fewer), yet teach 4 times the number of undergraduates. Our current faculty numbers are not sufficient for the student demand.

Graduate training in Sociology remains popular throughout the UC System, and thus, we anticipate steady growth for our graduate program. Larger schools such as UCLA have over 120 graduate students in residence while smaller campuses such as UC Riverside maintain Sociology graduate enrollments of 50 students. Other UC Sociology programs typically admit only 10% of their applicants, and thus, there is unmet demand for graduate training in sociology in California.  In fall of 2013, in the first year of our specialized graduate program in Sociology in Social Sciences, five out of the seven students that were admitted to our program accepted our offers, while we denied entry to three other applicants. We anticipate sustained growth in a strong applicant pool in the coming years (projected in the metrics worksheet) as we advertise our program more aggressively on a national and international scale, and as our growing number of faculty continue to receive national recognition for their research.

UC Merced was placed in California’s Central Valley because its population is underserved by higher educational opportunities and because of the social and economic challenges facing the region. The Sociology Program will provide members of underrepresented groups access to first class undergraduate and graduate training. The research strengths of the sociology faculty are directly relevant, and therefore compelling, to a diverse set of students. Our undergraduate program currently has 190 majors, 70% of whom are Latino. We have the highest percentage of majors that are Latino of any program on campus other than Spanish. Among our current group of graduate students, 5 out of 6 are from underrepresented minority groups. We anticipate training a diverse group of students for both academic and non-academic careers.

Growth Plan

Since the first sociologist joined UCM in 2006, we have added 1-2 faculty members per year. Sociology currently has one search underway for a faculty member who can teach Graduate Statistics, and is also currently pursuing a senior hire in Sociological Theory, with an emphasis in race and ethnicity. Assuming we are able to hire one individual to arrive in the fall of 2014, this will bring our total number of faculty to 8, and if we get both we will have 9 faculty. Strategic plans within the School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts have been consistently recommending at least one line for Sociology each year. Thus, by 2020 we anticipate having 15-17 faculty.

We plan to continue to grow our strengths in gender, health, immigration, race, and education – as these are areas that are both important to the Central Valley and that build on current strengths of UC Merced.  We anticipate continuing to offer graduate seminars in areas that appeal to graduate students across campus, and collaborating with faculty in other departments on research grants and seminar series. With fifteen faculty, we will be able to offer graduate courses in advanced statistics, sociological theory, gender, race, education, social movements, research methods, qualitative research, and immigration, and we anticipate that these courses will appeal to Sociology graduate students as well as students in public health, psychology, political science, history, anthropology, and literature.

We plan on accepting small cohorts of 5-6 students per year reaching between 25-30 graduate students by the fall of 2020. The ratio of faculty to graduate students will be approximately 1:2. By the fall of 2020 we anticipate (based on current commitments and the SSHA Annual Strategic Plan) having 15-17 Sociology tenure-track faculty.  Over the long term we anticipate reaching a graduate student population of around 40 with 20-25 faculty members, which will maintain a 1:2 faculty to student ratio for our graduate program. The metrics worksheet outlines the projected growth of our Sociology graduate program.

Space needs

Sociologists require one office per faculty member. Graduate students need (shared) office space as well. Thus, in addition to 15-17 faculty offices, we will require shared office space for approximately 30 students by 2020.  These could be faculty style offices shared by 2 students, or larger spaces with cubicles or work stations, shared by 8-12 students.  Sociologists typically do not require experimental laboratory facilities, however, some do require computer lab space. Sociology currently has one shared secure data lab, and a graduate student computing lab. We expect these labs, along with offices allocated to new faculty and graduate students, to accommodate the size of the Sociology program for several years. However, over the long term we expect to need additional space for research, teaching assistants, and graduate student workspace, in addition to offices for new faculty. Ideally, the program would have a small kitchen or break room, and a small conference room for meetings.