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ASA Current Initatives
This page is intended to keep members, academia, and visitors to the American Sociological Association website abreast of the association's current initatives. |
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DVD on Careers for Sociology Undergraduates [Details]
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ASA is developing a DVD on careers for sociology undergraduates that would be useful for career fairs, student clubs, orientation, and so forth. The DVD will feature vignettes of sociology BA graduates with interesting professional jobs. The ASA development team includes: Carla Howery, Kyle Murphy, Jean Shin, and Karina Harvilla. Contact apap@asanet.org if you have students who have an interesting job using their BA training in sociology. |
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ASA Staff Sociologists Participate in Regional Meetings [Details] |
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The ASA staff sociologists will be “on the road” attending and participating in regional sociology meetings. ASA will sponsor a booth at each meeting to display publications and information about ASA activities. We will be on various panels and sessions talking about national trends in the profession, diversity issues, the enhancement of teaching, and other initiatives. Please use this opportunity to share your thoughts about “the state of sociology” with us. For more information please see out page on Regional Sociological Meetings.
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Three New Task Forces Launch Their Work [Details] |
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The ASA Council recently approved three new Task Forces. The first will address the particular challenges and opportunities of joint sociology and criminology programs. Contact Carla Howery at vitullo@asanet.org. The second group will develop curriculum materials on teaching about professional ethics, for undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty and professional sociologists. Contact Jean Shin at shin@asanet.org. The third group will focus on academic freedom issues. Lee Herring is the contact, at herring@asanet.org. Each Task Force has been constituted and is ready to begin its work. However, we welcome input on what are the critical issues to address, important resources (print and human), and offers to read drafts of the groups’ work. We welcome your input and interest in these three topics. |
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In addition, there are message boards to discuss these topics. Go to the ASA website (http://www.asanet.org) and look for those groups.
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The Role of the Director of Graduate Studies [Details] |
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ASA’s Academic and Professional Affairs Program is working on a document that will outline the role of the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS). The DGS is often a very undefined job, as well as one that varies considerably from one school to another. This document will set out various models for the role and some narrative about why different graduate programs have set up the DGS role as they have. Contact apap@asanet.org.
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Focus on Quantitative Literacy for Sociology Undergraduates [Details] |
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The ASA’s Academic and Professional Affairs Program had a major grant from the National Science Foundation to infuse training in quantitative literacy in the lower division sociology curriculum. That project, called Integrating Data Analysis (IDA) is complete, but dissemination and spinoff projects continue. At the Midwest and North Central Sociological Association joint meeting in Chicago this spring, ASA is teaming up with the National Numeracy Network to offer several workshops and sessions on issues relating to quantitative literacy. Please join us! Contact apap@asanet.org.
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Peer Review of Teaching Resources [Details] |
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Including teaching-related expertise is becoming more and more common in promotion and tenure decisions. But many schools still use student evaluations as the sole measure for teaching effectiveness. Adding peer review of teaching behavior (classroom observations) and review of materials is an important piece for robust and valid evaluations. The ASA’s Academic and Professional Affairs Program is finishing an edited collection about how to undertake peer review of teaching. For more information, contact, apap@asanet.org. |
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Engaging with Federal Agencies [Details] |
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ASA staff members remain solidly engaged with the latest news and events at federal agencies concerning sociologists and their research. Staff members regularly attend functions sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the National Institute on Aging (NIA), and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). In addition, ASA staff members are frequently invited to participate in meetings, workshops, and seminars held by Research!America, a well-known alliance in promoting health research, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the Institute of Medicine (IOM), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
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Minority Affairs Outreach to HBCU and HSI Departments [Details] |
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ASA is concerned about the varying degree of connectedness to its resources that departments at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) have experienced in recent years. For the remainder of the 2006-2007 academic year, the Minority Affairs Program (MAP) and the Academic and Professional Affairs Program (APAP) will collaborate to identify 10 HBCU and HSI departments across the country and offer them ASA department affiliate status at no cost. A major priority for MAP is to follow up this summer with the corresponding department chairs about developing further outreach strategies for their and other HBCU and HSI departments in both the short and long term. For more information, contact minority.affairs@asanet.org.
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MFP Data/History Project Underway [Details] |
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In looking ahead to welcoming its 35th cohort in 2008, the Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) has begun efforts to construct a data/history project that focuses on the founding and early days of MFP and celebrates the many successes that have followed. This project looks to be qualitative in nature and will be based on interviews with past MFP Fellows as well as supporters of MFP. An important connection exists to the work of the ASA Status Committee on Racial and Ethnic Minorities in Sociology (SREM), as the SREM Committee plans to use many of these interviews for a pilot study on challenges for graduate students of color in earning the Ph.D. and how these have and have not shifted in recent years. In doing this pilot study, information for a future grant proposal can be gathered
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AY 2007/08 Department Survey
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Currently in the field with the follow-up of the Department Survey. This survey provides an in-depth portrait of college and university sociology departments, including characteristics of their undergraduate and graduate sociology programs, structural and demographic characteristics of faculty, and total expenditures for faculty salaries at different ranks.
While this survey is currently in-progress, the results for the AY 2001/02 Department Survey are available. [Click here]. |
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PhD +10 |
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The latest follow-up to a longitudinal survey of the cohort of 1996-97 PhDs in sociology has been completed. This survey asks about career trajectories, scholarly productivity, family formation, and use of work-family policies. New findings from this wave of the survey will be available shortly.
Earlier findings from this survey are available in the following briefs: |
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Satisfaction Among Doctoral Recipients |
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We are in the midst of analyzing data from two waves of the National Science Foundation's Survey of Doctoral Recipients. This research compares measures of professionalism and job satisfaction among academic and non-academic PhDs in sociology and a variety of other social and natural science disciplines. Preliminary findings suggest that academics may be less satisfied on a variety of measures such as autonomy than non-academics.
Until findings from this study are available, the results of the ASA study of sociology PhDs in non-academic applied, research, and policy positions can be found in Beyond the Ivory Tower (a slideshow). [Click here] |
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What Can I Do With A Bachelor's Degree in Sociology? |
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We are in the midst of analzying data from the second wave of a longitudinal survey of a sample of the class of 2005. The first wave of this study was conducted to find out about the skills learned, the reasons for majoring, and the future plans of a sample of 2005 sociology baccalaureates. The current wave analyzes the workforce experiences of this cohort some 18 months later. So far, two research briefs have been produced: |
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- What Are They Doing With a BA in Sociology? This brief presents the first findings from the 2007 follow-up survey of the class of 2005, revealing that most are employed and working in social services. This research also finds that overall satisfaction with the major corresponds with how closely current activities relate to sociology.
- Pathways to Job Satisfaction This second set of findings from the 2007 follow-up survey of sociology BAs focus on those employed after graduation and describes the pathway from motivation for majoring in sociology, to research skills learned and used on the job, to job satisfaction.
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Sociology Faculty Salaries |
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Based on AY 2007/08 findings from the annual faculty salaries survey conducted by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, the ASA Research Department has recently completed its brief on sociology faculty surveys, finding that, while sociology faculty salaries have increased since last year, they remain below inflation and other social science disciplines. |
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To view all of the latest ASA research briefs and articles, [Click Here]. |
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Research Assessment Study [Details] |
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Faculty members who want to use the Phase 2 survey of "What Can I Do with a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology?" to assess what their students think that they have learned and their satisfaction with an undergraduate sociology major, can use the PDF version of this questionnaire. [View Questionnaire]
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Now Available! |
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Pathways to Job Satisfaction  [PDF, 147KB] |
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As one of two sets of findings from a follow-up survey of 2005 sociology BAs, this brief focuses on those employed after graduation to illustrate the pathway from motivation to majoring and research skills learned and used to job satisfaction.
Additional reported findings from this follow-up survey are available in "What Are They Doing With a Bachelors Degree in Sociology?" [PDF, 371KB] |
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Faculty Salaries, AY 2007-08 [PDF, 124KB] |
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Using data from the latest annual survey of faculty salaries conducted by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, this brief explains that, while sociology faculty salaries have increased, they remain both below inflation and below other social science and disciplines. |
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How Does Our Membership Grow? [PDF, 135KB] |
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Providing a profile of 2007 ASA members, see changes in the gender and racial/0ethnic characteristics of ASA members and for the first time, those for whom a master's is their highest degree.
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More current research can be found by visiting the Research & Development Department's Research and Statistics Homepage. |
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Available Soon on the ASA Website! |
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To find out what projects the ASA Research & Development department is working on, please view the Research in Progress section of the Current Initiatives page. |
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