The Program & Planning Your Route

The Basics: Mapping the Landscape of the Sociology MA Program

Before you arrive, the Graduate Program Committee will have carefully reviewed your application. If there are deficiencies in your academic background, the committee will have specified in your letter of acceptance the courses you must take in preparation for graduate studies. You may choose to take the necessary courses before you arrive at the University of Guelph or you may take them simultaneously with your other MA courses.

Fields of Specialization

The MA program in Sociology includes the following fields of specialization:

• Environment, Food, and Communities
• Work and Organization
• Crime and Social Control
• Identities and Social Inclusion

Environment, Food, and Communities

The field of Environment, Food, and Communities reflects sociological interests in understanding societal-ecological interactions more broadly. The specific focus may include environmental/natural resources/food systems and environmental justice/community sustainability. Students specializing in this field will be encouraged to draw on established methodologies in the field, including the comparative and historical approach. Attention will be given to the ways in which structure/power/culture and class/gender/race and ethnicity play out in at least one of the substantive topics comprising this field.

Work and Organization

The field of Work and Organization reflects sociological interests in changing patterns of work and employment in comparative contexts, labour markets, gender and work, industrial and organizational change, economic restructuring and work, organizations and protest, education for work, and the regulation of work. These trends are located in the broader processes of globalization, economic restructuring and fundamental shifts in public policy. Students specializing in this field will be encouraged to focus on the dialectical relationship between the configurations of gender, class, race and ethnicity, and the transformation and re-organization of work.

Crime and Social Control

The field of Crime and Social Control reflects sociological interests into how crime is defined, measured, explained and reacted to by society. Within this field students will be exposed to scholarly material on a broad range of topics including: cyberbullying, victimization, legal responses to homelessness, intimate partner violence, drug policy, school violence, feminist criminology, critical criminology, restorative justice, sociology of risk, policing, the social construction of crime, inmate re-integration, youth justice, wrongful convictions, and life course criminology.

Identities and Social Inclusion

The field of Identities and Social Inclusion reflects sociological interests in the study of intergroup relations, with special emphasis on struggles over influence and power. Students specializing in this field will acquire a deeper understanding of the complex intersection as well as the overlap of forms of identity and group mobilization based on ethnic, linguistic, regional, class, gender, racial and other forms of social division. The field also provides students with the opportunity to study Indigenous issues and policies related to multiculturalism, equity and local or regional autonomy.

Collaborative Program in International Development Studies

The four fields of specialization can be combined with the collaborative MA program in International Development Studies. Students receive an MA degree in their selected discipline with the added designation “International Development Studies”. Please visit the Guelph Institute of Development Studies website for more information.

Program Options

There are two options available for completing the MA degree. Students may elect to proceed toward the degree by either:

1. Writing a thesis and completing a minimum of 2.0 credits. The thesis should be in approximately 25, 000 words (e.g., ~100 double-spaced pages), excluding bibliography and appendices.
2. Writing a major research paper and completing a minimum of 4.0 credits. The major research paper should be approximately 12,500 words (e.g., ~50 double- spaced pages), excluding bibliography and appendices.

MA in Sociology Program Requirements

Summary (Thesis MA. SOC)

• Four Sociology graduate courses (2 credits)
• Pro-seminar
• Thesis

Summary (Major Paper MA.SOC:L)

• Six Sociology graduate courses (3 credits)
• Pro-seminar
• Major Paper (1 credit)

MA in Sociology + International Development Studies Program Requirements

Summary (Thesis)

• Three Sociology graduate courses (1.5 credits)
• Pro-seminar
• Thesis
• Plus all IDS requirements

Summary (Major paper)

• Five Sociology graduate courses (2.5 credits)
• Pro-seminar
• Major Paper (1 credit)
• Plus all IDS requirements

Specialized Reading Courses

MA students may take specialized graduate reading courses, which are equivalent in credits to other graduate courses. As such, students should expect a course load equivalent to other graduate courses (i.e., approximately 12-15 hours per week for 12 weeks). The procedures and restrictions pertaining to specialized reading courses are as follows:

• Procedures: Students must find a faculty member willing to supervise a reading course. The student is then responsible for creating, with guidance from the faculty member, a detailed course outline. This outline must specify readings, grading criteria, deadlines for submission of work, and a schedule of meetings. The student must complete a Reading Course Agreement form (signed by both the student and the faculty member); the form is to be submitted to the Graduate Program Assistant.

• Restrictions: Students may not request reading courses that are similar in content and/or purpose to existing departmental courses. Students must take their mandatory courses as regular courses and not as reading courses. In cases where a student takes a reading course with the faculty advisor, a second reader must be appointed to also assess the student's work.

Grade Schedule and Interpretation

Please see Appendix I for details on graduate-level grades and grade interpretation.