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It is commonly held that the most laudable research is constructed around a healthy interplay among theories, methods, and data. Despite this long-standing consensus, many scholars have voiced concerns that theoretical frameworks are too often given inadequate attention and are generally underdeveloped. This impression has yet to be expressed with an empirical basis. For this reason, we evaluate this apparent disciplinary situation by creating a dataset made up of 217 articles from general sociology journals, as well as 22 US graduate-level classical theory syllabi. Through various means, we assess how often and to what extent sociologists apply classical theory in their research. Rather than intensive theorizing and/or earnestly striving to elevate historical consciousness, we find that sociologists typically reduce the theoretical dimensions of their analyses to thin commemorations of foundational texts. To our knowledge, this is the first empirically based assessment of the degree to which classical theory is used and cited in sociological research., Author(s): Anthony Albanese [sup.1] , Elise Wolff [sup.1] , Alan Sica [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) https://ror.org/04p491231, grid.29857.31, 0000 0001 2097 4281, Department of Sociology, Pennsylvania State University, , 211 Oswald [...]

This article investigates recent data on the prevalence of women in the field of sociology in order to understand whether or not the discipline has become a female preserve. Data on the top sociology departments in the USA were collected in 2007. For each university, we document the number of full time, tenured and tenure-track faculty members and present the gendered makeup of the department. Our data present mixed findings with regard to the question of whether the field is tipping toward female. Women, overall, are underrepresented in the sociology programs sampled, but a larger percentage of women occupy tenured positions within the top liberal arts programs than at the top graduate programs. And, women occupy a slim majority of assistant professor positions but have lower numbers at higher academic ranks. We can say with reasonable certainty that, while the proportion of women doctorates and assistant professors indicate a feminization of sociology, the entire discipline has not yet tipped toward female.

Author(s): Alan Sica[sup.1] Author Affiliations: Alan Sica is Professor of Sociology at Penn State. He was editor of Contemporary Sociology from 2008 to 2014. (1) Department of Sociology and Criminology, [...]

The Making of a Rare Sociologist On July 8, 2003 a scholar died, nearly 90 years old, who had been Vice-President and then President of the Eastern Sociological Society (1962-65), [...]