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This program awards a PhD degree in either Government and Social Policy or Sociology and Social Policy. Both of these programs are joint degrees that provide students a thorough grounding in one of these two traditional disciplines and then move them into a series of inter-disciplinary seminars on social policy based at the Kennedy School of Govern­ment (KSG). Students submit applications for admission to the Committee on Higher Degrees in Social Policy, which must be accepted as well by the admissions committee of either the Department of Government or the Department of Sociology. From the very beginning of their graduate careers, then, students are taught and supervised by faculty from government, sociology and the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy in the Kennedy School.

This degree is intended for students who have central interests in problems of economic inequality, segregation, poverty, changing family structure, immigration, race and labor market segmentation, educational inequality, and historical and comparative studies of inequality in the United States and abroad (especially Western Europe). It will be of particular interest for students who wish to combine solid training in the fundamental theoretical perspectives and methodological traditions of either government or sociology with advanced study of policy responses to these social problems. Students who would like the flexibility to pursue research careers in departments of political science or sociology and schools of public policy or other research fields may find these joint degrees especially suitable. 

Course of Study

Students are expected to complete all of the required courses and examinations in govern­ment or sociology (outlined in the table), which ensures that joint degree candidates will be thoroughly grounded in the theory, methods, and a key substantive area of the traditional discipline. Applicants are urged to consult the government or sociology depart­ment listings for more information regarding the degree requirements in those departments. The government department requires that the general, oral examination be taken at the end of the second year. The sociology department requires that a written examination be taken in September preceding the second year.

Students then embark on a complemen­tary program of study in social policy. Starting in their second year, students move into a three-term Proseminar based at the Kennedy School which focuses on the study of social policy, with an emphasis on the manifestations of inequality (residential racial segregation, educational attainment, differential political participation, immigration, race and gender segregation in the labor market, etc.). In the course of this seminar, students prepare original research papers that serve as qualifying papers (in sociology) or research papers (in government). Students in Government and Social Policy must elect social policy as their “focus field” in satisfying their government requirements.

Participants in both degree programs are expected to select a field specialization within social policy. Six topical areas are available: (1) work, wages, and the marketplace; (2) neighborhoods and spatial segregation; (3) family structures and parental roles; (4) immi­gration, race, and labor market segregation; (5) education and inequality; and (6) historical and comparative social policy. Students must take one course in the field they select. A list of suitable courses is available from the program office. This requirement can also be satisfied as a tutorial or independent study from a member of the social policy faculty in the Kennedy School.

All students in the joint programs are required to enroll in the advanced seminar in social policy that will assist them in designing their dissertation prospectus. Students must complete a prospectus for the doctoral dis sertation for a three-person committee composed of faculty from Government or Sociology and Social Policy. Ordinarily the prospectus is completed by the end of the third year in residence.

Degree Requirements in each Social Policy PhD Program:

Sociology and Social Policy PhD

• Two-term sequence in classical and contemporary theory.
• Two-term sequence in quantitative and qualitative methods, and one advanced course in quantitative methods.

Sociology General Examination

Qualifying examination taken in September following Year 1, to cover theory, methods, organiza­tions, and political sociology, plus an elective area.

Post-General Examination Program

Beginning in the first year and continuing on there­after, all students must complete 14 term courses at the 200 level with an average of B or better. Five of these courses must be the the theory and methods courses listed above.
• Research apprenticeship, one term
• Completion of Sociology 305, the Teaching Practicum
• Service as teaching fellow in one sociology course
• Completion of three terms of Social Policy Proseminar
• Completion of research paper in topical area with major literatures in sociology and social policy. This paper should emanate from the Social Policy Pro seminar and may be used as the basis for the qualifying paper.
• Completion of an oral examination in the student’s area of special interest, which is expected to be the area in which the dissertation will fall.

Government and Social Policy PhD

• Twelve half-courses, of which eight must be in government. At least ten of these 12 half-courses and seven of the eight half-courses in government must be 1000- or 2000-level courses. Students must complete six half-courses by the end of their second term in residence and nine by the end of their third. • One of the government department half-courses, ordinarily at the 2000 level, must be taken in the student’s minor field, which is either of the remaining two fields not assessed in the General Examination.
• Completion of two of the three terms of the Proseminar in Social Policy.
• Students must complete three seminar style research papers, one of which should fulfill the social policy program’s requirement to complete a research paper in a topical area with major literatures in government and social policy. This latter paper should emanate from the Social Policy Proseminar and may serve as the basis for the qualifying paper in social policy discussed below.
• Competency in one language other than English. Must be demonstrated via language examinations.
• Completion of one course in quantitative methods (with a grade of B or better), or, with the approval of the Director of Graduate Studies, an equivalent course.

Government General Examination
General examination taken at the end of year two, to cover political theory, a major field (American government, comparative politics, international relations, political theory), and a focus field in social policy. 

Post-General Examination Program
Completion of third term in Social Policy Proseminar. 

Advanced Studies in Social Policy: Required for all students
• Field Specialization:
     • One course for field specialization within social policy. Students will choose a field specialization from among the following six topical areas:
(1) work, wages, and the marketplace; (2) neighborhoods and spatial segregation;
(3) family structures and parental roles; (4) immigration, race, and labor market segre­gation; (5) education; and (6) historical and comparative social policy. Students may also satisfy this requirement by taking tutorials/independent study under the guidance of a member of the social policy faculty in KSG.
     • Qualifying paper in the specialized field. Supervised by committee drawn from partici­pants in the joint degree program (normally including member of the student’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) department). May be based upon paper completed for the Social Policy Proseminar.

• Advanced Seminar in Social Policy. Required of all students in the program; designed to assist them in preparation of the dissertation prospectus.
• Completion of dissertation prospectus (including oral defense).
• Teaching fellowship. Students are encouraged to serve as teaching fellows in government, sociology, or Kennedy School social policy courses.
• Completion of dissertation. 

The final draft of a student’s dissertation is evaluated during a public oral defense before the dissertation committee. The outcomes of this hearing are pass, pass conditional on minor revisions, or fail. The final manuscript must conform to the requirements described in The Form of the PhD Dissertation.

Financial Aid

Harvard intends that all graduate students should have support adequate to enable them to complete their studies while enrolled full-time. The University’s financial aid continues for the five-year period of study, though the amount varies as the individual’s needs change and the form of aid changes from year to year. In general, students are provided tuition and stipends during their first two years and the final dissertation year, and receive tuition support and teaching or research assistantships during their third and fourth years. Students are admitted only when the University has arranged to offer them the needed financial assistance, or if they have demonstrated the capacity to finance their studies without University help.

All students in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences must continue to make satisfactory progress in order to be eligible for any type of financial aid. The joint doctoral programs in Government and Social Policy and Sociology and Social Policy observe the general guidelines outlined in The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Handbook. 

Residence

For the degree of doctor of philosophy, a minimum of two years (four terms) of full-time graduate study in residence in the Grad­uate School of Arts and Sciences is required. It is expected that students generally complete all the requirements for the PhD degree within six years after admission.

Academic Review

The Committee on Higher Degrees in Social Policy is charged with monitoring the progress of students in both joint programs. Together with academic advisors and the director of graduate studies in the respective departments, the committee is responsible for ensuring that students are progressing through the degree requirements in government or sociology and in social policy.

Admissions

Applications for admission and financial aid are available from the Admissions Office, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Holyoke Center 350, 1350 Massa­chusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138. We encourage online submission of the applica­tion. See www.gsas.harvard.edu.

Further information about the joint degree programs may be obtained from the program Website (www.ksg.harvard.edu/socialpol/). Questions or requests for addi­tional printed materials should be directed to the office of the director, Pamela Metz, via e-mail ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or correspondence addressed to her attention at the Kennedy School of Government, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138. 

Faculty List

** indicates members of the Committee on Higher Degrees in Social Policy

Mary Jo Bane, Thornton Bradshaw Professor of Public Policy and Management, Kennedy School. Education. Public management, poverty, welfare, child support, family, and social policy.

George J. Borjas, Robert W. Scrivner Professor of Economics and Social Policy, Kennedy School. Economist. Government regulations of labor markets, economic impact of immigration, skill composition of the labor force.

Mary C. Brinton, Reischauer Institute Professor of Sociology. Sociologist. Gender stratifica­tion, labor market organization, education, economic sociology, and Japanese society.

Amitabh Chandra. Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Kennedy School. Economist. Racial disparities in healthcare, medical malpractice and defensive medicine, and technology and productivity in healthcare.

Pepper Culpepper, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Kennedy School. Comparative capitalism, strategies of economic reform, and politics of the European Union. Role of employers and politics, and on determinants of supply-side economic policies in Europe.

Susan Dynarski, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Kennedy School. Applied micro­economics to analyze impact of government policy on individual behavior. Distributional impact of tax incentives for education saving.

Kathryn Edin, Professor of Public Policy and Management, Kennedy School. Sociologist. Urban poverty and family life, social welfare, public housing, child support, and non-mar­ital childbearing.

**David T. Ellwood, Scott M. Black Professor of Political Economy, Dean, Kennedy School. Economist. Welfare, teenage unemployment, poverty, wage disparities, causes of rapidly changing family structures and their impacts on inequality.

Margarita Estevez-Abe, Paul Sack Associate Professor of Political Economy. Comparative social policy, Japanese politics and economy, varieties of capitalism, and gender inequality.

Ronald F. Ferguson, Lecturer in Public Policy, Kennedy School. Economist. Education finance, diffusion of teaching reforms, deter­minates of disparity in earnings and employ­ment, and evaluation of community-based youth programming.

Peter A. Hall, Krupp Foundation Professor of European Studies. Varieties of capitalism, Euro­pean politics, policymaking, and compara-tive political economy. Contribution of institutional analysis to the study of political economy, and the political responses to inter­national integration in post-war Europe.

**Jennifer L. Hochschild, Henry LaBarre Jayne Professor of Government and Professor of African and African American Studies, Harvard College Professor. Political scientist. Political philosophy, American political thought, public opinion, race in America, identity politics, desegregation.

Torben Iversen, Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy. Political scien­tist. Comparative political economy, electoral politics, and applied formal theory, European voting and party behavior, impact of de-in­dustrialization and partisan politics on public spending policies.

Brian Jacob, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Kennedy School. Economist. Labor economics, program evaluation, and the economics of education.

**Christopher Jencks, Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy, Kennedy School. Sociologist. Material standard of living over the past generation, homelessness, the effects on children of growing up in poor neighborhoods, welfare reform, and poverty measurement.

Alexander Keyssar, Matthew W. Stirling Jr., Professor of History and Social Policy, Kennedy School. Election reform, the history of democ­racies, and the history of poverty.

Michèle Lamont, Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies, Professor of Sociology and of African and African American Studies. Cultural sociology, inequality, race and immigration, comparative sociology, the sociology of knowl­edge, and contemporary sociological theory.

Jeffrey B. Liebman, Malcolm Wiener Professor of Public Policy, Kennedy School. Economist. Public finance, labor economics, welfare policy, and tax policy.

Erzo F.P. Luttmer, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Kennedy School. Economist. Public economics, labor economics, and applied econometrics.

Jane J. Mansbridge, Adams Professor of  Political Leadership and Democratic Values, Kennedy School. Political scientist. Representation, trust, democratic theory, public understanding of collective action problems, social movements.

Orlando Patterson, John Cowles Professor of Sociology. Sociologist. Race, immigration, and multiculturalism, trust among Afro-Americans, the history of freedom.

Paul E. Peterson, Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Government. Political scientist. Federalism, educational policy, and welfare policy.

Robert D. Putnam, Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy, Kennedy School. Political scientist. Democratic theory, social capital, comparative analysis of elites, civic engagement.

Monica Singhal, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Kennedy School. Economist. Public finance and labor economics.

Robert J. Sampson, Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences. Etiology of crime and violence, the life course, and urban sociology. Nature, sources, and consequences of commu­nity-level social processes.

Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology. Political scientist. Comparative politics, American politics, and political sociology, history of social policy, civic engagement.

**Mary C. Waters, M.E. Zukerman Professor of Sociology. Sociologist. Race and ethnic identity, immigrant assimilation, labor markets.

Martin Whyte, Professor of Sociology. Compar­ative sociology, sociology of the family, soci­ology of development, the sociological study of contemporary China, and the study of post-Communist transitions.

Kim M. Williams, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Kennedy School. American racial politics, social movements, and immigration policy.

Julie Boatright Wilson, Harry S. Kahn Senior Lecturer in Social Policy, Director of the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, Kennedy School. Sociologist. Urban, family, and welfare policy; poverty; and survey research methodology.

William Julius Wilson, Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor. Sociologist. Poverty and joblessness, inequality, race relations, welfare, social policy.

**Christopher Winship, Diker-Tishman Professor of Sociology. Sociologist. Social/ economic status of African Americans, transi­tions to adulthood, differential patterns of educational attainment, family formation process.

Faculty Affiliates in Other Departments

Richard B. Freeman, Herbert Ascherman Professor of Economics. Economist. Supply and demand for skilled workers, discrimination, the welfare state, comparative analysis of labor market institutions, trade unionism and work­place representation, the youth labor market, and wage inequality.

Roland G. Fryer, Professor of Economics. Applied theory, applied microeconomics, and labor economics. Application of tools of economic analysis to issues of race and inequality. Affirmative action, discrimination, and social economics.

Edward L. Glaeser, Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics. Economist. Political economy, urban economics, labor turnover.

Claudia Goldin, Henry Lee Professor of Economics. Economist. American economic history, including slavery, emancipation, the post-bellum South, the family, women in the economy, the economic impact of war, immi­gration, New Deal policies, inequality, and education.

Thomas J. Kane, Professor of Education. Issues of higher education, including labor market payoff to community college, impact of tuition and financial aid policy on college enrollment rates, and impact of affirmative action in college admissions.

Lawrence F. Katz, Elisabeth Allison Professor of Economics. Economist. Labor economics, the economics of social problems including wage and income inequality, unemployment, the impact of immigration and international trade on the labor market, neighborhood effects and the problems of disadvantaged youth.

Martha Minow, Jeremiah Smith Jr. Professor of Law. Law and social change, international human rights, religion and pluralism.

Richard Murnane, Juliana W. and William Foss Thompson Professor of Education and Society. Economist. Education and the economy, teacher labor markets, skills and training, the determinants of children’s achievement, strate­gies for effective schools.