(I tried to send this yesterday and it seems to have disappeared into
hyperspace. My apologies if it eventually turns up twice! -- DS)
Please add UC-Irvine to the list of places where one might consider
studying the world-system and global political economy. Currently
we have a very small faculty in Sociology (six in residence now). But
two of us (Jozsef Borocz and David A. Smith) are actively involved in this
sort of research and, indeed, we hosted last year's spring PEWS
conference. (The volume -- like the conference, entitled A NEW WORLD
ORDER? GLOBAL TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE LATE TWENTIETH CENTURY is already in
page-proofs and should be out by summer. I will post the table of
contents sometime soon). Other faculty in our small department are also
interested in comparative and historical sociology and political
economy. Two of the faculty in the Anthropology Department at UCI (which
jointly administers our PhD program with Sociology) are
explicitly interested in world-system analysis (Michael Burton and Doug
White) and have published research on the topic. Historians and
political scientists also have overlapping interests and have served on
student committees. Most exciting of all are two new programs that
have just gotten underway.
One is a major hiring initiative by UCI's
School of Social Sciences (where we live) of "star quality" young
scholars in "the new international sociology." Although the candidates
that we are looking at this year are not world-system analysts per se,
they are prominent comparative and historical sociologists who would add
great expertise (and luster!) to our graduate program. We are in the
middle of the interviews now, but we may be allowed to tender TWO offers
at the associate professor level. Stayed tuned!
The other new
program is explicitly tied to graduate education. A few months ago
UCI was awarded funding for an NSF Graduate Training Program in
Democratization. Professor Borocz was one of four co-authors of
the proposal, which provides a generous fellowship to incoming
graduate students for the next five years (total funding:
approximately $500,000). The "blurb" on the flyer advertising
this program states, "The global wave of democratization is
prompting a reconsideration of past models of political
development and the lessons of earlier academic debates on
the social, cultural and institutional foundations of
democracy (both in the "less developed"/underdeveloped countries
and the advanced "core" nations)..." Clearly students interested
in world-system analysis are likely receipients for a chunk of this
support.
In the interest of full disclosure -- it's true: Joszef Borocz
will be away from UCI next year exploring other options (but we
hope that hiring strong new colleagues in comparative/historical
sociology, plus the Democratization Training Fellowships for
students will lure him back!)
UC-Irvine's PhD program in Social Relations will be of most interest to
graduate students who are seeking an relatively small interdisciplinary PhD
program which (we think at least!) will be growing in size, quality and
reputation. We try to provide funding for all our PhD students.
And we offer some intangible advantages of location (we're
at the southern edge of the LA metropolitan area, and about five
miles from the sunny beaches of the Pacific Ocean.)
Please contact me for information:
David A. Smith
Department of Sociology
UCI Irvine, CA 92717
phone: 714-824-7292
fax: 714-824-4717
PS:
I will graciously accept Terry B's apologies! (And would
add that our UC friends up north in Santa Cruz might also
want to be added to the list -- but I'll let them do that
themselves!)