Directors of Graduate Studies Conference

Theme: Reinforcing Informal Professional Socialization in MA and PhD Graduate Programs

This year the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) conference will focus on a new book, edited by Ira Silver (Framingham State College) and David Shulman (Lafayette College), entitled Academic Street Smarts: Informal Professionalization of Graduate Students in Sociology. The editors explain:

Graduate training in sociology, like all work, is composed of some ratio of explicit tasks to master (learning theories, statistics, who the important figures are, and so forth) and informal professional norms through which people actually practice the sociological craft. Not to be forgotten in this mix is the simple drive, enthusiasm, and intellectual firepower that graduate students bring to their work. However, sociological research on workplaces has taught us that peoples’ skills and aspirations are mediated through informal structures that ultimately end up affecting their eventual outcomes at work.

The book and the conference focus on how graduate programs can identify, and better teach, the informal norms and practices that promote success in graduate school and in professional life beyond graduate school. Presenters will include Ira Silver and David Shulman, as well as several contributors to Academic Street Smarts, including Gabrielle Ferrales (Northwestern University), Angela Garcia (Bentley College), Elizabeth Higginbotham (University of Delaware), Kristen Springer (Rutgers University).

All participants in the DGS conference will receive a complimentary copy of Academic Street Smarts: Informal Professionalization of Graduate Students in Sociology.

For more details on the DGS conference agenda, contact the ASA Academic and Professional Affairs Program (202-383-9005 x318, apap@asanet.org).

Agenda [+]View

Time	Topic	Presenters

1:30pm-1:45pm	Introductions	Margaret Weigers Vitullo, Director of Academic and Professional Affairs, ASA Sally Hillsman, Executive Officer, ASA

1:45pm-2:30pm	Academic Street Smarts: What Graduate Students Need that They May Not Be Learning	Ira Silver, Framingham State College David Shulman, Lafayette College

2:30pm-3:00pm	Professional Socialization in MA Programs	Kimberly Cook and Leslie Hossfeld, University of North Carolina - Wilmington

3:00pm-3:15pm	Break

3:15pm-4:00pm	Panel – “Making the Implicit Explicit: Curriculum for Academic Street Smarts”	Elizabeth Higginbotham – University of Delaware Gabrielle Ferrales - Northwestern Kristin Springer - Rutgers Angela Garcia – Bentley College

4:00pm-5:00pm	Breakout sessions MA Programs PhD Programs

5:00pm-5:20pm	Some Thoughts for the Future (“bookend” piece to wrap up the discussion)	Silver and Shulman

5:20pm-5:30pm	Thank you and Evaluations	Margaret Weigers Vitullo, Director of Academic and Professional Affairs, ASA