Abstract
While one can be labeled a sociologist in name by fulfilling formal institutional requirements, that is only part of the necessary work involved in graduate training. What is also required is mastering the informal professional culture associated with academic sociology. In this paper, we offer practical advice about informal norms in graduate school—norms we know now that we wish we’d known then. Our reflections upon our own experiences in graduate school are guided by our common research and teaching interests in informal organizational culture. What is the potential salience of informal norms, such as particularistic relations with faculty and graduate students, ceremonial versus actual practices regarding research and teaching, and emotional labor around one’s work, for better understanding the professional socialization of graduate study in sociology? Our emphasis here is to offer advice on how to navigate the graduate school realities these norms present. We also believe that sociologists should turn a more focused eye on the profession, one in which the presence of such norms is readily acknowledged and more formally considered for the benefit of teaching graduate students.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Abbott, Andrew. 1981. “Status and Status Strain in the Professions.” American Journal of Sociology 86: 819–35.
Bosk, Charles. 1979. Forgive and Remember: Managing Medical Failure. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Haas, Jack, and William Shaffir. 1977. “The Professionalization of Medical Students: Developing Competence and a Cloak of Competence.” Symbolic Interaction 1:71–88.
Hochschild, Arlie. 1983. The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling: Berkeley: University of California Press.
Jackall, Robert. 1988. Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers. New York: Oxford University Press.
Keith, Bruce, and Helen A. Moore. 1995. “Training Sociologists: An Assessment of Professional Socialization and the Emergence of Career Aspirations.” Teaching Sociology 23, no. 3: 199–214.
Powell, Walter W., and Paul J. DiMaggio, eds. 1991. The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Sheppard, Deborah L. “Organizations, Power, and Sexuality: The Image and Self-image of Women Managers.” Pp. 139-57 in The Sexuality of Organization. Jeff Hearn, ed. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Stinchcombe, Arthur L. 2000. “Making a Living in Sociology in the 21st Century (and the Intellectual Consequences of Making a Living).” Berkeley Journal of Sociology 44: 4–14.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shulman, D., Silver, I. The business of becoming a professional sociologist: Unpacking the informal training of graduate school. Am Soc 34, 56–72 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-003-1021-y
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-003-1021-y