Conferences & Workshops

This two-week seminar provides a crash course in the philosophy of the social sciences with special attention to critical realist approaches and is open to any sociology graduate student currently enrolled in an accredited sociology PhD program in the United States. Week one focuses on five competing traditions: realism, empiricism, interpretivism, historicism and pragmatism. It will be taught by Prof. Philip Gorski and others. Week two focuses on meta-theoretical concepts such as “ontology”, “mechanisms”, “causality”, “structure”, “system”, “contingency”, “agency”, “constructionism” and “normativity.” It will be co-taught by Profs. Roy Bhaskar (IOE, London) and Margaret Archer (Lausanne).A generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation will cover almost all seminar-related expenses. Participants will receive a generous allowance for travel to and from New Haven, comfortable hotel accommodations near the Yale campus, and a per diem for meal expenses. Note that the summer school takes place immediately before the ASA Meetings in New York City, which is a short train ride from New Haven.Interested students should submit the following materials in electronic form (no hard copies will be accepted!): 1) a brief letter of interest (500 words or less); 2) a letter of support from their faculty adviser; 3) a current CV; and 4) a writing sample (10,000 words or less). Application materials should be sent to Phil Gorski (philip.gorski@yale.edu) no later than March 15.