The doctoral program aims to prepare sociologists to conduct research, using the most up-to-date theoretical and methodological tools on social relations as they influence the conditions of existence and the transformations of contemporary societies. The program’s two main fields of research are minorities and culture, and political sociology.

Professors in the department are involved in research on a wide range of topics related to the main fields. To get a complete picture of the wide range of research being undertaken by the department, students are encouraged to consult the list of professors and their areas of interest, which extend far beyond the fields of research mentioned above.

The PhD program is offered full-time and in French and English. All students must, however, successfully complete at least two courses/seminars given in French. Linguistic support will be available for students who require it.

In accordance with University of Ottawa Policy, examinations, assignments and the research paper or thesis may be written in either English or French.

The department offers a collaborative program in Canadian Studies at the PhD level. For more information on this program, see “Admission Requirements”.

The programs operate within the general framework of the “General Regulations” of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (FGPS) of the University of Ottawa, which are posted on the FGPS website.

The professors included in the list below are members of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. This means that they are authorized to supervise or co-supervise theses. A complete list of the faculty and staff members associated with the program can be found at http://www.socialsciences.uottawa.ca/soc-ant/graduate-studies

ARMONY, Victor, Adjunct Professor
Globalizaton; Latin America; Political Sociology; Research methods; Textual analysis

BOUCHARD, Louise, Full Professor
Health; illness and medicine sociology; social dynamics and socio-sanitary systems; social evaluation of technologies; risks

BOURGEAULT, Ivy, Cross-appointment
Health professions/human resources; health policy; medical sociology; gender and health; maternity/reproductive health care; comparative health systems; migration; complementary and alternative medicine;, qualitative health research methods

BUSS, Andreas, Adjunct Professor
Max Weber's comparative sociology of religions; war and peace in world religions; religion in international and constitutional law; Theravada Buddhism; Russian-Orthodox Christianity

CARDINAL, Linda, Full Professor
Citizenship debates; relationship between law; history and politics, issues of modernity and identity Québec; Ireland and United Kingdom; governance of minority languages; Canada-Europe; francophones outside Québec; women and minorities; history of political ideas in Canada

COUTON, Philippe, Associate Professor
Sociology of politics; immigration and ethnic relations; citizenship and nationalism

DA ROSA, Victor, Full Professor
Economic anthropology; migration; development; ethnic relations; political order / disorder

DENIS, Ann, Emeritus Professor
New information technologies and minority groups (women, minority francophones); sociology of education, women; women and development; women and State policies (Canada and the Caribbean); women and globalization; immigrant women from the Caribbean; citizenship; immigrants / ethnic and race relations; paid and unpaid work

GAGNÉ, Natacha, Full Professor
Identity, Ethnicity, Citizenship; Colonialism and Decolonisation; Urban Anthropology; Political Anthropology; Anthropology of Oceania; Nationalism and Self-Determination Movements; Contemporary Indigenous Issues; Local/Global Connections, Global Systems and Globalization

GANDSMAN, Ari, Assistant Professor
Human rights; political and legal anthropology; globalization; humanitarian intervention; medical anthropology; Latin America; post-conflict reconstruction; social movements; psychological anthropology, collective violence; trauma & memory; cultural theory; science and technology studies; identity; kinship; biomedical technologies

GAUDET, Stéphanie, Associate Professor
Ethics; norms and values; social participation; responsability and volunteering; socialization and identity; life-course; sociology of the family and youth

GOLDMANN, Gustave, Adjunct Professor
Demographic flows; Demographic situation of the Aboriginal Peoples of Canada; Advances quantitative research methods; Demolinguistics

GUEYE, Abdoulaye, Full Professor
International development; Globalization; Sociology of knowledge; Race studies

LACZKO, Leslie, Emeritus Professor
Polyethnic societies; research methods; comparative macrosociology; social change

LAPLANTE, Julie, Assistant Professor
Medical anthropology; Anthropology of knowledge; Brazil; South Africa; North America

LEROUX, Robert, Full Professor
Epistemology and theory; history of sociological thought; historical sociology

LÉVESQUE, Maurice, Associate Professor
Health sociology; social policies; social networks

LOPEZ, José, Associate Professor
The concept of social structure; social theory as language practice; the political sociology of bioethics and new medical technologies; science policy; critical realism

MASSON, Dominique, Associate Professor
Feminist studies; political sociology; sociology of social movements; women's movement; qualitative methods

MCLAUGHLIN, Mireille, Assistant Professor
Francophonie canadienne ; Minorités linguistiques et économie mondialisée ; Transformations de l'état-nation ; Sociolinguistique ; Commodification de l'identité ; Régions post-industrielles

MEUNIER, Martin
Sociology of religions; Quebec' society; Modernisation and Secularisation; Sociology of comtemporary catholicism in Quebec and in Canada; Francophony in Canada

MIGUELEZ, Roberto, Emeritus Professor
Body and society; Sociological epistemology; Sociological theories; Sociology of knowledge

MIRZA, Vincent, Assistant Professor
Social transformation ; Japan ; Work, gender, identity ; Popular Culture, representations ; Political economy and everyday life ; Anthropology of work ; Political anthropology

MONDAIN, Nathalie, Assistant Professor
Family dynamics; sexual and reproductive health and adolescence; development; South-North migrations; Sub-Saharan Africa; methodological aspects; fieldwork approaches

MURPHY, Raymond, Emeritus Professor
Environmental sociology; Weberian theory; sociology of disasters

PACOM, Diane, Full Professor
Sociology of knowledge / culture; contemporary social and political theory; critical theory; media and social trends; socio-political and socio-cultural context

PENDAKUR, Ravi, Full Professor
Immigration policy; Immigrants and labor markets; Ethnic diversity; Minority groups and social policy

PIETRANTONIO, Linda, Associate Professor
Ethnic relations; race and sex relations; equality: ideologies and social policies; epistomology of the minority fact; social discourse analysis

RIPPEYOUNG, Phyllis, Associate Professor

RODGERS, Kathleen, Assistant Professor
Social movements; gender; qualitative research methods; humand rights activism; environmentalism; Canadian/international feminist movements; media studies

SCOBIE, Willow, Assistant Professor
Studies of biography and life trajectories; Critical studies of social change; Social theories of time; Transitions to adulthood, Social change in the Arctic ; Inuit documentary filmmakers; Social policy studies; Perceptions of the future

SICK, Deborah, Associate Professor
Anthropology of development; Agrarian systems and rural livelihoods; Cooperatives; Commodity markets; Fairtrade; Social economy; Lating America, especially Central America and Mexico; Political ecology; Common property institutions, Water resources, U.S. - Mexican borderlands

SIMON, Scott, Associate Professor
Political and legal anthropology; development; East Asian studies

SPITZER, Denise, Associate Professor
Health of immigrant and refugee women; immigration; transnationalism and identity; critical perspectives of the body; science and technology, community-based research

TAHON, Marie-Blanche, Full Professor
Family; citizenship; filiation; social gender; political representation

THÉRIAULT, Joseph-Yvon, Emeritus Professor
Political sociology; social movements; Québécois and Acadian societies; minority francophony

TREMBLAY, André, Associate Professor
Quantitative methods, sociology of socio-economic organizations, sociology of health, technological change, sociology of higher education

VANTHUYNE, Karine, Assistant Professor
Political anthropology; Medical anthropology; "Transitionnal justice"; Memories; Human Rights; Citizenship; Access to health care services

VIBERT, Stéphane, Associate Professor
La notion de "communauté" dans les sciences sociales, pluralisme culturel, nationalisme, identités collectives, théories socio-anthropologiques: holisme et individualisme, Les institutions et le symbolique (Dumont, Gauchet, Castoriadis, Descombes), culture et politique en Russie

WINTER, Elke, Associate Professor
Interpretative methodologies; discourse analysis, social theory; historical sociology; comparative sociology; sociology of ethnic relations;

YOUNG, Nathan, Associate Professor
Political economy; Economic sociology; Environmental sociology; Technology and society; Responses and adaptations to climate change; Responses and adaptations to climate change, Entrepreneurship and innovation; Economic globalization; Natural resources; Sociology of science and knowledge

To be admitted to the PhD program, applicants must hold a master's degree in sociology (or equivalent) and have an overall average of at least 75% (B +), calculated in accordance with the guidelines of the FGPS. A student with a master’s degree with the required average in a related discipline can be considered. He or she will be asked to take a number of additional courses. The number of extra courses required is determined by the Graduate Studies Committee after examining the file of each candidate.

Admission to the doctoral program also depends on the possibility of finding a supervisor and a committee specialized in the student’s field of interest.

The application for admission to the doctoral program should include, in addition to transcripts of records and letters of recommendation, a letter which specifies:

• the proposed research area;
• the specific research topic for the doctoral thesis;
• the preferred supervisor;
• language skills (English and French) of the candidate. The applicant must also include a sample of a written work.

All students must be capable of reading texts in French and in English. Students must indicate in their application the language in which they plan to take the majority of their courses. The department reserves the right to require a language test for either language.

For information on transfer from MA to PhD see below.

Collaborative program in Canadian Studies at the PhD level

The Department of Sociology and Anthropology is one of the participating units in the collaborative PhD program in Canadian Studies. This program was created to enable students to enrich their education in sociology by adding the interdisciplinary dimension of Canadian Studies. The Seminar in Canadian Studies (CDN 6910) is recognized by the Department of sociology and Anthropology towards the requirements of the PhD degree. Thus students registered in the collaborative program do not have to take an additional course.

To be accepted into the collaborative program, students must be already registered in at least one graduate course in sociology with Canadian content, or have already passed such a course. The degree of those who have successfully completed the interdisciplinary seminar (CDN 6910) and thesis with Canadian content will indicate a “specialization in Canadian studies”. For more information, please refer to the description of the Canadian Studies collaborative program on the website of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.

Transfer from Master's to PhD

Students in the MA program in sociology at the University of Ottawa who have maintained an A- average over the last two years of their undergraduate program may be allowed, on an exceptional basis, to transfer to the doctoral program without completing the master’s thesis or research paper.

The conditions for transfer are as follows:

• successful completion of at least five graduate courses (15 credits) with a minimum grade of A- in each;
• written approval of the supervisor as well as members of the thesis committee;
• approval of the Graduate Studies Committee in sociology.

The transfer must occur within 16 months of the student’s initial enrolment in the master’s program. Following transfer, students must successfully complete four courses (12 credits) in addition to the five (15 credits) already completed, prepare and pass qualifying exams (within 24 months after transfer), develop a thesis proposal, and write the doctoral thesis.

• SOC8510 SÉMINAIRE DE DOCTORAT (3cr.)
• SOC8511 SÉMINAIRE AVANCÉ DE RECHERCHE SOCIOLOGIQUE (3cr.)
• Two elective courses (6 credits) approved by the Graduate Studies Committee. These courses are normally chosen among the graduate courses in sociology, but one of them may be from another discipline
• SOC9910 EXAMEN DE SYNTHÈSE DE DOCTORAT / PhD COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION
• SOC9930 PROJET DE THÈSE DE DOCTORAT / PhD THESIS PROPOSAL
• SOC9999 THÈSE DE DOCTORAT / PHD THESIS
During the first session, a thesis committee (consisting of three members, including the thesis supervisor) is assigned to the candidate. The composition of the committee is confirmed at the end of the first year. This committee (including a fourth member from outside the department) is responsible for approving the thesis proposal and Comprehensive Exam.

Initial registration in SOC 9910 PhD Comprehensive Examination occurs in the student’s third session, and successful completion of this exam is a prerequisite for proceeding to SOC 9930 Projet de thèse de doctorat / PhD Thesis Proposal. If a comprehensive exam is failed, it may be rewritten once. A second failure is regarded as final and the candidate must withdraw from the program.

The thesis proposal must be approved by the thesis committee. A student whose proposal is not accepted on the first submission may be allowed to submit it a second time. A student whose proposal is rejected a second time must withdraw from the program.


Minimum Standards

The passing grade in all courses is C+. Students who fail two courses (equivalent to 6 credits), the thesis proposal, or whose research progress is deemed unsatisfactory are required to withdraw.


Residence

The program is intended for full-time students. All students must complete a minimum of six sessions of full-time registration at the beginning of the program. In the case of transfer students, the minimum residency period is nine sessions, of which at least six must be at the doctoral level.


Duration of the Program

The program is designed as a four-year program and students are expected to complete it within four years. All requirements other than the thesis must be fulfilled at the end of the sixth session of registration. The maximum time permitted is six years from the date of initial registration in the program, or seven years in the case of students transferring from the master's to the doctorate.


Thesis Advisory Committee

During the first session of the program, a thesis advisory committee (TAC) is formed for the candidate. The Committee’s membership will be determined by the specific interests of the candidate. It will be composed of the supervisor and 2-3 additional professors. At least one member of the thesis committee, in addition to the supervisor, must be form the Faculty of Social Sciences. The TAC is responsible for guiding the student throughout the program, including course selection, the comprehensive examination, thesis proposal, and thesis defense.

A meeting between the student and the Thesis Advisory Committee will take place at least once per session. The thesis examining board may include members who are not part of the TAC.

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