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Nerd Humor
Sep. 10th, 2002 08:36 amI had my first "Foundations of Applied Sociology" class last night. Basically its required for all students in the program and is an intro to the program, field and various career and research options out there. It looks like its going to be really interesting - we'll be surveying incoming students to the program and alums (via interviewing) and doing *something* with that data (not sure yet - we'll be talking about that next week). I'll also have the opportunity to do a research project on my own on a program I'm interested in (like a non-profit or company) that ties to a major sociological theory. I'll need to interview around 5 people, do a literature review and submit my proposal around mid-October. The final (20 to 30 page) paper is due December 19th.
I'm so happy to be back doing this type of thing again. My writing skills have been lacking :)
After class the department had their annual social so that students and professors could meet each other and chat about various things. And of course, there was food (I think that's what lured most people in over socializing). I talked with a woman from The Ukraine who was sitting next to me a bit and with a few other people in the class (a cop, there is a cop who is soon to retire in the class who wants to study the Criminology track). And the Chair of the program was there too (he kind of looked like that old author guy from the Clockwork Orange movie - very freaky) :)
We talked a bit about my background (he was the 2nd person to say "Simmons is a REALLY good school", which is always nice) and his (he's also a Psychoanalyst (go Freudians!) on top of being a Sociologist, figures) and he gave some suggestions for future course work and stressed how I should "try and publish, publish, publish" once the research papers started. He remembered seeing my application to the program and the glowing review that one professor in particular wrote for me - the head of the Sociology Department at Simmons (and a good friend of the program Director, they went to grad school in Chicago together in the 60's).
And then he leaned over and whispered at me "You know this is very interesting, you see. Everybody is eating fruit - nobody has touched the cheese and crackers. I wonder what that means, the fruit thing. Perhaps its because there are mostly women in here? I wonder if men are more likely to eat cheese and crackers"
I told him how my co-workers and I during lunch one day went on at great length about how one made their choice in eating utensils when given various options. Do you choose plastic? Or stainless? Or would you choose a white plastic fork with a black plastic knife? Etc . . . We're a pretty anal group and people tended to first choose stainless (it helps the environment after all) and then would choose MATCHING plastic.
Its like I'm in my Social Psych class that I took back in 1996 again. I'm going to be forever wondering if I'm a part of someone's experiment :)
****
Its really nice to be back!
I'm so happy to be back doing this type of thing again. My writing skills have been lacking :)
After class the department had their annual social so that students and professors could meet each other and chat about various things. And of course, there was food (I think that's what lured most people in over socializing). I talked with a woman from The Ukraine who was sitting next to me a bit and with a few other people in the class (a cop, there is a cop who is soon to retire in the class who wants to study the Criminology track). And the Chair of the program was there too (he kind of looked like that old author guy from the Clockwork Orange movie - very freaky) :)
We talked a bit about my background (he was the 2nd person to say "Simmons is a REALLY good school", which is always nice) and his (he's also a Psychoanalyst (go Freudians!) on top of being a Sociologist, figures) and he gave some suggestions for future course work and stressed how I should "try and publish, publish, publish" once the research papers started. He remembered seeing my application to the program and the glowing review that one professor in particular wrote for me - the head of the Sociology Department at Simmons (and a good friend of the program Director, they went to grad school in Chicago together in the 60's).
And then he leaned over and whispered at me "You know this is very interesting, you see. Everybody is eating fruit - nobody has touched the cheese and crackers. I wonder what that means, the fruit thing. Perhaps its because there are mostly women in here? I wonder if men are more likely to eat cheese and crackers"
I told him how my co-workers and I during lunch one day went on at great length about how one made their choice in eating utensils when given various options. Do you choose plastic? Or stainless? Or would you choose a white plastic fork with a black plastic knife? Etc . . . We're a pretty anal group and people tended to first choose stainless (it helps the environment after all) and then would choose MATCHING plastic.
Its like I'm in my Social Psych class that I took back in 1996 again. I'm going to be forever wondering if I'm a part of someone's experiment :)
****
Its really nice to be back!
