• Unlike most graduate programs, Rice's will require every student to be familiar with the entire spectrum of research methods.
• Rice's mentorship model will be more of an individualized "apprenticeship" than the traditional models used by large programs in the field.
• The department will put a great deal of emphasis on collaborative work and new approaches to dissemination of ideas, including digital modes of publication and community outreach or "public sociology."

"The Sociology Department has a tradition of having faculty and undergraduate students work in close research collaborations, and that will become a core aspect of the graduate experience in the sociology Ph.D. program," Long said.

CORRUL's existing emphasis on spatial, cultural and organization analyses is a good model of an integrated approach, Emerson said. Examples include:

• Students spatially map out migration and settlement patterns and observe property values and the amenities available in different parts of the city to learn more about how the living experience varies by location. Collaborations already under way with Rice's Shell Center for Sustainability have begun to produce urban indicators of stability and health based on climate, water quality and air quality.
• For organizational analysis, students study Houston's infrastructure -- transportation, water, health, education -- along with the economy, architecture and design of neighborhoods to see how everything is integrated.
• For cultural analysis, students spend time in various neighborhoods to see first-hand what people's work lives, religious lives and social lives are like.

"CORRUL has been using this approach in some of our sociology classes for undergraduates, but we will expand this in a more organized system as part of the graduate curriculum," Emerson said. "A big part of the department's urban research will involve comparative studies with other cities -- what makes them unique or what they have in common. The ultimate goal is to identify social tendencies that are applicable across modern cities."

The graduate research made possible by the Houston Endowment grant will complement other Houston and Texas studies already under way by Rice's sociology faculty, such as Professor Stephen Klineberg's annual Houston Area Survey and extensive research on urban and rural Texas demography by Professor Steve Murdock, who is currently director of the U.S. Census Bureau.

"The Ph.D. in sociology will also add tremendous strength to the social sciences as a whole at Rice," said Lyn Ragsdale, dean of the School of Social Sciences. "Now, each of the social science disciplines will have a Ph.D. program."

The new Ph.D. program must be approved by the Rice Graduate Council and Faculty Senate. The plan calls for admitting the first class of graduate students in 2011.