Joe Swingle
Senior Lecturer in Sociology
Studies processes of stratification, higher education and inequality with primarily a U.S. focus.
I began teaching at Wellesley in the fall of 1999 as a lab instructor for Quantitative Reasoning 199 (Introduction to Social Science Data Analysis). I finished my Ph.D. the following year and have remained at Wellesley ever since.
I teach two of the four required courses for the sociology major, Sociology 190 (Introduction to Probability and Statistics) and Sociology 290 (Methods of Social Research). I also teach courses on the family and inequality. In 2015, I a Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing (Sociology 324) for the first time. Soc 324 is geared towards sociology and other social science majors interested in writing for a non-academic audience using a sociological perspective. Students in the class write op-eds and book reviews, report on public lectures, and conduct interviews with professional sociologists.
My most recent research interests center on higher education. Together with Professor Lee Cuba and two Bowdoin College professors, I co-authored a book exploring how students navigate their four years of college (Practice for Life: Making Decisions in College, Harvard University Press, 2016).
Prior to my graduate studies, I attended Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota where I majored in Sociology/Anthropology and played a lot of ultimate frisbee. Upon graduating from Carleton, I spent the next two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in West Africa where I taught secondary school mathematics in the small town of Bibiani in Ghana's Western Region.
When I am not teaching, researching, or meeting with students, you can find me playing with my two sons, Aaron and David, and yellow lab, Princess Leia.
Education
- B.A., Carleton College
- M.A., Harvard University
- Ph.D., Harvard University
Current and upcoming courses
Introduction to Probability and Statistical Methods
ECON103
An introduction to the collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of quantitative data as used to understand problems in economics and sociology. Using examples drawn from these fields, this course focuses on basic concepts in probability and statistics, such as measures of central tendency and dispersion, hypothesis testing, and parameter estimation. Data analysis exercises are drawn from both academic and everyday applications.
(ECON 103 and SOC 190 are cross-listed courses.)-
Methods of Social Research
SOC290
This course introduces some of the more prominent qualitative and quantitative methods used by sociologists to study the social world. The course emphasizes hands-on experience with several small-scale research projects with the goal of teaching students how to 1) integrate social theory with research methods, 2) ask good research questions, 3) define key concepts, 4) choose appropriate samples, 5) collect high-quality data in an ethical manner, 6) analyze data, and 7) write formal research papers. A section of this course will build upon the statistics learned in SOC 190, but statistics will not be the main focus.