SRP

The Sociological Research Practicum (SRP) provides first-year graduate students in Sociology with the opportunity to participate in a large-scale, ongoing, faculty-directed research project. Through their work on the project, students learn how to formulate researchable questions, design appropriate methodological strategies, and collect and analyze data. Many students use data from the SRP for their Masters papers.

 The SRP is also designed to assist the research efforts of faculty members in the Department of Sociology. It provides the following resources: office space, staff personnel, graduate assistant, a modest budget for supplies and equipment ($9,000), adjustments to teaching loads, as well as the participation of the first-year graduate students. These resources, as evidence of local institutional commitment to the project, often help faculty members secure complementary research funding from external sources.

 The SRP began in 1965 as the Indianapolis Area Project (IAP), originally modeled after the University of Michigan’s Detroit Area Study. In 1984, the IAP was renamed the Sociological Research Practicum to reflect two changes that had already occurred: research projects were no longer confined to the Indianapolis area, and investigators had used methodologies other than the classic household sample survey. Since that time, SRPs have pursued quantitative and qualitative investigations, historical and contemporary, comparative and domestic, on a wide range of sociological topics.

 A list of past SRP projects can be found here.

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Last updated: 28 February 2007
Comments: thomasjl@indiana.edu
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