The Catholic University of America

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOCIOLOGY:

SCHOLARSHIP, RESEARCH, AND SERVICE

1895 - 1995

Department of Sociology

The Catholic University Of America

Washington, D.C. 20064

Written by David Baker, Sandra Hanson, Dean Hoge, and Bronislaw Misztal - Spring 1996

To Friends and Alumni of the Sociology Department at The Catholic University of America:

In 1995 we celebrated our centennial year as a department. At this milestone it is useful to look back to see what we have accomplished. Our identity is shaped by our history. Our vision of the future is built on the solid past. We remember where we have come from and who we are, and we hope it will help guide us into the future.

Members of the Department
Spring 1996

Photo in 1995. Front row: Dr. Sandra Hanson, Dr. Raymond Potvin, Dr. Che-Fu Lee. Back row: Dr. Dean Hoge, Dr. Douglas Sloane, Dr. David Baker, Dr. John McCarthy.

OUR BEGINNINGS

Sociology was introduced at The Catholic University of America in 1895. It was intended to strengthen the fields of moral theology and Christian social teachings. It was one of the founding departments in the School of the Social Sciences. It was the first department of sociology in any Catholic university in the U.S. At first it offered only graduate courses. Most courses were philosophical in content. Lester F. Ward, the first president of the American Sociological Association, lectured on the campus in 1891-92. The first degree conferred was a doctorate in 1904.

The department gradually expanded. In 1921 the National Catholic School of Social Service split off as a separate school, which later became a part of Catholic University. Father John O'Grady, who had taught in the Sociology Department, became the first dean of the School of Social Service. In 1934 a new Department of Anthropology split off from the Sociology Department.

From the beginning the main research attention of the faculty was on Catholic concerns, especially Catholic charities and Catholic social work. The faculty were committed to combining intellectual pursuits, research, and service. Two early members of the department were exemplary, William Joseph Kerby (department member 1895-1936) and Paul Hanly Furfey (department member 1925-1966).

Father William Joseph Kerby

William Joseph Kerby

Father Kerby, the first full-time member of the department, was born in 1870 in Iowa. Having studied in Bonn and Berlin, he received his Ph.D. from Leuven in 1897. In that year Father Kerby joined the faculty of Catholic University, where he remained for 39 years. Until 1915 he was the only full-time member of the Sociology Department. Dr. Kerby was the inspiration behind the National Catholic School of Social Service, where he served as Acting Director from 1924 until 1929 and as board member until his death in 1936. He was a member of numerous organizations and received many honors during his career at Catholic University. He was an organizer of the National Conference of Catholic Charities and served as its secretary for ten years. He was editor of the Ecclesiastic Review. Kerby died on July 27, 1936.

Monsignor Paul Hanly Furfey

Paul Hanly Furfey

Paul Hanly Furfey was born in 1896 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He earned a B.A. at Boston College and then came to Catholic University, where he studied psychology for two years, then finished the Ph.D. in sociology.

In 1925 Dr. Furfey was appointed to the Sociology Department, where he remained for 41 years. He was chairman of the department for 32 years. Also he taught part-time at Trinity College and at the National Catholic School of Social Service.

Social justice became Dr. Furfey's passion, and he applied sociology to his practical activity. His interests were broad. At one time he spent a year studying medicine in Germany in a search for insight into physical factors influencing behavior. Also he traveled to Latin America to observe the activities of liberation theologians stressing the need for fundamental socioeconomic change. Dr. Furfey was co-founder of Fides Neighborhood House, along with Catholic University sociologist Dr. Mary Elizabeth Walsh, and of Il Poverello House with sociologist Dr. Gladys Sellew. These homes were experiments in interracial living in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Furfey was a prolific writer, publishing seventeen books and numerous articles. He held leadership positions in numerous organizations. Dr. Furfey died on June 8, 1992, after being the single most formative person in the history of the Department of Sociology at Catholic University.

CHAIRPERSONS OF THE SOCIOLOGY DEPARTMENT

1895-1897 Thomas J. Bouquillon
1897-1933 William Joseph Kerby
1933-1934 John M. Cooper
1934-1964 Paul Hanly Furfey
1964-1965 Thomas J. Harte
1965-1967 C. Joseph Nuesse
1967-1971 Raymond H. Potvin
1971-1975 Paul Peachey
1975-1977 Hart M. Nelsen
1977-1983 Raymond H. Potvin
1983-1984 Dean R. Hoge
1985 Che-Fu Lee
1985-1988 John D. McCarthy
1988-1991 Douglas M. Sloane
1992-1994 Che-Fu Lee
1994-1996 Dean R. Hoge
1996- Che-Fu Lee

THE EARLY YEARS

Early in the department's history the faculty's main research interests were in the areas of poverty and social welfare, with the goal of aiding the Catholic social apostolate. In 1904 the Departments of Sociology and Economics installed an exhibit on Catholic Charities at the St. Louis Exposition and spearheaded programs for modernizing welfare work for American Catholics.

In 1934, Paul Furfey was appointed chair of the department and his leadership put the department on course to be a fully modern contributor to sociological scholarship, particularly in the area of religion and social theory. For Dr. Furfey, responsible social action was based on good sociological research, and good research was oriented to the remedy of social evil.

In the early 1960s sociologist Father Thomas Harte (member 1947-1974) collaborated with Furfey in founding the Bureau of Social Research within the department. In the first six years it secured grants totaling over one million dollars. Most projects were directly relevant to the mission of the Church, such as research on immigrants and the urban poor. Dr. C. J. Nuesse (member 1945-1981), who later became provost of Catholic University, teamed up with Father Harte and pioneered research in the sociology of the parish. Their efforts resulted in a major symposium and book on the subject.

At this time Father Raymond H. Potvin (member 1957-1994) joined the sociology faculty. He continued to develop both the research quality of the department and its commitment to scholarship on Catholic life. For example, as a young sociologist he did research on the Enterprise Councils of Belgian industry to assess their effectiveness in the light of Pope Pius XI's call for labor participation in the management of industry. Later Potvin undertook a project on the impact of a Catholic college education on the fertility values of Catholic women. In the mid-sixties he, along with CUA psychologist Antanas Suziedelis, made a landmark national survey of Catholic seminaries and seminarians.

When Father Potvin became chair in 1967, he moved the department toward European traditions of sociological theory and toward mainstream American sociology. Faculty research gradually became more scientific and theoretical, less practical and less linked to Catholic interests.

RECENT YEARS

Religious research done by CUA sociologists accelerated in the early 1970s and set the scope and pace of work being done today. Four sociologists joined the department at this time: Che-Fu Lee (member 1970-present), Hart Nelsen (member 1972-1981), John McCarthy (member 1974-present), and Dean Hoge (member 1974-present). Lee emphasized demography. McCarthy worked in race relations and in social movement analysis. Hart Nelsen and Dean Hoge began research on American Catholic life and other religious issues. Hart Nelsen carried out a major study of American black churches in 1975 and Dr. Hoge began a long series of projects on the American Catholic church.

The Boys Town Center and Life Cycle Institute

An important new development was a large grant from Father Flanagan's Boys Town in 1973 to establish an interdisciplinary youth research center at Catholic University. This influx of money permitted an expansion of the department. In one year (1974) four new faculty members were added.

The Boys Town Center carried out numerous youth studies between 1974 and 1983, when its funding changed and it took the name of Life Cycle Institute. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s it continued a large volume of research, but no longer confined to youth issues. The Life Cycle Institute became a broad-scope social science research center with members from all the behavioral science disciplines. Its main areas of research have been education, churches and church programs, developmental psychology, and social movements. As of 1996 the Life Cycle Institute has eleven full faculty members, three associates, three emeritus professors, and three professional research staff. Boys Town funded the construction of a new building in 1977, which became the headquarters of the Life Cycle Institute.

CURRENT RESEARCH

The current scholarship by the department can be divided into four large categories:

Research on Youth, Religious Training, and the Future of the American Catholic Church

In 1975, working with resources from Boys Town, Raymond Potvin and Che-Fu Lee carried out a major nationwide study of religion and youth, and Hart Nelsen made a separate study of youth in Protestant churches. That same year, Dr. Hoge carried out a study of tenth grade church youth in the Washington suburbs. Also during this time Hart Nelsen, Dr. Lee, Dr. Potvin, and Dr. Hoge collaborated on a series of booklets on Catholic youth, published in 1976-77.

In 1979-80 a team including Hart Nelsen and Dr. Hoge carried out an empirical six-denomination study of what parents and religious educators want as outcomes of religious education. Dr. Hoge also did a study for the Catholic Bishops' Committee on Evangelization on Catholic converts and dropouts. In this same vein, Dr. Hoge was part of a nationwide task force on church trends during the late 1970s and became co-editor of a 1979 book Understanding Church Growth and Decline, which became the standard work on the subject.

When Douglas Sloane joined the department in 1980, he published research, with Raymond Potvin, on religion and delinquency, and, with Che-Fu Lee, on American fertility. Sandra Hanson (member 1986 to present) carried out a major study of the education of scientists and why so many talented young women opt out of science careers.

A sociologist of comparative education, David Baker (member 1984 to present) did a series of studies, funded by the National Science Foundation, of the growth of American Catholic schooling from 1870 to the present. Also with CUA sociology alumna Maryellen Schaub, he carried out a diocesan by diocesan assessment of the current numbers of Catholic children receiving religious training in either Catholic school or in parish-based programs.

Research on Priests and Church Organizations

The Catholic priest shortage influenced the Lilly Endowment to fund detailed sociological research on priests and seminarians through a series of grants, and several grants were made to members of the department. Potvin carried out a survey of Catholic seminarians in 1984, repeating portions of his earlier survey of 1966. With Father Eugene Hemrick (Director of Research, United States Catholic Conference), Hoge carried out surveys of seminarians in 1984 and 1986, looking at factors in recruitment and at future visions of the priesthood, and later an evaluation of seminary training and early priesthood experiences. Hoge also did an analysis of the priest shortage, the options available to overcome it, and the financial costs of various forms of church leadership. Raymond Potvin, together with graduate student Felipe Muncada, studied the problems of seminary dropouts and priestly resignations.

In the early 1980s the Catholic Campaign for Human Development approached CUA's sociology department for help in evaluation research. John McCarthy, an organizational sociologist, developed an evaluation system for CHD. In 1988 Dr. McCarthy and his associates completed a landmark report heralded as exemplary by both the Campaign for Human Development and Catholic University's President Byron. Dr. McCarthy's work has led to an ongoing consultation by CUA sociologists to the Campaign for Human Development.

Most recently the Lilly Endowment has funded Dr. Hoge and several collaborating sociologists to assess factors in religious giving. The study, to be completed in 1996, compares amounts given in five American denominations.

In 1993 Dr. William DAntonio joined the department as Adjunct Professor. In 1993 and 1994 he carried out a study of trends in Catholic lay attitudes, and in 1995 he began a study of Catholic small faith communities in America.

Left to right: Father Paul Hanly Furfey, Professor Talcott Parsons of Harvard University, and Dr. C. Joseph Nuesse, at the occasion of Professor Parsons's visit in 1975.

Research on Social Movements

Research on social movements in America began in 1976, largely under the direction of John McCarthy. In 1977 McCarthy and Mayer Zald published a classic article, "Resource Mobilization and Social Movements: A Partial Theory," in the American Journal of Sociology. Between 1976 and 1995 Dr. McCarthy and his collaborators did important research on the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, on Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and on political demonstrations in Washington. In 1995 he began new research on political movements and political demonstrations in Europe.

Demographic and Cross-National Research

Che-Fu Lee published numerous articles in the 1970s and 1980s in demography, mostly on China. He special interests were Chinese fertility and family life. In the late 1980s he published two studies of immigrants to the United States.

A Lilly Endowment grant enabled David Baker to extend the statistical work he did on Catholic schooling to a wide variety of Catholic institutions. Baker and his staff formed a database that is at the heart of the "System for Catholic Research, Information and Planning" (SCRIP). It combines numerous Catholic and federal sources of data in a format useful for planners. SCRIP recently generated a series of individualized reports for each U.S. diocese. SCRIP forms the centerpiece for a new study of the future of Catholic schooling in the United States, a study being done in 1995-1997 by Dr. Baker and two other researchers at Catholic University.

In January 1996 Bronislaw Misztal joined the department. He has a long record of research on social, political, and religious movements, especially in central and eastern Europe.

Conclusion

Since its beginning, the Department of Sociology has been at the forefront of major intellectual debates and sociological research related to Catholic concerns. Department members have studied problems of youth, schools, and Catholic institutions. Sociological scholarship on the Church has helped to enrich and guide its institutions.

The department's continued service to the Church is evident in the number of Catholic organizations that have commissioned studies from members of the department in just the past five years: USCC Offices of Education, World Youth Day, Refugee and Migration Services, and Campaign for Human Development; Archdiocese of Washington; State Catholic Conference Directors; the National Catholic Educational Association; and the CUA Office of Diocesan Relations.

Funded Research Activities in 1995 and 1996

The Sociology Department at Catholic University has a long and distinguished tradition of research productivity. Every year hundreds of thousands of dollars of grant money are brought in. Thus the department has been able to support a number of talented graduate students and provide them the hands-on research experience which is often not available in larger departments.

Recently Completed Funded Research. In the last three years a number of projects funded by organizations such as the Lilly Foundation, the Campaign for Human Development, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the National Science Foundation (NSF) have been completed. Four grants came from the National Science Foundation. The total funds generated by these projects were $695,000. Of these monies, approximately $134,000 came to the university in indirect costs and $147,500 went to the support of students.

Current Funded Research. At present faculty members in the Department are being funded by organizations such as the Lilly Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Taiwanese government, and the National Science Foundation. The total funds amount to nearly a million dollars. The university receives $86,000 of these monies in indirect costs, and $68,000 goes to students.

Photo in 1996.

Front row: Dr. Bronislaw Misztal, Dr. Sandra Hanson, Dr. Che-Fu Lee. Back row: Dr. David Baker, Dr. Douglas Sloane, Dr. Dean Hoge.

FACULTY IN 1996

DAVID BAKER. Ph.D., Johns Hopkins, 1982. Research areas: cross-national education systems and labor markets, formal organizations, immigration, educational development. Representative publications: "Human Capital Formation and School Expansion in Asia" in International Journal of Comparative Sociology; and "Shadow Education and Allocation in Formal Schooling: Transition to University in Japan" in American Journal of Sociology. Post-doctoral Fellowship at the Max Planck Institute, Berlin, Germany, 1980-82.

SANDRA HANSON. Ph.D., Pennsylvania State, 1981. Research areas: gender, status attainment, family demography, quantitative methods. Her current research on women in science is funded by the National Science Foundation, reported in a 1996 book Lost Talent: Women in the Sciences. Other publications: "Gender Stratification in the Science Pipeline: A Comparative Analysis of Seven Countries" in Gender and Society and numerous articles in sociology journals.

DEAN HOGE. Ph.D., Harvard, 1970. Research areas: sociology of religion, sociology of youth. His books include The Future of Catholic Leadership: Responses to the Priest Shortage, Vanishing Boundaries: The Religion of Mainline Protestant Baby Boomers (co-author), and Laity: American and Catholic (co-author). He has published numerous articles in sociological and religious journals.

CHE-FU LEE. Ph.D., University of North Carolina, 1970. Later visiting professor in Taiwan and China. Research areas: demography, youth development, family, Chinese studies. Representative publications: "Modernization of the Chinese Peasantry: Further Evidence of an Organizational Model of Growth," in Chinese Journal of Sociology and Methods of Social Survey and Statistical Analysis (published in China).

JOHN MCCARTHY. Ph.D., University of Oregon, 1968. Research areas: social movements, demography, political sociology, sociology of religion. Representative publications: "Resource Mobilization and Social Movements: A Partial Theory," in American Journal of Sociology, The Dynamics of Social Movements: Resource Mobilization, Social Control, and Tactics (co-editor), and Social Movements in an Organizational Society: Collected Essays (co-editor). Fulbright Scholar in Wissentschaftlische Zentrum-Berlin in Germany (1995-96).

BRONISLAW MISZTAL. Ph.D., Polish Academy of Sciences, 1972. Research areas: social movements, comparative and historical sociology, sociological theory. Representative publications: "Social Movements, Protest Cycles and the Collapse of the Communism," Polish Sociological Bulletin; and "One Movement- -Two Interpretations. The British Journal of Sociology. Fulbright Academic Award at the University of Chicago, 1980-82.

DOUGLAS SLOANE. Ph.D., Arizona, 1980. Research areas: statistics, sociology of youth, criminology, and health care. He has published influential articles in categorical data analysis. In recent years he served as a consultant to the U.S. General Accounting Office. Representative publications: "An Introduction to Categorical Data Analysis in Annual Review of Sociology 1996 (with S. P. Morgan); and "Religion and Delinquency: Cutting Through the Maze" Social Forces, 1986 (with R. H. Potvin).