Introduce Harvard University’s College of Arts and Sciences

The first university in the United States

At the end of the 15th century, after Columbus opened up the Atlantic route from Europe to the Americas, Europeans traveled across the ocean to come to the Americas. At the beginning of the 17th century, the first batch of British immigrants arrived in North America and opened up their own "Garden of Eden" - New England. There were more than 100 Puritans among the immigrants who had received classical higher education at Oxford and Cambridge universities. In order to allow their descendants to receive this kind of education in their new homeland, they established a college on the banks of the Charles River in Massachusetts in 1636. The first institution of learning in American history—Harvard College. In 1780, the fourth year after the founding of the United States, Harvard College, which had a history of more than 140 years, was upgraded to Harvard University.

The founder of Harvard College transplanted the model from Cambridge University, and the college was initially named "Cambridge College". In 1639, in order to commemorate John Harverd, the founder of the college and the main donor of the school's construction expenses, the Massachusetts Assembly passed a resolution to rename the college "Harvard College".

The Harvard University emblem, which has been in use since the Harvard College era, has the word VERITAS written in Latin, which means "truth". The original text of Harvard University's motto is also written in Latin, which means "Be friends with Plato, be friends with Aristotle, and more importantly, be friends with truth." The words in the school emblem and motto clearly indicate the purpose of Harvard University - seeking truth and advocating truth.

The famous American educator Conant, who served as the president of Harvard University for 20 years (1933-1953), once said: "The honor of a university does not lie in its campus and number of people, but in its generation. quality of a generation”. It is precisely by adhering to high standards and quality in selecting teachers and educating students that Harvard University has become a first-class famous university with a gathering of elites and talents, which has had a significant impact on the economy, politics, culture, science and higher education of American society. , has great appeal to knowledge seekers from all over the world.

Being ahead in the competition

In 1693, the second college in North America, the College of William and Mary (the first college of the University of Virginia today), was born. In 1701, Yale College (the first college of today's Yale University) was founded. The emergence of these two colleges gave Harvard College partners and competitors. In the second half of the 18th century, nine colleges were built in North America. Although the new colleges still generally followed the model of the old British universities, after all, times have changed. Influenced by the European Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, mathematics and natural sciences gradually squeezed in. The teaching areas of these colleges. Harvard College, which is deeply influenced by the tradition of ancient British universities, faces powerful challenges. In 1727, Harvard College established professorial chairs of mathematics and natural philosophy, which was a revolutionary move in line with the times. At this time, the momentum of the industrial revolution in North America was rising, and the emerging industrial and commercial demands for applied sciences made Harvard face a major choice: either stick to the old rules, which would lose its leadership position among North American institutions of higher learning; or innovate in order to continue to dominate North America. The leader of the academy. Harvard chose the latter path.

After the establishment of professorial lectures on mathematics and natural philosophy, Harvard College also equipped a number of scientific instruments and equipment, and professors used experimental methods to teach astronomy, physics and chemistry to students. Within the field of mathematics, technical subjects such as surveying and navigation were established. In 1780, the Chair of Professors of Medicine was established, which promoted the study of botany and chemistry. Professors conduct a variety of scientific research and publish their research results in academic journals in North America and the United Kingdom. Natural sciences have finally established a solid position at Harvard and have an impact on other schools.

From 1775 to 1783, the War of Independence against British colonial rule broke out in 13 British colonies in North America. Harvard College followed the trend and sided with sympathy and support for the just cause of the Revolutionary War. In Massachusetts, almost all famous revolutionaries were Harvard graduates, including John Adams, one of the drafters of the Declaration of Independence and the second president of the United States. On July 3, 1775, George Washington took office as the commander-in-chief of the North American Revolutionary War Army in Cambridge, where Harvard College is located. His headquarters was also located in Cambridge for a time. After the birth of the United States of America in 1776, Harvard College gave its education to the main leaders of the Revolutionary War, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson (the main drafter of the Declaration of Independence, the third president of the United States), and John Jay (the first president of the United States Supreme Court). Chief Justice), Alexander Hamilton (the first Secretary of the Treasury of the U.S. federal government) and others were awarded honorary doctorates in law.

By 1780, Harvard College had successively established professorships in theology, mathematics, natural philosophy, and medicine, and the college was upgraded to a university. According to the tradition of European medieval universities, there must be a union of three colleges to be qualified as a university. At that time, the Massachusetts General Assembly made an exception and recognized Harvard College's upgrade to a university. This was both a favor and a spur. Harvard University continued to pay close attention to its own construction. It established the Divinity School in 1816 and the Law School in 1817. Together with the original Harvard College, which focused on liberal arts and sciences, it now had three colleges and became a university worthy of its name. . In the first half of the 19th century, Harvard University's influence extended beyond Massachusetts to the central and southern United States.

In the early years of the American Revolutionary War, Harvard College's funds, including the rent on the property, were less than 1,700 pounds. After the war, in 1793, Harvard's endowment exceeded $182,000. By the 19th century, thanks to alumni sponsorship, Harvard University's endowment steadily increased, reaching US$242,000 in 1800 and US$2.25 million in 1869.

During this period, Harvard University’s curriculum underwent major changes. In 1790, Harvard University offered Latin, Greek, mathematics (including astronomy), English composition, philosophy (including metaphysics, morality and politics), theology, natural science, and students could choose one of Hebrew and French. division. The changes in Harvard University's curriculum are largely due to the influence of German higher education reforms. During this period, the famous German educator Wilhelm Humboldt put forward three famous principles for the reform of university education: independence; the principle of the unity of freedom and cooperation; the principle of the unity of education and research, and the principle of the unity of science. Humboldt not only put forward the ideal of university reform, but also put it into practice in the University of Berlin he founded, advocating academic freedom and the integration of education and scientific research. The University of Berlin became a model for new German universities. Some young professors who teach at Harvard University have studied in Germany and were influenced by German universities. They demand to change the model of British universities and instead use Germany as their teacher and imitate the system of German universities. In 1825, four young professors jointly proposed four reform suggestions: reducing the proportion of classical literature courses; emphasizing the study of modern foreign literature; establishing a postgraduate degree system; and dividing teaching into classes according to students' abilities. These four opinions were not adopted at that time.

In 1829, J. Quincy became the president of Harvard University. He took drastic measures, tried his best to reverse the direction of Harvard University, and vigorously advocated the emphasis on science teaching. He served for 16 years (1829-1845), established the School of Science at Harvard University, and established an observatory. In the 18th and 19th centuries, with the development of Harvard University, the scope of school curriculum expanded, the focus shifted, and natural science received great attention.

From 1869 to 1909, chemist Charles. William Eliot served as the president of Harvard University. He served for 40 years and built Harvard University into a large-scale modern university. He revitalized the law school and medical school, and established the new School of Business Management, School of Dentistry, and School of Arts and Sciences. The number of registered students increased from 1,000 to 3,000, the number of teaching staff increased from 49 to 278, and the school fund increased from 2,300 million to $225 million.

Abbott Lwrence Lowell served as the president of Harvard University from 1909 to 1933. He re-formulated the undergraduate course plan and implemented a system of combining course concentration and distribution in order to enable students to receive Good basic education. The mentorship system implemented by Lowell is still used by Harvard University today. Lowell's most prominent contribution is the implementation of the residential system at Harvard University. The implementation of this system allows undergraduates in large comprehensive universities to have a small college environment, and freshmen live on the Harvard campus in their first year after admission. Or in nearby dormitories, a year later, students lived in 12 dormitories, and a 13th dormitory was set up for a small number of day students. Each dormitory building has a resident teacher and a tutor group to guide students' study and life. In addition, each dormitory building also has a restaurant and library. Various interesting sports, social and cultural activities are often carried out in the dormitory area.

Several presidents in recent years, including James Bryant Conant, Nathan Marsh Pusey, Derek Bok and current president Neil L Rudenstine, have all expressed their enthusiasm for Harvard. Great efforts have been made in the construction of the university. On the one hand, they are doing everything possible to improve the quality of undergraduate and graduate education, and at the same time, they are also trying their best to leverage Harvard University's outstanding role as a research institution.

Conant served as professor, department chair, and president of the Department of Chemistry at Harvard University from 1919 to 1953. He implemented an off-campus special committee system at Harvard University and used this organization to evaluate the qualifications and tenure of school teachers. He also created a general education program that offered all undergraduates a broad range of areas of study in addition to their major courses.

From 1953 to 1971, Pusey served as president. Under his auspices, Harvard University conducted the largest fundraising event in the history of American higher education, raising US$825 million for Harvard. This event increased It increased the salaries of Harvard University teachers, expanded funding for students, established new professorships, and enriched teaching equipment.

As president since 1971, Bock carefully addressed some of the major issues in higher education, including administration, educational opportunities for minorities and women, and the transfer of technology between academia and industry. In order to solve the problem, President Bock also reorganized the management structure of Harvard University and introduced modern management methods and procedures to various graduate schools and departments of Harvard University.

In 1991, Lu Tengting became the 26th president. As part of his efforts to better coordinate the relationship between colleges and faculty, he created a centralized school-wide academic plan to identify Harvard's most important and The priority part. In addition, Lu Dengting also emphasized the responsibilities of universities: excellent undergraduate education, the door of universities is always open to people from different economic classes, how research universities can adapt to the era of rapid information growth and severe financial constraints, and meet the challenges in a society of free expression .

Continuous reform and updating of courses

The 360-year history of Harvard University is a history of mutual advancement of development and change.

A century and a half after its founding, Harvard College has always been based on the two universities of Oxford and Cambridge in the United Kingdom. It aims to train priests, lawyers and officials, and focuses on the humanities. Students are not free to choose courses. At the beginning of the 19th century, the clarion call for higher education curriculum reform was sounded at Harvard, advocating "academic freedom" and "freedom of teaching." The old framework of "fixed academic year" and "fixed courses" has been impacted, and the system of free elective courses has gradually emerged. Some people at Harvard College also advocated the implementation of a course elective system. This innovative request was opposed by traditional conservative forces, and the initiative was not realized at Harvard.

However, there are growing calls for higher education to adapt to the needs of social development and the personality of students. In 1839, Harvard University launched another curriculum reform. In 1841, Harvard officially implemented the course selection system, but it soon retreated due to opposition from conservative forces.

In the 1860s, the Civil War broke out in the United States. The Civil War opened the way for the development of American capitalism. Productivity increased by leaps and bounds. The status of scientific and technical workers gradually improved. Engineers, natural scientists and industrial technicians were able to keep pace with lawyers and officials. The change in the situation is very beneficial to the curriculum reform of colleges and universities. The elective system is on the rise again, and Harvard is once again at the forefront of the reform.

In 1869, Elliott, who was only 35 years old, served as the president of Harvard University. He served as president for 40 years and was the main leader in promoting the course selection system. Under his leadership and promotion, Harvard University fully implemented Elective system. By 1895, only English and modern foreign languages ??were still compulsory courses, while the others were electives. Many colleges and universities in the United States have followed Harvard University's footsteps, reducing or abolishing required courses and increasing elective courses.

According to the requirements of the free elective system, there are 16 elective courses for students to study for a degree. As long as they meet the requirements, they can obtain the corresponding degree. This method breaks the fixed four-year academic system, and those with excellent grades can obtain the corresponding degree within three years. It can be called "reducing talents according to one type". Thanks to Elliott's efforts, Harvard University recruited famous scholars to teach, and offered more elective courses than other universities. Students' knowledge expanded and their learning potential was fully utilized. Elliott's educational thoughts and curriculum reforms had a profound impact on the development of higher education in the United States. He emphasized that colleges and universities should give students three magic weapons: first, to give students the freedom to choose their studies; second, to enable students to excel in the subjects they are good at. There are opportunities to display talents; the third is to transform students' learning from passive behavior to autonomous behavior, so that students can be liberated from dependence and subordination on teachers.

In 1909, Lowell became the principal. While retaining the advantages of the free course selection system, he proposed a new education reform plan. From 1914, the "centralization and distribution" system was implemented. The so-called "concentration" means that from the 16 optional courses, 6 professional courses of the department must be taken to ensure the focus; the so-called "distribution" means that the other 6 courses are taken from 3 different knowledge areas. Choose two subjects each to ensure that students have a relatively broad range of knowledge. The remaining classes are left to students to choose freely. This system not only ensures the depth of professional course learning, but also expands students' horizons and leaves appropriate room for students' personal hobbies.

In 1933, the chemist Conant served as the principal. He worked hard and presided over the establishment of a special committee in 1940 to study curriculum reform. After five years of repeated research, a special report was put forward advocating the strengthening of general education. In accordance with the recommendations of the special report, Harvard University conducted another five years of experiments and formally implemented the "general education" system in 1951. According to the regulations of the general education system, students in the first, first and second years must choose 6 professional courses from their own department, and then choose one general education course from the three categories of humanities, society and nature.* **3 courses, and at least 3 courses from other departments must be selected; secondly, there are also general education courses in the third and fourth grades. Those who have not studied the general education courses in the first and second grades are not allowed to take the third and fourth grade courses. Fourth-grade general education courses; third, students pursuing master's and doctoral degrees can elect some of the third- and fourth-grade general education courses; fourth, students are not allowed to elect two courses belonging to the same examination group. In this way, general education and professional education are closely integrated and connected in an orderly manner. This method draws on the advantages of the previous system and synthesizes them to form a free elective system based on communication education and guided by concentration and distribution.

There are generally four scoring methods for students at Harvard University: first, scoring according to five levels: A, B, C, D, and E, with A being the highest score; second, passing and failing ; Third, satisfaction and dissatisfaction; Fourth, credits and no credits.

Harvard University’s curriculum reform has not stalled. They have further studied which courses are core courses, or basic courses, in general education. They deeply understand that no matter what major they study, they must have deep basic knowledge. "The roots are deep and the leaves are luxuriant, and the roots are solid and the branches are flourishing." This idea is very clear at Harvard University.

Derek Bock became president in 1971. He paid great attention to the basic education of undergraduates and took powerful measures. At the beginning of the 20th century, liberal arts courses in general universities in the United States were set up according to the principle of combining depth and breadth, which not only allowed students to have a deeper understanding of a certain field, but also required students to have a relatively broad exposure to other fields. By the mid-20th century, students were required to have a general and basic understanding of the three fields of humanities, social sciences and natural sciences in terms of breadth of knowledge. In the 1960s and 1970s, the above curriculum model was challenged again. Due to the unprecedented expansion of the field of human knowledge, the traditional boundaries between various disciplines have been broken, putting the traditional liberal arts curriculum structure in a situation where it had to be reformed. In 1973, President Bok appointed Henry Rosovsky as the dean of Harvard's School of Arts and Sciences, tasking him with studying the goals of the School of Arts and Sciences and various problems existing in Harvard's undergraduate education, and calling on teachers to contribute ideas and brainstorm ideas. , reformulating the purposes and methods of university teaching. Rosovsky appointed Professor Wilson to study the issue of basic undergraduate courses and proposed a reform plan in 1976, the "Wilson Report". This report advocated the establishment of a compulsory basic course in ***. After repeated discussions and revisions, Dean Rosovsky personally presided over further revision work. As a result, in 1978, a proposal on *** *Report on the same basic course and decided to start implementing it in the second year.

It can be seen from the above process that Harvard University is constantly innovating to adapt to the requirements of the times. This kind of reform is not carried out in a hurry based on pure enthusiasm, and the reform is not carried out in isolation. These are of great reference significance for our education reform work.

The institutions of Harvard University

The school leadership bodies of Harvard University are the Board of Trustees of Harvard University and the School Oversight Committee.

The Board of Trustees of Harvard University

The Board of Trustees of Harvard University is responsible for the financial and school affairs management of the university. Major matters related to educational policies and institutional settings will be discussed and decided by the principal and department directors to the board of directors. The deans of each Harvard graduate school and the chairs of each department are appointed by the president.

School Oversight Committee

The Harvard University School Oversight Committee consists of 30 members. Most of these members are elected by alumni who graduated from Harvard College and Radcliffe College, and serve six-year terms. The School Supervisory Committee holds regular meetings to investigate and study the work of the university, make recommendations on the university’s educational policies and practices, and support the school’s major activities.

The key to enduring vitality

Among the world’s most famous universities, Harvard University is an everlasting pine. Let’s explore the reasons why this prestigious university will continue to thrive. Department is a topic of interest to higher education researchers in various countries. The reason why it can last for a long time and keep pace with the times is worthy of reference by various universities.

1. Reform the old and make new things. When it was first founded, Harvard College was only the size of a village school in the countryside of old China. Now it has developed into a large-scale institution with advanced equipment, outstanding achievements, and far-reaching influence. This is not a gift from God, nor is it spontaneous. Success is the result of Harvard people's hard work and continuous innovation. Facts have proved that: metabolism, innovation and innovation are the universal laws of the development of things. Harvard has gone from imitating Britain and Germany to creating an original system, from only studying fixed courses to adopting a free elective system, a centralized and distributed system, a general education system, and even a free elective system based on general education and guided by concentration and distribution, etc. , all of which are the result of reform and innovation, and they have not stopped to this day. This is the vitality of a school that thrives.

2. Pay equal attention to quality. When Harvard was founded, there was only one teacher and four students. Now, the number of teachers has exceeded 2,000 and the number of students has been nearly 20,000. The growth in numbers is astonishing. Harvard has not neglected qualitative improvement in its development and insisted on paying equal attention to quality. To ensure the quality of education, in addition to clear guiding ideology, there are two more important measures: First, enrich and improve equipment. "If you want to do your job well, you must first sharpen your tools." Harvard's teaching facilities, laboratories, libraries, Museums and so on are all first-class; secondly, we attach great importance to the quality of people, teachers must be carefully selected, and students must be well-selected. Harvard is very strict about student admissions. Approximately 10-20% of applicants are admitted, and most freshmen have A-level grades in high school before admission. Due to its strong faculty, high starting points for students, and other conditions such as material facilities, Harvard has a very high quality of education, ranking among the best among colleges and universities in the United States and around the world.

3. Integration of teaching and research. The world's famous institutions of higher learning have become "two centers", both teaching centers and scientific research centers. Harvard is the leader among them. Facts have shown that no matter how high the level of teachers is, they still need continuous training. Harvard's teachers all have scientific research tasks, and Harvard's senior students or those with outstanding academic performance are also engaged in certain scientific research work while studying.

Harvard libraries and museums are institutions that serve teaching and scientific research, and are also engaged in teaching and scientific research themselves. Harvard University has achieved a combination of teaching and scientific research, and the two promote each other and complement each other.

4. Internal and external collaboration. All units within Harvard University are closely connected, and many students can cross-register and study across departments and disciplines. Harvard also cooperates with famous universities and influential scientific research institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Internal and external collaboration enables Harvard University to mobilize manpower and material resources to the maximum extent, maximize its strengths and avoid weaknesses, and maximize its effectiveness.

Department of Sociology, Harvard University

Harvard’s sociology is very young relative to the history of Harvard University. Founded in 1636, Harvard University is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. However, Harvard's sociology was founded in 1930, which is not only later than European sociology, but also a newcomer in the United States (the Department of Sociology established by the University of Chicago in 1892 was the first sociology department in the United States). However, Harvard is Harvard after all. Since it is a center of academic culture, the Department of Sociology of Harvard soon became a research center in North American sociology and ushered in a new stage in the development of world sociology. Some people even say: Starting from the late 1930s, American sociology began its “Enlightenment Movement.” The birthplace of this Enlightenment Movement was the Department of Sociology at Harvard. This is inseparable from the achievements of many famous sociology masters at that time.

The first is the Russian sociologist Pidirim Sorokin (1889-1968), the founder of the Harvard Department of Sociology. He is regarded as the leader of the older generation of sociologists. The last pioneer was listed as an outstanding figure of the 20th century along with Spengler, Russell, Toynbee and other masters. His life was legendary and pioneering, and he was a dramatic political activist. After Sorokin was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1922, he quickly arrived in the United States. In 1930, he became a U.S. citizen and taught at Harvard University until his retirement in 1959.

Sorokin’s most important achievement was made while at Harvard. Prior to this, Harvard University had not yet established a sociology department. He was initially placed in the Economics Department. In 1930, under his initiative, the school established the Department of Sociology, with Sorokin as its first director, a term that lasted 12 years. The newly founded Department of Sociology quickly attracted a large number of outstanding talents, and soon Harvard became an academic center in the American sociology community. Important figures who have taught or studied at Harvard include Parsons, Homans, Merton, etc. Many of them later became the main representatives of the functional school and also became giants in American sociology.

In 1942, Sorokin resigned as department chair and was later succeeded by Parsons. Sorokin gradually strayed away from sociological research. In the late 1940s, he founded the Harvard Center for Creative Altruism, turned to the study of altruistic behavior, and further developed comparative social research and criticism of American society. From the 1940s to the 1960s, Sorokin's image in American sociology was somewhat out of place. He criticized the modern centralized military-industrial society and believed that Western society was facing a huge crisis.

After Talcott Parsons (1902-1979) took over as chairman of the Department of Sociology, he ushered in a glorious period of sociology at Harvard. The emergence of the functionalist school represented by him also marked the beginning of modern sociology. Parsons went to Harvard University to teach in 1927, first in the Department of Economics, and in 1931 in the newly established Department of Sociology, where he worked under Sorokin. Although their partnership was not successful, Parsons became more established. In 1944, he took over as the head of the department, which was reorganized into the Department of Social Relations in 1946 and served until 1956. Until his retirement in 1973, he taught at Harvard for 46 years.

Parsons continued to write throughout his life and wrote numerous books. His famous work was "The Structure of Social Action" published in 1937. This book established his position in the field of American sociology and is also regarded as a watershed classic in the development of American sociological theory. This achievement fundamentally changed the theoretical poverty situation in American sociology and demonstrated the important value of sociological theoretical research. As a result, American sociology entered the so-called "golden age."

Parsons is actually a rare theorist, and his achievements are mainly reflected in the inheritance and innovation of sociological theory. By the end of the 1940s, Parsons' academic research reached a turning point. Represented by "Social System", he formed his functionalist viewpoint with system theory characteristics. The important thing is that he united a large number of talented people in the newly reorganized Department of Social Relations, thus establishing his sociological empire!

In fact, as early as the mid-1930s, Parsons had established a good interactive relationship with a group of talented graduate students in the Department of Sociology. These people include Merton, Davis, John Reilly, Williams, Moore and others. This is the so-called "Harvard circle". With Parsons and Merton as the core, they discussed functionalist theoretical issues together. Through their efforts, functionalism emerged as the first and most influential theoretical school of modern sociology.

When talking about the functionalist school, we cannot but mention Robert Merton. Although he left Harvard in 1939, he had an indissoluble bond with Harvard.

After Merton graduated from college with honors in 1931, he won a scholarship from Harvard University and became the first batch of graduate students in the newly established Department of Sociology. He was taught by famous teachers such as Sorokin. Received doctorate in 1936. After Merton graduated, he worked as a lecturer and tutor at Harvard University for more than two years, and then taught at Tulane University in New Orleans. In 1941, he transferred to Columbia University to teach.

The scholar who had the greatest influence on Merton’s academic career was, first of all, Sorokin. Merton later recalled that the reason why he seemingly arrogantly chose Harvard University was because Sorokin was there. He said Sorokin was the mentor he sought, and it was Sorokin who attracted him to Harvard and his exposure to a wide range of European thought. Merton became Sorokin's research assistant and teaching assistant as soon as he entered the school. He said that he even became Sorokin's stand-in, going to his office every day and doing many things for him. Therefore, Merton participated in the research earlier, and the results continued to come out. For example, his first academic paper on French sociology published in 1934 was written for Sorokin. He was also involved early in the study of Durkheim's sociology and, more importantly, in Sorokin's ambitious research project on Social and Cultural Dynamics. Research in these areas laid a solid foundation for Merton's later research, and even played a shaping role.

The second person who had a great influence on Merton's academic growth was Parsons, a young teacher at the time. Merton said that the person who really opened up his sociological thinking was not Sorokin, but Parsons. While at Harvard, Parsons was both his teacher and his opponent; they jointly proposed the functionalist view. Merton and others often attended the theoretical classes offered by Parsons and discussed them together after class. Parsons was writing "The Structure of Social Action" at the time, and Merton had carefully read the manuscript and made critical comments.

Although Parsons’ theoretical views aroused great interest in Merton, from the beginning, Merton’s theoretical orientation and style were greatly different from Parsons’s, and even their theoretical differences Bigger than we thought. Merton and Parsons are both called "giants" of functionalism, but their theoretical orientations are far from each other. Parsons pursues a high degree of abstraction and unity in theory and pursues "grand theory"; while Merton emphasizes the experience and plurality of theory and advocates the establishment of "middle-level theory." The former is a "hedgehog" and the latter is a "fox". Therefore, Merton and Parsons took different theoretical paths from the beginning.

George Homans (1910-1989) was also one of the masters of Harvard sociology. He entered Harvard University in the early 1930s and began to study English literature. Later, he turned to sociology due to the great influence of biochemist L. Henderson and psychologist and main organizer of the "Hawthorne Experiment" Mayo. He became a leading member of the Pareto Research Society of Harvard University at that time and conducted early research on Pareto.

In 1939 Homans taught in the Sociology Department, but in 1941 he was drafted into the Army. It was not until 1946, when Parsons established the Department of Social Relations, that he returned to the Department of Sociology. From 1970 to 1975 he served as Chairman of the Department of Sociology. His major works include "Human Groups" (1950), "Social Behavior and Its Basic Forms" (1961), etc. In his later period, he was influenced by B. F. Skinner and mainly advocated a behaviorist research orientation, emphasizing the psychological explanation of social phenomena, thus forming a sharp confrontation with the popular functionalist view.

When Parsons established the Department of Social Relations, Homans also served with the famous sociologist Samuel Stouffer (1900-60). He has taught at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Chicago, specializing in quantitative analysis methods. He established the "Social Relations Research Laboratory" at Harvard University and conducted a series of important studies. His major work, The American Soldier (1949), made outstanding contributions to group dynamics and social research methods. Stover's more important influence at Harvard University lies in the courses for graduate students jointly established with Parsons. Although he and Parsons have different academic research styles, one specializes in empirical research and the other specializes in theoretical thinking, they each have their own strengths and complement each other in the graduate courses they teach together, which greatly benefits the students. shallow.

With the passing away of these masters of sociology, Harvard sociology seems to have lost its former glory. However, the legacy of these masters still exists and their influence is still there.

Therefore, on the wall of the small conference room of the Harvard Department of Sociology, it is clearly written:

You can go anywhere with a degree in sociology (You have a degree in sociology, you can fly anywhere in the world)!