{"id":11991,"date":"2015-11-10T09:27:31","date_gmt":"2015-11-10T14:27:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=11991"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:08:32","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:08:32","slug":"celebrating-40-years-the-howard-w-odum-professorship-in-sociology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=11991","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating 40 years: The Howard W. Odum Professorship in Sociology"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dr.<\/a>
Dr. Howard W. Odum, 1931. Courtesy of the Yackety Yack.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Howard W. Odum Professorship in Sociology was created in 1977, two years after the establishment of the Arts and Sciences Foundation. The original gift was donated anonymously by a former colleague of Odum, who founded the University\u2019s department of sociology. The donor stipulated that the recipient be \u201can individual with imagination and vision, one with the ability and the energy to express these characteristics as Odum did in teaching, in research, in the application of Social Science to an understanding of society and in the service of society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Odum was born near Bethlehem, Ga., in 1884. He graduated from Emory College in Oxford, Ga., in 1904, later earning a master\u2019s degree from the University of Mississippi, a doctorate in psychology from Clark University, and a second doctorate in sociology from Columbia University. After two years with the Philadelphia Bureau of Municipal Research, he became an instructor at the University of Georgia. He returned to Emory in 1919 as the dean of liberal arts.<\/p>\n

In 1920, Odum arrived in Chapel Hill to direct the School of Public Welfare (later the School of Social Work) and to establish the department of sociology. \u00a0\u00a0A few years after his arrival, Odum established the Institute for Research in Social Science (now called the Howard W. Odum Institute for Research in Social Science). In 1922, he founded the journal, Social Forces, <\/em>today one of the world\u2019s most influential sociology journals.<\/p>\n

Since its founding, the department of sociology has played a prominent role in the growth of sociology as a major field of research.. The department is consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report<\/em> in the top 10 sociology graduate schools in the country with specialties in social stratification and sociology of population.<\/p>\n

The Howard W. Odum Professors in Sociology to date are:<\/p>\n