At this point in my graduate school career I should have narrowed down a thesis topic and be prepared to engage in a detailed literature review of that topic over the next several months. Unfortunately I have yet to isolate my thoughts that closely and feel like I am not ready to begin my literature review or engage in the types of preliminary research that is typically considered prudent during this time of my academic career. Of the 6 people in my cohort, all have isolated their topics to at least one particular category of interest and seem to have a strong direction in which they seem to want to go, except me.

I have a wide range of interests in Sociology, but I’m finding it difficult to narrow any of them down to a specific topic I wish to engage in a long-term, in-depth way.

Currently my scopes are:

• Sociology of the Internet
• Deviance (Social Construction of Deviance)
• Sociology of Sexuality (and the intersection of sexuality and gender)
• Sociology of Culture (Sub-cultures)
• Social Complexity (Complex Systems approach to Social Science, which is more of a method than an area of study)

I have very broad interests in sociology (as well as other fields such as philosophy and information technology), so for me to narrow them down will be a huge struggle, but somehow I have to manage to get through it if I want to graduate next spring. I suppose the key to doing this will be to start a brief review of the literature of each of my major areas of interest and determining if there is any concentration area where I feel like I can dive in and make a difference.