USC Honorary Degree: Barrie Thorne

Since commencement will arrive in just over a month, this week’s post will discuss the University of Southern California's honorary degrees. This week I was challenged to find someone I thought was deserving of the USC honorary degree in my field of interest, sociology. However, there is some controversy over who is deserving of these degrees. James Freedman discusses how honorary degrees have been carelessly given out to those who do not deserve them. However, USC has specific categories and criteria that a nominee must fulfill to receive an honorary degree. USC’s four categories of criteria prevent those who do not deserve the degrees from receiving them. The first is “to honor individuals who have distinguished themselves through extraordinary achievements in scholarship” and other fields. The second is “to honor alumni and other individuals who have made outstanding contributions” to USC. The third is “to recognize exceptional acts of philanthropy”. Finally the fourth category is “to elevate the university in the eyes of the world”. Beyond these four categories there must be a reason why the nominee is specifically appropriate for USC.

The woman I would choose to nominate for a USC Honorary Degree would be Barrie Throne. She fits excellently into the first category of scholarly and academic achievement. Barrie Thorne is a prominent sociologist with a focus on feminism. She is the co-director of the Center for Working Families in Berkeley as well as a professor of Women Studies at UC Berkeley. She has written several books including Feminist Sociology: Life Histories of a Movement, Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School, and many more. Also, Thorne is the recipient of the Jessie Bernard Award. This award “is given in recognition of scholarly work” that have contributed greatly to the field of sociology by the American Sociological Assosiation. In addition, it is given to those whose work “has enlarged the horizons of sociology to encompass fully the role of women in society”.

Thorne embodies these traits as a scholar, researcher, teacher, and mentor. Thorne has also received other numerous awards for teaching and mentoring. She has accomplished great achievements for the feminist movement. But the main reason for this nomination would be her contribution to ethnography. She argues that the way we research children is ineffective. Children need to be studied separate from all other spheres. In addition to her studies on children and women, her work also focuses on sociology of age relations, sociology of gender and ethnographic methods.

Barrie Thorne is an excellent nominee for a Doctor of Science Honorary Degree. In my encounters with professionals and non-professionals I have found that they do not consider sociology as a science. By honoring Thorne with this degree can prove otherwise. Sociology is based in research just like every other science. There is a stigma that sociology is an easy area because it is simply what a person thinks. This stigma needs to be removed because years of research go into every theory in sociology. This is the reason why it would be specifically appropriate for Thorne to receive a USC Honorary Degree; to dispel the notions, even of some professors, that Sociology is not a science, when certainly it is. If Barrie Thorne were to be chosen to speak at commencement she could talk about the importance of sociology and specifically the importance of finding new methods of research in any field. All fields, from history to science, have some form a research involved. Without new methods, the areas of study would come to a stand still. We need to continuously try and better ourselves and society through new ways of research, in all fields including sociology. A woman like Barrie Thorne would be an incredible asset to the University of Southern California.