Sociology Department Appoints Two New Assistant Professors

The Sociology Department's faculty has recommended the appointment as assistant professor of Ann Swidler '66, a graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley who calls herself "a feminist."

At the same time the faculty voted to recommend Ronald Breiger, a graduate student and teaching fellow in Sociology, for an identical five year assistant professorship.

If the Corporation approves Sociology's recommendations--a pro forma move the appointments will take effect July 1.

The appointments were decided at a departmental faculty meeting March 11, the first ever in which Sociology's four junior faculty members were allowed to vote on other junior faculty appointments.

The senior faculty decided to allow the junior faculty to vote in February--reversing an initial refusal in December--following written requests signed by all four junior faculty members.

Sources in the department said yesterday that the faculty intended to choose only one new assistant professor last week and that Swidler was selected by a narrow vote.

Considering the closeness of the vote the department asked Dean Rosovsky to approve non tenured appointments for both Swidler and Breiger, the sources said.

Rosovsky Approves

Rosovsky said yesterday that the approved the department's request, with the provision that the department hire one less visiting professor for next year.

"I always prefer regular faculty appointments to visiting appointments, and I was delighted to agree," Rosovsky said yesterday.

Swidler, contacted yesterday in Berkeley, described herself as a feminist, but not a Marxist, "even though most of my friends are Marxists."

Her academic interests are in Marxist-oriented fields, such as the sociology of knowledge, classes in society, and class consciousness, Swidler said.

Swidler was chosen largely because of her teaching reputation at Berkeley, sources in the department said yesterday.

The sources also said that recent pledges by the University to hire women and minority group members did not influence Swidler's appointment, particularly because Sociology--a small department--already has three women non-tenured members and one black tenured professor.

Breiger said yesterday that he may teach courses next year in areas concerning the sociology of science and methodology, and that he was interested in "mathematical sociology and theory."

The appointments came at the end of a selection process begun in January, when the department's search committee--composed to two tenured and one non-tenured faculty member--proposed 11 candidates for the department to consider.

The number of candidates was cut to five, who then made presentations of their work to departmental open meetings from February 14 to March 12.