Alyssa Calder Hulme, MAPSS’23

Alyssa Calder Hulme (MAPSS’23) came to the University of Chicago Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences (MAPSS) with a plan: complete her MA, get into a top PhD program, and become a tenured professor at a Research I University. “I want to be a tenured professor of sociology at an R1 school so I can do critical research with the funding and protection of a private university,” Hulme says. 

Having earned her MA in 2023, Hulme is further on her way to this goal as she is currently working on her PhD in the University of Chicago’s Department of Sociology. Hulme believes that MAPSS helped her goal of entering a PhD program through its academic rigor and “[b]eing expected to DO the research and [getting] a chance to discuss it and get help and perspectives from fellow students and staff."  

Hulme recommends future MAPSS students come in with a similar goal-oriented mindset. “[S]tart your research EARLY if you want to graduate in 9 months. Take a class with the people you hope to advise you.” She also notes that approaching faculty early in the program is key to developing a strong relationship in such a short program.  

Hulme’s favorite courses in MAPSS were Ethnography and Economy—which she says supported her “head first dive into ethnography and getting messy in the work of prefield work”—and MAXQDA with Professor Sharon Hicks Bartlett—which she credits with giving her the “skills for coding all 200 hours of [her] transcripts plus memos.” 

Beyond these courses, Hulme was supported by Professor Kimberly Kay Hoang in completing her thesis Sexism in Silicon Slopes: Religion and Gendered Organizational Structures in the New Economy. Additionally, Hulme sees all of MAPSS as having supported her thesis work. “[Professor Hoang] guided my methods through an ethnography course and through occasional meetings and Q and As. I also presented at conferences on campus like the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality (CSGS), and at other conferences during the school year, and got great feedback. My courses in the first half of my program all really helped me hone my lit review and methods. I also took a self-guided course with Professor Hoang where I designed my own reading lists and reported my findings. This is how I ended up identifying the theory that fit my work best and the structure I wanted to use in my paper,” Hulme shares. 

Beyond MAPSS, Hulme praises Hyde Park itself, especially the walkability: “I can grab groceries from Trader Joe’s, breakfast at Medici, and drop my kids off at school within a half-mile radius of my home and campus. Unbeatable. And the people here are just lovely. A great neighborhood to live in!”