Congratulations! You have been invited to join Alpha Kappa Delta, the International Sociology Honor Society at Arizona State University. Membership is limited to undergraduate (majors and minors) and graduate students in sociology who have maintained a record of high academic achievement, and sociology faculty members. The criteria are described below.

Membership in Alpha Kappa Delta is an earned honor. Once you join, you become a lifetime member. Your membership may be used on your resume, applications for graduate school, and job applications.

Alpha Kappa Delta Society was founded in 1920 in the Sociology Department of the University of Southern California by Dr. E.S. Bogardus. The name, Alpha Kappa Delta, represents the first three letters of three Greek words: anthropon (mankind), katamanthanein (to investigate thoroughly or to conduct research) and diakonesein (for the purpose of service). The name, freely interpreted, signifies social research for the purpose of service. There are more than 670 chapters of the Society and more than 130,000 lifetime members. We hope to include you among the members.

The membership fee is $50.00. This one-time fee provides you with lifetime membership, a membership certificate, a membership card, and one free year of Sociological Inquiry, the official journal of the Society. When you are inducted into Alpha Kappa Delta, you are eligible to wear the Society’s honor cord, lapel pin, and other paraphernalia.

To join Alpha Kappa Delta, please fill out the following application. You will be contacted by your chapter representative with options for payment of the membership fee. Please see www.alphakappadelta.org for more information. Again, congratulations!

Member Eligibility

• Undergraduates must be sociology majors or minors within an official program of a host institution with a chartered chapter of the Society. Students must:
  • Be at least a junior
  • Have an overall GPA of 3.3
  • Have a sociology GPA of at least 3.0
  • Have taken at least four courses in sociology (the equivalent of 12 semester hours)

• Graduate students must:
  • Have completed at least one-half year of graduate study in sociology
  • Have a graduate grade-point average of ‘B’ or better
  • Continue to be matriculated in a program of study leading toward a graduate degree in sociology at the host institution

•  Faculty members must:
  • Be employed full-time at the host institution
  • Formal conferral of a Ph.D. in sociology or be employed as a sociologist prior to initiation
  • Meet the other requirements set forth above

Benefits of Becoming a Member

•  Membership is for a lifetime.
• Every new initiate receives a certificate of membership and a membership card.
• Members who submit completed activation forms receive a free one-year subscription to Sociological Inquiry, the official journal of AKD.
• AKD sponsors undergraduate and graduate student paper contests for members with cash prizes and travel money to participate in the American Sociological Association (ASA) annual meeting.
  • Undergraduate student winners have the chance to participate in the ASA Honors Program
  • First place winners are eligible to have their papers published in Sociological Inquiry
• AKD funds students presenting at regional sociological meetings.
• Members may purchase honor cords for graduation ceremonies, AKD pins, and other memorabilia.
• AKD members Alpha Kappa Delta members who become Civil Service employees meet one of the requirements for entrance at the GS-7 level (an increase in pay-grade) if they list AKD membership on their applications (providing they enter at the GS-5 level).