Learning the Nexus: Networks, Neoinstitutionalism, and Diffusion as Explanations for Curricular Change.

This paper draws on a sample of 523 institutions of higher education in the United States to test neoinstitutional and diffusion explanations for curricular change. It explores the adoption of programs and majors in women's studies, Asian American studies, and queer/LGBT studies through logistic regression analysis and network visualization. The paper finds less support than expected for conventional neoinstitutional and diffusion explanations while determining that the institutionalization of a discipline in the higher education field increases the role for neoinstitutional pressures. In addition, the paper finds that peer networks based on structural position with the higher education field play less of a role in curricular change than do those peers claimed by institutions as comparison institutions. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]