More than 4000 miles removed from this spring's nationally publicized inter-departmental controversy, Sociology Chair Aage B. Sorensen has remained absent--and so far neutral--in the dispute between his program and the Social Studies concentration.

But when Sorensen returns from Sweden this September to reclaim the departmental reigns from Acting Chair Orlando Patterson, he will have to take on the emotional and professional scars of the last year.

"It is a very unfortunate incident," Sorensen says, speaking recently from his office across the Atlantic.

The dispute between the two programs was Patterson to graduate students in December asking them to teach in the department rather than in other programs. The letter, once leaked to The Crimson, spurred a heated exchange by several of Harvard's senior scholars, turning a minor dialogue about the nature of departmental "loyalty" into a more complicated and controversial academic debate.

A times questioning the fundamental scholarly approaches of both concentrations, professors from both Sociology and Social Studies publicly criticized each other in an unprecedented show of personal and political fragmentation within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Patterson and Sociology Head Tutor James A. Davis argued that Social Studies studied classical Western social theorists in a vacuum, without regard for contemporary issues. At the same time, some Social Studies affiliates defended their approach against what they saw as an overly quantitative emphasis in recent Sociology appointments.

After the dispute reached the pages of the national media, Dean of the Faculty A. Michael Spence--responding to demands by Social Studies Chair David S. Landes--eventually issued a public statement disassociating himself from Patterson's criticism of the inter-disciplinary program.

Despite a wariness about the whole incident and a hesitancy to get involved, Sorenson in quick to break from Patterson's criticisms of Social Studies, where he has taught for several years and where his son recently completed his undergraduate degree.

"The five years I was chair before, we've had an excellent relationship with Social Studies," he says. "Social Studies is an undergraduate concentration which I think is a valuable part of the curriculum."

While Sorensen acknowledges that the recent events have been less than positive, he, like Dillon Professor of the Civilization of France Stanley H. Hoffmann earlier this spring, seeks to minimize their long-term significance.

"It is a little crisis," Sorensen says. "It is a little whirlwind in a teapot."

Indeed, both Patterson and Landes now say they would like to put this spring behind them and concentrate on building bridges between the two programs.

"I don't think we have a problem at all for next year," Patterson says of his department's commitment from graduate students. "I'm generally satisfied."

But while Patterson says he has solved his logistical and personnel problems for the coming year, Landes is less pleased with the debate's impact.

Although Social Studies' talented concentrators should make his department attractive to teaching assistants, Landes says Patterson's initial memorandum to graduate students seems to have caused some intimidation.