SOCIOLOGY

CRN

92016

Distribution

C

Course No.

SOC 120

Title

Inequality in America

Professor

Yuval Elmelech

Schedule

Tu Th 10:00 am - 11:20 am PRE 128

Cross-listed: American Studies, MES

Why do some people have more wealth, more power, and receive greater respect than others? What are the sources of this inequality? Is social inequality inevitable? Is it undesirable? Through lectures, documentary films and discussions, this course examines the ways by which socially-defined categories of persons (e.g., women and men, Blacks and Whites, rich and poor, native- and foreign-born) are unevenly rewarded for their social contributions. Sociological theories are used to explain how and why social inequality is produced and maintained, and how it affects the well being of individuals and social groups. The course will focus on two general themes. The first deals with the structure of inequality while studying the unequal distribution of material and social resources (e.g., prestige, income, occupation). The second examines the processes that determine the allocation of people to positions in the stratification system (e.g. education, intelligence, parental wealth, gender, race).

CRN

92258

Distribution

C

Course No.

SOC 125

Title

Sociology of Marriage & Family

Professor

Yuval Elmelech

Schedule

Mon Wed 1:30 pm - 2:50 pm OLIN 308

Cross-listed: American Studies, Gender Studies

How do we choose the people we date and eventually marry? Why do people divorce and remarry? What effect does marital separation have upon the success of children later in life? This course uses sociological literature to study these questions. Focusing primarily on family patterns in the United States, the course examines the processes of partner selection, the configuration of gender and family roles, and the interrelationships among family and household members. Topics include explanations of religious and racial/ethnic inter-marriage; household and work roles; divorce and remarriage; parenthood and single parenthood; intergenerational relationships.

CRN

92017

Distribution

E

Course No.

SOC 205 Q course

Title

Introduction to Research Methods

Professor

Yuval Elmelech

Schedule

Tu Th 1:30 pm - 2:50 pm OLIN 305

(Oct 8th on: HDRANX 106)


The aim of this course is to enable students to understand and use the various research methods developed in the social sciences, with an emphasis on quantitative methods. The course will be concerned with the theory and rationale upon which social research is based, as well as the practical aspects of research and the problems the researcher is likely to encounter. The course is divided into two parts. In the first, we will learn how to formulate research questions and hypotheses, how to choose the appropriate research method for the problem, and how to maximize chances for valid and reliable findings. In the second part, we will learn how to perform simple data analysis and how to interpret and present findings in a written report. For a final paper, students use survey data on topics such as attitudes toward abortion, sexual attitudes, affirmative action, racism, sex roles, religiosity, and political affiliation. By the end of the semester, students will have the necessary skills for designing and conducting independent research for term papers and senior projects, as well as for non-academic enterprises.

CRN

92346

Distribution

C

Course No.

SOC 242

Title

Historical Sociology of Punishment

Professor

Michael Donnelly

Schedule

Tu Th 1:30 pm - 2:50 pm OLIN 303


PIE Core Course

An analysis of punishment, and the rationales for punishing, in a variety of historical circumstances. Cases are drawn from primitive societies, Puritan New England, 18th and 19th century western Europe, the American South, and the recent period in the United States and Great Britain. Comparisons among such disparate cases will suggest broad developmental patterns in punishment, and more specific queries about the connections between culture, social structure, and penal strategies. The case materials also offer a historical perspective on such contemporary issues and controversies as the scope of criminal responsibility, the appropriateness of retribution, the declining concern for rehabilitating offenders, and the rationales for, and uses of, the death penalty.

CRN

92383

Distribution

C

Course No.

SOC 251 / HIST

Title

Sex, Love, Race & Beyond: Multi-ethnicity, Multi-raciality and the Mingling of American Peoples

Professor

Joel Perlmann

Schedule

Tu Th 4:30 pm - 5:50 pm OLIN 205

Cross-listed: American Studies, MES

Related interest: Jewish Studies

Throughout American history (and not least in today's and tomorrow's headlines), people of different ethnic or racial backgrounds have come together to form sexual unions (unions society has defined as legal marriages, as well as other unions, free or coerced) and from these unions have emerged generations of multi-ethnic, or multi-racial, children. This course reviews the historical experience of these unions and children. Some of these unions (as between black and white) have been forbidden amalgamations until very recently. Other unions once very rare (and in some cases forbidden) have become routine, at least during the last generation (between Jews and Asians, for example, or between Italian-Americans and Mayflower descendants); the horror of one generation has become the banality of a later generation. In this course we will consider 1) the laws, social thought, and imaginative literature that struggled to confront forbidden unions; 2) the way in which the topic of multiple origins has become banal for many ethnic (and recently racial) combinations; 3) the prevalence of different kinds of multi-ethnicity and multi-raciality, past and present; 4) the centrality of multi-ethnicity to the history of assimilation in America, and the creation of an American people and 5) some contemporary ways in which the topic is live in contemporary discussions of American public policy (e.g.: how the U.S. Census counts members of races or projects the nation's future racial composition; and how multi-raciality will affect affirmative action, voting rights legislation and the like). A seminar in which weekly reading and discussion are crucial; a term paper based on research will be a major writing assignment.

CRN

92032

Distribution

A/C

Course No.

SOC 304

Title

Sociological Theory since World War II

Professor

Michael Donnelly

Schedule

Tu Th 11:30 am - 12:50 pm OLIN 307

A critical investigation into the development of modern sociological theories in the United States and Europe. The course will examine, among other schools and traditions, functionalism, conflict theory, exchange and rational choice theory, symbolic interactionism, feminist theory, and critical theory. Readings include works by Talcott Parsons, Ralf Dahrendorf, Jon Elster, George Herbert Mead, Erving Goffman, Harold Garfinkel, Dorothy Smith, Michel Foucault, and Jurgen Habermas.

Prerequisite: Sociology 203 or permission of the instructor.

CRN

92384

Distribution

C

Course No.

SOC 322 / HIST

Title

A Sociological Classic: Middletown and America

Professor

Joel Perlmann

Schedule

Wed 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm OLIn 205

Cross-listed: American Studies

An close reading of Robert and Helen Lynd's Middletown and Middletown in Transition. The first volume was based on the work of a research team that lived for months in the "typical" American community of Middletown in the 1920s, the second volume was based on a similar, second study during the crisis of the Great Depression. The volumes try to understand all that is interesting in the social life of the community -- notably class structure and class relations; politics; courtship, family, childraising and schooling; entertainment, religion and other aspects of cultural life. These volumes have proven very durable, both in serving as a model that other community studies must confront and in providing an understanding of American society and culture in the twenties and thirties. Students will write a term paper based on this and other American community studies or on some aspect of America in the twenties and thirties highlighted by the Lynds' work.

CRN

92033

Distribution

C

Course No.

SOC 410

Title

Race: Special Topics

Professor

Amy Ansell

Schedule

Mon 1:30 pm - 3:50 pm OLIN 304

Cross-listed: AADS, American Studies, MES

2 credits, schedule to be arranged. This course is designed as an advanced reading seminar surveying recent and interdisciplinary topics related to the study of race and ethnicity. The focus will be primarily on the US context, although some international themes will be addressed. Texts will be chose for their significance in presenting innovative theoretical, empirical, and/or methodological challenges to the current literature. Books will likely include: Paul Gilroy, Against Race, Howard Winant, The World as Ghetto, William Julius Wilson, When Work Disappears, and David Blight, Race and Reunion.

Prerequisites: moderated status and either Sociology of Race or Sociology of Whiteness.