"The percentage of U.S. children living in two-parent families declined from 76 percent in 1980 to 68 percent in 1999." "In 1999, about 76 percent of men aged 65 and older were married, compared with 44 percent of older women." " Between 1900 and 1998, life expectancy in the United States increased from 51 to 80 for females and from 48 to 74 for males." "Since 1900, the number of new immigrants arriving in the United States has approached 1 million per year." The aim of this course is to introduce students to the field of social demography. Specifically, the course will focus on understanding how economic, population, and social processes interact to shape the experiences of individuals and families in contemporary society. Special attention will be given to such demographic processes as fertility, marriage, family, migration, urbanization, adulthood, aging, and mortality.

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 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 modal 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. Enrollment limited to 12.

This course examines dynamics of power and powerlessness and how the two serve to maintain inaction in the face of injustice. We will investigate how patterns of power and powerlessness may limit action upon inequalities by preventing issues from arising, grievances from being voiced, and interests from being recognized. We will question the extent to which power may serve to shape conceptions about the nature and extent of the inequalities themselves. Finally, we will examine moments when power relations alter and rebellion emerges, in order to understand the ways in which resistance itself may feed back into patterns of power and powerlessness. Prerequisites: Moderated status in sociology or permission of instructor.