11667

SOC 126  Race and Place in Urban America

Clement Thery

. T . Th .

6:20 pm -7:40 pm

OLIN 201

SSCI/DIFF

Cross-listed: American Studies, Environmental & Urban Studies, Human Rights, Social Policy The class is at once a study of racial segregation and an examination of the categories of “race” and “place”. Racial segregation is a striking character of American cities that has significant effects on inequalities between racial groups. To fully understand the process of racial segregation (its origins, stability, and effects on individual life chances), however, it is necessary to attend carefully to the historical variation of the category of “race” and the multiple dimensions of the notion of “place”. The class will explore such various notions as “race as a social construction”, “ecological thinking”, “ghetto”, “spatial assimilation”, “discrimination”, “suburbanization”, “gentrification”, “neighborhood effect”. Class size: 22

 

11664

SOC 135  Sociology of Gender

Allison McKim

M . W . .

3:10 pm -4:30 pm

OLIN 201

SSCI/DIFF

Cross-listed: American Studies, Anthropology, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Social Policy  This course’s primary goal is to enable you to develop a sociological perspective on gender. You will examine how gender becomes an organizing principle of social life as well as consider how social structures and practices construct gender identities. We will investigate how gender is built into social structures, institutions, and cultures, and how different groups experience this gendered order. The course is organized according different institutional and interactional contexts, including families, workplaces, schools, the state & politics, sexuality, culture, and identity. Our discussions will be guided by both theoretical approaches to gender and a variety of empirical research. A second goal of this course is familiarize you with various sociological theories of gender difference and inequality. A third goal is to learn how gender inequality is intertwined with other axes of power such as race/ethnicity, class, and sexuality and how to conduct such “intersectional” analysis of social life. In addition, students will learn to identify and evaluate various forms of sociological evidence and arguments. Class size: 22

 

11662

SOC 140  Israeli Society at the Crossroads

Yuval Elmelech

. T . Th .

10:10am - 11:30am

OLIN 201

SSCI/DIFF

Cross-listed: Global & Int’l Studies, Human Rights, Jewish Studies, Middle Eastern Studies Modern Israel is a vibrant and diverse society characterized by contradictions and profound tensions between political and religious ideologies, social classes, and ethnic groups. This course is an introduction to contemporary Israel. Using various theoretical models and relevant sociological concepts, the course explores aspects of Israeli society seldom discussed in the American media, and provides students with both the knowledge and the analytical tools needed to understand the social institutions and problems that dominate the public discourse in Israel. The course begins with a short review of the historical development of the state. It then describes key aspects of Israeli culture and social structure and continues with an exploration of the origins and consequences of the main religious, ethnic, social and political cleavages. Selected topics include: Jewish immigration, democracy and militarism, segmented residential patterns, social class and inequality, religion and religiosity, ethnicity and national origin, gender and family. These issues will be explored through a critical analysis of academic literature, films, news reports and short stories by contemporary Israeli writers. Class size: 22

 

11669

SOC 214  Contemporary Immigration

Joel Perlmann

. T . Th .

4:40 pm -6:00 pm

OLIN 203

SSCI/DIFF

Cross-listed: American Studies, Human Rights, Social Policy  Why do immigrants come to the U.S? Where do the immigrants come from, geographically and socially? How do immigrants handle cultural differences? How do they affect class and racial relations and to what extent do immigrants and their children assimilate into mainstream society? This course examines the huge immigration to the United States during recent decades (since the 1960s) – and its effect on both the immigrants and the society they have entered.  Throughout, we will ask how the answers to such questions distinguish the present era from the American historical experience as “a country of immigrants.”  Specific topics include 1) immigrant origins and the reasons they come, both the great numbers who enter the upper-middle class and the millions more who enter at the bottom of the economic ladder; 2) immigrants’ efforts to preserve or shed cultural distinctiveness and ethnic unity; 3) how the children of the immigrants – by now tens of millions in number -- are faring; 3) the economic and cultural impact of the immigrants on American society; 4) how the ‘Great Recession’ is affecting immigrants and their children; 5) how a largely-non-white immigrant population is influencing the political culture of American racial divisions and the economic position of the native-born poor; 6) the subject of immigration restriction in politics; 7) the issue of illegal immigrants, and in particular what it means for them and for the rest of us that well over ten million ‘illegals’ live in the U.S. but cannot appeal to the law for protection; and 8) the balance of civil liberties and national security as America accommodates Muslim immigrants while defining itself as at war with extreme Islamists around the world since 9/11. Class size: 22

 

11371

PSY 240 Social Psychology

Kristin Lane

M . W . .

10:10am - 11:30am

OLIN 202

SSCI

Cross-listed: Gender & Sexuality Studies; Sociology Social Psychology is the scientific study of human thought, behavior, and feelings in their social contexts. This class will survey many of the processes that influence and are influenced by our interactions with others, such as attitude formation and change, conformity and persuasion. We will also use principles of social psychology to understand the ordinary origins of benevolent (e.g., altruism, helping behavior) and malevolent (e.g., aggression, prejudice) aspects of human behavior. Throughout the course, we will emphasize the influence of culture, race, and gender on the topics addressed. Students should have completed Introduction to Psychology or its equivalent. Class size: 22

 

11665

SOC 263  Drugs and Society

Allison McKim

M . W . .

11:50 am -1:10 pm

RKC 115

SSCI

Cross-listed: American Studies; Social Policy; Science, technology, & Society In this course you will both examine the development and consequences of drug policy and consider how social forces shape the culture and organization of drug use. It focuses primarily on illegal drugs in the United States, but also touches on legal drugs and pharmaceuticals. Drawing on the sociology of deviance and social control, this course moves beyond the idea that the social effects of drugs are determined solely by their pharmacology. You will learn to think sociologically about drug use as a historically situated social practice, examine how institutions have developed categories of drugs, and grapple with the social consequences of drug use and policy. We consider the history of the idea of addiction and unpack how medical, legal, and self-help approaches to drug users embed models of human nature and society. The course examines the relationships among drugs, crime, and mass incarceration, and investigates the race, class, and gender politics of both criminalization and medicalization. We pay special attention to the development and consequences of the “war on drugs,” and to how drugs intersect with power and social inequality. Class size: 22

 

11666

SOC 264  Theories of the City

Clement Thery

M . W . .

6:20 pm -7:40 pm

OLIN 201

SSCI

Cross-listed: Africana Studies, Environmental & Urban Studies Cities are complex entities that require varied theoretical lenses for their analysis. Urban theories, however, share one premise: they need to assert that urban life has something specific that cannot be reduced to place-less processes. The class will examine the dominant theories about cities and unearth variations in their core assumptions about the proper character of urban life. The class will study cities as “cultural machines” where the modernization of ways of life happens. By contrast, in a flexible Marxist perspective, the relationship of cities with capitalism, from industrialization to globalization, will be analyzed. The focus will then narrow down on public spaces, where strangers meet, creating opportunities and raising danger. We will also study the city as a political arena where local government and grassroots movements influence each other for the definition of the material environment in which urban dwellers live. The class will end by shifting the analytical gaze away from the North, with the study of three African cities. Class size: 22

 

11668

SOC 321  Can We Study Everything?

 Original Thinking about Difficult Topics

Clement Thery

. . . Th .

1:30 pm -3:50 pm

OLIN 303

SSCI

Cross-listed: Human Rights “Can we study everything?” will look at how social scientists have studied “resistant objects”. By resistant object, is meant an empirical entity that is not easily circumscribed and categorized by the ideas that social scientists commonly use. The class will show how powerful thinkers manage to study and explain puzzling issues such as: extraordinary individual belief (Ginsburg The Cheese and The Worms), the moral life of the extremely poor involved in a constant struggle for survival (DuneierSidewalk), the production of scientific truth (LatourPasteurization of France), unique events (Vaughan, TheChallenger Launch), revered artworks (BaxandallPainting and Experience and Bourdieu Rules of Art) and bad faith (MalcomThe Journalist and the Murder). The goal of the class is to help students learn the skills necessary to read and interpret rich and intricate texts. Class size: 15

 

11663

SOC 332  Seminar on Social Problems

Yuval Elmelech

. T . . .

1:30 pm -3:50 pm

OLINLC 210

SSCI/DIFF

Cross listed: American Studies, Human Rights, Social Policy  We often read alarming stories about segregated and failing schools, the proliferation of poor immigrant children, the weakening of the American family, and numerous other problems in contemporary American society. While these accounts provide a sensational and superficial treatment of various social problems, what do researchers really know about the causes of and solutions for these problems? This course provides a critical survey and analysis of the varied social and structural factors that facilitate and help perpetuate social problems in the U.S. Topics include: schools and education; wealth and poverty; lifestyle preferences; violence and abuse; social mobility; teenage childbearing; racial segregation; immigration and assimilation; gender inequality; work and socioeconomic attainment. The course will also provide framework for developing the skill of academic writing, and the appropriate use of theories, research questions and hypotheses. In particular, this seminar will serve social science majors and other advanced students who are developing their research and writing skills for term papers and senior projects. This course fills the American Studies Junior Seminar requirement. Class size: 15