16441

SOC 101

 Introduction to Sociology

Peter Klein

 T Th    3:10 pm-4:30 pm

OLIN 203

SSCI

DIFF

Cross-listed: American Studies; Environmental & Urban Studies  Sociology is the systematic study of social life, social groups, and social relations. The discipline views the individual in context of the larger society, and sheds light on how social structures constrain and enable our choices and actions. Sociologists study topics as varied as race, gender, class, religion, the birth of capitalism, democracy, education, crime and prisons, the environment, and inequality. At its most basic, the course will teach students how to read social science texts and evaluate their arguments. Conceptually, students will learn basic sociological themes and become familiar with how sociologists ask and answer questions. Most importantly, students will come away from the course with a new understanding of how to think sociologically about the world around them, their position in society, and how their actions both affect and are affected by the social structures in which we all live.  Class size: 22

 

16440

SOC 120

 Inequality in America

Yuval Elmelech

 T Th    1:30 pm-2:50 pm

OLIN 201

SSCI

DIFF

Cross-listed: American Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Human Rights  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 class discussions, this course examines the ways by which socially-defined class, gender, race and ethnic categories 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., social status, wealth, power). The second examines the processes that determine the allocation of people to positions in the stratification system (e.g. educational attainment, social capital, parental wealth, institutional discrimination).  Class size: 22

 

16443

SOC 135

 Sociology of Gender

Allison McKim

M W     3:10 pm-4:30 pm

OLIN 202

SSCI

DIFF

Cross-listed: American Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies The primary goal of this course is to develop a sociological perspective on gender. We 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 to 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 to become familiar 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

 

16439

SOC 205

 Intro to Research Methods

Yuval Elmelech

 T Th    4:40 pm-6:00 pm

HDR 101A

MATC

Cross-listed: American Studies; Environmental & Urban Studies; Global & International Studies; Human Rights  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 data from the U.S. General Social Survey (GSS) to study public attitudes toward issues such as  abortion, immigration, inequality and welfare, affirmative action, gender roles, religion, the media, and gun laws.  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.  Admission by permission of the instructor.  Class size: 17

 

16447

SOC 213

 Sociological Theory

Laura Ford

M W     3:10 pm-4:30 pm

HEG 308

SSCI

Cross-listed: Human Rights This class introduces students to classical and contemporary sociological theories. It considers foundational theories that emerged from the social upheavals of modernization in the 19th Century, including those of Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Simmel, and DuBois. The course thus introduces many enduring themes of sociology: alienation and anomie; social structure and disorganization; group conflict and solidarity; secularization and individualism; bureaucracy and institutions, the division of labor, capitalism, and the nature of authority. We then follow these conversations into the contemporary era, examining traditions such as functionalism, conflict theory, rational choice, symbolic interactionism, feminist theory, and critical theory, including thinkers such as G.H. Mead, Robert Merton, Pierre Bourdieu, Jürgen Habermas, and Michel Foucault. Students will learn the key concepts of major theoretical approaches in sociology, and will consider questions such as the relationship between theory and research, and the relationship of social conditions to the production of knowledge. Class size: 22

 

16444

SOC 224

 Punishment, Prisons and Policing

Allison McKim

M W     11:50 am-1:10 pm

OLIN 102

SSCI

Cross-listed: American Studies; Human Rights  This course introduces students to the sociology of punishment and crime control. The amount and type of punishment found in society is not a simple, direct result of crime patterns. Rather, to understand how and why we punish, we must examine the ways that historical processes, social structures, institutions, and culture shape penal practices as well as how systems of punishment shape society. This course draws on sociological and historical research to explore the social functions of punishment, its cultural foundations and meanings, what drives changes in how we punish, the relationship between penal practices and state power, and the role of crime control in reproducing race, gender, and class inequality. The class also delves deeply into the theoretical and empirical debates about the punitive turn in American criminal justice over the last 4 decades. We consider the causes and consequences of mass incarceration, the racial disparities in the system, the drug war, changes in policing, the politicization of crime, and the role of criminal justice in the welfare state. Class size: 22

 

16376

SOC 231

 FROM FOOD TO FRACKING: The Environment & Society

Peter Klein

 T Th    11:50 am-1:10 pm

HEG 204

SSCI

Cross-listed: Environmental & Urban Studies; Human Rights; Science, Technology, Society  The world’s environmental problems and their solutions are not merely technical. These are profoundly social issues as well. This course uses examples such as food systems, fracking, health disparities, and natural disasters to critically assess the relationship between society and the environment at local and global scales. In doing so, we cover four topics that are central to environmental sociology. First, the course explores how people collectively understand and frame environmental issues. Second, we examine how social structures, political and economic institutions, and individual human actions shape and disrupt the natural environment. Third, we analyze the social consequences of a changing natural world, focusing on the unequal distribution of the benefits and burdens of environmental change. Finally, students will critically examine the ways that scholars, policymakers, and citizens are responding to the many contemporary environmental challenges. Class size: 22

 

16448

SOC 238

 Law and (Social) Order

Laura Ford

M W     1:30 pm-2:50 pm

OLIN 201

SSCI

Cross-listed: American Studies; Human Rights; Science, Technology, Society  This class introduces students to the foundational roles that law has played, and continues to play, in our political communities, our social institutions, and our everyday lives.  We will begin by considering the historical development of Western legal systems, and the ways those legal systems contributed to the political communities of Western Europe.  This will help us to see how classical sociological thinkers – especially Marx, Weber, and Durkheim – drew on legal concepts and traditions in formulating their theories of social order (and disorder).  Shifting from a historical perspective to a more holistic and contemporary perspective, we will study the myriad ways in which law is impacting, and is impacted by, the social forces of the modern world.  We will focus especially on the role that law plays in making modern, industrialized capitalism possible.  Additional topics covered in the course will include: intellectual property and technology, law in a globalized world, and law as a profession.  Class size: 22

 

16377

SOC 323

 American Race & Ethnicity

Joel Perlmann

 W        4:40 pm-7:00 pm

OLIN 201

SSCI

DIFF

Cross-listed: Africana Studies; American Studies; Human Rights; LAIS  The topic for this term is social class diversity and its implications within the African-American and Mexican-American groups.    Taken together, these two groups today comprise between a fifth and a quarter of all Americans.     Although they have had very different histories, it is common to think that both groups are especially concentrated in the bottom rungs of socio-economic wellbeing.    And we will consider what life at the bottom rungs means in each group. But we will spend more than half the course exploring the experiences of those in each group who live above the lowest socio-economic rungs. How large a fraction are these more fortunate families in each group?   How secure are they in their distance from poverty? What can we say about where they live, how they work, their education, lifestyles?   Of special interest will be the prevalence (high or low) of inter-racial and inter-ethnic families; this can be a telling indicator of how separate a group is from the rest of society.  Throughout, we will try to keep in mind three kinds of comparisons: African-American to Mexican American, higher to lower class within each group, and comparisons of each group to the Euro-American (‘white’) Americans.    Students’ major writing assignment will be write a term paper.  Class size: 15

 

16442

SOC 352

 Gender and Deviance

Allison McKim

 Th       1:30 pm-3:50 pm

OLINLC 208\

SSCI

DIFF

Cross-listed: Gender and Sexuality Studies; Human Rights This seminar uses gender as a lens to approach the sociological field of “deviance and social control.”  It will develop your understanding of different theoretical approaches to deviance and to gender.  The course considers the relationship between gender and definitions of what is normal, sick, and criminal and investigates how norms about masculinity and femininity can produce specifically gendered types of deviance.  We will learn about the role of gender in why and how people break rules, looking at both criminal and non-criminal deviance.  We will then explore how social institutions construct and enact forms of regulation, punishment, or treatment.  The course asks how responses to rule-breaking relate to the social organization of gender and sexuality.  To help answer these questions, the course will continually ask how these processes intersect with race and class inequality.  The course looks at both formal and informal responses to deviance, and considers their role in gender, class, and race inequality more broadly.  The last half of the course examines major areas of gendered deviance, such as sex work, sexual violence, and the medicalization of deviance.  Throughout, the course considers the ways that gendered social control both limits and creates possibilities for action and how individuals use gender to make rule-breaking meaningful.  Class size: 12