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Sociology Course Descriptions 201 Sociology of International Development
What is development? Who is the developed
person? Participants study the creation of
postcolonial nations and the emergence of
academic study and institutional governance in
the field of international development. Rather
than assume that development and globalization
are inevitable, students examine the social
formation of development and explore what
historical ideologies, inequalities, processes and
relations produce contemporary experiences of the
development and globalization. Students consider
policy-makers’ vision of development projects and
explore their assumptions, promises, outcomes and
expertise, as well as people’s everyday experiences
of the violence of development. This course is
aimed at “de-centering” the presumption that
development and progress are benevolent
European ideals that define the making of the
modern world. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Mohan,
offered occasionally)
212 Data Analysis This course provides an introduction to the organization and analysis of data in the process of social research. Presentation of data in tabular and graphic forms, the use of elementary descriptive and inferential statistics, and the use of bivariate and multivariate analytic procedures in the analysis of data are examined. This course includes a laboratory experience in the use of computing software to display data and test hypotheses. The course is ultimately intended to prepare students for original research efforts and to help them become more sophisticated consumers of the literature of the social sciences today. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Perkins, offered annually) 220 Social Psychology In this seminar course, major theoretical perspectives and classic empirical studies in social psychology are introduced. The emphasis is on exposure to a variety of viewpoints in the literature. Theoretical orientations, such as learning theory, exchange theory, role theory, symbolic interaction, attribution theory, and cognitive balance models are surveyed during the term. Furthermore, studies in substantive areas, such as social norms and behavioral conformity, attitude change, interpersonal attraction, group dynamics, conflict and cooperation, and leadership are examined in light of these major perspectives. The course gives attention to the congruencies and disparities among psychological and sociological perspectives within the interdisciplinary field of social psychology. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Perkins, offered alternate years) 221 Race and Ethnic Relations In this course, students analyze minority group relations including inter-group and intra-group dynamics, sources of prejudice and discrimination, social processes of conflict, segregation, assimilation, and accommodation. Minority-majority relations are viewed as a source of conflict and change, and the problems of a multi-group society are analyzed. Emphasis is placed on racial, ethnic and sexual minorities, and cases center on relations in the United States. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Staff, offered occasionally) 222 Social Change and the Individual We live different lives than our parents and grandparents lived, as do contemporary Turkish women, Andean peasants, Chinese entrepreneurs, and African farmers. What drives change in the ways individuals live their lives, work, believe, behave—technology, political or economic transformations, religious beliefs, wars and famine, natural forces, “globalization”? This course takes a macro-sociological approach to the study of significant changes in human societies from the perspective of the individual’s life experience. Major theories of social change are reviewed in the context of the emergence of capitalism and post-industrial social, political, and economic systems. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Bennett, Moodie, offered alternate years) 223 Inequalities This course is designed to examine various theories of social stratification including Marxist theory, Weber’s threedimensional approach, and the functional viewpoint. After a review of varied forms of stratification in human societies, the discussion centers on the issues of inequality in American society and the collective effort to resolve the conflict between value, ideal, and social practice. Readings include a number of recently published paperbacks. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Staff, offered occasionally) 224 Social Deviance This course explores the social etiology of deviant behavior, the functions of deviance, and societal reactions to deviance. An interdisciplinary approach is taken to the internalization of norms, guilt, shame, punishment, and conformity as they relate to deviance. Various theoretical approaches are examined. Social deviance is considered as a regular aspect of societies, and this course is directed toward a normative theory of culture, addressed to the problems of order, conflict, and change. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Harris, offered alternate years) 225 Sociology of Family What is “the family?” Are two-parent, single-parent, or extended families more common historically and crossculturally? What social forces contribute to the rise in divorce? How have cultural norms concerning motherhood and fatherhood changed over time? The family is analyzed as a social institution embedded in particular historical contexts and which reflects broad economic change, cultural shifts, and political movements, including industrialization, de-industrialization, and feminism. Particular attention is paid to ways in which various axes of social inequality (gender, class, race, and sexuality) shape how family life is experienced at the individual level, and how various family forms are evaluated, penalized, and/or supported at the societal level. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Bennett, Monson, offered annually) 226 Sociology of Sex and Gender What is the connection between biological sex and our identities as men and women? How is the variation over time and across cultures in gendered behavior explained? What are the sources and consequences of differences between women and men? How are these differences linked to inequalities of race and class as well as gender? This course provides an introduction to sociological perspectives on gender relations as a social structure. Several theoretical frameworks for understanding the sources and persistence of gender differences and inequality are considered, including liberal feminism, radical feminism, multicultural feminism, and men’s feminism. Students examine a range of social institutions and ideological constructs shaping the social structure of gender, such as family, employment, sexuality, reproduction, and beauty. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Monson, offered annually) 228 Social Conflict This course starts with the assumption that movements for social change arise through social conflicts and give rise to further conflicts. However, not all conflicts lead to collective action. The course examines the complexity of overlapping race and gender identities and conflicts in two countries—the United States and South Africa—in an effort to specify both the historical conditions under which conflict leads to effective collective action and those conditions under which it fails to do so. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Moodie, offered alternate years) 230 The Sociology of Everyday Life Through talking to one another and doing things together, both at work and at play, we unthinkingly weave the fabric of our social worlds. At a deeper level, however, common norms and everyday practices may conceal more or less hidden struggles around race, class, gender, or other differences in power and identity. This course examines everyday life in typical American settings such as schools, families, workplaces, and public spaces in order to understand the social forces that constitute both normal life and struggles against conventional norms. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Moodie, offered annually) 233 Women and Political Mobilization in the Third World The primary aim of this course is to understand the role of class, gender, race, and ethnicity in shaping women’s political mobilizations in selected Third World countries and women of color in the U.S. Students study how, when, and why women in Third World countries have organized around certain issues (e.g., national liberation vs. violence against women) and the forms of their political mobilizations, such as revolutions, cooperatives, etc. The secondary aim of the course is to analyze the continuities and discontinuities in women’s mobilizations and feminism in the Third World and the First World. Prerequisites: SOC 100, as well as an introductory sociology or women’s studies course or permission of instructor. (Mohan, offered occasionally) 240 Gender and Development What is the relationship between how we think about “gender” and how we think about “development,” “tradition,” and “modernity”? Many years of feminist intervention in social processes have provided important insights into this question. We now know that patriarchy is not limited to underdeveloped areas of the world. Women are not the only ones who are affected by it, nor is its effects limited to the home. Patriarchy is not a static tradition but an evolving concept and reality. This course pushes students to see the dialectical relationship between visions of progress and the future and the making of gender relations. Students study how gender relations were formed as a product of the powerful 20th century ideas, policies, and practices of development. They juxtapose women’s place in the development project in relation to (academic, activist, and daily) feminist interventions and their distinctive understandings of social transformation, progress, and justice. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Mohan, Spring, offered alternate years) 242 The Sociology of Business and Management This course provides an “applied” sociological analysis of the major trends shaping business in the United States and worldwide. Students explore the nature of business organization and management, at the micro level in its institutional forms and the business and management environment, at the macro level as it operates within economic and cultural systems, and within global contexts. The issues of demographic effects, ethical concerns, technological innovation, the role of producers and consumers, and the changing role of government are considered. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Harris, offered alternate years) 244 Religion in American Society This course focuses upon religion in American society from the post World War II era to the present, using sociological theory and empirical research to form the basic analytical perspective. A survey of the major religious traditions is provided along with an introduction to contemporary cults, sects, and new religious movements. Topics such as civil religion, processes of secularization and revival, social and demographic influences on belief and practice, organizational structures, church and state relations, and political activism of religious groups are examined. Discussion concerning the theological, ethical, and political implications of sociological claims about religion is also encouraged. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Perkins, offered alternate years) 245 Sociology of Work The study of capitalist and pre-capitalist forms of human labor, and the changes in social organization that accompany changes in the mode of production are covered in this class. Students consider non-wage as well as wage labor in contemporary industrial America. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Mason, Moodie, offered occasionally) 249 Technology and Society This course is designed to explore the impact that technologies have on human beings and their societies. It examines the history of technological development, and particularly the industrial revolution and the current cybernetic revolution. A broad range of topics are covered, including such issues as family relations, work patterns, energy and the environment, domestic and international social stratification, and social organization. The course also concentrates on the empirical effects that such inventions as moveable type, compasses, steam engines, automobiles, washers and dryers, telephones, radio, television, rockets, transformers, and computers (to name several) have had on human beings. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Mason, offered alternate years) 251 Sociology of the City More than 80 percent of Americans and 50 percent of the world’s peoples now live in urban areas. Such figures show that the city has become one of the most important and powerful social phenomena of modern times. As a result, it is imperative that we understand the city’s influence on our lives. This course provides a basic introduction to urban life and culture by examining the development of the city in Western history. Classic and modern theories are examined in an attempt to grasp what the city is and what it could be. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Spates, offered alternate years) 253 World Cities Everywhere, in numbers unheard of before, people are flocking to the world’s cities, in many cases, regardless of the fact that when they arrive there, they find living conditions awful or even worse. Why? What do people want from cities? This course attempts to provide an answer to these questions, first, by considering some of the most important theoretical material on the nature of cities and, second, by analyzing extensive interview data collected in four world cities: San Francisco (USA), Toronto (Canada), Cairo (Egypt), and Kandy (Sri Lanka). The objective, in the end, is to develop a viable general theory of the city, its reason for being, its purpose in human affairs. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Spates, offered alternate years) 256 Power and Powerlessness This course develops an analysis of power and subordination within civil society: whether or not such power is institutionalized in state structures, whether it confirms state institutions or contradicts them. The distribution of power in society tends to be taken for granted by political scientists, politicians, and state officials, even activists. This course is to develop a theory of power in civil society and to understand how it relates to state rule. Of particular interest are the imperatives of government and what happens to social movements when they achieve state power. Examples are drawn from fragile new democracies in Eastern Europe, Latin America, and South Africa, as well as the United States. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Moodie, offered alternate years) 258 Social Problems The focus of this course is the examination of fundamental social problems confronting contemporary American society. How social problems have emerged or have been perpetuated in recent years, and how social problems are defined and perceived by particular social groups are important issues for this course, as is the analysis of possible solutions to these problems. Poverty, racism, care of the aged, alcohol and substance abuse, the AIDS epidemic, pornography, juvenile delinquency, prostitution, family violence, abortion, children’s rights, church and state conflicts, gun control, and capital punishment are some examples of topics for this course. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Mason, offered annually) 259 New Social Futures Why do people imagine
new futures and try to change society? How do we
know change when we see it? What counts as
change? Is change necessarily violent? Can status
quo be violent? How do people come together to
bring change? How do we understand the
relationship between being a good citizen and
fighting for new social futures? These are the key
questions student explore through an examination
of concepts such as development, globalization,
value, profit, war, peace and liberation. Students
examine autobiography and history, documentary
films and sociological analysis, of people and
groups that have imagined new social futures and
risked life and money to realize their vision for a
better world. Prerequisite: SOC 100.(Mohan, offered alternate years) 260 Sociology of Human Nature Does human nature exist? Given the incredible variation in human societies around the world, are there any characteristics that can be said to be universal attributes of our species? If so, what are these characteristics and how do they “determine” our social existence? Over the centuries, claims have been made for various traits being built in parts of human nature, among them aggression, territoriality, sociability, and nurturance. In this course, selected materials from biology, physical anthropology, psychology, sociobiology, and sociology are considered in an attempt to answer the above questions and provide evidence for or against a general theory of human nature. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Spates, offered every three years) 261 Sociology of Education This course is an examination of the interplay between the formal ideal and informal personal aspects of education and other social processes. Topics of discussion include the potential of critical experience as contrasted to institutional certification; the assessment of personal career choices; educational experience as a life long aspect of the legitimation and stratification processes; friendships and voluntary association as resources for the resolution of stress; and education as a selective recruitment and promotion process involved with evolving social trends. Participants are expected to work from a critical, introspective sociological perspective. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Mason, offered annually) 271 Sociology of Environmental Issues This course examines the development and future implications of environmental issues from a sociological perspective. Topics of discussion include: technological fix and social value definitions of environmental issues; how occupational and residence patterns are involved with the perception of and response to environmental issues; urban policies as aspects of environmental issues (e.g., zoning, public transport, etc.); stress involved with current life styles and occupations; and the personal, group, and social responses to resolve environmental problems. Topics of interest to students are discussed as they develop during the course. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Mason, offered annually) 279 South African Apartheid: Before and After This course is designed to introduce students to the policy of apartheid, its origins and its effects on contemporary South African society. Apartheid sought to impose rigid racial and geographical segregation in South Africa while claiming that its aim was to protect cultural differences. The course examines apartheid’s origins, its social and economic organization and its ideological justification. In light of this analysis, the course considers the prospects for on-going democracy in 21st century South Africa. (Moodie, offered occasionally) 290 Sociology of Community This course first examines the use of the concept of community as it has been applied to kinship groups, neighborhoods, and rural and urban settlements. It seeks to sharpen analytic and conceptual abilities and then focuses investigation on historical and contemporary utopian and intentional communities. Students take several field trips, meet with guest lecturers, and participate in a group project toward creating community. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Harris, offered annually) 291 Society in India In this course students explore
the present complexity of Indian society: class, caste,
and gender relations in the particular form they take
in India. They do this through the study of the
ideology and practice of key social relations and
imaginaries that characterize India: such as
development, nationalism, caste, patriarchy, and
communalism. Paying preliminary attention to precolonial
and colonial India, students focus primarily
on postcolonial India to understand the social
formation of its public and political culture. The task
in this course is to understand multiple histories and
representations of what it means to be an Indian
citizen in the present. No prerequisites. (Mohan,
offered alternate years)
299 The Sociology of Vietnam: Conflict, Colonialism, and Catharsis This course explores the social world of Vietnam. Students study Vietnamese history, culture, and social relations. Through this study of their institutions (religion, economy, politics), arts, and artifacts, students find themselves immersed in the life of Vietnam, and are likely to achieve a fuller appreciation of the modes and meanings of what it means to be Vietnamese, as well as what it means to be American. The course examines the many forces that impinge on Vietnamese social life, and explores how the Vietnamese are seeking to reconcile and resolve the contradictions of socialist and capitalist theory and practice, as they seek to improve the lives of their people and position themselves as a significant Southeast Asian political and economic force. Prerequisites: SOC 100 or an introductory course in anthropology, political science, history, Asian studies, or religious studies. (Harris, offered alternate years) 300 Classical Sociological Theory The founders of sociology were deeply concerned about problems that continue to be of vital importance for contemporary sociological inquiry. Questions such as the nature of society and its relationship to individuals, the relation between sociological theory and social practice, whether sociology is a science and, if not, what it is, and so on, are all absolutely central to the sociological enterprise, and yet often become lost. This course returns to the classics in an effort to uncover the questions sociologists need constantly to ask themselves if they wish to reflect cogently upon their role in the contemporary world. Required of all sociology majors. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Harris, Moodie, Spates, offered annually) 301 Modern Sociological Theory This course examines the nature of theory and the problems of theory construction. The course surveys current theories representative of major intellectual orientations. These varieties of contemporary sociological theory are analyzed and the problems encountered within each explored. Theoretical orientations examined include social behaviorism, structural functionalism, conflict theory, symbolic interactionism, and the psychoanalytic. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Mason, offered alternate years) 310 Generations This course explores issues of grandparent/parent/child relations, youth and aging, and the value patterns of different generations in contemporary American society. These issues are examined both in terms of developmental stages of the life course and the distinct experiences of historical age cohorts. A major focus of the course is on relationships among succeeding generations and, in particular, on what continuities and discontinuities exist between age groups. In this context the political and moral orientations and parental philosophies of various generations are explored. The course is conducted as an advanced level seminar. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Perkins, offered occasionally) 325 Moral Sociology and Good Society Is it possible for sociology, as a science, to offer evaluative statements about social life, to say that some ways of organizing society are beneficial to human life and that other ways are harmful? Or must sociology, as Max Weber suggested, forever restrict itself to descriptions of society, leaving all judgment to one’s role as a “private citizen?” Using sociological analysis of the dilemmas currently being faced by American society as the starting point, this course explores these questions in detail and, in so doing, considers the possibility for developing a scientifically grounded theory of “the good society.” Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Spates, offered alternate years) 331 Sociology of Art and Culture Most people
have had some interaction with cultural artifacts (a
painting or a CD), or engaged in cultural practices
(singing, writing a poem, or playing a musical
instrument). This course uses the seminar format and student-led discussions to explore the production
and reception of these cultural artifacts and cultural
practices of “high” culture and “popular” culture as a
way of asking the central question of what counts as
art or culture. Students combine analysis of cultural
practices—films, music, art—with the study of the
production and reception of meaning in the social
world (cultural sociology). Prerequisite: SOC 100.
(Mohan, offered alternate years)
340 Sex and the State: Feminist Social Theory This course examines American and European feminist modes of theorizing about sexual difference and gender relations. It analyzes the existential and philosophical assumptions underlying feminist thought, the significance of the female experience, and the specificity of the feminist standpoint. It evaluates the adequacy of feminist theories to explain such phenomena as the constitution of the female subject, power, the reproduction of gender inequality, and difference between women of various cultural and racial groups. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Monson, Mohan, offered alternate years) 370 Theories of Religion: Religion, Power, and Social Transformation In both Max Weber and Michel Foucault’s conceptions of modernity, power tends to be entrenched through reasoned discourse in which the self is formed through subtle and pervasive disciplines to which even resistance is obliged to conform. Religion thus becomes increasingly irrelevant in the modern world. This course considers an alternative model of power which leaves much greater room for consideration of religious (and other) beliefs and solidarities—the theory of Antonio Gramsci. It examines the social significance of religion in four different countries and regions in the contemporary world where the power of specifically Christian belief and organization has manifested itself with forceful effect, namely, Poland, Latin America, South Africa, and the American civil rights movement. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Moodie, offered alternate years) 375 Social Policy This course focuses on U.S. income support policies designed to address poverty due to old age, unemployment, and single parenthood, using case studies of other Western welfare states for comparative purposes. The course traces the historical development and restructuring of the U.S. welfare state, from the “poor laws” in the colonial era, through the New Deal of the 1930s, the War on Poverty in the 1960s and 1970s, and the “end of welfare as we know it” at the turn of the 21st century. Central questions considered include how families, labor markets, and states intersect, and whether welfare states’ policies ameliorate or reinforce inequalities of gender, race, and class. Prerequisite: SOC 100. (Monson, offered alternate years) 450 Independent Study Permission of the instructor required. (Offered annually) 465 Senior Seminar 495 Honors Permission of instructor required. (Offered annually) 499 Internship in Sociology A minimum of 150 hours of work or practice under the supervision of a sociology faculty adviser. Students are expected to keep a reflective journal and to produce a paper that relates their experience to more general issues in sociology. The length and scope of the paper shall be determined in consultation with the internship faculty adviser. Internship adviser permission is required to take this course, and prior departmental approval is required for any students who wish to repeat SOC 499. Permission of instructor. Sociology Courses Taught Occasionally Note: A number of regularly offered bidisciplinary
courses and interdisciplinary program courses carry
credit for the sociology major. Examples include BIDS
229 Two Cities: New York and Toronto, BIDS
245 Men and Masculinity, BIDS 295 Alcohol Use
and Abuse, BIDS 365 Dramatic Worlds of South
Asia, ASN 102 Ottoman World, and ASN 213
Tibet Incarnate: Contemporary Tibet. Students are
encouraged to see the Bidisciplinary and Program
offerings and to check with department faculty about
such offerings. |
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