Spring 2024 course schedule

SOC 10500 - Introductory Sociology (3 credits; This course is required for all Sociology majors and minors.)

Provides a basic framework for sociological investigation and some knowledge of the institutions which constitute the fabric of society. The emphasis will be on concepts, hypotheses and theories which explain social behavior. Although social problems of contemporary relevance are often discussed, the focus of most of the material is on sociological problems and on analytical issues in the study of society. All sections are in person. All sections are Zero Textbook Cost.

SOC 23100 Sociological Statistics (3 credits; Online Synchronous)

Description: An introduction to statistical theory and techniques as utilized by sociologists. This course covers descriptive and inferential statistics. Prereq.: SOC 10500. Credit given for only one of the following courses: SSC 31100, SOC 23100, ECO 20150, PSY 21500. ZERO Textbook Cost

SOC 23200 Methods and Techniques of Sociological Research (4 credits; This class is required for all Sociology majors)

The meaning and relevance of "the Scientific Method" as a canon guiding the logic of research in sociology. Historical perspective and method of social research in the recent past. Survey research, sampling, questionnaire construction analysis, and hypothesis- testing; community study, field observation, unstructured interviewing, participant observation, control of bias. All sections are in person. All sections are Zero Textbook Cost.

Note: This 4-credit course requires additional work outside of class time, such as flipped lectures, readings, and assignments.

SOC 23700 Foundations of Sociological Theory (4 credits; This class is required for all Sociology majors)

The roots of modern sociology in the ideas of nineteenth and early twentieth century theorists, such as Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Simmel, Veblen and Cooley, with emphasis on the intellectual and social context and current relevance of the concepts and propositions they developed. Prerequisite: SOC10500; Suggested Prerequisite: a course in the history of ideas such as Hist 35100, 35200, 35300 or Pol Sci 27400. All sections are in person. The M/W section is Zero Textbook Cost.

Notes: This 4-credit course requires additional work outside of class time, such as flipped lectures, readings, and assignments.

SOC 25400 Social Problems (3 credits; In Person)

The origins and career of "social pathology" as a sensitizing concept. The interrelationship between social issues, and social problems, and public policy. The problem of bias in defining a social problem and in devising a strategy for meliorative intervention. Case studies with contemporary relevance. Role of voluntary agencies, mass media and legislative bodies in identifying social problems. ZERO Textbook Cost

SOC 26200 Political Sociology (3 credits; In Person)

Theories of the polity and political behavior in sociological perspective. Types of government and of political order viewed comparatively and historically, and in relation to economic and social-psychological factors. Legitimation and subversion (counter-legitimation) as social processes. Social movements. Analysis of contemporary issues.

SOC 26600 Family Relationships  (3 credits; In Person)

Sociological explanations of how and why spousal/partner, parent-child, and other family relationships have varied, historically and today, in the United States and around the world. How sociological research can contribute to understanding how families and policies shape life chances of people, as well as informing choices and decisions in family life. ZERO Textbook Cost

SOC 27000 Sociology of Health and Illness (3 credits; In Person)

Description: This course examines health, illness, disability, and medicine from a social perspective. Topics may include: epidemiology, historical transitions in population health, social and cultural analysis of health and disease, medicine as profession and work practice, health policy, and the nature and role of health-related knowledge in professional and popular contexts. ZERO Textbook Cost

SOC 27200 Religion and Religious Groups (3 credits; In Person)

The social bases for the function and impact of religion in contemporary society.

SOC 29000 Immigration (3 credits; In Person)

This course will examine the new immigration to the U.S. in the light of the old, searching for similarities that link this latest wave to the turn-of-the-century experience, and for the differences that make the post-1965 immigration distinctive.

SOC 31157 Self and Society: Anxiety and the Social Self (3 credits; In Person)

How do social performance and social groups provoke, shape, and structure our experience of anxiety? How does anxiety and its management shape our self-understanding as social agents? Has the experience of anxiety changed in relation to changing social conditions? We will explore how anxiety has been defined in clinical terms and contrast contemporary diagnoses with other ways it has been understood historically. We will explore anxiety from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including existentialism, psychoanalysis, and classical social theory. We will also explore contemporary social anxiety in relation to COVID-19, ecological catastrophe, performance on social media, and social class.

SOC 31163/PSY 31163 Child Welfare Systems: State Regulation and The Family (3 credits; In Person)

Description: This course is designed to provide students with a critical understanding of the role of state regulation on the lives of families, with a specific emphasis on child welfare, or family regulation, systems. Students will examine the strengths and weaknesses of social welfare policies impacting families through a lens of intersectionality. The course will provide space to envision alternative frameworks for raising children in safe and nurturing environments. ZERO Textbook Cost

SOC 31166 Illness Narratives and Patient Experiences (3 credits; In Person)

What is illness? How do patients articulate discomfort, pain, and suffering? How do patients turn these at times idiosyncratic complaints into a coherent narrative that resonates with other patients suffering from similar conditions? Who listens to these narratives, and are these experiences taken seriously? This course examines the process of healing, living with chronic illness, and dying through stories and voices from patients. While the individual experiences of patients matter, this course also examines how broader social structures come to shape accounts of health and illness. ZERO Textbook Cost

SOC 31181 Social Change and Social Movement (3 credits; In Person)

How do social movements form and fuel social change? Theories about resources, framing, emotions, political opportunities, arenas, and collective action examine why people join social movements, how they organize, why social movements persist or decline, and what changes social movements can introduce. Social movements in the U.S. and worldwide, such as civil rights, women rights, LGBQ rights, immigrant rights, environmental movements, movements against racism, among others, will be examined.

SOC 31800 Mass Culture and Communication (3 credits; In Person)

The character of mass society in comparison with earlier forms. "High" culture and "pop" culture and the mass media of communications. Social effects of the mass media and the problem of public control.

SOC 31996 Capitalism (3 credits; In Person)

This course will explore the origins and development of capitalism as a social system composed of vertical and horizontal class relationships, with an emphasis on the interrelationship between white supremacy and working-class organization. Readings will include seminal contributions from sociology, political science, labor history, and economics, e.g. Karl Marx, W.E.B. Du Bois, Francis Fox Piven, and Robert Brenner.

SOC 32003 Violence in Societies: Sociological Perspectives (3 credits; In Person)

This course examines the role of violence in societies by critically examining theory, research, public policy, and social justice activism, with the aims of explicating the social causes of, and effective responses to, violence. Interpersonal violence, institutional violence, and structural violence will be studied from sociological perspectives. ZERO Textbook Cost

SOC 32605 Trauma & Resiliency in Society (3 credits; In Person)

This course offers a sociological investigation of trauma and resiliency within an individual's identity, an individual's neurobiology, and at the collective socio-cultural level. Class discussions will include topics related to the support and psychiatric care of survivors of interpersonal violence, community-level violence, and sociopolitical violence. Specific attention will be paid to Black, Indigenous, and Communities of Color, with the aims of reducing the impact of trauma on individuals and society. ZERO Textbook Cost

SOC 34100 Disability Studies (3 credits; In Person)

Surveys this transformative interdisciplinary field, informed by critical approaches to race, gender and sexuality, which offers an approach to disability as a social, political, and cultural category and a personal identity and lived experience. Readings include current and historical material, theoretical and empirical, from the social sciences, humanities, and arts. ZERO Textbook Cost

SOC 34200/INTL 31123-L Globalization (3 credits; In Person)

Examines the structures, processes and interactions that make up contemporary globalization in the economy, politics, culture, media, social movements, civil society, migration, and the environment. It considers debates about the historical emergence of globalization and its causes and consequences in everyday life and emphasizes the importance of understanding race, class, gender and other categories of oppression and how they are deployed through power relations in the global order.

SOC 37700 Undocumented: Belonging and Immigrant Experience in the United States (3 credits; In Person)

Explores the lives of undocumented immigrants, students in particular. Considers how the "illegal immigrant" was defined as a problem and varied solutions pursued by governments, civil society, helping professions, advocates, and artists. Then focuses on the lives of undocumented students and how they navigate education, employment, and public spaces.

SOC 38103/INTL31113 Race and Ethnicity in International Perspective (3 credits; In Person)

Race and ethnicity are key dimensions of stratification in society. This course examines competing theories and definitions of race and ethnicity. Using case studies, it looks at the social construction of race and ethnicity in different societies around the world during different eras. This is an upper-level elective that is reading and writing intensive.

SOC 38107 Justice, Law, and Society (3 credits; In Person)

This course looks at theories about law, the practical application of law in the justice system, and peoples' own perceptions of the law. It explores how those aspects of law often differ from one another and considers the implications of those gaps in understanding. Typically one term paper of 12-15 pages. Two essay exams and one oral classroom presentation.

SOC 38209 Sociology of Sexualities (3 credits; In Person)

Drawing upon sociological, feminist, queer, and disability theories, this course examines the conceptualization, reproduction, and stratification of sexualities in different historical and cultural contexts; We explore how interactions among ideological, racial, religious interests have created normative systems of sexual classification that justify not only disciplinary systems of punishments and rewards, but also unequally distributed power among those who conform, innovate, or deviate from norms. ZERO Textbook Cost