Sociology

Identification of the distinctive elements of sociological perspectives on society. Readings confront classical and contemporary approaches with key social issues that include power and authority, culture and communication, poverty and discrimination, social change, and popular uses of sociological concepts.

This course for undergraduate students provides a sociological perspective on mass incarceration and examines alternative politics and policies for reform. Through seminar discussions and presentations, students will engage with key lines of scholarship examining the emergence and consequences of historically large prison populations in the United States and review current policy debates. Key themes of the course will include the close connection between mass incarceration and racial inequality, contemporary criminal justice policy, and alternative visions of justice.

Building on a collaboration between a researcher in the field of criminal justice policy (Western) and a leading advocate for reform (Nixon), this course will offer a systematic review of research while also employing strong images and language that convey the moral urgency of America’s incarceration crisis. Enlisting theoretical and empirical analysis paints a clear and convincing picture that mass incarceration is not just a solution to a criminal justice problem, but is a sociological problem itself. Seminar discussions each week will introduce students to key lines of research, present current community justice initiatives, and explore strategies that could significantly reduce incarceration.

Prerequisites: SOCI UN3000 Discussion section for Social Theory (SOCI UN3000).

Prerequisites: SOCI UN3000 Discussion section for Social Theory (SOCI UN3000).

Prerequisites: SOCI UN1000 Section Discussion for SOCI UN3010, METHODS FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH

Prerequisites: SOCI UN1000 Section Discussion for SOCI UN3010, METHODS FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH

Power, Politics, and Society introduces students to the field of political sociology, a subfield within sociology that is deeply engaged in the study of power in formal and diffuse forms. Using sociological theories and current events from the US and around the world, this course is designed to help students analyze their social worlds, and understand the significance of the old adage, “everything is political.” 

Emphasizes foundations and development of black communities post-1940, and mechanisms in society that create and maintain racial inequality. Explores notions of identity and culture through lenses of gender, class and sexual orientation, and ideologies that form the foundation of black politics. Primarily lecture with some discussion.

Examines the social construction of race and ethnicity in the United States from colonial period to present. Analyzes how capitalist interests, class differences, gender, immigration, and who “deserves” the full rights and privileges of citizenship, shape boundaries between and within racial and ethnic groups. Also considers how racism affects resource access inequities between racial groups in education, criminal justice, media, and other domains. Explores factors underpinning major social change with an eye toward discerning social conditions necessary to create and sustain just social systems.

Prerequisites: One introductory course in Sociology suggested. Social movements and the theories social scientists use to explain them, with emphasis on contemporary American activism. Cases include the Southern civil rights movement, Black Lives Matter, contemporary feminist mobilizations, LGBTQ activism, immigrant rights and more recent forms of grassroots politics. 

Prerequisites: One introductory course in Sociology suggested. Social movements and the theories social scientists use to explain them, with emphasis on contemporary American activism. Cases include the Southern civil rights movement, Black Lives Matter, contemporary feminist mobilizations, LGBTQ activism, immigrant rights and more recent forms of grassroots politics. 

This 4-credit class will explore how ethno-racial boundaries exist within and help to produce capitalist markets. We will focus on the intertwined histories of race, ethnicity, and capitalism in the United States, and how ethno-racial boundaries manifest in contemporary markets. We will begin with various theoretical texts that seek to understand what is “race”, “ethnicity”, and “capitalism.” Subsequently, we will trace the historical co-emergence of race, ethnicity, and capitalism through processes of exploitation and institutionalization. Next, we will examine how ethno-racial boundaries continue to shape the outcomes of individuals in contemporary markets, for better or for worse. Finally, we will end with an examination of how ethno-racial boundaries serve to shape markets themselves, through case studies of unions and diversity management. The goal is to understand and make sense of how race and ethnicity and capitalism have evolved in history and how it is experienced today. No prerequisites are required; however, previous sociology coursework is strongly recommended.

How Organizations Fail - the fundamental principles of organizations, examining how and why organizations fail, producing harmful outcomes. Studying failures opens up parts of organizations for public view that are seldom seen; studying the dark side is especially revealing. Students will examine cases to identify the causes of failures and think about what kind of strategies can be developed that prevent failure.

Surveillance has become a ubiquitous term that either conjures images of George Orwell’s 1984, the popular series Black Mirror, or is dismissed as an inconvenience and a concern of only those who engage in criminal activity or have something to hide. Using sociological theories of power, biopower, racialization, and identity formation, Surveillance explores the various ways we are monitored by state authorities and corporations and our role in perpetuating the system (un)wittingly.

One of the glaring forms of inequalities that persists today is the race-based gap in access to health care, quality of care, and health outcomes. This course examines how institutionalized racism and the structure of health care contributes to the neglect and sometimes abuse of racial and ethnic minorities. Quite literally, how does race affect one’s life chances? This course covers a wide range of topics related to race and health, including: racial inequalities in health outcomes, biases in medical institutions, immigration status and health, racial profiling in medicine, and race in the genomic era.

Uses theories of race, ethnicity, and nation to ask questions about boundaries, categories, and distinctions about the American food system. Addresses the following questions: How are race, ethnicity, and national identity shaped by patterns of migration? How do processes like multiculturalism, panethnicity, and blending change the meanings and salience of these terms? How do symbols and systems of authenticity shape meaning-making around ethnoracial and national inequality? What does food have to do with race/ethnicity/nation? How are cultural products, like cuisine, markers of broader systems of inequality? How do these systems of inequality affect access to food, what we eat, the workplace, and racialized bodies? How does food serve as a marker of distinction in terms of race, ethnicity, nation, class, and gender?

This course encourages students to read broadly in literatures of race, ethnicity, nation, migration and engage theories and ideas in conversation and debate across literatures to develop analytical strategies for understanding the complex landscape of ethnoracial and national inequality in the United States. By focusing analysis on cultural themes and specifically the case of American food culture, students are encouraged to question the utility and applicability of the abstract theories we encounter as well as the contributions and complications of each theory in relation to the others we discuss through a common language of cultural products, most specifically, the accessible discourse of food in American life.

Sociology came to the study of human rights much later than law, philosophy, or political science. In this course, you’ll learn (1) what constitutes a sociology of human rights and (2) what sociology, its classics, and its diverse methods bring to the empirical study and theory of human rights. We’ll explore the history, social institutions and laws, ideas, practices, and theories of human rights. We’ll become familiar with the social actors, social structures, and relationships involved in practices such as violation, claims-making, advocacy, and protection. We’ll consider how social, cultural, political, and economic forces affect human rights issues. We’ll learn about the questions sociologists ask, starting with the most basic (but far from simple) question, “what is a human right?” We’ll tackle key debates in the field, considering – for instance – whether human rights are universal and how human rights relate to cultural norms/values, national sovereignty, and national security. Finally, we’ll apply the concepts we’ve learned to a wide range of issues (ex: how racial, ethnic, gender, and other social inequalities relate to human rights), rights (ex: LGBTQ rights, the rights of laborers, the rights of refugees), and cases (ex: enslavement, the separation of children from their families, circumcision, sterilization, the use of torture). We’ll consider human rights cases in the United States and across the globe, and how events and actions in one place relate to human rights violations in another.

This course examines the profession of journalism in modern society.. The social role of the Press has changed with the advent of digital technologies and the democratization of the production, distribution and consumption of authoritative information. The course looks closely at the practice of newsmaking by examining the people and organizations who interact with one another to create and share news content. Newsmaking is viewed as meaningful collective interaction—that is, a behavior that is the sum of the engagement of multiple social actors, each of whom is motivated by assumptions, norms, and aspirations regarding the value of information and the role of the Press in society.

Themes for the course include: (1) how journalists think and work (2) the ways that digital technologies has challenged the Qield of professional journalism and redeQined the role of the “journalist” and “reporter” (3) the evolution of journalism since the Industrial Revolution, with a particular focus on social media and digital transmission of news content (4) the social assumptions and infrastructure that lies behind modern newsmaking (5) the conQlicts, disruptions and tensions that emerge in social organization when new and/or competing technologies are introduced. Substantive topics include, “fake news,” “misinformation,” the challenges of Qirst-hand reporting, the newsroom as an ecosystem, and the rise of social media.

Students will read a variety of texts, including: historical studies of journalism: accounts and memoirs of professional journalists; scientiQic research examining the impact of modern digital media; and news articles and contemporary forms of reportage (tweets, podcasts, etc.).

This course will introduce students to the literature on crime and policing. Readings for the course will be from a broad range of disciplines, including sociology, criminology, law, and public policy.  Most weeks, the readings will include relevant “popular press” articles that will help situate the literature in the context of current debates. The course is organized in two parts. The first half will focus on the problems of crime and violence in urban environments. We will review classic and modern ideas and theories explaining crime and violence, and we will look at the evidence describing patterns and trends in crime in recent history. The second half of the course will focus on the approaches to confront crime and violence, with a strong emphasis on policing. We will review the literature on the relationship between crime and policing, and we will learn about the impact that policing practices have on individuals and their communities.

Who gets respect? On what basis? Differences in respect and esteem are a basic form of inequality, with consequences for the (re)production of other inequalities and their durability. The goal of this course is to equip you to see the throughline between status, evaluation, and inequality. Along the way, you will learn how social psychological theories at the micro-level relate to macro-level inequalities. We will tackle questions like the following: Why, and how, do status hierarchies emerge in nearly all societies and groups? How do status differences affect material inequalities like access to jobs? Why is it so hard to change inaccurate stereotypes about women or racial minorities? Will algorithms improve or exacerbate biases in our assessments of merit?

This course introduces students to historical approaches in sociology and political science (and some economics). In the first part, the course surveys the major theoretical approaches and methodological traditions. Examples of the former are classic comparativist work (e.g. Skocpol’s study of revolutions), historist approaches (such as Sewell’s), or the historical institutionalist tradition (Mahoney, Thelen, Wimmer, etc.). In terms of methodological approaches, we will discuss classical Millean small-N comparisons, Qualitative Comparative Analysis, process tracing, actor-centered modeling, quantitative, large-N works, and causal inference type of research designs. In the second part, major topics in macro-comparative social sciences are examined, from world systems and empire to the origins of democracy.

This is a graduate-level seminar on the sociology of education. The goal of the course is to introduce students to foundational texts, theories, and research in the field of sociology of education. In particular, we will focus on the role of schooling in social stratification and social reproduction in the United States.

This course is organized by broad topic and theme. We will begin with a discussion of the purpose of schooling before moving into a discussion of some theoretical perspectives on the role of schooling in our society. Next, we will discuss inequality in schooling across multiple socio-demographic categories, including social class, race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and religion (in addition to inequality at the intersection of multiple social categories). By the end of this course, you should have a strong foundation in theoretical and empirical research on education’s role in society.