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Course Offerings (CAS Bulletin)

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

Introduction to Sociology
V93.0001  Arum, Conley, Lehman, Marwell, Molotch. Offered every semester. 4 points.
Survey of the field of sociology: its basic concepts, theories, and research orientation. Threshold course that provides the student with insights into the social factors in human life. Topics include social interaction, socialization, culture, social structure, stratification, political power, deviance, social institutions, and social change.

Introduction to Sociology
V93.0002  Honors course. Lehman, Persell. Offered every year. 4 points.
How sociologists view the world compared to common sense understandings. Exposes students to the intellectual strategies at the center of modern sociology, but also shows that sociological analysis does not occur in a historical vacuum. Sociology attempts to explain events, but it is also a historical product like other human belief systems. Addresses the human condition: where we came from, where we are, where we are headed, and why. Same topics as V93.0001, but more intensive. Recommended for students who would like to be challenged.

Great Books in Sociology
V93.0003  Brenner, Chibber, Corradi, Goodwin. Offered every three years. 4 points.
Original thinkers in sociology—their pathbreaking works and challenging views. Critical explanation and analysis of the principles and main themes of sociology as they appear in these works. Topics include the social bases of knowledge, the development of urban societies, social structure and movements, group conflict, bureaucratic organization, the nature of authority, the social roots of human nature, suicide, power and politics, and race, class, and gender.

METHODS OF INQUIRY

Research Methods
V93.0301  Arum, Conley, Guthrie, Haney, Jackson, Maisel, Persell, Yeung. Offered every semester. 4 points.
Examines the several methodologies employed in sociological analysis. Studies the relationship between the sociological question raised and the method employed. Some methods covered include survey design and analysis, unobtrusive measures, historical sociology, interviews, content analysis, and participant observation. Introduc-tion to methods of quantitative data processing.

Statistics for Social Research
V93.0302  Only one of these courses—V31.0018, V63.0012, V89.0010, and V93.0302—can be taken for credit. Conley, Greenberg, Guthrie, Maisel, Yeung. Offered every semester. 4 points. Gives students in the social sciences (sociology, anthropology, political science, and metropolitan studies) an introduction to the logic and methods of descriptive and inferential statistics with social science applications. Deals with univariate and bivariate statistics and introduces multivariate methods. Problems of causal inference. Computer computation.

SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY

Sociological Theory
V93.0111  Prerequisite: one previous course in sociology, junior standing, or permission of the instructor. Brenner, Corradi, Ertman, Goodwin, Lukes. Offered every semester. 4 points.
Examines the nature of sociological theory and the value of and problems in theorizing. Provides a detailed analysis of the writings of major social theorists since the 19th century in both Europe and America: Tocqueville, Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Simmel, Freud, Mead, Parsons, Merton, Goffman, Habermas, Giddens, Alexander, and Bourdieu.

LAW, DEVIANCE, AND CRIMINOLOGY

Law in Society
V93.0413  Dixon, Duster, Greenberg. Offered every year. 4 points.
Sociological perspectives on law and legal institutions: the meaning and complexity of legal issues; the relation between law and social change; the effects of law; uses of law to overcome social disadvantage. Topics: "limits of law," legal disputes and the courts, regulation, comparative legal systems, legal education, organization of legal work, and lawyers’ careers.

Deviance and Social Control
V93.0502  Identical to V62.0502. Dixon, Greenberg, Horowitz. Offered every year. 4 points.
How statuses and behaviors come to be considered deviant or normal; theories of causation, deviant cultures, communities, and careers. Functioning of social control agencies. The politics of deviance. Consideration of policy implications.

Criminology
V93.0503  Identical to V62.0503. Dixon, Garland, Greenberg. Offered every year. 4 points.
Examines the making of criminal laws and their enforcement by police, courts, prisons, probation and parole, and other agencies. Criminal behavior systems, theories of crime and delinquency causation, victimization, corporate and governmental crime, and crime in the mass media. Policy questions.

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS

Communication Systems in Modern Societies
V93.0118  Maisel. Offered every three years. 4 points.
The media and mass communication in social context. Deals primarily with contemporary American media: television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and film. Formal and informal patterns of media control, content, audiences, and effect. The persuasive power of the media, the role of the media in elections, and the effects on crime and violence. Does not deal with instructional media or aesthetic criticism.

Social Psychology
V93.0201  Horowitz. Offered every three years. 4 points.
Examines emotional experience and expression; language and communication; self, identity, and biography; time conceptions, experiences, and practices; and the variations in the character of the "individual," historically and culturally. Each area of discussion and analysis is concerned with processes of social interaction, social organization, and the socialization of persons. Focuses special attention on organizational, historical, and ideological contexts.

SEX, GENDER, AND THE FAMILY

Sex and Gender
V93.0021  Identical to V18.0704. Gerson, Haney, Jackson, Stacey. Offered every year. 4 points.
What forms does gender inequality take, and how can it best be explained? How and why are the relations between women and men changing? What are the most important social, political, and economic consequences of this "gender revolution"? The course provides answers to these questions by examining a range of theories about gender in light of empirical findings about women's and men's behavior.

The Family
V93.0451  Identical to V18.0724. Gerson, Yeung. Offered every year. 4 points.
Introduction to the sociology of family life. Addresses a range of questions: What is the relationship between family life and social arrangements outside the family (for example, in the workplace, the economy, the government)? How is the division of labor in the family related to gender, age, class, and ethnic inequality? Why and how have families changed historically? What are the contours of contemporary American families, and why are they changing?

Childhood
V93.0465  Heyns. Offered every year. 4 points.
Explores the theories of Aries, Rousseau, and Locke to understand and compare children as miniature adults, as symbolic figures representing the state of nature or innocence, and as essential to the discourse and limits of human rights. Examines the origins and development of services for children, beginning with juvenile courts, children’s hospitals, asylums for orphans, and homes for the dependent in 19th-century America. Aims to enlarge our vision of childhood by examining diverse institutions and practitioners in the public realm, beyond families and schools. Compares the emergence and development of specialized services for children with other forms of professionalism, particularly in medicine, law, and social welfare.

Sexual Diversity in Society
V93.0511  Identical to V18.0725. Greenberg, Stacey. Offered every year. 4 points.
Variation in human sexuality. Explores the social nature of sexual expression and how one arrives at erotic object choice and identity. Past and contemporary explanations for sexual variation. Heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, transvestism, transgenderism, incest, sadomasochism, rape, prostitution, and pornography. Origin of sexual norms and prejudices. Lifestyles in the social worlds of sexual minorities. Problems of sexual minorities in such institutions as religion, marriage, polity, economy, military, prison, and laws. The politics of sex.

ORGANIZATIONS, OCCUPATIONS, AND WORK

Work and Careers in the Modern World
V93.0412  Heyns. Offered every three years. 4 points.
Evaluation of definitions, nature, and development of occupations and professions. Occupational associations such as guilds, trade associations, and labor unions. Individual personalities and their relations to occupational identities; concepts of mobility; career and career patterns; how occupations maintain control over members’ behavior; how they relate to the wider community; and how they influence family patterns, lifestyle, and leisure time.

INEQUALITY AND POWER IN MODERN SOCIETIES

Race and Ethnicity
V93.0135  Identical to V18.0803. Conley, Duster, Morning. Offered every year. 4 points.
The major racial, religious, and nationality groups in the United States. The social meaning of the concept "race." Emphasizing social and cultural factors, the course discusses leading theories on sources of prejudice and discrimination. Considers the changing place of minority groups in the stratification structure, cultural patterns of various minority groups, factors affecting the degree of acculturation and assimilation, social consequences of prejudice for dominant and minority groups, and theories and techniques relating to the decline of prejudice and discrimination.

Wealth, Power, Status: Inequality in Society
V93.0137  Prerequisite: Introduction to Sociology (V93.0001) recommended but not required. Chibber, Conley, Guthrie, Heyns, Jackson, Manza, Persell, Torche. Offered every year. 4 points.
Sociological overview of the causes and consequences of social inequality. Topics include the concepts, theories, and measures of inequality; race, gender, and other caste systems; social mobility and social change; institutional supports for stratification, including family, schooling, and work; political power and the role of elites; and comparative patterns of inequality, including capitalist, socialist, and postsocialist societies.

Social Movements, Protest, and Conflict
V93.0205  Goodwin. Offered every year. 4 points.
Why and how do people form groups to change their society? Analyzes reformist, revolutionary, and nationalistic struggles; their typical patterns and cycles; and the role of leaders as well as symbols, slogans, and ideologies. Concen-trates on recent social movements such as civil rights, feminism, ecology, the antinuclear movement, and the New Right; asks how these differ from workers’ movements. Examines reformist versus radical tendencies in political movements.

American Capitalism in Theory and Practice
V93.0386  Chibber. Offered every two years. 4 points.
Investigates two governing principles of American society: the fact that it is a market society and the fact that it is a democracy. Examines how the fact of its being a capitalist democracy affects the distribution of goods, rights, and powers. Course themes discuss not only the question of whether capitalist markets are efficient, but also the question of whether market outcomes serve the ends of democracy and justice. Explores the ways in which efficiency can sometimes come into conflict with justice, and how just institutions can in turn have a beneficial impact on efficiency.

Politics, Power, and Society
V93.0471  Brenner, Ertman, Lehman. Offered every two years. 4 points.
The nature and dimensions of power in society. Theoretical and empirical material dealing with national power structures of the contemporary United States and with power in local communities. Topics include the iron law of oligarchy, theoretical and empirical considerations of democracy, totalitarianism, mass society theories, voting and political participation, the political and social dynamics of advanced and developing societies, and the political role of intellectuals. Considers selected models for political analysis.

EDUCATION, ART, RELIGION, CULTURE, AND SCIENCE

Education and Society
V93.0415  Prerequisite: Introduction to Sociology (V93.0001) recommended but not required. Arum, Heyns, Persell. Offered every two years. 4 points.
Examines the relationship between education and other societal institutions in America and other nations. Considers such educational ideas as IQ, merit, curriculum, tracking, and learning, as well as the bureaucratic organization of education as sociologically problematic. Analyzes the role of teachers, their expectations, and how they interact with students—particularly those of different social genders, classes, and ethnic groups.

Sociology of Music, Art, and Literature
V93.0433  Corradi, Ertman. Offered every two years. 4 points.
Production, distribution, and consumption of music, art, and literature in their social contexts.

URBAN COMMUNITIES, POPULATION, AND ECOLOGY

Social Policy in Modern Societies
V93.0313  Heyns. 4 points.
See description under "Social Policy and Social Problems," below.

Immigration
V93.0452  Jasso. Offered every two years. 4 points.
After a brief historical study of immigration trends, this course focuses on the causes and processes of contemporary international migration; the economic incorporation of new immigrants into the U.S. economy; the participation and impact of immigrants on the political process; the formulation and practice of immigration law; intergroup relations between immigrants and native-born Americans; and the construction of new racial, ethnic, class, gender, and sexual identities.

Cities, Communities, and Urban Life
V93.0460  Identical to V18.0760. Brenner, Horowitz, Molotch. Offered every year. 4 points.
Introduction to urban sociology. Historical development of American cities and theories about cities. Ongoing processes of urban community life. Are cities sites of individual opportunity and rich communal life, or are they sources of individual pathology and community decline? What social, economic, and political factors promote one outcome or the other? How do different groups fare in the urban context, and why?

COMPARATIVE SOCIOLOGY

Comparative Modern Societies
V93.0133  Chibber, Corradi, Ertman, Guthrie, Haney. Offered every two years. 4 points.
The theory and methodology of the study of modern societies and their major components. Examines several modern societies with different cultural backgrounds as case studies with respect to the theories and propositions learned. Attempts to synthesize sociologically the nature of modernity and its implications for the individual, his or her society, and the world.

SOCIAL POLICY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS

Social Policy in Modern Societies
V93.0313  Haney, Heyns. Offered every two years. 4 points.
Examination of the controversies and research concerning the development of welfare states and public social provision. Special attention to the U.S. public social spending system, in historical and comparative perspective. Explanations of developments in social policies and an assessment of their applicability to the American welfare state and those of other societies.

Contemporary Social Problems
V93.0510  Chibber, Dixon, Persell. Offered every two years. 4 points.
Examination of some of the public problems Americans face today, as well as the tools we have for recognizing and attempting to solve them. Aims to create knowledgeable, critical citizens capable of understanding and contributing to public debates. Examines the political, economic, and cultural structures that generate and shape social problems.

TOPICS COURSE

Topics in Sociology
V93.0970,0971  Offered every year. 4 points.

SEMINARS

The Department of Sociology offers a number of seminars each semester. These seminars, with regular and visiting faculty, cover a wide range of topics. Recent seminars have included Sociology and Science Fiction, American Families in Transition, Gender Politics and Law, The Welfare State, The Sociology of Childhood, Human Nature and Social Institutions, Explaining September 11, and many others. Please consult the department for the seminars offered each semester.

Advanced Seminar in Sociology
V93.0934 to V93.0949  Prerequisite: junior standing and three courses in sociology, including Introduction to Sociology (V93.0001), or written permission of the instructor. 4 points.
See the student services administrator for content and other information.

Senior Honors Research Seminar
V93.0950,0951  Required both semesters of senior year for all honors students. 4 points.
Assists students in designing and completing senior thesis projects and finding appropriate faculty advisers.

INDEPENDENT STUDY

Independent Study
V93.0997,0998  Prerequisite: permission of the department. 2 or 4 points per term.
Intensive research under the supervision of a department faculty member.

GRADUATE COURSES OPEN TO UNDERGRADUATES