Course Offerings
The courses listed below are open to all interested students. There are no prerequisites unless otherwise specified.
INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
Introduction to Sociology
SOC-UA 1 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
SOC-UA 2 Honors course. Lehman, Persell. Offered every two years. 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 SOC-UA 1, but more intensive. Recommended for students who would like to be challenged.
Great Books in Sociology
SOC-UA 3 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
SOC-UA 301 Arum, Conley, Gerson, Haney, Jackson, Maisel, Morning, Persell. 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. Introduction to methods of quantitative data processing.
Statistics for Social Research
SOC-UA 302 Only one of these courses—ECON-UA 18, MATH-UA 12, PSYCH-UA 10, and SOC-UA 302—can be taken for credit. Conley, Greenberg, Maisel. 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
SOC-UA 111 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
SOC-UA 413 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
SOC-UA 502 Identical to LWSOC-UA 502. 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
SOC-UA 503 Identical to LWSOC-UA 503. 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
SOC-UA 118 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
SOC-UA 201 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
SOC-UA 21 Identical to SCA-UA 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
SOC-UA 451 Identical to SCA-UA 0724. Gerson. 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
SOC-UA 465 Heyns. Offered every two years. 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
SOC-UA 511 Identical to SCA-UA 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. Heterosexual-ity, 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
SOC-UA 412 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
SOC-UA 135 Identical to SCA-UA 0803. Conley, Duster, Morning. Offered every year. 4 points.
What is 'race' exactly? Defining the concept presents a real challenge. This class explores what race and ethnicity mean, beginning with historical ideas about human difference. Comparing American beliefs and practices to those found in other societies, we will pay special attention to the particular notions and hierarchies of race that emerge in different times and places. The course also investigates the roles that institutions like the media, the arts, the state, and the sciences play in shaping our understandings of race and ethnicity. We will conclude by considering the predictions that scholars have made about the future of racial stratification in the United States.
Wealth, Power, Status: Inequality in Society
SOC-UA 137 Prerequisite: Introduction to Sociology (SOC-UA 1) 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.
The American Ghetto
SOC-UA 139 Offered every spring. 4 points.
This course examines the concept of the “ghetto,” with particular focus on urban communities in the post World War II era. We will use empirical research, literature and other forms of text and media to consider the following questions: What is a ghetto, and what forms has the ghetto taken in the United States? Is there something unique about urban, African-American ghettos? How and why did urban ghettos emerge, and how have they changed over time? What, if any, are the consequences of the American ghetto for racial and economic inequality in America? What role has the state played in the production, maintenance or dismantling of the ghetto, and what role can/should it play?
Social Movements, Protest, and Conflict
SOC-UA 205 Goodwin. Offered every two years. 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. Concentrates 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
SOC-UA 386 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
SOC-UA 471 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.
The Sociology of Conflict and War
SOC-UA 472 No prerequisites, although it is highly
recommended that the course be taken by students in their third or fourth year,
with some background in the humanities and the social sciences. Offered every
other year. Corradi. 4 points.
This course is based on the premise that war is much
more than a means to an end (a rational, if very brutal, activity intended to
serve the interests of one group by destroying those who oppose that
group). Mounds of evidence suggest that
war exercises a powerful fascination that has its greatest impact on
participants but is by no means limited to them. War, in short, is a complex web of
affiliations and emotions. This course seeks to place war in the larger map of
social conflict, to examine both the persistence of warfare and its historical
transformations, and to interpret the cultures of war that have grown around
its fatal attraction.
EDUCATION, ART, RELIGION, CULTURE, AND SCIENCE
Education and Society
SOC-UA 415 Prerequisite: Introduction to Sociology (SOC-UA 1) 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
SOC-UA 433 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
SOC-UA 313 Heyns. 4 points.
See description under “Social Policy and Social Problems,” below.
Immigration
SOC-UA 452 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
SOC-UA 460 Identical to SCA-UA 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
SOC-UA 133 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
SOC-UA 313 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
SOC-UA 510 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
SOC-UA 970, 971 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
SOC-UA 934 to SOC-UA 949 Prerequisites: junior standing and three courses in sociology, including Introduction to Sociology (SOC-UA 1), or written permission of the instructor. 4 points.
See the student services administrator for content and other information.
Senior Honors Research Seminar
SOC-UA 950, 951 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
SOC-UA 997, 998 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
Under special circumstances, courses offered in the sociology graduate program are open to qualified sociology majors with the permission of the instructor.
|
