Sociology

This course provides a basic introduction to and overview of the field of sociology, including basic concepts, terms, major theories, methods, perspectives, and approaches employed in the discipline. The course examines the major social institutions that are the subject of the field and the sociological approaches employed to understand these institutions and their functions.

This course introduces students to major classical, contemporary, post-structural, and post-modern sociological and cultural theories and theorists. Students obtain both a conceptual foundation and historical perspective of theories used in sociology and cultural studies. In addition, they become familiar with various themes associated with sociological theories. The application and linkage of theory with contemporary social issues and social science research is also a feature of this course. 

This course provides students with a comprehensive overview of the state of social movements and social change in 20th Century. Students become familiar with the history of the field, recent developments and its current status. Case studies of social movements and social change may be analyzed cross-nationally. Students also examine empirical studies and theoretical frameworks associated with social movements and social change.

This course introduces students to major social problems in America and other societies. Students learn to apply sociology concepts and theories and to analyze social problems. Emphasis is placed on problem solving, discussion, and debate.

This course is aimed at understanding different theoretical approaches to studying gender, sexuality, identity, sexism, exchanges of women, patriarchy, labor, otherness, oppression, and theoretical change. In addition it will cover more abstract interrogations of theoretical assumptions within explicative frameworks of post-modernism, post-structuralism, social constructivism, post-colonialism, materialism, transnational feminism and also critical and queer theoretical frameworks. Different feminist perspectives will be covered such as liberal, Marxist, radical, standpoint, etc. Special attention will be given to the exploration of power relations and other forms of inequality. We will also spend significant time engaging with feminist/ queer critiques of knowledge production, notions of perspective, representation, identity, and objectivity.

This course introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of social disparities in health, with an emphasis on sociological contributions to the area. Students will examine the social determinants of health and health inequities in various country contexts. Links between health outcomes and social factors—such as the social identities we inhabit (social class, gender, race), the relationships we have, and the places where we live, work, and play—will be identified and examined. Theoretical explanations for the relationships between these social factors and health disparities will be critically explored, along with possible policy solutions for achieving health equity. In particular, this course emphasizes the importance of examining multiple levels of social life, from individual behaviors to social relationships to public policy, for understanding the causes and consequences of health disparities. This course satisfies the upper-level writing requirement for graduation.

This course satisfies the Upper-Level Writing Requirement

The body is at once material and symbolic and exists at the intersection of multiple discourses. It is an object of regulation and control, a site of meaning creation, the location of contentious political struggle, a place where power operates, and situated within contextual time, space and place. In this seminar, we will draw on interdisciplinary sources and use a range of theoretical traditions to consider ways in which the body is constituted by these discourses.

Body and embodiment studies encourage and enhance theory, research, and scholarship on a wide range of embodied dynamics.  These “body dynamics” are understood through micro and macro sociological analysis of the political, social and individual bodies. Themes and topics included are: human and non-human bodies, bioethics, morphology, anatomy, body fluids, biotechnology, genetics; but also theories of embodiment, virtual bodies, productivity of bodies, changing bodies, bodies and inequality, bodily meanings, bodies and identity, the natural environment and bodies, deviant bodies, abjection, and more.

How are we situated to the body? What is a subject, object or abject? How are distinctions made between the normal and pathological? Are bodies subordinate to the mind? How are bodies commodified? How are bodies categorized and constituted by discourses of race, class, gender, sexuality, ableism, and more?