SOCI 110-01 10730 |
Introduction to Sociology |
Days: M W F
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Time: 03:30 pm-04:30 pm
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Room: MAIN 010
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Instructor: Christina Hughes
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Details
The course introduces students to the sociological imagination, or "the quality of mind essential to grasp the interplay of individual and society, of biography and history, of self and the world," as C. Wright Mills described it. The enduring value of a sociological imagination is to help students situate peoples' lives and important events in broader social contexts by understanding how political, economic, and cultural forces constitute social life. Sociology explores minute aspects of social life (microsociology) as well as global social processes and structures (macrosociology). Topics covered vary from semester to semester, but may include: socialization, suburbanization and housing, culture, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class stratification, deviance and crime, economic and global inequality, families and intimate relationships, education, religion, and globalization.
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Social science
Course Materials
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SOCI 150-01 10732 |
Prius or Pickup? Political Divides and Social Class |
Days: W
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Time: 07:00 pm-10:00 pm
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Room: CARN 204
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Instructor: Khaldoun Samman
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*First day attendance required*
Details
The Far Right in the United States has appropriated working class identities to produce an identity among the white working class. Donald Trump, for instance, intentionally portrays a large gap in highbrow and lowbrow to take jabs at privileged liberals (such as when he tweeted the "Hamberder" photo). This course observes what can be called the Far Right "theater of politics" in order to understand how liberals have left working class culture behind in ways that allowed the far right to fill the void by finding persuasive techniques in culture (country music, religion, church...) to articulate a political voice that some working class folks, especially whites, may find appealing. Some of the major questions of the course include: (1) How do political and economic elites produce class, gender, and racial divides and segmentations by aligning themselves with the cultural practices often associated with working class folks? (2) Can the left create a political culture that cultivates respect for organic cultural expressions that include religious expressions and pop-cultural themes like country music and sports (yes, even football!) into their fold Reducing everything to class and asking all others to submit to its political logic is a limited vision. Instead, the course investigates whether it is possible to envision a political project that rather than privileging the concerns of upper-middle class whites produces a culture of resistance that can articulate working class subjects - straight, queer, white, black, binary, non-binary - into a populist left movement? One of the truly powerful features of the Left is that it is much more diverse than the Far Right. Is it possible to extend that diversity even further so that it can show a "little respect" for organic cultural producers to feel comfortable producing and living in multiple class, racial, gender, and sexual habitus?
General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
U.S. Identities and Differences
Distribution Requirements:
Social science
Course Materials
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SOCI 150-F1 10731 |
Prius or Pickup? Political Divides and Social Class |
Days: T R
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Time: 01:20 pm-02:50 pm
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Room: CARN 204
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Instructor: Khaldoun Samman
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*First-Year course only*
Details
The Far Right in the United States has appropriated working class identities to produce an identity among the white working class. Donald Trump, for instance, intentionally portrays a large gap in highbrow and lowbrow to take jabs at privileged liberals (such as when he tweeted the "Hamberder" photo). This course observes what can be called the Far Right "theater of politics" in order to understand how liberals have left working class culture behind in ways that allowed the far right to fill the void by finding persuasive techniques in culture (country music, religion, church...) to articulate a political voice that some working class folks, especially whites, may find appealing. Some of the major questions of the course include: (1) How do political and economic elites produce class, gender, and racial divides and segmentations by aligning themselves with the cultural practices often associated with working class folks? (2) Can the left create a political culture that cultivates respect for organic cultural expressions that include religious expressions and pop-cultural themes like country music and sports (yes, even football!) into their fold Reducing everything to class and asking all others to submit to its political logic is a limited vision. Instead, the course investigates whether it is possible to envision a political project that rather than privileging the concerns of upper-middle class whites produces a culture of resistance that can articulate working class subjects - straight, queer, white, black, binary, non-binary - into a populist left movement? One of the truly powerful features of the Left is that it is much more diverse than the Far Right. Is it possible to extend that diversity even further so that it can show a "little respect" for organic cultural producers to feel comfortable producing and living in multiple class, racial, gender, and sexual habitus?
General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences
Distribution Requirements:
Social science
Course Materials
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SOCI 194-01 10733 |
Children and Childhood in Times of Change and Crisis |
Days: M W F
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Time: 12:00 pm-01:00 pm
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Room: CARN 06A
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Instructor: Aspen Chen
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Details
This course provides an introduction to the multidisciplinary field of childhood studies. We will question taken-for-granted assumptions about the child as we explore how understandings, representations, and experiences of childhood vary across historical, cultural, and geographical contexts. Examining the significance of race and ethnicity, social class, gender, gender identity, sexuality, and disability within children’s lives, we will consider the diverse experiences of childhood. Core themes include the social construction of childhood, children’s agency, and debates surrounding children’s rights in a global context. We will consider various case studies of contemporary children’s and youth issues, including growing up trans and what that reveals about society’s ideas about gender identity more broadly; how children cope and recover following disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and wildfires; and how children and youth can participate and lead in electoral politics and social movements. Finally, we will discuss contemporary research on how, why, and with what consequences the transition to adulthood has become stratified, scrambled, or only partially realized because of systems of oppression and privilege. These systems shape people’s opportunities in higher education, paid work, partnering, parenting, and living independently. Assignments will encourage students to bring a critical perspective to images and narratives of childhood.
General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences
Distribution Requirements:
Social science
Course Materials
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SOCI 200-01 10885 |
The Old Order is Dying and the New Cannot Be Born |
Days: M
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Time: 07:00 pm-10:00 pm
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Room: CARN 204
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Instructor: Khaldoun Samman
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Details
This course, which has no prerequisites, examines the deep structural crisis of the entire edifice of our political and economic system that some call progressive neoliberalism, characterized by a market-based economy wrapped in progressive sounding diversity politics. The course title reflects a predicament described by Antonio Gramsci in the 1930s, but that may be more salient today: "'the crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old order is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear." The morbid symptoms of our own old order can be seen in the severe and increasing inequality. The two beneficiaries of this system are (1) those who are at the apex of the system, the so-called 1% and (2) the highly-educated elite professionals, intellectuals, and managerial class, the next 9% and sometimes called the clergy or the secular high priests of the system. The remaining population, largely composed of less educated whites, minorities, blacks, and women are being further and further removed from the rewards of the system. This hyper-inegalitarian system of rule is now experiencing a legitimacy crisis by both the far right and the left, but no true alternatives have yet been proposed to reform or replace it. The far right wants to take us on a path of racial white supremacist rule and further escalate inequalities and prepare us for possibly even a more sinister form of a postcapitalist society. The far left, on the other hand, wants to create a system of radical democracy and respect for nature that has the potential for replacing capitalism with a new historical system based on a more just foundation. This course will identify what was historically in place, capitalism's distinctive dynamics so that we may better determine what is needed to resolve it. With that in mind, as Nancy Fraser has argued, we need to seek a path forward that leads beyond the current impasse -- through political realignments to societal transformation. We will explore what this capitalist system is, how it functioned historically, where it is now, and what systems may replace it in the future. To cover all that in one course is exciting and may help us think about some possible futures we can begin to imagine and work toward.
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Social science
Course Materials
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SOCI 270-01 10735 |
Interpretive Social Research |
Days: T R
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Time: 09:40 am-11:10 am
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Room: CARN 304
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Instructor: Erika Busse-Cárdenas
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Details
This class introduces students to the methodologies and analytic techniques of fieldwork and ethnography: participant observation, interviewing, and the use of documents. Students will read exemplary, book-length studies and will conduct an extensive field research for their final project. Prerequisite(s): For declared Sociology majors only; all others require permission of instructor.
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Social science
Course Materials
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SOCI 283-01 10736 |
Economic Sociology |
Days: M W F
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Time: 10:50 am-11:50 am
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Room: CARN 05
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Instructor: Erik Larson
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Details
Economic activity is a form of social activity: people attribute meaning to economic activity, they pursue such activity in relation to others, and this activity is patterned and organized. Starting from these premises, economic sociologists ask a wide range of questions, such as: How do people find jobs? What historical and social legacies affect prospects for development? How do art dealers know how to set prices on unique original works of art? What social arrangements influence economic inequalities? In what ways do people mix economic activities and intimacy? By surveying recent developments in economic sociology, this course introduces students to the kinds of questions that economic sociologists ask, the types of evidence they use, and the range of answers they generate. Students do not need a background in economics or sociology for this course.
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Social science
Course Materials
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SOCI 294-02 10738 |
Suburbanization |
Days: T R
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Time: 03:00 pm-04:30 pm
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Room: HUM 112
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Instructor: Christina Hughes
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Details
This course delves into the topic of suburbanization, exploring a wide range of themes and issues that have converged in the suburbs as arguably the most important spatial form of the 20th century for observing major shifts in American culture, politics, and economic activity. Broadly, we will examine the complex and multifaceted relationship between suburbs and cities, analyzing the theoretical underpinnings that have shaped the dynamic between them. Additionally, we will explore: the allure and deceit of the American Dream, scrutinizing how this ideal has been both a driving force and a source of disillusionment for many suburbanites; the spatial and possessive logics of whiteness, examining how suburbanization has been intimately tied to the construction and maintenance of racial hierarchies; and the political importance of the suburban homeowner as a voting bloc, looking into how this group has wielded significant influence in local, state, and national elections. Moreover, through examining suburban architecture and its surrounding built environment, we will also explore the gendered, sexual, and social control functions of the single-family home, the highway, and the shopping mall as normalizing structures designed to regulate and shape our behavior and values. Finally, thinking critically about what it means to participate in placemaking within these broader themes, we will close by theorizing together about the significance of rejecting the “cruel optimism” of the suburbs amidst the recapture of city centers by the forces of financial capital. What does it mean to be in place and in community in a world where space has become increasingly territorialized, privatized, and hoarded?
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Social science
Course Materials
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SOCI 294-03 10870 |
Unequal Budgets: Taxing, Spending, and States of Inequality |
Days: M W F
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Time: 01:10 pm-02:10 pm
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Room: LIBR 250
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Instructor: Erik Larson
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Details
Popular examinations of wealth and poverty often start and end with various market-related institutions (work, ownership of capital, rates of return); however, in the world of nation-states much of the accumulation, distribution, and reproduction of wealth and disadvantage happen through states. In this course, we focus on the fiscal—taxing and spending—and how these practices relate to both material and cultural formations that influence peoples’ life chances and social, cultural, political, and economic life. We will address topics such as how the nature of government collection and expenditure relates to beliefs about who deserves wealth and how it is achieved; why different systems of funding government expenditure emerge, persist, or change; and how these policies shape the nature of inheritance, philanthropy, and the broader political communities of the contemporary world.
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Social science
Course Materials
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SOCI 480-01 10740 |
Senior Seminar |
Days: T R
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Time: 01:20 pm-02:50 pm
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Room: CARN 304
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Instructor: Busse-Cárdenas, Hughes
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Details
This senior seminar serves as the capstone experience for sociology majors. This class provides students with an opportunity to develop a synthetic understanding of their sociology course work and to conduct prospective research that may culminate in honors projects.
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Social science
Course Materials
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