Sociology (SOC)

What are the influences that shape who we are and how we think? Why do people act the way they do? How can we better understand why people's lives take certain paths? The answers to these questions are central to our well-being as individuals and as a society. In this course, you will learn how sociologists approach and answer these questions. During the semester, you will explore our society through a variety of lines of inquiry. What is the link between individuals and their culture? How is social interaction structured and how does this affect our behavior? What is inequality? How do institutions influence our lives? The over-arching purpose of the course is to cultivate your "sociological imagination," which can then be used to better understand yourself and your place in the larger world.

The United States is beset by many serious social problems, such as crime and deviance, drug abuse and addiction, domestic violence, hunger and poverty, and racial/ethnic discrimination. How do we think about these problems in ways that lead to helpful solutions? Sociology offers concepts, theories, and empirical research useful for understanding and addressing important problems in society. This course illuminates key social problems by introducing basic sociological concepts, theories and research, and applying them to specific problems, such as poverty and economic inequality, racial segregation, gender and educational inequality, and the decline of social capital. Students will learn to take a sociological perspective not only in examining the causes, consequences, and solutions to some of society's most troubling social problems, but also in developing their critical analysis of key social problems.

The family is often agreed to be the primary and most fundamental of social institutions. It is within this institution that early socialization and care-giving usually take place, and therefore, many of our ideas about the world are closely tied to our families. This course will give students the opportunity to learn about the diverse forms the family has taken over time and across different groups. This knowledge will be useful in examining the ongoing debate about the place of the family in social life. By taking a sociological approach to learning about the family and by gaining knowledge about national family trends and patterns in the U.S., this course will give students the theoretical and empirical tools for understanding how family life is linked to the social structure; to economic, cultural, and historical events and transitions; and to societal factors like race, class, and gender.

We live in a society populated and dominated by organizations. Throughout our lives we engage with many different types of organizations: hospitals, schools, businesses, government agencies, religious institutions. It has been argued that the very essence of modern society is the rise of large scale formal organizations, which can help us by creating efficiency, predictability, and fairness, but can also trap us in an iron cage of numbing bureaucratic rationalization. The objective of this course is to help you analyze and assess the good, bad and ugly about modern organizations. It specifically aims to provide analytical tools and case studies to help you: 1) understand how different kinds of organizations function 2) assess organizational effectiveness and failure, and 3) evaluate the role of organizations in a globalizing world. Broadening our understanding of organizations can facilitate our ability to both negotiate our way through organizations and, perhaps most importantly, try to change them

The objective of this course is to explore how and why individuals and social groups rebel against authority, particularly in risky situations when rebellion is likely to incur significant personal and collective costs. This course will investigate the conditions that stoke rebellion against immoral and oppressive power structures, shared conditions, and social norms; how we know when authorities are acting immorally or unjustly; why injustice and illegitimacy only fuel rebellion in some cases and induce conformity in others; the various forms that resistance and rebellion can take; and the factors that shape rebellion's varied forms, such as exit, sabotage, protest, withholding, reclamation, violent struggle, and revolution. The empirical topics covered will address a range of rebellion under tyranny, including but not limited to rebellion during slavery in the United States, rebellion against Nazi power and the Holocaust during World War II, and resistance to colonialism and imperialism.

Sociology 10672 / 20672 is a course designed to introduce undergraduate students to the nature and functions of religious beliefs and institutions in modern societies, with a particular emphasis on conditions in the contemporary United States. Throughout the course, a distinctively sociological perspective is employed to evaluate claims about the viability of religion in what has been called a "post-traditional" world. If in this age God is not dead, how does one account for the notable absence of religious values as animating forces outside the private lives of individuals? If God is long gone, on the other hand, what explains rapid growth in the memberships of conservative religious bodies, or the high levels of interest in non-Western spiritual practices — not to mention a global resurgence of religious particularism? These and other questions from the sociology of religion will be addressed in a survey of the field and a consideration of different American religious traditions. Lectures will cover, among other subjects, individual religious experience; social mechanisms of conversion and commitment; civil religions; religious inspirations for, or impediments to, social change; and the varied processes of secularization.

The overarching goal of this course is to provide students with a working knowledge of social psychology and, with that knowledge, to increase awareness of ourselves, the social world around us, and the connections between the two. This is a course about social interaction - how the self shapes and is shaped by others, how we interact in and with groups and social structures, and how we perceive the world around us. Because the subject of the course is the very social interactions in which we are immersed, it is expected that students will develop the habit of applying social psychological concepts to everyday life.

Introduction to Criminology provides students with an overview of the sociological study of law making, law breaking and the resulting social responses. In this class we not only look at a variety of crimes, but we also discuss the varying methods sociologists use to collect, interpret and evaluate data, as well as how we theorize about crime and punishment. We address questions such as "Why are some people or groups labeled as criminal, while others are not?" "Do laws in both their construction and enforcement serve everyone's interests equally?" "How can the communities in which people are embedded be considered as criminogenic?" "How are poverty, race, gender and other social factors related to crime?"

When people think about sexuality, they often adopt a biological view—seeing sexuality as “driven” by hormones and nature. This course adopts a different approach by viewing sexuality through the lens of sociology—as shaped by social processes, including social interaction, institutions, and ideologies. The course will focus on examining three sociological aspects of sexuality: 1) The social, historical, and cultural factors that shape sexual behaviors, desires, identities, and communities; 2) The ways in which sex and sexuality are constantly regulated and contested at multiple levels of society, including within families, schools, workplaces, and religious and political institutions; and 3) The sources, causes, and effects of sexual inequality. While our focus will be on sexuality, we will also study how other identities (including gender, race, class, religion, etc.) influence and affect it. Students will be encouraged to question their taken-for-granted assumptions about sex and sexualities and to formulate critical perspectives on issues pertaining to sexuality in today’s public discourses. This course is sex-positive in that it assumes that knowledge about sexuality is empowering, not dangerous. The readings and discussions will be frank, and students will be assisted in developing a language for and comfort level with discussing a wide range of sexual topics in a respectful and sociological way. In the process, students will be challenged to improve their critical thinking, researching, writing, and public speaking skills.

Most Americans think of the “inner city” as a place of misery, danger, and despair. Why do most American cities have racially segregated areas dominated by concentrated poverty? What are the lives of inner city residents like? Why do the legal, political, economic, and educational institutions that serve these communities struggle so mightily to improve the lives of inner city residents? In this course, we will address all of these questions by viewing all five seasons of The Wire, David Simon’s epic tale of life in inner city Baltimore. Sociological theory and research will serve as powerful tools to help students “decode” The Wire, and better understand of the social forces that create and sustain inner city poverty, violence, and disorder.

An introduction to the seminar method of instruction accenting the organization and expression of arguments suggested by readings in sociology. Each of the seminars treats a particular sociological topic, such as family life, social problems, the urban crisis, poverty, etc.

In a rapidly changing world, how do we make sense of current social and political problems effectively? By exploring sociological concepts in creative ways, this unit gives students the tools to analyse, research and respond to real world issues such as globalisation, crime, social justice, community breakdown, and racial, sexual and indigenous inequality.

This lecture module introduces students to some of the key areas of sociological study, equipping them with knowledge and skills fundamental to understanding a wide range of present-day issues such as the changing role of religion in society, structural inequalities, the social management of crime and deviance, and environmental problems and solutions.

Sociology is a discipline analyzing issues in society. This course introduces students to some major social theories and concepts in sociology. Topics include a review of sociology as a discipline, culture, socialization, social interaction, education, social stratification, networks, work, economic life, body and health, urbanization, population, environment, and globalization. It is a theory-oriented course. However, it addresses empirical questions such as (1) What is society? (2) How is society organized and structured? (3) Who are individuals and their roles in society? (4) How do individuals and society affect each other? The goal of this course is to provide students with conceptual tools for understanding society, thereby some inspirations of how individuals may live meaningful life.

How does society shape the world we live in? What influences interactions between people in everyday life? Why is society structured the way it is, and is change possible? By delving into diverse topics such as discrimination and inequality to family life and friendship, this unit introduces the conceptual tools sociologists use to explain the world.

Technological Change and Social Development is a basic level course, which has the intention that the student become familiar with the formal concepts of technological change and be able to relate them to social transformation. As a result of learning, the student will develop a critical review of the contemporary literature on technological change and social change. In addition, a critical essay will be developed that explores the relationship between technology and society, as well as the implications of future automation, life extension and computer security technologies.

The goal of this course is to develop an understanding of different cultures, particularly focusing on how to address events and challenges that arise when living in a foreign cultural environment. Students will examine the differences between living in their home country and in a foreign culture, reflecting on these differences. Students will explore what strategies are most effective when adapting to intercultural settings.

Society and Human Behavior is a module that studies human society and members in it. Simply put, the module introduces students to the field of sociology. The majority of sociological concepts are familiar as the study involves studying ourselves. For this reason, sociology can challenge our long-held views and attitudes towards ourselves and our social milieu. This module is a journey to find out who we are, what we are and how similar and different we are.

SOC 10020 Introduction to Sociology at UCD; This module provides an introduction to the discipline of Sociology. The task of sociology is to explain the social world in which we live. This involves asking and answering questions about the nature of the world around us, why things are the way they are, how they developed in that way rather than any other, and so on - in fact, everything from global patterns of social change to the nature of individual identity. Studying sociology requires us to explore taken-for-granted aspects of everyday life, and to be aware that things could be, and are, different. This involves learning to see things 'sociologically' by developing a 'sociological imagination'. The aim of this module is to cultivate such an imagination.In this module, we will consider the nature of sociology in terms of its historical origins, its key theoretical traditions, and the role of research in analysing social issues. Once we have laid this groundwork, we will consider some of the core dimensions of society - the nature of culture, the role of organisations, and so on. The module then examines some of the main social institutions and patterns of social relations around which our lives are structured, and through which resources - power, wealth, status - are distributed. These have real and significant impacts on our lives, and they determine the small matters of: why some people go hungry and some don't, the nature of a university education, why 'witches' are no longer burnt at the stake (and for that matter, why are there so few witches around nowadays?). Sociology helps us understand the role these institutions and structures play in our daily lives, and the ways in which society 'makes' us and how we in turn 'make' society.

This course critically examines gender and social issues in contemporary Japan, combining historical perspectives with an analysis of current debates. Students will explore topics such as the legacy of the Japanese family system, women's labor participation and the gender pay gap, worklife balance, marriage and family structures, LGBTQ+ rights, gender-based violence. We will also analyze the impact of government policies, including 'Womenomics', and grassroots feminist activism, such as the #MeToo movement, in Japan. We will also explore some rising issues in gender equality, including the gender gap in digital, AI and other emerging technologies, and what that may mean for Japanese society in the future.

This course is about human communication in an increasingly integrated global economy. This course borrows elements from communications, culture, management and business. It adopts a multi-dimensional approach to the subject matter, introducing topics such as cross-cultural communication, cultural intelligence, negotiations across cultures, workplace social communication, culture in virtual teaming, etc.

How does society shape the world we live in? What influences interactions between people in everyday life? Why is society structured the way it is, and is change possible? By delving into diverse topics such as discrimination and inequality to family life and friendship, this unit introduces the conceptual tools sociologists use to explain the world.

The seminar is dedicated to contemporary Germany and offers an introduction to the main structures of the country. What do parliament, parties, Bundestag, Federal Chancellor, Federal President, Bundesrat, how does federalism with its state governments work? What do engaged civil society and plural forms of life? Is there poverty in the rich German welfare state? Does the energy transition secure a "green" future? How is the education system shaping up? What is behind Germany's reputation as a cultural nation? What does the cultural scene and media landscape look like? Is there the German way of life and typical leisure activities? These are questions that we will explore by means of scientific and literary texts, films and excursions. For each seminar hour the corresponding seminar literature is available on Blackboard. It forms the common basis for the discussion in the seminar, in addition the respective special topic is topic is deepened by lectures, presentations, group work and excursions in depth.

Society and Human Behavior is a module that studies human society and members in it. Simply put, the module introduces students to the field of sociology. The majority of sociological concepts are familiar as the study involves studying ourselves. For this reason, sociology can challenge our long-held views and attidues towards ourselves and our social milieu. This module is a journey to find out who we are, what we are and how similar and different we are, etc. Although the module provides theoretical perspectives of sociology, the students are encouraged to explore a wide variety of empirical situations. In particular, Korean examples of relevant social issues in accordance with the weekly topic are provided and discussed in class for a glimpse of Korean society. Learning Objectives Understand the world around us from the sociological point of view * Explore different sociological theories and studies * Deepen critical thinking and analysis of human behaviors in various contexts of different societies Develop sociological imagination by exploring repeating social patterns = Develop discussion skills as well as presentation skills. Political Data Analysis Description: Data analysis is quickly changing the way we understand and engage in politics, how we implement policy, and how organizations across the world make decisions. In this course, we will learn the fundamental principles of statistical inference and develop the necessary programming skills to answer a wide range of political and policy-oriented questions with data analysis. Who is most likely to win the upcoming presidential election? Do countries become less democratic when leaders are assassinated? Is there racial discrimination in the labor market? These are just a few of the questions we will work on in the course.

This unit explores the world's rich diversity of human experience and practice, looking at cross-cultural examples of it in domains such as religion, identity, subsistence, social inequality and communication. It also considers the variety of ways that anthropologists conduct their research.

China's transformation from a command economy to a market economy has brought fundamental and rapid changes in its social structure and social relationships among members of different subgroups in society. The objective of this course is to offer an overview of emerging social issues in contemporary China, focusing on challenges after 1949. This module offers sociological perspectives to examine topics such as changes and new challenges in Chinese families, gender roles, demographic structure and distribution, social safety net, and environment. The class will combine lectures, academic readings, films, sources from the mass media, and discussions.

The purpose of this module is to introduce students to key sociological frameworks and concepts which have been developed to explain the relationship between schooling, education and society. In particular the module will provide students with the opportunity to develop a range of critical 'thinking tools' through they can situate their work as educators vis-a-vis wider societal processes and social phenomena. In particular it will explore the way in which schooling and other forms of educational organisations are implicated in both the reproduction and distribution (as well as attempted re-distributions), of life chances and social 'goods' and 'bads', relative to different of social groups (e.g., gender, social class, sexuality, ethnicity, disability). As such it will take as its central theme Michel Foucault's notion of the productive/oppressive function of schooling as a form of social institution. The module will firstly introduce students to the main theoretical perspectives in a deliberate chronological order of their 'appearance' within the discipline. We will begin with the structural-functionalism of for example Emile Durkheim and Talcott Parsons, followed by the re-discovery in the early 1970s of Marxism, Weber and Critical Theory and the emergence of feminist critiques. Lastly, we will introduce the various ideas associated with postmodernism and poststructuralism & education. The second aim is to build on this introduction to explore a range of contemporary social issues additional ones (such as gender, socio-ethnic linguistics, ethnicity, inclusion and social disadvantage) as they relate to schooling and education.

The course is structured around different themes explored in each session. We aim to establish connections between these themes. We use a range of sources: sociology definitions, articles, book excerpts, videos, interviews, and documentaries. Additionally, we discuss the roles of various institutions such as schools, families, universities, justice systems, police, and theaters throughout the sessions. All based on France.

This course will help students appreciate the power of the sociological imagination in understanding their everyday lives. This is an age in which we tend to explain human behavior in terms of our individual achievements, personalities, and even our genetic make-up. The sociologist, however, looks at human behavior as the product of groups, organizations and culture. In order to master this sociological outlook, the course shall examine a number of topics central to our lives from the point of view of sociological perspectives and methods. These topics will include: culture, deviance, inequality, religion, education, social change and development, gender, intimate relations and the family, and power and politics.

What are the influences that shape who we are and how we think? Why do people act the way they do? How can we better understand why people's lives take certain paths? The answers to these questions are central to our well-being as individuals and as a society. In this course, you will learn how sociologists approach and answer these questions. During the semester, you will explore our society through a variety of lines of inquiry. What is the link between individuals and their culture? How is social interaction structured and how does this affect our behavior? What is inequality? How do institutions influence our lives? The over-arching purpose of the course is to cultivate your "sociological imagination," which can then be used to better understand yourself and your place in the larger world.

Psychiatry and mental healthcare have been the target of criticism and controversy for decades. Common critiques are that the field is not grounded in medical science, that it pathologizes normal problems in living, or that it is a method of social control. This course will focus on the social movements that have been critical of mental healthcare from the second half of the twentieth century to today. We will begin by considering questions such as: What is the proper role of mental healthcare? What is a social movement? What is the relationship between mental healthcare and politics? Then we will shift to discussing particular social movements including antipsychiatry, Mad Pride, the emergence of the concepts of disability and neurodiversity as alternatives to pathology, and other examples of service-user led activism. The goal of the course will be to better understand the ways that psychiatry has abused it power and imagine changes that could be made to the system to improve the lives of those who suffer from mental health conditions.

The United States is beset by many serious social problems such as educational inequality, extreme poverty alongside unparalleled abundance, crime and deviance, health disparities, mass incarceration, and the persistence of discrimination along lines of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, class, gender, and sexuality. Course materials are designed to engage student learning, illustrate the distinctive features of the sociological perspective, and to start you thinking sociologically about yourself and the broader world. To think sociologically requires you to recognize that our contemporary world, with its enduring cultural, political, and economic institutions, is as much a social product as we are. In this course, students will learn to take a sociological perspective not only in examining the causes, consequences, and solutions to some of society’s most troubling social problems, but also in taking a critical look at their own perceptions of problems.

This class is an introduction to the way that sociologists study the cultural dimensions of the social world. Culture is here defined as all objects, ideas, and practices that people attach some meaning to. We will survey contemporary sociological approaches to analyzing culture, and discuss the way that culture and meanings are produced, disseminated, interpreted, and used by social actors. We will investigate how cultural objects are produced in mass media industries, how social boundaries and social hierarchies (such as those based on gender, race, and class) are created through the consolidation of cultural categories, and how social practices related to the consumption of cultural objects have become a central facet of life in modern societies.

This course examines the socio-histories, movement, and settlement patterns of racial minorities in the U.S. The course will focus on how race and racial imaginaries shape the movement and settlement of racial minorities. It will include deep examinations of these mobility patterns and how they are constructed and articulated through laws, policies, and social arrangements. Special attention will be paid to the racialization of the United States, American-ness as whiteness, and the consequences for the social and physical landscape. And finally, the course will consider how the racial construction of America is manifested and buttressed through the built environment and the consequences.

This variable-credit course is designed for college students who love math and want to share that passion in ways that make a meaningful impact in the community. It combines math tutoring with readings in sociology to better understand educational inequality and opportunity.

Many have claimed that the American educational system is the "great equalizer." In other words, the educational system gives everyone a chance to prosper in American society regardless of their social origins. In this course, we will explore the validity of this claim. We will consider questions such as: 1) Does our educational system promote social mobility or social reproduction? 2) How has the relationship between race/ethnicity and educational performance changed in the last few decades? 3) How do social class and gender shape the kinds of educational experiences students have? 4) How does educational policy influence the kinds of experiences kids have in school? Can policy reduce inequality?

How is race embodied and how are bodies racialized? How do gender, sexuality, class, size, perceived beauty, and ability mutually influence embodiment? This course considers anthropological and historical studies of the body, with a critical focus on Blackness. We investigate how Black human bodies are othered, valued, dehumanized, and experienced, across time and space, with a particular focus on the United States. Euro-American philosophies have constructed Black people as transgressive, in a variety of ways, and all these ideas have been inscribed on and through their physical bodies. This normative discourse shapes how Black people interact with the social world, so we will discuss, challenge, and critique these narratives and also consider how the body can be used as a site of resistance. We will engage topics like athletic training, bodily modification and perceptions of beauty, biomedical technologies, labor, disability, and illness, through texts like academic writing, music, podcasts, essays, news media, and social media. Overall, this class demonstrates how bodies are key sites for understanding politics, power, social hierarchies, economics, and social change in our contemporary world.

The family is often agreed to be the primary and most fundamental of social institutions. It is within this institution that early socialization and care-giving usually take place, and therefore, many of our ideas about the world are closely tied to our families. This course will give students the opportunity to learn about the diverse forms the family has taken over time and across different groups. This knowledge will be useful in examining the ongoing debate about the place of the family in social life. By taking a sociological approach to learning about the family and by gaining knowledge about national family trends and patterns in the U.S., this course will give students the theoretical and empirical tools for understanding how family life is linked to the social structure, to economic, cultural, and historical events and transitions, and to societal factors like race, class, and gender. Enrollment questions should be directed to Sociology's DUS at mthoma13@nd.edu.

How is the chronic stress of poverty related to negative health outcomes? Why are infant mortality rates higher among some groups than others? What is the relationship between gender and mental health care? We will address these and several other important questions as we discuss the complex and dynamic intersections of health, medicine, and society. In this class, we also pay particular attention to differential access to health care among various groups in society, changing perceptions of health and medicine over time, and the role of social networks in both health behaviors as well as the diffusion of illness.

We live in a society populated and dominated by organizations. Throughout our lives we engage with many different types of organizations: hospitals, schools, businesses, government agencies, religious institutions. It has been argued that the very essence of modern society is the rise of large scale formal organizations, which can help us by creating efficiency, predictability, and fairness, but can also trap us in an iron cage of numbing bureaucratic rationalization. The objective of this course is to help you analyze and assess the good, bad and ugly about modern organizations. It specifically aims to provide analytical tools and case studies to help you: 1) understand how different kinds of organizations function 2) assess organizational effectiveness and failure, and 3) evaluate the role of organizations in a globalizing world. Broadening our understanding of organizations can facilitate our ability to both negotiate our way through organizations and, perhaps most importantly, try to change them

The objective of this course is to explore how and why individuals and social groups rebel against authority, particularly in risky situations when rebellion is likely to incur significant personal and collective costs. This course will investigate the conditions that stoke rebellion against immoral and oppressive power structures, shared conditions, and social norms; how we know when authorities are acting immorally or unjustly; why injustice and illegitimacy only fuel rebellion in some cases and induce conformity in others; the various forms that resistance and rebellion can take; and the factors that shape rebellion's varied forms, such as exit, sabotage, protest, withholding, reclamation, violent struggle, and revolution. The empirical topics covered will address a range of rebellion under tyranny, including but not limited to rebellion during slavery in the United States, rebellion against Nazi power and the Holocaust during World War II, and resistance to colonialism and imperialism.

This course is an introduction to environmental sociology, the sociology of food, and Catholic social teachings on creation, solidarity, human dignity and rights, and social justice as they relate to the environment and food issues. The course has two directly linked central purposes. One is to learn descriptive and analytical sociological perspectives on environmental and food issues, as well as related matters of agriculture, globalization, consumerism, rural America, health, social movements, and human futures. A second purpose is to learn Catholic social teachings on the environment and food issues, in order to deepen our capacity to reflect normatively from a particular moral perspective about crucial social problems. Achieving these two purposes will require us recurrently to engage the sociological and the Catholic perspectives and contributions in mutually informative and critical conversation. This is fundamentally a sociology course, but one in which Catholic social ethics stand front and center. In other words, this course will engage in multiple, ongoing exercises of "reflexivity," engaging the sociological imagination, issues of environment and food, and Catholic social teachings - to consider what possible fruitful understandings each may provide for and about the others. Students need not be Catholic (or even religious) to benefit from this course, but everyone must be open to learning about and reflecting upon Catholic ethical teachings as they relate to the environment and food. FILM LAB IS REQUIRED, SOC 21666 This course will explore a number of interconnected substantive issues, descriptively, analytically, and normatively. These will include technological development, energy consumption, global warming/climate change, neoliberal capitalism, interests of nation states, corporate power, the role of mass media, population dynamics, the maldistribution of wealth, political decision-making, the status of science, ocean environments, extreme weather, sustainable development, environmentalist movements, agribusiness, nutrition, food supply systems, hunger and obesity, organics, fair trade, localism, agrarianism, human dignity, the common good, the option for the poor, the universal destiny of the earth's goods, creation care, and the moral goods of solidarity, subsidiarity, and participation, among other relevant topics.

Sociology 10672 / 20672 is a course designed to introduce undergraduate students to the nature and functions of religious beliefs and institutions in modern societies, with a particular emphasis on conditions in the contemporary United States. Throughout the course, a distinctively sociological perspective is employed to evaluate claims about the viability of religion in what has been called a "post-traditional" world. If in this age God is not dead, how does one account for the notable absence of religious values as animating forces outside the private lives of individuals? If God is long gone, on the other hand, what explains rapid growth in the memberships of conservative religious bodies, or the high levels of interest in non-Western spiritual practices — not to mention a global resurgence of religious particularism? These and other questions from the sociology of religion will be addressed in a survey of the field and a consideration of different American religious traditions. Lectures will cover, among other subjects, individual religious experience; social mechanisms of conversion and commitment; civil religions; religious inspirations for, or impediments to, social change; and the varied processes of secularization.

The overarching goal of this course is to provide students with a working knowledge of social psychology and, with that knowledge, to increase awareness of ourselves, the social world around us, and the connections between the two. This is a course about social interaction - how the self shapes and is shaped by others, how we interact in and with groups and social structures, and how we perceive the world around us. Because the subject of the course is the very social interactions in which we are immersed, it is expected that students will develop the habit of applying social psychological concepts to everyday life.

Introduction to Criminology provides students with an overview of the sociological study of law making, law breaking and the resulting social responses. In this class we not only look at a variety of crimes, but we also discuss the varying methods sociologists use to collect, interpret and evaluate data, as well as how we theorize about crime and punishment. We address questions such as "Why are some people or groups labeled as criminal, while others are not?" "Do laws in both their construction and enforcement serve everyone's interests equally?" "How can the communities in which people are embedded be considered as criminogenic?" "How are poverty, race, gender and other social factors related to crime?"

We are living through a watershed moment in United States history. Structural racism is at the forefront of the national discourse. Yet, the threat that racism holds on our nation's most cherished ideals of democracy and justice is hardly new. Generations of activists, scholars, and everyday people have fought and persevered to bring about social, cultural, and policy change. This course engages deeply with topics relevant to the national discourse on racial and ethnic relations in the U.S. The first part of the course examines key concepts, focusing on the social construction of race and ethnicity, prejudice, and discrimination. The second part reviews the historical experiences of Native Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and African Americans. The third and final part of the course centers on four critical issues that are especially relevant in 2020: (1) immigration; (2) political disenfranchisement; (3) racial and ethnic disparities in health; and (4) racism in the criminal justice system.

When people think about sexuality, they often adopt a biological view—seeing sexuality as “driven” by hormones and nature. This course adopts a different approach by viewing sexuality through the lens of sociology—as shaped by social processes, including social interaction, institutions, and ideologies. The course will focus on examining three sociological aspects of sexuality: 1) The social, historical, and cultural factors that shape sexual behaviors, desires, identities, and communities; 2) The ways in which sex and sexuality are constantly regulated and contested at multiple levels of society, including within families, schools, workplaces, and religious and political institutions; and 3) The sources, causes, and effects of sexual inequality. While our focus will be on sexuality, we will also study how other identities (including gender, race, class, religion, etc.) influence and affect it. Students will be encouraged to question their taken-for-granted assumptions about sex and sexualities and to formulate critical perspectives on issues pertaining to sexuality in today’s public discourses. This course is sex-positive in that it assumes that knowledge about sexuality is empowering, not dangerous. The readings and discussions will be frank, and students will be assisted in developing a language for and comfort level with discussing a wide range of sexual topics in a respectful and sociological way. In the process, students will be challenged to improve their critical thinking, researching, writing, and public speaking skills.

Most Americans think of the "inner city" as a place of misery, danger, and despair. Why do most American cities have racially segregated areas dominated by concentrated poverty? What are the lives of inner-city residents like? Why do the legal, political, economic, and educational institutions that serve these communities struggle so mightily to improve the lives of inner-city residents? In this course, we will address all of these questions by viewing all five seasons of The Wire, David Simon's epic tale of life in inner-city Baltimore. Sociological theory and research will serve as powerful tools to help students "decode" The Wire, and better understand the institutional forces that created and perpetuate inner city poverty, violence, and disorder.

This course examines representations of race, ethnicity, and ideology in the American cinema through a sociological lens. We will focus on understanding how film reflects and directs prevailing cultural norms and attitudes surrounding racial and ethnic relations. One goal is to uncover how racial and ethnic relations are reified on the silver screen through storytelling techniques such as narrative, style, aesthetics, and mise en scène. We will analyze the sociological context of each film to better understand the evolution of cinematic representations of race and ethnicity and what they mean for race relations and inequality in the broader society. This course will cover the American cinematic treatment of Native Americans, Blacks, Latinos, Asians, and Italian Americans through feature length screenings and clips of particularly poignant scenes.

Algorithms and data increasingly influence our behavior, steer resources, and inform institutional decisions that affect our everyday lives. This course will examine the social forces that shape what information gets recorded in databases and how algorithms are constructed and used. It will also introduce various approaches for assessing how algorithms and big data impact the social world. Along the way, we'll tackle important questions raised by these technological developments: What opportunities and challenges emerge when machine learning is applied to data about people? How should we evaluate whether algorithms are better or worse than the systems they replace? How might algorithms shape our agency, relationships, and access to opportunity?

Required of students registered for Prof. Christian Smith's Understanding Societies course, this lab involves viewing and discussing a series of documentary films related to the concepts and theories learned in class, about important contemporary issues related mostly to technology and the environment, such as global warming and climate change, gene editing, artificial intelligence, social surveillance, corporate power, social inequality, and the human effects of social media.

This is a required lab for students taking SOC 20666; Environment, Food, and Society.

The science we produce helps us understand the world. But how does the world around us impact how we produce and understand science? Whatever our social lives outside of the lab, in the laboratory workspace, we consider our work to be largely devoid of bias and influence from the outside world. However, the science we encounter is a product of the scientists who have gathered this knowledge - the answer to the “why” depends on “who” came up with it. The goal of this course is to consider “who”, “what”, “when”, and “where” as important questions that affect the scientist, the science they produce, and the way this science is introduced to society. We will be reading scientific literature alongside texts from the discipline of science and technology studies, focusing on the language used by science. Specifically, we will work together to uncover the history and context surrounding commonly used metaphors and critically analyze them through the lenses of race, gender, disability, and indigeneity. We will think about how these word choices impact our scientific hypotheses and interpretations, and sometimes even determines who gets to ask.

Many social science classes identify important social problems but do not offer concrete pathways to addressing them. Conversely, classes on the science of happiness emphasize concrete positive actions but focus only on what you can do to improve your own personal fulfillment. This class is different. Instead of focusing on individual happiness or self-improvement, we’ll focus on how we can enhance the social good – our shared interests and the well-being of our communities. In this class, you will become a force for social good. What can the social sciences teach us about how to work in our communities to encourage trust, belonging, care, or mutual understanding? What does social science reveal about what actually works to promote stronger communities and encourage human flourishing for others? In a world grappling with complex social challenges, this course empowers you to move beyond the paralysis of not knowing what to do. We take a positive sociology approach, learning from successful cases of social progress. You will learn how change happens and how you can make a difference in your communities, from friend groups and dorms to Notre Dame and beyond. You will reflect on your values, engage with multiple visions of the “social good,” and develop practical skills in creative problem-solving, communication, and policy analysis. Through hands-on group projects, expert guest speakers, and real-world problem hacks, you will learn how to craft actionable solutions to social issues. Adopting a “small wins” approach that celebrates positive steps forward, this course aims to have students leave with a deeper understanding of social good and also the tools and confidence to make meaningful, lasting impact. Throughout the class, you will try your hand at different sociological methods (e.g., interviews, focus groups) and kinds of interventions (e.g., accompaniment, policy briefs, or storytelling), engaging the broader Notre Dame community as an active learning environment. For your final group project, you will take what you’ve learned and design an intervention to make a difference around a social problem you feel passionate about solving. This class will offer students opportunities to engage constructively with normative questions through the lens of Catholic Social Thought. Through readings, iterative reflections, and hands-on practical experiences, you will engage with normative questions about our moral obligations to others and how a good community ought to be. You will develop a deeper understanding of sociology and the Catholic tradition by exploring key questions at their intersection, such as dignity, subsidiarity, solidarity, and accompaniment. Students’ discernment of their own normative vision for the social good will be coupled with social scientific understanding of what practical actions could help students become a force for that vision, helping you begin to act in ways that help make us a better community.

What does it mean to explore gender through a sociological lens? Why does gender inequality persist in contemporary society? What can we do to advocate for social change? In this course we will discuss gender in families, politics, and history. The class will analyze gender at an individual, interactional, and institutional level. How gender intersects with race, class, and sexuality will be the bedrock of our learning together. The course will intellectually challenge students to continue becoming sociological scholars, educated activists, and justice-seeking individuals.

This course explores the contemporary host culture through the lenses of intercultural studies. Students will learn about current cultural, societal and political themes in the host city, compare ethnic and racial identities in the host country and the U.S., and explore the experiences of diverse populations within the host country. We will examine the complexity of host culture values, beliefs, and practices and learn to identify the cultural differences and similarities between the host culture and U.S. American cultures. Students will also learn about key intercultural communication theories, frameworks and leadership practices in order to deepen their cultural self-awareness, acquire new perspectives and effectively communicate and interact with culturally different others.

This course will introduce students to the basic concepts and practices of the study of society. Students will learn central ideas such as socialization, culture, stratification, institutions, work organization, gender, ethnicity, race and globalization. They will also learn about how sociologists practice their craft by both reading about studies of current social issues - inequality, changes in family life, social movements and others - and also by carrying out small scale out-of-class research assignments. (Sociology majors need department approval in order to take this for credit toward their sociology degree.)

This course provides an interdisciplinary introduction to the ways in which Irish writers, musicians, and filmmakers have contributed to the formation of Irish identities from the cultural revival of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century to contemporary times. It considers the extent in which these artists have been actively involved in Ireland's shift from a traditional society to a modern one, particularly regarding language, gender, and the connections between imagining and reimagining Ireland and Irishness in the modern period.

Description to be provided by D. Younger in the Office of International Studies

This course explores the significance of social networks in business and social life. The focus of the course is to critically appreciate social media platforms across a variety of contexts. The course investigates issues related to the management of social media in terms of the strategies and tactics related to successful deployment and cultivation of business/social initiatives and the redefinition of the customer/user as a central element in value creation. Issues related to participatory culture, communication power, collaborative work and production, privacy and surveillance, and political economy of social media are explored in depth through the use of contemporary cases.

This module provides a broad introduction to the scholarly world of ghosts, spirits, and other supernatural beings, as well as the specialists and practitioners closely involved with these forces. These include shamanism, spirit possession, exorcism, witchcraft and sorcery, as well as other supernatural entities such as zombies, vampires, poltergeists and werewolves. We closely interrogate how these forces intersect with issues of class, gender, ethnicity, religiosity, popular culture, modernity and social change. It will include in the discussion empirical cases drawn from different parts of the world, including Singapore. Not surprisingly, given the range of societies and cultures covered, considerable differences exist.

This course aims to provide students with the analytical tools to analyze crime and deviance. It will introduce students to the theoretical underpinnings of crime and relevant policy tools to deal with crime. There will be special attention given to Italian mafia-style organized crime, specifically the Sicilian Mafia (Cosa Nostra), Neapolitan Camorra, and Calabrian 'Ndrangheta.

The aim of this course is to articulate and discuss a range of key words that are central to social work and social welfare. Such words, or phrases include: 'adoption', 'empowerment', 'dependency', 'underclass', 'anti-social behavior', 'therapy', 'care', and 'caring', 'social inclusion', 'customer' etc. Underpinning the Course is the understanding that such words, often highly contentious and subject to a range of differing interpretations, need to be examined in a critical way. In short, there is a need to try to situate such words in a sociological and political context. Moreover, words, such as these, are pivotal in terms of the experiences of those providing and receiving social work and social welfare services. The first hour each week will comprise of a contribution from the Lecturer, followed by a seminar structured around a presentation from students.

Taught as EAST 3010. This course is meant to introduce students to Chinese society and culture through a mixed set of perceptions. It will be issue-oriented, covering such issues as self, others, norms of interaction, private and public spheres, families, social status, class, gender, work-unit (danwei), etc. The course will address some seemingly well-known contradictions in Chinese society and culture and will explore their underlying causes and the complexities of the issues involved.

Do people of different age groups, origins, genders and professions speak differently? For example, how does youth language differ from technical language or migrant German? And how do language contact, identities and language attitudes (extra-linguistic factors) and grammaticalization (intra-linguistic factor) influence language? The seminar introduces the central concepts, theories and methods of sociolinguistics. You will become familiar with ways of determining and analyzing linguistic variation and variability in society and carry out your own sociolinguistic analyses of language use in German. Using a mini-interview, you will try out a method for sociolinguistic surveys based on selected parameters (e.g. age, origin, level of education). You will also gain an overview of the diverse areas of application of sociolinguistic research.

A cultural tour of the French provinces through a historical, artistic, and gastronomic approach. Readings at an intermediate level will help define the identity of each region, as well as their contribution to the national mosaic known as the hexagonal France of today. This course counts as a cognate towards a French major.

In today's world, the rapid evolution of digital media, the internet, and social networking brings constant change. Developments in information and communications technologies radically shape and reshape the ways in which we work, socialise, learn, communicate, spend our leisure time, and generally manage our daily lives, although the effects are not the same for all people across the globe. Social, political, educational and economic inequalities, which amplify the "digital divide," mean that the benefits and advantages of digital technologies are not equally shared by all. The changes in our information landscape have also altered our understanding of "literacy", as information is presented in new and dynamic formats, which require new forms of interpretation. What does it mean to be "literate" in the 21st century? How can we effectively navigate this new digital landscape and tell if the information we see can be believed and trusted?An essential skill today is the ability to identify high quality and trustworthy digital information that servesour needs in different situations. Recent worldwide events have clearly demonstrated the importance of distinguishing true from false information. However, the knowledge and skills required to find and evaluate digital information that we consume online through search engines, websites and apps are not innate or automatic -they must be learned. In this module, you will learn to act as savvy digital judges, exploring the world of digital information and social media, to empower you to identify, access, evaluate, use, create and share trustworthy digital information in personal, professional, and academic contexts. We will also consider the ways in which digital and social media are transforming the world, through exploring topical issues such as "fake news," search personalisation and algorithms, online privacy, personal reputation management and digital footprints, in order to understand the potential consequences of your online activities.

Italy's deep-rooted network of local food knowledge is an excellent example for students to understand what food culture is, how food scenarios changed with industrialization, and how they are evolving further today. This course presents students with the basic tools necessary for better understanding Italian food culture. Its broad perspective encompasses traditional farming and processing techniques, the industrial and global food economy and changing consumption habits. Its anthropological approach draws from classical and modern writing. Italy is world-famous for its produce diversity and vibrant peasant traditions. By exploring the complex set of influences forming the Italian food culture, students will acquire an analytical approach enabling them to read through the other "foodscapes" that they encounter in their home country or abroad, and eventually choose, value and embrace career paths into the food sector. Even apparently simple, everyday food staples contain layers of significance connecting to the following topics: the peculiar man-nature relationship needed for their production; preserving and cooking techniques; the influences from foreign cooking philosophies and/or crops; the pressure of the global market; and the type of socialization involved during the meal.

IC - University of Galway, Ireland: The Celtic languages remain media of communication to a greater or lesser extent in communities scattered on the western fringe of twenty-first century Europe, in Ireland, Britain and Brittany. They are the survivors of a history traceable over two and a half thousand years encompassing, at one time, nearly the whole of western Europe and much of central and eastern Europe. The modern Celtic languages interact in various ways with the societies in which they are embedded, the official and unofficial institutions of those societies (government, legislation, industry, etc.), and with the wider cultures of the countries where they are used. The module will introduce the student to the study of the Celtic languages in these contexts, the sociolinguistics of the Celtic languages, and consider the ways in which they are endangered as languages of the lives and thoughts of the people who use them. It will also consider ways in which their existence and status can be strengthened and expanded, through language planning.

In this class we will discuss how the royal family of Denmark has had a large impact on the history, architecture, urban planning, and art world of the country. A comparative study of other European royal families will be included as well as a look into American "royal" families, such as the Kennedys and Obamas. How do Americans and other nations perceive the Danish royal family? Why is it that people seem to need these figures in society? How come that a slightly anachronistic institution seems to work frictionless in an unchallenged balance with a nation of today? What is the role of the media and how do the royal family act with the press? Is there a future to a monarchy as an institution in the years to come? Several visits to royal castles, collections, and monuments in and outside Copenhagen will be included, as well as visits to various museums.

This course focuses on concrete and innovative solutions that reshape our connection to food. These solutions recognize and address the environmental and social impacts of food. Critical questions include: What is the true cost of food? How can we achieve more sustainable diets while producing less waste? Does food activism make a difference? What do pioneering restaurants and food entrepreneurs teach us? How do cities help shape more sustainable food practices?

The theme of the course is social change in Hong Kong since the Post-War period. The focus is on how industrialization, urbanization, globalization and modernity affect our everyday lives, institutions, relationships and identities.

Athens, Greece (AG): In this course, we will be using authenticity as the starting point of our explorations: what are the many ways that the search for authenticity has shaped our food cultures? And what is the history behind societys concern for the authentic?

This course introduces students to the complexities of contemporary Italian society, taking a primarily 'bottom-up' social science approach by examining a wide variety of contexts and exploring the ways in which Italians express, negotiate and transform their cultural and social identities. By drawing on a growing body of anthropological and sociological research, it provides students with the tools to question rigid and dated assumptions about Italian social life and enables them to analyze its multifaceted, dynamic and often contradictory forms and practices, focusing primarily on the last two decades. Students are first introduced to key theoretical and methodological approaches in the sociological and anthropological study of contemporary Italy. We then examine local identities in urban contexts, how families and gender roles are transforming, and the pressures produced by the current economic crisis, as well as exploring why increasing numbers of Italians are returning to rural livelihoods. Next, we discuss life in the Italian work-place and the effects that de-industrialization, technological development and precarious work contracts are having on professional and class identities. We analyze the rising appeal of populist and 'anti-political' discourses and figures and then focus on how Italy's strong civic movements are struggling to improve social life 'from below'. Among the issues tackled are ones traditionally relegated to the private domain, such as disabilities and sexual identities. Lastly, we examine how migration is changing social and cultural life as the country becomes increasingly multiethnic, how religious (and secular) identities are expressed, and the effects that Italy's dramatic brain-drain is having within the country.

"Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you who you are." Quite possibly the most famous words in the entire history of food-writing, that phrase - issued by 19th-century epicure Brillat-Savarin - has never been truer than it is today. Food has always been closely linked to identity, but in the past two decades, it has also become the focus of a host of issues - everything from the industrialization of farming to the integration of immigrants - that reflect cultural, social, and even political values. In this course, we will look at the nexus between what you eat and who you are by focusing on food culture in Denmark, which has a deeply-rooted culinary tradition that was shaped by geography, religion, and demographics. But in recent years it has also shot to the forefront of the gastronomic world, producing a distinctive kind of cutting-edge cuisine ('new Nordic' ) that has turned its chefs into celebrities and its restaurants into the object of international pilgrimage. We'll investigate how those transformations have come about, and what they have meant - culturally, economically, and even artistically - for the society that produced them. But we will not just be exploring the world of fine dining; we will also focus on other aspects of food culture in Denmark, such as the impact of industrial agriculture and the rise of alternatives; growing concerns about the relationship between diet and public health; and the impact of immigration on cuisine (and vice versa). In field studies in Copenhagen, we'll expand that exploration by talking to chefs, producers, and food historians about what Danes eat, and what it reveals about their culture.

Social Media (or Social Networks) constitute the spear of the Writable Web that is causing massive changes in traditional mediating models. Human and institutional communication is going through tremendous change, with individual wisdom directly competing with mass media operations. Peer online activity and shared material create multiple instances of media experiences for users who are engaged in a constant selection process, either browsing on a homepage of an online newspaper or through Facebook posts. Traditional media, despite their heavy online investments are challenged in terms of their role as leading intermediaries between institutional sources and society. Studies have suggested that peer-shared material via deep links to websites constitute a significant point of entry for an increasing population of social network users, who tend to ignore pre-arranged syntheses of news stories on mainstream homepages. THE GREEK CASE: During the crisis years in Greece, online public dialogue has experienced a substantial growth, not only amongst people, but also between audiences and established media that, increasingly see news content being put under scrutiny (sometimes even ridicule) by producers-users (or producers), who are active online. Traditional political forces have similar experiences, trying to keep up with developments. During the crisis years in Greece, social media users/voters have boosted political discourse via social networks, contributing, sharing or commenting on on-going developments. At the same time, crisis at a political level has caused the disintegration of old political formations accompanied by the demise of, until then, dominant political rhetoric and messaging systems. Social media functions of mainstream politics remained in the margins of creativity, playing a minimal role amongst potential voters.

This course is taught in the ND Angers, France program. Intended for students with advanced language skills, this course focuses on the rhythms and structures of everyday life (work, school, politics, food, fashion, the media) and on patterns of behavior characteristic of the French.

In general, Japanese education has a bad reputation. Some scholars point out that bullying is widespread. Certainly there is a dark side, but there is also a lot to acknowledge and learn from. This course aims to look at Japanese education critically, yet with a multidisciplinary perspective and an objective balance, in order to gain a deeper understanding of contemporary Japan. Each week, there will be assignments of approximately 15-30 pages that everyone is required to read before class, and attention will be given during class to exploring the issues raised in these assignments, deepening analytic understanding, and articulating both a personal and academic response.

This unit of study examines the main sociological approaches to childhood and youth in modern industrial societies, as well as the ways in which particular perspectives on childhood are central to all social theory. It will examine the debates surrounding the historical development of childhood, and the various approaches to the impact of state intervention and social policies on both the experiences of childhood and youth and the transition to adulthood. Specific topics discussed include; the social construction of child abuse, youth homelessness and youth criminality as social problems, the stolen generations, children and the law, the fertility decline, and the differentiation of childhood experience along lines of class, gender, race and ethnicity.

This course reviews the main theoretical and conceptual approaches developed to understand aging and old age from different disciplines of the Social Sciences. Contemporary approaches and perspectives are addressed in this regard, promoting analysis from an interdisciplinary perspective. The course has as a central premise that both the understanding of the aging process and the quality of life in old age are challenges of contemporary society, and that they must be approached in a proactive way, considering guidelines that allow them to be investigated and intervened.

In this course, students will participate in several Toledo institutions related to the immigration phenomenon in Spain, collaborating directly either with the immigrant population or with the Spaniards who are working with them (each student's profile and availability will determine that student's placement). This ongoing exchange and collaboration will continue in the classroom, since the language and culture contents will be built by the students and teacher from readings, work experience, and constant debate. At the end of the course, a workshop day will be held to which collaborating institutions, students, and anyone from Toledo who wants to participate will be invited.

This class provides students with an understanding of children's health, health behaviours, and theories about health. The module reviews existing national and international policies and programmes addressing children's health and children's access and interaction with the health services.

The course introduces students to the emerging field of urban studies connected to climate change issue. At the end of the course, students will have a knowledge about the relationship between two global driving forces - urbanization and climate change, different theoretical and methodological tools to explore how the transformation of cities facing climate change is being understood, managed and achieved, different approaches promoting more sustainable and resilient forms of urbanization and urban life.

This course is an introduction to food studies focusing on the social organization of food in contemporary industrial societies. Assigned readings, discussions, and assignments will apply theoretical concepts from food studies to understanding Japanese food culture. Individual and group activities outside the classroom will help students develop a hands-on approach to food culture.

The aim of this course is to provide an awareness of the importance of GIS to building Smart Cities and the ways in which the technology can be integrated with other ICT in order to support different aspects in urban development. It will present Smart City concepts and applications and also cover the operation skills needed to use GIS software and geospatial cloud technology to build web-based GIS applications.

The Sustainable Development Goals were set up by the United Nations in 2015. This course explores how Hong Kong responds and reacts to various issues related to sustainable urban living. As a global city with unique cultural, historical, economic and political setups, sustainability is a pressing concern and holds the key to the long term urban development of Hong Kong. The emphasis of the course is on understanding sustainable urban development in the context of a high density, market oriented Asian world city.

In this module, students will engage in sociological understanding of health and illness with emphasis on the social/political/economic/cultural factors that affect conceptualisation and lived-out experience of health and illness. Study of health and illness will cover the individual, societal and institutional levels with particular exploration of intersections between health, gender, sexuality, religion and human rights.

This module seeks to equip you with basic research and analytical skills that are needed to understand and respond to social policy problems. Its main focus is on statistical data available in online databases that are widely used to describe such problems and design policy solutions to them. You will learn about major relevant databases for Ireland and the EU and will receive guidance and hands-on experience on how to access those databases, search through them for data on specific social policy topics, select and extract particular relevant indicators into Excel spreadsheets, present the data in graphs and tables, and write brief descriptive commentaries on what the data reveal. For illustrative purposes, the module will focus on unemployment as a representative social problem and will concentrate on analysing that problem and policy responses to it in Ireland and in the EU. A special focus will be on the impact of Covid-19 on the labour market and its effects on employment and unemployment among younger cohorts in particular.

In this course, you will study harm reduction, both in theory and practice, as a health care strategy for at-risk populations such as intravenous drug-users, undocumented migrants, prisoners, sex workers and homeless people. These subpopulations are not easily targeted through conventional programs in health care delivery or health promotion within the general population (e.g. workplace safety, screening programs, vaccination schemes or visitation to elderly care). Their disproportionate risk and burden of disease often coincide with a social vulnerability and factors such as legal restraints, stigma, or lack inaccessibility to health care services. Some of the health care strategies we are going to work with are Needle Exchange Programs (NEP), social nurses, shelters for homeless individuals, open prisons, decriminalization of drug use and sex work, and health clinics for undocumented migrants

The first part of this module deals with theories of globalization. Globalization and Development are two much discussed and debated concepts. How should we understand and address them today? How are they linked? What are the trends in both globalization and development? What should we be concerned about? How is our understanding of both globalization and development changing in light of the current global economic crisis? We will investigate the trends that are going to shape the world in the coming decades: increased interconnectedness, crises in existing economic, political and social institutions within nations and internationally; increasing pressure on natural resources; huge demographic shifts; a shifting in the geo-political balance of power, specifically the rise of China and India.

SOC 30270 at UCD; In this module we will examine the complex relationships between war, violence and society. The aim is to explore the sociological aspects of traditional and modern forms of organised violence in a comparative geographical and historical perspective. The course is particularly focused on the theoretical and socio-historical interpretations that link war and organised violence with the development of modern industrial societies. More specifically, the emphasis is placed on the dramatic and radical changes in the relationship between war, organised violence and society over the last two centuries. The module examines the significance of war and violence as a source of social cohesion and conflict, their role in the formation of modernity and contemporary nation-states, their link with the nationalist ideologies and a number of more specific topics such as war propaganda and battlefield solidarity, war and social stratification, gendering of war, as well as the changing character of warfare and violence in the 21st century. (May not have taken ND's SOC 20541 because of content overlap.)

The aim of this module is to understanding the role of immigration in shaping modern Ireland, how the Irish nation-state has responded to recent large-scale immigration and the challenges of integrating immigrants with a particular focus on the role of social policy. The module consists of three blocks: (1) Migration and the making of Ireland: 6 lectures on how emigration and immigration has shaped Irish society since 1600. Lectures will include some case studies - Palatines, Huguenots, Jews - as well as consider how Irish emigrants fared during this period in the United States, the United Kingdom in Europe. (2) Racism, Rights and the Irish Nation-State: 6 lectures focus on Irish responses to refugees, asylum seekers and migrant workers, on issues relating to citizenship and the politics of immigration. (3) Social Policy Challenges and Integration: 6 lectures focus on the role of social policy in fostering integration and upon specific Irish debates about integration. The Republic of Ireland is examined comparatively.

This is an interdisciplinary course which alternates between scales of public space and street design to urban policy and planning, with an aim to equip students with the ability to think critically about and play an active role in the creation of livable cities. In this course, we will explore urban livability through three lenses. 1. Theory: Livability on Paper: What are the key principles of livability - terminology, definitions, factors, indicators, measures, metrics and rankings 2. Practice: Livability in Reality: Using Copenhagen as a laboratory, we will explore when, where, and what the parameters are for urban livability, in terms of societal context - what shapes our parameters for well-being- and physical context - the tangible environment and how we shape our urban landscape 3. Implementation: Facilitating Urban Change: What are the mechanisms for fostering urban livability, who are the different stakeholders, and how are they involved.

A study of the way that figures and institutions with authority transfer political values and the way that these values eventually become part of the political culture. In some cases certain people question the existing values and become involved in political protest and violence. The latter phenomena, as well as tolerance and conventional political participation, are studied

This course delves deep into the role of religion in contemporary society and its influence on social integration, identity, and political transformation on a global scale. We have studied both old and new sociologists and philosophers to try to explain contemporary themes. By exploring themes such as secularism, religious activism, and the evolution of a multitude of belief systems spanning religions, cults, and terrorist organizations, the course reveals how religious movements influence societal values and policy across different regions. We examine recent news events weekly and engage with case studies to understand how faith traditions and spiritual identities impact global development, fostering a deep appreciation for religion's role in contemporary social transformations.

This section of the module is inter-disciplinary and will draw upon research linked to Youth Studies, Sociology, Criminology, Psychology and Social Policy. The core aim is to provide students with an in-depth, research-based understanding of youth, adolescence, and emerging adulthood. The course will focus on key theoretical approaches to understanding youth in society and will consider a range of substantive issues and areas within contemporary research on both 'mainstream' and 'marginalised' youth, but with a strong emphasis on youth 'at risk', including homeless youth, young people with care experience, and young people who use drugs. Varying approaches to the study of youth will be reviewed and we will explore how social and economic forces influence the lives and experiences of young people generally and marginalised youth in particular.

The aim of this module is to introduce students to a broad range of theoretical and substantive debates about different aspects of crime and deviance. Crime is a hugely prominent aspect of social life but public and political debate surrounding it often emphasizes the extreme or the atypical and as a result our understanding of these issues does not always reflect the full social context or dynamics involved. How and why we define behaviour as deviant or criminal can reflect a variety of factors - including morality, tradition and power relations - and defining behaviour in that way can have very significant consequences for those directly involved as well as for wider society. Because of this, it is important to understand why people engage in behaviour that breaches social norms or criminal laws, why such behaviour is more likely to occur under particular conditions, and how these issues affect different groups in society

What is crime? Why are we so fascinated by it? Why do people commit crimes and what are the best deterrents? How do we assess the success or failure of policing, incarceration and rehabilitation strategies? This course examines the politics underlying how crimes are defined and measured and what patterns of criminal behavior have thus emerged over time. It explores both classical and contemporary theories that seek to explain why certain people engage in crimes while others do not. It also explores how theories of crime affect policy, it evaluates existing strategies of crime control, and introduces a critical discussion of how contemporary criminal justice systems operate.

"Law and order" has been a common refrain from American politicians in recent years, but what does it actually mean? What exactly is "law and order"? How have its meanings changed over time? And what are the consequences of "law and order policies for those in the criminal justice system? Throughout the module you'11 explore the changing nature of criminal justice in the United States, drawing on a range of legal, political, and historical sources. You'll learn to place legal changes in their political context and to consider the implications of legal and political debates about crime and punishment for those in the criminal justice system. You'll learn to read Supreme Court cases for their legal and political implications as well as gaining skills in managing a range of primary and secondary sources. You'll also develop your critical thinking and writing skills. In this module you'll take a tour through the American criminal justice system, beginning with police investigations and following through arrest, trial, and punishment. At each stage you'll consider how the process has changed over time, why those changes have taken place, and with what consequences. You'll explore legal and constitutional debates about the civil rights of suspects and the accused (including the so-called "right to silence" and the right to a lawyer), as well as considering contemporary political and policy debates which shaped those debates (for example, gangsters and Prohibition or the impact of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s). By the end of the module you'll have developed a deeper understanding of how law, policy, and politics interact to shape criminal justice and see how "justice" is a product of the times in which we live. You'll learn through self-directed study and seminars. By the end of the module you will have a better understanding of key issues in American history and politics. You will have strengthened your reasoning, analytical, and debating skills and further developed your writing and oral communication skills.

This course takes a more sociological and anthropological approach to investigate ancient Greek society. This course examines ancient Greek perspectives on political, social, economic, and cultural realms to gain a broader understanding of their way of life and how it is similar to modern Greek society.

In this course students are introduced to critical theories which examine the sociological, psychological, and cultural aspects of human interaction. Students develop the capacity to critically explore social norms and assumptions and to examine their construction and legitimacy. This process enables them to identify the underlying power dimensions and the implications of these for a just society. Classic and contemporary social psychological theories, concepts, and experiments are examined and provide the stimulus for critical debate and analysis. In particular, the manner in which discourse influences identity construction, subject positioning, and social systems is identified and analysed. Students emerge with a deeper understanding of their own values and beliefs with the potential to become an engaged social critic.

This module provides an introduction to the field of social stratification and inequalities. Social stratification is one of the most important topics in sociology because everything we study is directly or indirectly related to inequalities; its causes, its consequences, and its implications for social policy. We will cover the major theoretical perspectives, ranging from classical to contemporary, that have animated the field. We will also examine a diverse range of substantive topics, with a particular focus on education. As a critical social institution, education plays a dual role in enabling individuals' status attainment while also contributing to the reproduction of social inequalities. The module explores questions such as: How is access to education unequally distributed? In what ways might education contribute to social mobility or reinforce inequality? How does a meritocratic system based on educational attainment help maintain existing social hierarchies? Drawing on a range of sociological perspectives, the module provides a critical understanding of the role of education in contemporary systems of social stratification.

This course explores how artificial intelligence (AI) will impact society and the economy. It covers key topics such as ethics, social justice, and the benefits and existential risks of AI. Throughout the course, students will learn about AI through by using AI to complete various tasks. The course is designed around active learning exercises encouraging students to develop hybrid critical thinking skills, which leverage generative AI to extend their natural human capabilities. Students will be expected to learn how to maximize the benefits gained from AI assistance while avoiding potential pitfalls. The course employs a range of assessment methods, including group projects and individual reflection journals, to foster both collaborative learning and personal growth.

This course offers a comprehensive examination of children's rights, focusing on their birth, and development and on the legal frameworks that promote them at the international level. Students explore the historical, political and legal dimensions of children's rights, with particular attention to key international conventions and treaties. The course addresses significant issues such as child protection, violence against children, childhood in the digital age, child labor, inter-country adoptions, child sexual exploitation, and educational rights. The course provides students with the tools to critically assess and engage with policies and legal practices affecting children and their rights.

Gender Studies is an interdisciplinary field that examines gender and sexuality. This course offers an introduction to historical and current debates taking place within gender studies. Students will explore historical and contemporary feminist, masculinity and queer theories, paying close attention to both local and global issues, and learning the tools for critically engaging issues related to gender.

The course will address major issues in the history of Antisemitism in the last seventy years.

This course offers an insight into the fundamentals of urban planning theory and practice. Students will learn about the history and evolution of urban planning, will analyze its implementation in both Chile and other parts of the world, and will investigate the effects of various urban planning practices at the municipal, inter-municipal, and national levels.

The United Nations estimates that an unprecedented 71 million people around the world have been forced to flee from their respective homes. Among them are nearly 26 million refugees, half of whom are under the age of 18. Media and social science scholarship represent refugees as passive recipients of western aid and avoid critical examination of the global and historical conditions that create "refugees."This course introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of critical refugee studies (CRS) to re-conceptualize the refugee not as a problem to be solved but as a site of social and political critiques. CRS illuminates the processes of colonization, war, and displacement. This course examines militarism and migration as well as refugee voices written in their own words. We will assess a variety of sources, including oral history, ethnography, art, graphic novels, and interdisciplinary scholarship from humanities and social science.

This class will survey the various historical and contemporary dimensions of Asian American experiences including immigration & integration, family & community dynamics, ethnic/gender/class identity, as well as transnational and diasporic experiences. We will explore contemporary and historical issues of racism, the model minority myth, inter-generational relationships, and the educational experiences of Asian Americans. To accomplish this, our class will pose such questions as: Who is Asian American? How did racism create Chinatown? Is there an Asian advantage? Coursework includes essays based on topics of your choice, presentations, and a creative narrative.

This course offers a critical examination of what it means to be an immigrant or child of immigrants through scholarly works, memoirs, blogs, and popular journalism. Since the liberalization of immigration policy in 1965, immigrants from Latin America and Asia are becoming an increasing and emergent demographic of American society. In major American cities such as Los Angeles and New York, they comprise over 50% of the population. This course focuses on how immigrants and the children of immigrants experience the United States. How are immigrants changing the US racial and ethnic structure? How do their experiences differ given varying legal statuses? How is the second generation becoming American? We will explore these questions through readings that focus on family, religion, education, dating and sexuality. This course will include a community based learning component where students will work with immigrant serving organizations. Students will have the option to teach citizenship classes or to work with immigrant children. Service will be 2-3 hours per week outside of class.

In the 20th century, the “Mall” was an indelible component of the American Dream. It was a social, economic, and cultural space that signified American prosperity alongside automobile and home ownership. However, in the 21st century, the mall is no longer the center of conspicuous consumption in the US. Instead, it has become a site of fiscal crisis, it has been dislodged from the cultural imagination, and it has firmly been replaced by Amazon and Instacart as the premier intermediaries of consumption. While its physical “ruins “have become a dystopic reminder of decline, stagnation, and obsolesce illustrating what happens when capital is injected and then forcibly extracted from the landscape. This course will examine the complex relationship between the “Mall” and American culture through popular culture, print media, digital media, planning and zoning ordinances, retail practices, and technological innovation. From the Mall of America in Minneapolis to The Grove in Los Angeles to The Galleria in Houston, the “Mall” will serve as an entry point to think about America at its current moment. Central to this course will be understanding the roles that technology, consumer culture, and capital accumulation and dispossession play in contemporary US culture.

This course examines the histories, politics, and lived experiences of deportation and detention in the United States. Drawing on scholarship from ethnic studies, sociology, and law, the course explores how immigration enforcement and removal policies have been shaped by race, empire, and global migration from Chinese exclusion to the current moment. Particular attention is given to Asian American deportation experiences, including those involving communities from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, alongside Latine, African, and other migrant communities. The course also examines transnational lives after return, including family separation, health, labor integration, and community organizing across borders. Through analysis of memoir, oral histories, policy, film, and media, students will consider stories of resistance and abolition, as well as how deportation reshapes families, social mobility, and identities.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) has emerged as a crucial skill in the workforce, especially with the advent and accessibility of generative AI technologies. From intelligent chatbots and virtual assistants to automated content creation and sentiment analysis, NLP applications are transforming industries and redefining how we interact with technology. Mastery of NLP techniques and tools not only opens doors to careers in the technology sector but also equips students to contribute to innovations that shape our future. Language Processing in Practice is a hands-on course designed to introduce students to the fundamental theory and applications of NLP, with a special emphasis on working with large language models, generative AI, and the Hugging Face ecosystem. The course focuses on practical techniques for processing, analyzing, generating, and understanding human language data. Students will explore key topics such as text preprocessing, tokenization, part-of-speech tagging, parsing, sentiment analysis, topic modeling, machine translation, and text generation. The curriculum places a strong emphasis on modern NLP libraries and frameworks like NLTK, spaCy, and particularly Hugging Face Transformers. Through a series of projects and assignments, students will gain experience in building NLP applications, creating word embeddings with pre-trained large language models, and generating human-like text using generative AI models. Basic proficiency in Python programming is required.

We are living through a watershed moment in United States history. Structural racism is at the forefront of the national discourse. Yet, the threat that racism holds on our nation's most cherished ideals of democracy and justice is hardly new. Generations of activists, scholars, and everyday people have fought and persevered to bring about social, cultural, and policy change. This course engages deeply with topics relevant to the national discourse on racial and ethnic relations in the U.S. The first part of the course examines key concepts, focusing on the social construction of race and ethnicity, prejudice, and discrimination. The second part reviews the historical experiences of Native Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and African Americans. The third and final part of the course centers on four critical issues that are especially relevant in 2020: (1) immigration; (2) political disenfranchisement; (3) racial and ethnic disparities in health; and (4) racism in the criminal justice system.

Sociology 30900 is a course that is meant to introduce the undergraduate students who enroll, most of whom are majors in sociology, to the origins, development, and uses of sociological theory. In that pursuit, the course seeks to explain how theoretical ideas emerge, how perspectives are framed, and how vantage points for viewing society and its operations shift over time. To achieve these ends, special attention is devoted to prominent thinkers, both "classical" and contemporary, in the history of social thought, from the early critics of modern industrialism like Karl Marx to ironic commentators on present-day social practices such as Erving Goffman. "Foundations of Sociological Theory" is also a "writing-intensive" course in the liberal-arts curriculum. This means that students in the class, at the same time that they are reading and studying theory, will work on improving their skills as writers of clear, objective, and persuasive prose.

Sociology 30902 is designed to provide an overview of research methods in the social sciences. Topics covered include (1) hypothesis formulation and theory construction; (2) the measurement of sociological variables; and (3) data collection techniques - experimental, survey, and observational. At the end of the course, students should appreciate both the strengths and the limitations of sociological research methods.

.We frequently encounter statements or claims based on statistics, such as: "Women earn less than men," "The American population is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse," or "Married people are healthier than unmarried people." On what information are these statements based? What kinds of evidence support or refute such claims? How can we assess their accuracy? This course will show students how to answer these sorts of questions by interpreting and critically evaluating statistics commonly used in the analysis of social science data. Hands-on data analysis and interpretation are an important part of the course. You will gain the skills to conduct quantitative data analysis using a statistical software package. You should finish the course with the ability to interpret, question, and discuss statistics accurately and with an understanding of which type of statistic is appropriate for different kinds of data and research questions. No prior statistical knowledge is required. This course is ideal for students interested in the social and/or life sciences as well as business and/or law. Students are strongly encourage to take the optional course SOC 31903, "Tutorial for SOC Statistics"

This rigorous, hands-on, interdisciplinary seminar prepares students to design and execute an independent international field research project. The course enhances your ability to conduct your own research, but also teaches techniques that will be useful for the rest of your academic studies, and for understanding research results presented to you through popular press in your life after college. This class is unique because throughout, your learning and work are geared specifically to your selected research interests. The first part of the class guides students through the steps of refining a research project and preparing a research proposal. The second part of the class will help students hone their ability to conduct research through a series of research practicums: students get hands-on experience in a variety of methodological approaches through research conducted in the local area. Because of the over-arching nature of the course, we will touch on topics of research design, such as developing a research question, a theoretical framework, and hypothesis testing, as well as analysis of data and evidence. However, we encourage students to see this course as a complement, rather than a substitute, for discipline specific research methods and analysis courses.

Tutorial section accompanying Statistics for Social Research (SOC 30903). The tutorial will include statistical programming (for example, in Stata or R) and problem solving that applies statistical concepts covered in the main course lecture.

Work on a real-world project that can impact Native American education in the present while learning the history that shaped the modern era. Native American Education is deeply intertwined with American history, education, and policy. The current American government is seriously investigating the past uses of education as a tool for assimilation (and worse) in Native American communities. In 2022 the Pope went to Canada and apologized for the role the Church played in the residential boarding schools, and the Subcommittee on Native American issues for the USCCB is investigating the same here in the United States. This course blends primary source historical work with active and engaging projects with Native communities to engage students in both history and historical thought to do consulting and problem-solving that will help shape real policy in the present day! This class promises to be like no other course you’ve had and get you working with others in truly collaborative manners very quickly in the semester. Not in ESS? Write me and see what accommodation we can make!

This course provides an introductory overview of the sociology major and the opportunities students have within the Sociology Department and the Arts and Letters College, as well as across the University. The course has a practical focus. Some classes are devoted to equipping students with knowledge and skills that will serve them as they progress through the major. Other classes focus on future plans, such as entering the work force, going on to graduate or professional school, and performing service after the baccalaureate. The idea of "career as vocation" is also explored. This course is for one credit, pass/fail, and is required of all sociology majors.

Discussions about curriculum and pedagogy in education have, for the most part, been limited and limiting, exploring curriculum as a written plan of study (often handed down by the state or a district) and pedagogy as the mere equivalence of teacher instruction. Using some foundational and contemporary theories in education combined with those with ideas from public pedagogy and cultural studies, the intent of this course is to broaden and complexify our understandings of curriculum and pedagogy - what they are, what they entail, where and by whom they are enacted, and, mostly, what they "do" in education when conceived in more broader terms. Using a variety of texts, both in and outside of education, we will explore how pedagogy and curriculum combine with the "public" to operate - to -educate - in "spaces"like a college campus, a theme park, a museum, a textbook, a classroom, a mall or grocery store, or through popular cultural texts such as film, advertising, social media, and/or newspapers. Going back and forth between discussions of curricular artifacts and pedagogical understandings in education proper and those public "texts" noted above, we will examine how curriculum and pedagogy operate in both formal and informal educational settings, what one may learn from the other, and, in the process, re-imagine what these terms could mean in the context of K-12 education.

The course analyzes the founding elements of Latin American culture but also considers the processes of cultural change in an environment of modernization and development. A diversity of perspectives and topics related primarily to the continent's religious, political, and economic culture are collected. National variants of Latin American culture also have their place within the course

The course seeks to provide tools to make proposals for change and innovation, proposing alternatives and intervention strategies in the face of organizational challenges in both the public and private spheres, marked by socio-environmental conflicts and controversies. Through a written evaluation, activities in classes and a project, various methodological repertoires of participation, conflict and controversy management will be analyzed, relieving the role of sociology training in these processes both from the strategic, tactical and operational point of view.

Learning outcomes At the end of the course, students are supposed to have knowledge of fundamental social changes in terms of values and life models and their impact on cultural production and reception; they develop theoretical skills to facilitate the sociological framing, understanding, and explanation of such phenomena; they can analyze cultural trends and their impact on social processes; they are familiar with the cultural dimension of the social morphogenesis of various societal domains, e.g. the agencies of socialization and the life-worlds of local communities; work, civic and political participation; and cultural participation within various social, economic and political organizations. The course might lead to professional opportunities in the field of cultural institutions, the cultural and creative industry, mass media and journalism, involved in processes of cultural production and especially of audience development and engagement. Course contents The course is articulated in two sections. The first one introduces and defines the field of sociology of culture, the second one deals with the relationships between institutions and agencies within the cultural system, focusing on cultural practice conceived as promotion of capability and production of social capital.

This unit examines the relationship between terrorism and globalisation. Explores themes of massacre, ethnic cleansing, and terrorism in the context of social uncertainty and crises in nation states. Examines the production of victims and the process of cultural symbolisation of the body and the new social and political imaginaries emerging. Examines the uses of victimhood in trying to escape terror and achieve reconciliation. Draws on the work of Scarry, Kristeva, Appadurai, Nordstrom, Foucault, Zulaika and Taussig.

Humanity is facing an unprecedented ecological crisis for which it is the main driving force. Scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change often express a concern that we may be approaching a tipping point for climate-induced events: a threshold beyond which it will no longer be possible to go back. This prospect does not breed optimism and hardly encourages action. Yet, people can counteract these dramatic changes, not only as consumers by reducing their carbon footprint, but also through their roles as investors, employees, community members, influencers, and citizens. Although globally, people report high levels of concern for climate change and a high willingness to act, this concern is often not reflected in people¿s actual behavior. What can explain this gap between people¿s reported desire to protect the environment and the lack of collective action around the environmental crises? Many factors can act as barriers to climate action, such as people¿s tendency to favor short-term outcomes over long-term outcomes, the tension between seeking a high social status and reducing one¿s carbon footprint, the feeling that it may be too late to act, or the feeling that taking action is only worth it if others are also taking action. By understanding these psychological and social barriers to climate action, policymakers and community leaders can pave the way for effective collective action.

This course provides a basic overview of the social psychological principles that describe and explain the development and functions of attitudes (beliefs-stereotypes, feelings-prejudice, and behavior-discrimination) and how these influence relationships on an individual and group basis. These social psychological principles will then be used to analyze the development of and institutionalization of racism within the cultural-historical context of South Africa - one that is defined by intergroup conflict between the English and Afrikaans cultural groups, the tribal conflicts among the African tribes, as well as the black-white apartheid conflict. This portion of the course contextualizes the psychological in the historical-cultural-economic context. Finally, the course culminates in reading and discussing the words and life of Nelson Mandela whose response to institutionalized racism that oppressed his people and resulted in his incarceration for 27 years was one of reconciliation. Questions dealing with appropriate responses to negative attitudes as well as programs or policies to change existing negative attitudes or prevent the development their future development will be discussed. This course will count as a 30000-level course for psychology majors or as a college social science requirement for students in the College of Arts and Letters.

This course offers an introduction to sociological theory. The course explores key issues in the philosophy of social science and the development and evaluation of social theory. It places emphasis on the connection between sociological theory and underlying philosophical commitments, on the central intellectual and conceptual problems in social theorizing, and on the major traditions or schools of sociological theory that have developed as responses to those problems. We will pay particular attention to classic sociological works of Tocqueville, Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and others, reading significant selections of their original works. Additionally, this course fulfill the Sociolgical Theory requirement for Sociology majors and minors.

Social investigation and research methods are important means for people to understand and understand society, explain social phenomena, discover social problems, explain and predict social development changes. Through this course, students can master the basic principles, procedures, specific operation methods and applications of social research methods. It can carry out appropriate and effective research design for specific research problems and research purposes, and can be skilled in the use of statistical investigation, field research and experimental and literature analysis methods widely used in social research to carry out standardized, systematic and in-depth research on actual social phenomena.

This course is an exploration of some of the historical and political conditions that make intercultural communication possible, the barriers that exist to effective intercultural communication, and possible solutions to the problem of misunderstanding. The course also examines examples of differences in communication styles not only between cultures but also within.

Community remains an enduring, albeit contested, concept despite claims of its disappearance in the modern age. At the same time, globalisation, mobility, technology, and a range of other phenomena have changed people's experiences and understandings of `community¿. The experience of changing community life will be located through significant critical themes, which include, among others: belonging, conviviality, neighbourliness, place, identity, and migration. The module will also examine cases of local conflicts and consensus-style development that shape and are shaped by interpretations of 'community'. Empirical cases will be drawn from a range of international studies to explore these issues and themes.

Central facets of Greek society and culture as depicted by ethnographers and other social scientists since the mid-sixties. The emphasis is on institutions, modes of living, options, contests and negotiations of everyday existence in the Greek society of today. The "traditional" will come into the picture as one among other cultural frames of reference in terms of which people in Greece behave and "cope" in different circumstances and situations. The course cultivates in the student an ethnographic sensibility, i.e. the ability and willingness to put oneself in the place of the people one has come to study and become aware of one's own cultural conditioning.

We have always worn garments to shelter us from the elements, and as history has progressed these garments have become loaded with meaning. Today, fashion is essential in the creation of identity. We use dress to express our individuality or to fit in. Subcultures have specific looks, special occasions require a certain type of dress, and the media is always chasing the latest trend. In the course we will explore how fashion and dress can be interpreted. We will study the cultural history of fashion in depth (c. 1500-present), and the place of fashion in today's world, complemented by field studies. So join us on this journey through the ever-changing world of fashion.

ND KeoughCtr Course: Prof. Kevin Whelan. Evolution of Irish culture from the eighteenth centry to the contemporary period. It aims to give students a foundational understanding of the cultural inheritance of the island. While organized in broadly chronological terms, it will also examine crucial thematic concerns-- landscape, history, languages, economy, society, politics and government, literature, music, and sport.

Galway, Ireland (IC): This module explores childrens relationships with contemporary transmedia narratives, as both consumers and participants. Transmedia narratives, defined as stories told across multiple media platforms, have arguably become the primary means by which children encounter narrative storytelling. This module examines the position of transmedia narratives within the childrens culture industry and its surrounding academic and popular discourses. In groups, students will engage with a single popular media franchise through close examination of its various narrative elements including toys, games, clothing, interactive digital media, and fan created content, as well as more traditional narrative media such as literature, film, and television.

For much of the 20th Century, Ireland lagged behind other states in Northern Europe in terms of economic development and average standard of living. Yet in the last decade of the 20th century Ireland's economic fortunes changed dramatically with the advent of the 'Celtic Tiger'. Ireland experienced rapid economic, social and cultural change over a short period of time that continues to unfold. Rapid population and demographic change and liberalization of social attitudes and values have all contributed to this change. Such changes have reinvigorated debates about what it means to be Irish, the values, lifestyles and identities associated with such changes and the institutional practices, occupational structures and the political priorities evident in Irish society. Yet there are continuities that can be traced back in Irish history that underpin and also help explain the dynamics of Irish society. This module utilizes theories of social change to explore what type of society Ireland is. It critically evaluates theories of development that have been used by academics and experts in Ireland to explain Ireland's conversion from a 'late modernizer' to a 'knowledge society'. Finally, it locates Ireland's societal change in the context of Europe and globally.

Ireland is in a state of ongoing transformation, experiencing rapid and dramatic economic, social and cultural changes in a short period of time. Yet there are structural continuities traced back to modern Irish society before and after independence that underlie and help to explain these changes. This module explores the continuities amidst the significant changes in contemporary Irish society drawing on a comparative perspective. This provides a framework to identify what is similar to the continuities and changes in Ireland compared to other related societies, and what is different in the Irish experience contrasted with other societies. The topics examined in the module include some of the following: periods of boom and bust in Ireland's development, particularly the Celtic Tiger and current austerity; population, emigration and immigration; inequality, poverty and class; housing; education; labour markets; social networks; religion and secularisation; pluralism and liberalisation; consumerism and individualism; the media; social movements; and nationalism and national identity.

This unit aims to provide U.S. Study Abroad students with a substantial overview of Australian history and an analysis of the evolution of contemporary Australian society. It covers major themes in Australian history and offers a context for comparison with aspects of American history and society. A principal theme of the unit is of the small and isolated early Australian settler population coming to terms with an unfamiliar and often hostile environment in one of the most remote parts of the British Empire. The unit emphasises the changing pattern of Aboriginal/white relations: from armed friction on the frontier during colonial times, to the beginnings of a search for reconciliation. The brutal nature of the convict system, the desperate expansion of the gold period, and the sacrifices of Australians in far off fields during the 'Great War' are all examined in some detail. Australia's changing relationships with its powerful allies - Britain and the United States - are also examined. Through it all, Australia has had a bloody, determined and vibrant history as the 'Great Southern Land' and has, through the struggles of its migrants and indigenous people, been transformed into a modern society.

This course introduces the key theories, approaches, and ideas in the field of sociology of education. We will explore influential studies in sociology of education, and link them to educational challenges and problems in the real world. Education-related topics covered in this course will include stratification and inequality, school, family, peers, community, rural-urban divide, migration, gender, mass education, mental health, and elite formation, among others. Readings will not be region-specific but topic-based, representing the typical research questions on a particular topic. By reading and discussing empirical studies throughout the course, students will learn how to discover and analyze the key sociological and practical issues of education.

This course examines the spatial structures and development of transport systems from a people-oriented geographical perspective. It highlights how people shape the evolution and use of transport systems, and how these systems, in turn, influence daily life by shaping accessibility and mobility. Students will learn the fundamentals of geographical analysis of transport, including demand, supply, regulation, and the interconnections between transport and urban development. Case studies will illustrate the mechanisms and dynamics of transport systems in diverse geographical contexts, demonstrating their environmental, social, and developmental impacts.

This course introduces theories of race, racialization, and racism in human geography to examine how race interacts with space, place, and lived experiences. It uses an intersectional approach to critically analyze cultural texts and also explores how representation shapes geographies of race while discussing race considering other identities like gender, class, and sexuality.

This course is to provide in-depth understandings about human development within diverse layers of environment including family, school, work and community. in particular, this course intends to provide comparative perspective by offering information about Korean socio-cultural, and family contexts and their relationship with human development. For this purpose, this course will first give knowledge about developmental and family theories explaining human development within contexts. Second, the course will explore human development through prenatal period to adulthood. Lastly, diverse environmental contexts around developing human being will be discussed. The course includes class lecture and class discussion. Students should be prepared for the class and actively participate in the discussion sections. Students will also take two main exams. Each student will be positioned in a project group. Group members should perform a final paper about human development issues. Students will be also asked to submit a rational paper explaining about the paper topic. in addition, presentation about the project should be giving at the last week of the semester.

Community and Cultural Identity is an interdisciplinary HKUST course exploring how collective identity, security, and belonging are formed amidst individualism and globalization. It examines local/overseas case studies (e.g., in Hong Kong) covering urban renewal, ethnicity, and nationalism, often featuring field trips or community service engagement

This course provides a comparative approach to post-conflict reconciliation, resettlement, and recovery in Rwanda and Uganda. Both countries are emerging from conflict and present excellent settings in which to examine the various measures, strategies, programs, and projects that have been put in place by Western organizations, national governments, NGOs, and communities to mitigate the impact of conflict and to rebuild, reconstruct, and revive fractured relations and displaced communities. Carefully scheduled visits to NGOs, government agencies, and communities in Rwanda and Uganda are complemented by lectures by Ugandan experts and selected reading assignments. The course concludes with a critical focus on the prospects for sustainable peace in Rwanda and Uganda and in the Great Lakes region of East Africa.

This module aims to nurture and develop the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes in students as leaders and future professionals to manage HIV prevention and care in the workplace, both locally and abroad. This module will aim to develop a global understanding of HIV and AIDS through a health and social justice perspective.

Sustainability has become a major challenge for contemporary societies. Far from being a sectoral problem, climate change, biodiversity, environmental justice and, in general, the creation of societynature relationships that allow the maintenance, expansion and quality oflifeof different beings and ecosystems, has become a challenge that crosses and mixes political, ethical and technological spheres. This course will address sustainability as a multidimensional and interdisciplinary phenomenon, while presenting the specific contribution that sociology makes to this debate. To the extent that the challenge of sustainability is inseparable from the way in which society produces knowledge, inhabits territories, understands nature, manages resources and prioritizes values, the course will seek to articulate a Questionfor the sustainability that puts sociology in conversation with other disciplines and knowledge. The course also tries to reflectsituatedlyon sustainability, placing Chile and the region at the center of the debate. This is done by connecting international literature with local challenges, as well as introducing authors and theoretical bodies that have emerged from Latin America to address the issue of sustainability. Conceived as a space for debate, the course will be structured based on lectures, applied work, open debates and guest presentations. The final objective is not only to show the complexity of sustainability as a concept and objective, but also to reflect on the imperatives that emerge together with sociology to face sustainability from theory, public policies and activism.

This course examines the contextualisation of illness and health in a society which is afflicted by HIV/AIDS, stigma and underdevelopment.

The history of social housing dates back to the early 20th century. Strongly connected with industrialization, it first started as a voluntary, philanthropic activity in the U.S.A. and Europe. Since then, a variety of policies have emerged in order to ameliorate the living conditions of the working class. Since the first half of the 20th century vulnerable households, slums or insufficient dwellings have been in the center of interest. Today, affordable housing is more than ever a necessity due to multi-level crises that affect numerous countries.

Using Ireland as a case study, but situating the Irish experience in a comparative context, this module will provide an accessible account of the contemporary drivers and demographics of homelessness, in particular the feminization of homelessness; the range of possible policy responses availed of and, equally importantly, not availed; the impact of research evidence and data on policy and practice responses; the role of social media and new civil society organisations in constructing contradictory public images of homelessness; and why, despite increased policy prominence and provision, homelessness continues to rise.

The purpose of this module is to introduce and examine a selective range of contemporary issues relating to gender and equality, families and their support, children and their protection and rights. It is concerned with the effect of policies, particularly on more vulnerable groups in society. It provides a range of perspectives from important social policy fields of social work, family support, social and political activism and advocacy, and community based approaches. The policy responses to the welfare issues we explore reflect distinctive approaches but similar principles, grounded in equality, human rights and social justice.

Taught at a host institution. This course examines historical, social and political aspects of contemporary Israeli society. After analyzing the ideologies and groups that played a major role in the formation of Israeli society, class discussion will focus on social and political issues which are at the center of current debate in the country.

The so-called "urban age" is not only characterised by unprecedented levels of urbanisation, but also by levels of inequality unseen since the early 1900s, and uprisings of unprecedented scale and intensity. In this context, many have argued that planning is central to the production of urban injustice. Planning is no longer seen as an objective tool for social, spatial, and economic organisation, but for the strategic spatialisation of capital accumulation and the exclusion of the urban majority. Yet the relationship between planning and urban (in)justice is not so simple. Over the course of history, a variety of initiatives, movements and coalitions have emerged, some seeking to influence the production of places, and others seeking to exert influence on the broader institutional frameworks through which processes of urbanisation are planned. Planning retains potential for our search for fairer cities, and it is important to understand how planning for change emerges in different forms, how planning for change is negotiated, and the impacts they can have on our urban futures.

The module provides an overview of comparative sociology of European societies. Internationally comparative studies contribute to advancing our sociological knowledge by describing and exploring social phenomena, testing and developing theories, and establishing generalizability of findings while taking into account the societies' variety in institutional setups such as welfare state configuration and social and demographic structures. Focusing on contemporary European societies the module will put particular emphasize on unifying Europe as a new social space not superseding but possibly transcending national boundaries of social conflict and solidarity. This module provides (1) an overview to theoretical approaches as well as various analytical strategies related to internationally comparative research in general and Europe in particular. Having laid down the foundations, the lecture will (2) contour European societies based on selected topics related to social and demographic change. The discussion of comparative sociological research on Europe (and beyond) will (3) be illuminated by drawing upon pertinent comparative studies adopting different modes of research methodology and design (e.g., small-N vs. large-N, cross-sectional vs. longitudinal). Further, the module will (4) present common issues in applying qualitative as well as quantitative techniques of comparison and possible solutions as found in the literature. Topic (1) and (2) will be covered in Part I and (3) and (4) in Part II.

This module introduces contemporary issues shaping our world and the geographical perspectives needed to understand them. Starting with 'how geographers view the world,' the module offers a lens to analyse issues like climate change, urban flooding, human-environment relations, challenges of migration, cultural diffusion, economic integration and so forth. Each lecture will touch on contemporary scenarios and geographical analyses of issues. Students will also be exposed to field work techniques and strategies of project management in group discussions and project assignments. The goal is to develop students with strong 'geographical imaginations' better able to understand the world and all its complexities.

Origins of the political and socio-economic reasons behind the Spanish Civil War are studied. As well as the reasons for the success of General Franco in 1939 and his permanence until 1975 (characteristic and evolution of his regime). Problems in the political and constitutional transition to the democracy and current issues in Spain: institutions, social change, economy, nationalism.

The formal syllabus in the Examination Decrees and Regulations states that this paper consists of: The study of the social basis of political competition (including social cleavages and identities), social and political attitudes (including political culture), processes of political engagement and competition (including elections, protest politics and the mass media), the social basis for the formation, change, and maintenance of political institutions (including democracy and welfare states). (Examination Decrees and Regulations)

Dissent occupies a particular place in contemporary societies. On the one hand, state mechanisms adopt preemptive policies and strategies in an attempt to prevent dissent from evolving into civil unrest and disorder, whilst on the other hand, dissent remains the most powerful tool in the hands of those social groups who feel and/or are marginalized, excluded or silenced. Arising in a number of contexts - the political domain, everyday life, popular culture, sports, institutions - dissent has been routinely associated with progressive causes and positive social transformation. However, similarly to the germane concept of resistance, dissent can also take regressive forms. In recent years, the multiple manifestations of crisis in the West have given rise to ideologies and practices with a strong anti-establishment profile coupled with an agenda of social exclusion, calling, thus, for a revision of our sociological horizon and analytical tools with regards to dissent. Using contemporary Greece as an entry point to these debates and combining key readings with interactive learning methods, this course presents a sociological perspective on dissent that calls into attention the meanings and conceptual histories of dissent.

Students will learn about the Chilean political process since the 1930s, with a special emphasis on the period from 1964 to 2002. Students will analyze and discuss institutional, economic, social, and cultural changes that occurred during that period. Chilean politics, economics, and sociology will be addressed from a historical perspective.

The course is organized around the themes of how we sociologically understand and interpret the phenomenon of religion. The main emphasis is placed on the analysis of texts that are supplemented with empirical studies to encourage students to think sociologically about religion. We address the classical concepts of religion as well as contemporary theories, and discuss the social, political and cultural processes that affect transformation of religion and its institutions. We examine relationships between religion and other spheres of social life such as politics, gender, sexuality, and health.

Poverty and inequality are global pressing social challenges. The module consists of two parts with the first part of the module presenting some relevant theories on poverty, inequality, and development. This is necessary to present a framework within which to critically discuss and consider these concepts. With the theoretical frameworks set the module will continue to consider the role of the state in development followed by a specific glance at poverty and inequality in post-apartheid South Africa. The second part of the module considers the impact of the different approaches to development (thus dealing with poverty and inequality) on the natural environment. Questions we hope to delve into in this module include: What is poverty and how does it manifest? Why is inequality deepening? What is the role of development thought on the ecology, and do we need to rethink our development approaches?

This seminar addresses the fundamental ideas that organize, describe, and define public policy in the United States. Using a variety of classical and modern texts, we will consider how these fundamental ideas serve to shape both the debate regarding particular policies, as well as the institutions responsible for their implementation. Of special importance to the seminar is the development of critical and analytical skills to understand and evaluate public policy. Co-curricular activities related to this course will expose students to institutions, organizations, and decision-makers in the Washington system.

Mandatory 2 credit field work component to Poverty and Development course. Graded S/U.

This course deals with major issues on the sociology of elites with a focus on themes of circulation and renewal of elites, who governs pluralist societies, and seeks to combat common criticisms and myths concerning elitism and anti-elitism. Involves reviewing authors including renowned political scientists and sociologists in addition to independent and group research.

This course explores the fast-growing field of green criminology, which examines the causes, consequences, and legal responses to a wide range of environmentally destructive activities. These include catastrophes such as oil spills, systematically polluting extraction and production processes, illegal trades in hazardous materials, such as toxic waste, and natural resources like wildlife and timber, among others. It investigates the impacts that these activities have on human and ecosystem health and security, and identifies how vulnerability to these harms intersects with class, race, gender and geographical discrimination, disproportionately burdening underprivileged groups in advanced and less developed economies.

This course introduces students to the drivers, trends, and impacts of the ubiquitous transnational organized crime of trafficking in human beings. Applying a socio-economic lens, it introduces participants to the complicated and complex challenges affecting consumers, businesses, and supply chains around the globe. These covert organizations and illicit trades are generating revenues, causing harm, and have a pervasive influence around the globe. The course examines a range of challenges that are facing governments, policymakers, and companies, as well as citizens, as they attempt to disrupt and prevent this crime

This course takes a sociological approach to investigate transgressive individuals within society by examining norms and laws within different social contexts. It explores why individuals become transgressive, the social factors at play, and how society responds to those who disobey societal norms.

This module critically engages with the concepts of diversity and inequality and how they manifest in place, with a focus on local scales. Three key questions the module engages with are: "How are local places different from one another?", "What social, political and demographic processes shape inequality between people and places?", and "Why do spatial inequalities matter?". The course will consider international and internal migration, housing structures and gentrification, neighborhood representations and place belonging, and will engage critically with variety of types of data.

Preventing and alleviating poverty is a key concern of governments and international organisations. Defining and measuring poverty is the first step towards developing and evaluating policies to tackle it effectively. Using real world examples, this inter-disciplinary module discusses not only the long-standing theories of poverty but also the newest developments and debates in measurement and policy, including the income replacement schemes introduced during the COVID-19 crisis. The first half of the module reviews different concepts and measures of poverty and discusses their implications for research, discourse and policy. The second half of the module focuses on the role of social protection systems in addressing poverty in different regions and contexts (e.g. Global North vs Global South).

Preventing and alleviating poverty is a key concern of governments and international organisations. Defining and measuring poverty is the first step towards developing and evaluating policies to tackle it effectively. Using real world examples, this inter-disciplinary module discusses not only the long-standing theories of poverty but also the newest developments and debates in measurement and policy, including the income replacement schemes introduced during the COVID-19 crisis. The first half of the module reviews different concepts and measures of poverty and discusses their implications for research, discourse and policy. The second half of the module focuses on the role of social protection systems in addressing poverty in different regions and contexts (e.g. Global North vs Global South).

Race, Ethnicity and Identity SO3250 Race, Ethnicity and Identity (10 ECTS) Lecturer(s): Dr Elaine Moriarty and Dr Zoe O'Reilly Module Content/Outline: The module provides an overview of issues surrounding race, ethnicity and identity, by providing a theoretical understanding of the issues and investigating recent developments in immigration, racism, and the politics of multiculturalism and integration, in Ireland, Europe and further afield. Part I of the module "Race, Ethnicity and Identity: A theoretical introduction" explores how ideas of race, ethnicity and identity are socially constructed, before investigating the origins of nationalism and processes of racialisation. We will examine sociological theories of the racial state, learn how to analyse media representations of race and ethnicity and situate race and ethnicity within social, political and economic processes. Students will gain an overview of various approaches to 'race' including exploring how differences `beyond race' such as hybridity and diaspora are negotiated. Finally, we will ask if it is possible to move 'beyond race' and look at the possibilities and the problems of anti-racism. Part II of the module "States, Migration and Ethnicity" aims to promote further reflection on the interactions between states, identity, ethnicity and race. We will explore how immigration is affecting contemporary West European politics and society. We will examine the role of the state in managing `difference', particularly the concepts of multiculturalism, citizenship and integration. Issues such as refugee and asylum, borders, the rise of far right parties and immigrant protests and riots will be examined in the context of Europe. Learning Objectives: On successful completion of this module, you will be able to: Critically theorise and contextualise race and ethnicity with reference to culture, state, gender, nation, and globalisation; Critically analyse media representations of race and ethnicity; Apply a race critical theory approach with particular reference to Ireland; Discuss recent developments in relation to immigration,racism and citizenship; Critically discuss theories of identity and nationalism; Compare and contrast immigration, citizenship and integration regimes in Western Europe; Explain and discuss the implications of migrant protests and riots in Western Europe; Account for the development of extreme right parties and groups in Western Europe Lectures &Tutorials/ Contact hours: One lecture and one tutorial per week. Workload: Lectures: 22 hrs; Tutorials: 22 hrs; Exams/assignments: 80 hrs; Self-study: 126 hrs. Total: 250 hours. Recommended Texts/ Key Reading: Back, L. and Solomos J. (eds.) (2008) Theories of Race and Racism, London: Routledge. Howard, M.M. (2009) The Politics of Citizenship in Europe, New York: Cambridge University Press. Koopmans, R., Statham, P. Giugni, M. and Passy, F. 2005. Contested Citizenship: Immigration and Cultural D

The first part of the module examines the causes and consequences of social inequality in Irish and European society. It describes the nature and extent of social inequality in areas such as income, education, health, and social class. The module puts particular emphasis on the economic basis of social inequality and its justification in society as well as on mechanisms and processes that reproduce inequality across generations. In the second part of the module, leading researchers in Ireland introduce selected areas of inequality research, their policy context and familiarises students with the main issues and findings in these research areas Part II In the second part of the module, leading researchers in Ireland introduce selected areas of inequality research, their policy context and familiarises students with the main issues and findings in these research areas.

This course covers basic research methods in Sociology. The course fulfills the methods requirement for Sociology majors and minors.

A qualitative research design course designed to provide an overview of methodological field study approaches within the local cultural context, affording students the tools necessary to conduct field research in Rwanda. The course has three main objectives. First, the course introduces students to the tools and methods of field study with a focus on how to do field research with victims of genocide and their descendants or violence perpetrators. In doing so, the course addresses the social and cultural dynamics in post-genocide Rwanda. Classes analyze institutional and cultural strategies used to prevent ethnic conflict and interrogate the role of the field researcher in a post-conflict environment. Second, the course details the ethics of field research and introduces students to the Human Subjects Review process. Third, the seminar also devotes time to psychological orientation before site visits and to the processing of field experiences. Given the emotional weight of the program and the impact it may have on students, the program has weekly sessions to debrief, process, and talk about assigned readings, field visits, or testimonies of survivors of genocide. One function of these sessions is to reorient student focus toward positive examples of bravery, caring, and compassion that studies of genocide often reveal.

This course explores some of the politics that happens at sea. The syllabus is built around three pillars: fishery politics and fisheries management disputes; marine natural resources regimes and ocean renewables; understanding irregular and traditional conflict at sea. The course also explores various theoretical perspectives, in particular, literature that stresses the 'social construction' of the sea, and the concept of 'resilience'. Also explored are methodological questions, or how should we study a politics of the sea? Here the focus is on exploring to what extent qualitative ethnographic methods can help understand complex marine based activities.

This module explores the practical application of political theory to real-world issues and problems, thereby exploring the power of ideas. More specifically, this module provides an introduction to and overview of some of the key arguments in the two main traditions in political theory, Analytical & Continental.

This is a 1st year module for sociology students. It provides an introduction to some of the main theories that laid the foundation for modern sociology. Sociology developed as an intellectual discipline in the 19th century as writers grappled with their understanding of modern capitalism. Some of the key writers include Karl Marx, Max Weber and Emile Durkheim. The course outlines their central ideas, their relevance for today and encourages students to critically assess them. Students wishing to take Sociology at Stage 2 should take this module. On successful completion of this module students should be able to: 1. Explain the classical sociological theories that discuss social processes; 2. Discuss and evaluate the different perspectives of Marx, Durkheim and Weber; 3. Outline where these theories are relevant to modern society.

This module concerns the rise and nature of the knowledge economy and society. The module adopts a historical perspective which traces the role of knowledge accumulation and dissemination in human societies from the cognitive revolution (around 70 000 BCE) to the present day. Emphasis falls on the agricultural revolution, knowledge accumulation in the ancient world, the development of market societies, the scientific revolution, the industrial revolution and, finally, the digital revolution. Throughout the investigation of these important phases of human development we consider the interaction between knowledge, technological advancement, and economic activity. In the final part of the module a range of contemporary debates concerning the economic and social impacts of computing technologies are considered

In this course, we are analyzing and comparing major public health systems throughout the world. The final goal is to better understand health systems and the social and political aspects that play into how they are set up.

This module provides students with the knowledge and practical skills necessary to pursue a wide range of social research. It serves both as a free-standing module and as preparation for students to conduct original research and complete a research dissertation in their Senior Sophister year. The module builds on the broad introduction to social research in second year, which explored the range of techniques employed in qualitative methods, overviewed basic methods of qualitative analysis and began the process of developing written arguments. In particular the module will focus on designing and formulating a research project with corresponding sampling, data collection and analysis methods. This part of the module will also particularly focus on research proposal requirements.

The Sociology Internship is a community-based learning course designed to give students some practical experience in the area of urban affairs, social welfare, education, health care, or business, in order to test their interest, complement their academic work, or acquire work experience preparatory to future careers.  Students are placed in a community agency in the South Bend area and normally work seven hours per week as interns under the supervision of an experienced practitioner. Scheduling hours is a flexible process in order to accommodate the intern's availability and the needs of the host agency. While there are no prerequisites, preference is given to Sociology majors, ALPP or SCPP majors, PSIM minors, and students who have had course work in an area related to social concerns. This is a graded course. In addition to field work, academic work includes reading scholarly works related to the field placement, periodic group meetings with the instructor and others in the course, periodic short reports, and a final paper. Departmental approval is required.

Directed Readings in Sociology offers a student the chance to work closely with a member of the faculty on a topic that is not available through any of the regularly offered courses. This independent study course allows for the student, under the guidance of the faculty mentor, to draw up a reading list and study plan for in-depth reading throughout the semester. The student is responsible for periodic oral and/or written reports and at least one major paper. To qualify for this course, a student must have a GPA of at least 3.5 in Sociology. A formal application is required. Students should have a clear idea of the topic they want to pursue and the faculty member they have asked to direct them before requesting a copy of this form from the Director of Undergraduate Studies. This is a graded course, no exceptions. Department Approval Required. (Before department approval is given, the student must have the application signed by the faculty member, the DUS in Sociology, and an Assistant Dean in the A&L Undergraduate Studies office.)

In many of the recurring conflicts around the world, at issue are demands for justice. Whether these revolve around economic inequality, political repression, environmental devastation, civil and political rights, ethnic or religious exclusion, or discrimination on the basis of race, class, gender, sexuality or disability status (to name just a few), social movements are often the carriers of these calls for justice. In this course, we will examine how social movements emerge from, contribute to, and suggest resolutions for various types of social conflict, as well as explore their potential contributions to sustainable peacebuilding. We will examine theory and research on how social movements emerge, escalate, consolidate and decline; how they choose (and change) protest tactics; how they articulate their visions and goals; how they generate emotions, solidarity and commitment; how they interact with networks of allies, opponents and powerholders; and how they influence (or fail to influence) agendas, policies, and regimes. We will put a particular emphasis on the comparative study of social movements in different regions of the world, as well as on the challenges and opportunities posed by transnational movements that seek to organize across borders.

Baseball is one of the most enduringly popular and significant cultural activities in the United States. Since the late 19th century, baseball has occupied an important place for those wishing to define and understand "America." Who has been allowed to play on what terms? How have events from baseball's past been remembered and re-imagined? What is considered scandalous and why (and who decides)? How has success in baseball been defined and redefined? Centering baseball as an industry and a cultural practice, this course will cover topics that include the political, economic, and social development of professional baseball in the United States; the rise of organized baseball industry and Major League Baseball; and globalization in professional baseball. Readings for this course will include chapters from texts that include Rob Rucks's How the Major Leagues Colonized the Black and Latin Game (2011), Adrian Burgos's Playing America's Game: Baseball, Latinos, and the Color Line (2007), Daniel Gilbert's Expanding the Strike Zone: Baseball in the Age of Free Agency (2013), Robert Elias's How Baseball Sold U.S. Foreign Policy and Promoted the American Way Abroad (2010), and Michael Butterworth's Baseball and Rhetorics of Purity: The National Pastime and American Identity During the War on Terror (2010). Coursework may include response papers, primary source analysis, and a final project.

If, as John David Rhodes argues, “the detached single family home is one of the most powerful metonymic signifiers of American cultural life – of the dreams of privacy, enclosure, freedom, autonomy, independence, stability, and prosperity that animate national life in the United States,” that is not to say that then home in American cinema is by no means a simple or stable construct, but is, if anything, represented most often as troubled, precarious, invaded, porous, unstable, or out of reach. This class considers meanings of home in American cinema by looking at films that confront the problem of how to live in a home, offer alternate structures, and show the fantasy of home to be out of reach. The class will analyze films about unhoused figures during the Depression, housing shortages during World War II, the rise of modern homelessness in the 1980s, and contemporary precarity. We will consider fantasies of home related to family, class status, age, and race. We will consider the roles of banks, landlords, gentrification, and other institutions and structural causes of home insecurity and homelessness. Students will read various theories and histories of housing and homelessness to frame understanding of films. Students will write weekly one page reflections, an 8-10 page paper, and a 15 minute conference presentation.

The goal of the course is to compare the processes by which social scientists and filmmakers/photographers engage in social documentation. Students explore how global social problems such as rural and urban poverty, race and gender inequalities, immigration, and violence are analyzed across the social sciences, and depicted in a variety of documentary film and photography genres. The course also explores the role that documentary photography and film play in promoting rights and advocating for social change, particularly in the realm of human rights and global inequality. It examines the history of documentary film and photography in relationship to politics, and to the development of concerns across the social sciences with inequality and social justice. It also looks at how individual documentarians, non-profit organizations and social movements use film and photography to further their goals and causes, and issues of representation their choices raise. The course is also unique because it requires students to engage in the process of visual documentation themselves by incorporating an activity-based learning component. For their final project, students choose a human rights or social problem that concerns or interests them (and which they can document locally - no travel is required), prepare a documentary -exhibit- on the chosen topic (10-12 photographs), and write a 12-15 page paper analyzing how 2-3 social scientists construct and frame the given problem. Students also have the option to produce a short documentary film.

In a tumultuous and changing world, how do we imagine possible futures? How do we navigate amidst the uncertainties of our complex global arena to steer towards the futures we want, and away from those we don’t want? This class will explore the future-oriented imagination in the context of contemporary global challenges related to peace/conflict, democracy, human rights, climate change, and other pressing issues. We will do this by using the tools that professional “futurists” have used to make predictions about the future, as well as to provoke “out of the box” thinking about alternative future possibilities. These include techniques for forecasting, visioning, scenario planning, experiential play, and design thinking. We will also discuss religious and literary forms of future imagining, including apocalyptic, messianic, and redemptive narratives, along with fictional depictions in science fiction and speculative genres such as Afrofuturism. We will consider the relevance of utopian and dystopian narratives for understanding contemporary global problems and dilemmas. Finally, we will consider how social movement activists and community groups around the world have used futures thinking to transform unjust conditions and generate more humane ways of living and working together.

Given the substantial number of children nationwide who have current or formerly incarcerated parents, undocumented parents, or parents who have been investigated by the child welfare system, there is a clear need to understand how involvement with these surveilling systems influences involvement with the school system. This class will pair close analysis of empirical research and sociological theory with opportunities to engage in qualitative fieldwork within the local community in efforts to unravel the precise links among families, schools, and surveilling systems to better understand how secondary effects of involvement with these systems have implications for children's schooling and parental engagement. Students will learn sociological theories, practice qualitative data collection techniques, and have a range of opportunities to apply their knowledge and skills to an ongoing community-based research project.

From the late 1960s debates on environmental degradation and overpopulation to the present concerns with sociotechnical and climate change, the "commons" has returned as a key symbol for social analysis, political organizing, and collective resource management. Since then, various currents have claimed and reclaimed the concept under the guide of "communality," "conviviality," and "common-pool resources" as concrete alternatives to public and private modes of governance of tangible and intangible goods. In the past two decades, the concept has been central for the discussion of the "digital commons" with decentralized, community-based governance of information production and sharing. In this seminar, we will map out the key definitions of the "commons" with a focus on the introduction of algorithmic forms of governance. This course will be organized as a seminar for the study of concepts, case studies, and methodological approaches for the study of the digital commons. We welcome students working on Internet-based research and Free and Open Source technologies as well as climate change, conservation, and sustainability to join the seminar.

What is ethnography, broadly defined? How is a scholar's ethnographic product shaped by their racialized experience? This course will reference texts over time and across academic disciplines to consider genre, style, audience, and purpose when engaging with this research method. We will read, listen to, and watch works to think through the various ways that Black intellectuals have used ethnography to make sense of our everyday social worlds.

Models of human communication developed in linguistic anthropology have long relied on empirical analysis and cross-cultural comparison of how people talk to other people, and to a variety of non-human “persons” as well. This course examines how anthropologists study communication between humans and non-humans, and how communication helps make persons out of non-humans. The class concerns research on seances and related scenes of spirit possession where the dead speak, talking with animals whether pets or prey, learning spiritual lessons from teacher plants, and contemporary conversations people have with artificial intelligence language models. We compare how anthropologists have asked questions about personhood when considering speech across species boundaries or across divides such as life and death. We ask how communication constructs interlocutors and makes relationships possible, and we consider the commonality and variety among communicative approaches and tactics. We ask if communication with non-humans connects people to other worlds of experience, or if it is more instructive as a projection of our own social life onto others.

What is the Palestine/Israel conflict about? How did it start? How might it be resolved? Some interpretations rely on claims of ancient hatreds. Others invoke sacred and biblical narratives as their authority for claims to a land deemed holy by many different religions. Still others underscore the ills and legacies of settler colonialism and indigenous accounts of historical presence. Some invoke international law and human rights to make their claims. This course will explore these arguments surrounding the Palestine/Israel conflict through screening and discussion of cinematic representation, narrative argument, and documentary films. Multiple genres provide powerful tools to introduce students to multiple perspectives, conceptions of history, experiences of injustice and grievances and loss, and imagining peace and justice. Each screening will be paired with relevant and interdisciplinary reading material. The students will emerge from this course with a detailed and complex understanding of the Palestine/Israel conflict from the present dating back to the late Ottoman period, the British control of historic Palestine, and the definitional moment of 1948 which is marked both as Israeli independence and the Palestinian catastrophe (the Nakba).

Millions of people around the world have been forced from their homes by interlinked factors including persecution, armed conflict, natural disasters, development projects and socio-economic deprivation. Resolving large-scale displacement represents a critical challenge for contemporary peacebuilding and development processes. This course is designed to introduce students to various theoretical and methodological frameworks that inform and shape forced migration laws, policies and practice. Specifically students will: (i) examine international, regional, national and local responses to the problem of forced migration; (ii) investigate the obstacles to effective protection and assistance for refugees and displaced persons; (iii) explore the challenge of resolving displacement crises, and (iv) discuss some of the moral dilemmas raised by forced migration.

This course provides you with tools needed to engage in research on social movements and collective action. An important component of the course involves becoming familiar with core theoretical insights in the field. However, we will also devote time and energy to developing your own research projects and developing additional research questions that could form the basis of future research projects. We begin by considering micro-level foundations of collective action. We will move on to study the emergence of social movement activism. Importantly, we also consider questions about how, and if, social movements matter in bringing about social change (e.g., either intentional or unintended consequences of activism).

Although advances in science and technology have made tremendous gains in promoting health and longevity, these achievements have not been experienced evenly. Instead, devastating health and disability-based inequities persist, such as environmental racism and disability-based discrimination. As a result, social movement groups and organizations are fighting to protect vulnerable communities and promote civil rights. This class will therefore address how social movements have impacted the health and human rights of vulnerable social groups in the US and beyond today. To do so, we will (1) use a sociological perspective to investigate the structural determinants of health and the social construction of disabilities, and (2) investigate how advocates, activists, and organizations fight for good health and disability justice. This course will require participation in a daylong multi-fieldsite visit, weekly readings, presentations, and a final paper.

What is the relationship between the Jewish tradition and Israeli politics? Why can't we talk about Jewish modernity without talking about Nazi Germany, the Holocaust, and the occupation of Palestine? What are the legacies of Jewish social justice activism and Jewish anti-racism in Israel and the diasporas? What are the intersectional experiences of Jews of Color, Mizrahi, Ethiopian, and other non-European Jews and how do they challenge normative accounts of Jewish modernity and Jewish assimilation into "whiteness"? This course will examine Jewish modernity with a special focus on the relationship between antisemitism and anti-Muslim racism in Euro-America and shifts from Jewish powerlessness to Jewish power as they manifest in cases from Jewish anti-apartheid activism in South Africa and solidarity during the Civil Rights Movement in the US to the Israeli regime which has been defined by multiple Jewish and non-Jewish organizations such as Amnesty Internaitonal as "apartheid." The course will examine narratives of Jewish displacement, belonging, and de/coloniality and will centralize approaches and experiences of marginalized communities as a way to interrogate Jewish modernity and politics.

This course explores the theory and practice of community peacemaking. It covers the benefits, challenges and methods of local peacemaking, as well as the relationship between peacemaking and peacebuilding. Content will draw on practitioner experience in South Africa, South Bend and elsewhere. Guest lecturers will include community activists from South Bend.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) has emerged as a crucial skill in the workforce, especially with the advent and accessibility of generative AI technologies. From intelligent chatbots and virtual assistants to automated content creation and sentiment analysis, NLP applications are transforming industries and redefining how we interact with technology. Mastery of NLP techniques and tools not only opens doors to careers in the technology sector but also equips students to contribute to innovations that shape our future. Language Processing in Practice is a hands-on course designed to introduce students to the fundamental theory and applications of NLP, with a special emphasis on working with large language models, generative AI, and the Hugging Face ecosystem. The course focuses on practical techniques for processing, analyzing, generating, and understanding human language data. Students will explore key topics such as text preprocessing, tokenization, part-of-speech tagging, parsing, sentiment analysis, topic modeling, machine translation, and text generation. The curriculum places a strong emphasis on modern NLP libraries and frameworks like NLTK, spaCy, and particularly Hugging Face Transformers. Through a series of projects and assignments, students will gain experience in building NLP applications, creating word embeddings with pre-trained large language models, and generating human-like text using generative AI models. Basic proficiency in Python programming is required.

This course offers an in-depth analysis of the roles of structural and cultural violence in peace studies. Unit 1 (conceptual/theoretical) explores field-formative debates over the nature, basis, and viability of "structural violence" and "cultural violence" as analytical concepts, asking how they have shaped (or failed to, but perhaps ought to shape) the field of peace studies. We will examine their critical appropriations of early critical theory, and assess comparable theoretical approaches such as reflexive sociology (Pierre Bourdieu and Loic Wacquant), post-structural analysis (Michel Foucault), and later critical theory (Nancy Fraser and Axel Honneth) while asking what advantages, if any, lenses of structural and cultural violence have vis-à-vis these resources for peace analysis and peacebuilding, and where they need to be supplemented. Unit 2 (cases/agents) studies cases in which some version of these analytical lenses have been deployed for purposes of peace analysis and peacebuilding. We examine recent uses of these lenses to examine poverty, global development, and global health in building peace (e.g. Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Paul Farmer, Peter Uvin), religious/cultural identity (Veena Das), and race, class, and gender (Joshua Price on incarceration and prison abolition in the U.S; Alex Mikulich and Laurie Cassidy on white complicity in hyper incarceration).

What does it mean to be Latino and who should be in/excluded from that category? Are Latin@s a “race’ or an “ethnicity” or an “ethnorace” or something else? Should we even be using “Latino”? Or should we use labels like Hispanic, Latino/a or Latin@? What about “Latinx” or “Latine”? And what do these different questions tell us about the lives of the more than 62 million people in the US who personally or whose parents and ancestors once lived in places as far-reaching as Mexico, Cuba, Argentina, and perhaps even Brazil and the Philippines? This course aims to answer these questions by examining research, journalism, and media that elaborate on how race and ethnicity are constructed within US histories and systems of discrimination, prejudice, nativism, etc. Students will study empirical patterns and theoretical discussions on Latin@ immigration, panethnicity, political behavior and mobilizations, and interactions with US institutions. In exploring theory and patterns, this course will emphasize how racial-ethnic inequality shapes Latin@ life, both between Latinx@s and other groups (like Asian, Black, and white Americans) and amongst Latin@s. We will also explore how racial/ethnic inequality intersects with other social categories and systems, including gender and social class. Students will further explore the potential futures of Latin@ populations in the US.

We frequently encounter statements or claims based on statistics, such as: "Women earn less than men," "The American population is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse," or "Married people are healthier than unmarried people." On what information are these statements based? What kinds of evidence support or refute such claims? How can we assess their accuracy? This course will show students how to answer these sorts of questions by interpreting and critically evaluating statistics commonly used in the analysis of social science data. Hands-on data analysis and interpretation are an important part of the course. You will gain the skills to conduct quantitative data analysis using a statistical software package. You should finish the course with the ability to interpret, question, and discuss statistics accurately and with an understanding of which type of statistic is appropriate for different kinds of data and research questions. No prior statistical knowledge is required. This course is ideal for students interested in the social and/or life sciences as well as business and/or law.

This course focuses on the literatures and practices relevant to the study of cultural transformation in the U.S. since 1990 and how it has affected young adult interest in American institutional religion. Participating students are actively involved in a grant-funded empirical research project studying the causes of cultural change in the U.S. and the ways those shaped the religious outlooks and interests of members of Gen X and Millennials. The course will focus both on learning methods of social research, theories of culture and cultural change, and the sociology of religion. Registration by permission of the instructor only.

Readings on Marx is a discussion based one credit course for students interested in reading some actual works by Marx as well as works by current Marxist scholars. Depending on student interests, topic may include religion, education, health care, crime, social movements, colonialism, or whatever topics interest students who are registered for the course. Students will be responsible for not only doing the readings, but also participating in weekly discussion, and at least once during the semester, leading the discussion. Space is limited and applications are required. Please click on the following link to apply: https://forms.gle/iXLQRtNttA2exAs47.

This is the lab/screening co-requisite for SOC 40126.

Work on a real-world project that can impact Native American education in the present while learning the history that shaped the modern era. Native American Education is deeply intertwined with American history, education, and policy. The current American government is seriously investigating the past uses of education as a tool for assimilation (and worse) in Native American communities. In 2022 the Pope went to Canada and apologized for the role the Church played in the residential boarding schools, and the Subcommittee on Native American issues for the USCCB is investigating the same here in the United States. This course blends primary source historical work with active and engaging projects with Native communities to engage students in both history and historical thought to do consulting and problem-solving that will help shape real policy in the present day! This class promises to be like no other course you've had and get you working with others in truly collaborative manners very quickly in the semester.

From the cultural content we consume, through apartment hunting, to dating, more and more aspects of people’s lives nowadays unfold on digital platforms. The vast quantities of data generated, together with the availability of data analysis tools and the computational resources that power them, provide social scientists with exciting opportunities to make sense of social phenomena that, previously, were often impossible to capture. This course introduces advanced undergraduates to modern methods sociologists and other social scientists use to collect and analyze data at scale, with an emphasis on the analysis of text and of spatial data. Together, we will discuss and think through recent research that applies these methods to gain insight into how social processes operate. We will gain hands-on experience with the open-source R programming language, powering much of this research. Through in-class activities, assignments, and an independent research project, we will develop skills in data collection, wrangling, and analysis using R, aiming to uncover hidden trends and answer social puzzles. Prior experience with R, specifically, is not necessary, although some statistics or programming background is required.

n the years following its inception, utopian narratives of the Internet promised unfettered access to information, markets, and relationships that would allow users to create wealth and contest power structures by building platform-based enterprises and values-based virtual communities. While some of these benefits have accrued to individuals and society, a significant body of research demonstrates that the reality of the Internet's impact on the world is much more complex. Grounded in key sociological texts, this course focuses on empirical research concerning how "Digital Divides" - differences in individuals' access to, participation in, and benefits from using the Internet - exist on geographic, demographic, and socioeconomic dimensions. It also examines the important role skill and literacy play in mitigating these differences, and takes up the nascent understanding of algorithmic literacy, the increasingly critical knowledge set people need as they navigate the many facets of everyday life now powered by artificial intelligence. As part of the course, students will learn how to critically evaluate empirical social scientific publications and also compose their own literature review concerning a topic related to the course theme.

In this course we will examine how different kinds of organizations and institutions (corporations and firms, NGOs and non-profits, media organizations, economic development organizations, multilateral governance institutions, social movement organizations) work internationally and develop relationships with international partners and counterparts. We will focus on the relationships among organizations in developed and developing countries (their collaborations and conflicts), with particular attention to how they respond and adapt to cultural differences in a globalizing world. We will also examine how organizations move different kinds of innovations around the world, from products (toys and soap operas) and policies (health care and environmental policies, and anti-discrimination laws), to norms and ideas (human rights, peace building, and democracy).

This course aims to challenge our assumptions about which education as an institution in the United States is predicated and ask some fundamental questions about the relationship between education and society. Why does everyone go to school? Why do some students seem to learn more and “get ahead” than others? What factors shape how schools are run and organized, and what curricular materials are taught? How do schools help to maintain our capitalist system, and how do the factors of race, class, and gender affect the educational experiences of students within schools and classrooms? How can schools become more effective? What interventions have worked to improve schools? These are among the questions we will consider this semester. A primary focus of this course will be on the effects of schools and classrooms on educational outcomes. We will cover topics in the sociology of education related to school effects, sector effects, tracking and ability grouping, and classroom and teacher effects. We will look at the structure, practices, content, and outcomes of schooling, primarily in the light of their relationships to the wider society in which schools are situated. As part of the course, we will also consider the social and organizational context of contemporary education reforms in the United States—particularly test-based accountability for schools, teachers, and students—and place these reforms in a more global perspective.

This course examines the educational experiences and struggles of racial/ethnic minority students in US public schools. Students will study educational stratification by race/ethnicity, as well as how racial/ethnic minorities experience this stratification. We will explore legal, political, historical and social perspectives regarding educational policies and practices. Additionally, this course focuses on the potential of education as an agent for social justice and change for linguistically and culturally diverse groups.

Who belongs in America and who gets to decide? This course examines immigration as a central force shaping U.S. history, politics, and everyday life. We will explore how debates over borders, citizenship, legality, and national identity have evolved over time, and how immigration has been tied to issues such as race, ethnicity, labor, security, and ideas of deservingness. Moving from the 19th century to the present, the course investigates the institutions and narratives that produce “immigrants” as a category, and the consequences of inclusion and exclusion for individuals, communities, and the nation. Students will engage with sociological research, historical cases, policy debates, and contemporary controversies to better understand why immigration remains one of the most divisive issues in American public life.

Demography, the science of population, is concerned with virtually everything that influences, or can be influenced by, population size, distribution, processes, structure, or characteristics. This course pays particular attention to the causes and consequences of population change. Changes in fertility, mortality, migration, technology, lifestyle, and culture have dramatically affected the United States and the other nations of the world. These changes have implications for a number of areas: hunger, the spread of illness and disease, environmental degradation, health services, household formation, the labor force, marriage and divorce, care for the elderly, birth control, poverty, urbanization, business marketing strategies, and political power. An understanding of these is important as business, government, and individuals attempt to deal with the demands of the changing population.

This course addresses relations between theory and methods for scientific research on international migration with emphasis on immigration to the US; the objective is to prepare students to design research projects on this subject for theses and dissertations. The course will review basic questions on this subject and the methods through which these questions have been adequately or inadequately answered; the numbers, the impact, the nature, the structure, the process, the human experience, will be discussed in terms of the research methods commonly used to approach them.

This is the first part of a Catholicism and the Disciplines (CAD) seminar about immigration issues, especially those related to the México-U.S. border. For this part (two credits), we will meet in class to read and to discuss social scientific research about such topics as why migrants leave their home countries, what they encounter and experience when attempting to cross the border, the responses of U.S.-based citizen groups to unauthorized border crossings, and the effectiveness of current U.S. enforcement policies. We also normatively evaluate these responses and policies, particularly from a Catholic perspective (but also from other faith, non-religious perspectives). Lastly, we will process and reflect on our immersion trip to the Southern Arizona borderlands. (the co-requisite class, Mexico-U.S. Border Immersion Experience, requires separate registration and takes place over the semester?s mid-term break), including discussing what a uniquely Catholic border policy would look like, strategies to raise awareness about what is going in these borderlands, and migration issues and responses to them in other parts of the world. Enrollment in this seminar is competitive and is based on your responses to the Center for Social Concerns' application. Click here https://bit.ly/SemsApp to start the application process. You will be notified within a week or so after completing your application about your status.

Site of the delayed 2020 Olympics, Tokyo has recently been under scrutiny as a problematic international space. Tokyo's role as a complicated space of both exclusion and inclusion has a deeper history, however, extending back to a relatively recent founding in the late 16th century. This course looks at how the imaginative figuration of Tokyo has been a battleground for contesting different ethnic, social, and gendered identities in historical documents, literature, and popular culture.

What is the role of religious congregations in urban communities? Do communities with more congregations mobilize collectively at higher rates to address local issues or provide access to more social service programs? Are higher levels of social connectedness found in urban areas with a greater concentration of religious congregations? Essential to examining these and related questions is understanding the methodologies used to study religious congregations and their social consequences. Students will thus learn about and gain hands-on experience, for example, mapping via Geographic Information Systems (GIS), conducting survey research, and analyzing textual and visual data using computational methods. Students will apply such methodologies in the field during trips to Chicago and gain insight into community-based research through meetings with religious leaders to hear about their work. The course involves both in-class meetings (2-credits) and the co-requisite class “Religion and Urban America: The Windy City Experience Fieldwork” (1 credit) research trips to Chicago. Please click on this link (https://nd.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cuaV4VZ6VjZoJ7g) to fill out a survey about your availability for the latter. You can expect to hear back within a few days after you complete the survey about your approval for the course. Those granted approval will need to register for both the 2-credit and 1-credit parts of the course. Enrollment is determined on a rolling basis.

Is mental illness solely a biological or genetic issue or are there social and environmental aspects as well? Sociological research shows that mental health is shaped by social conditions, such as socioeconomic position, gender and race/ethnicity.  In this course, we will consider such topics as how the definition of mental illness changes over time and place; the social determinants of mental health and mental illness; how inequality in resources, power and status influence mental health; the stigma of mental illness; and the social organization of treatments. We will focus on causes and consequences as well as the lived experience of mental illness

Why do some countries have higher levels of social, economic and political development than others? While focusing on the record of specific cases, this course focuses on a critical examination of the sociological theories that try to answer the various ramifications of this question.

One would think that secrets are hard to keep, and lies hard to maintain, because it doesn't take much for the truth to escape, and once it's out, it can't be put back into the bottle. Yet secrets and lies reside at the heart of much social and political order, sometimes for years and even decades at a time. The objective of this course is to advance our scientific understanding of how this is possible, drawing on sociological, psychological, and historical research on such things as performance, secrecy, lying, forgetting, doubt, denial, and inattention. Case studies will include instances of corporate malfeasance (such as Ponzi schemes and insider trading), Big Tobacco's cover-up of the health consequences of smoking, Watergate, the secret British program to break the German cipher during WWII, elaborate attempts to cover up government atrocities, the cat-and-mouse game between international inspectors and regimes thought to be developing banned weapons, and the plague of misinformation surrounding recent elections. Throughout, we will be concerned with the distinct methodological challenges of studying things many people want to keep secret. Requirements will include midterm and final examinations, reading quizzes/reaction papers, participation, and a final research paper.

Throughout much of American history, individuals have organized and acted collectively to advance interests based on a common racial or ethnic identity. In some instances, groups have organized in an attempt to overcome discrimination and to stake a claim to rights and privileges enjoyed by majority group members. In other cases, members of the majority group have organized to restrict opportunities for the minority and to protect an advantaged position. We will consider the causes and consequences of both progressive and conservative social movements--such as the civil rights movement, the Ku Klux Klan, and the contemporary alt-right - giving particular attention to how theories of social movements help us to understand episodes of race-based collective action.

Sociologists who study social movements and activism typically address questions about how disadvantaged groups are able to organize and engage in sustained protest in hopes of bringing about progressive change. In recent years, however, we have witnessed the growth of many organizations that aim to prevent change with hopes of preserving benefits that they enjoy. To understand this form of organized resistance to change, we need to closely examine how power operates in society to understand conditions that give rise to activism that resists progressive change. We consider the extent to which theories designed to explain progressive activism fail to account for conservative activism. The ultimate goal for the course is to provide you with the tools needed to formulate your own research questions and to engage with the academic literature to theorize your questions in a way that could lead to publishable research.

Economic actions like working, buying, selling, saving, and giving are a fundamental part of everyday life, and all spheres of society, from family to religion to politics, are interrelated with economy. Sociologists examine how social relationships from small networks to transnational linkages affect economic actions and their outcomes, and the ways cultural meanings and political strategies shape those social relationships. The goal of this class is to provide students with new perspectives on economic actions by reading recent sociological studies of topics like money, markets, work, businesses, industries, and consumer society.

The purpose of this course is, in the setting of a small seminar, to engage students in close reading and broad discussion of sociological writings about religion by classical theorists of the discipline. Works that may be nominated for treatment include such mainstays as The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life and other studies of religion by Emile Durkheim; The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism and The Sociology of Religion by Max Weber; portions of The German Ideology by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, as well as excerpts from Marx's Capital; The Future of an Illusion and Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud; and various essays on religion by Georg Simmel. The course also will cover more recent works, both in the sociology of religion and in related fields, incorporating assumptions about and approaches to religion that can be traced to these pioneering authors.

This course investigates how religion influences what Americans think about politics and how they are involved in public life, including political participation and volunteering and community service. We will examine, for example, how and why religion influences positions on controversial social and political issues, such as abortion and immigration. And how the relation between religion and politics in American society has changed from the Christian Right and Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump, evangelicals, and Christian Nationalism. At the organizational level, the course seeks to understand what religious congregations are doing for their communities and how they are active in political life, such as mobilizing protest, inviting political speakers, talking about politics, or organizing voter registration drives. The analysis will pay close attention to religious tradition differences, including investigating whether and why evangelical Protestants differ in involvement in civic and political life compared to Catholics, Black Protestants, mainline Protestants, or the nonreligious. By investigating the social roots of the relation of religion and politics, the course will shed light on the complex and shifting relationship between religion and public life in the United States.

"Society, Faith, and the Future of Nature " is an upper-level course that examines the relationship between contemporary society and the natural world from a sociological vantage. The readings and lectures are designed to be accessible to all. They introduce theory by means of concrete historical and cultural cases, so that history and theory illuminate one another. Students who have been exposed to sociology will find that it builds on the foundations they already have gained. Topics covered include population and demography, industrialization, capitalism as a system, consumer culture, social justice, the environmental movement, global environmental issues, the role of culture and religion when it comes to framing and mobilization, and civic responsibility. The main focus of the course is American society, but it also takes into account other societies and cultures. After taking this course, the students will have honed a range of powerful insights and tools for making sense of the environmental issues that we confront.

This course will review the nature and history of environmental issues as they arose in the U.S. and in the international arena. In this context, it will then focus on the rise of religious environmentalism and the development of Catholic Social Teaching on the environment. In doing so, it will sketch the historical and theological foundations of Laudato si', the encyclical on environmental ethics and social justice issues by Pope Francis in 2015. Going beyond the realm of ideas, it will also treat the reception and implementation of the document – thereby illustrating the meaning of the document in the concrete historical circumstances of different societies. This course illustrates how Catholic Social Teaching and sociology illuminate one another. “In theory,” sociology is a social science that merely describes how society operates and how social processes influence one another. In point of fact, most sociologists do import values into their exercise of the discipline, and in America, the culture of the discipline largely takes a critical stance vis-à-vis social institutions, often treating how social forces constrain individual autonomy. As a result, when it comes to environmental issues, the discipline has well-honed resources for exploring questions of environmental justice (how particular groups are impacted by inequality), but it is less able to address or even articulate questions of the common good. In this respect, Catholic Social Teaching supplies what sociology lacks. It brings to bear a positive social ethic whose presuppositions are explicit and relevant to both the individual and the community. Meanwhile, sociology makes clear that the meaning of a Catholic Social Teaching is not simply noetic. Indeed, this course underscores that meaning always takes concrete form within particular social and historical circumstances. In other words, as the last two units of this course make clear, what Laudato si'; means in Poland is quite different from what it means in the Philippines.

Emotions can bind us together and tear us apart. Emotions are central to answering questions like: Why do people do what they do? How do social situations endure? How to social situations change? In this course, we will study how social conditions shape our personal emotional experiences, group emotions, institutional emotions, and society-wide emotions. We will also look at how emotions in turn shape interactions, selves, group and institutional processes, cultural dynamics, and societal structures. By the end of the course, you will have insight into how emotions both shape and are shaped by, the social world.

Given the dramatic rise in mass incarceration over the last 50 years, understanding the spillover consequences of this uniquely American phenomenon has become increasingly important as a growing number of families now have direct experience with imprisonment. This course will provide a broad overview of the ripple effects of mass imprisonment on family life and how it shapes opportunity and structures disadvantage for communities, families, and especially children. This will be done through 1) exposure to mixed-media portrayals of imprisonment's effects on family and community life and 2) the close analysis of empirical research on the spillover and intergenerational consequences of incarceration across a range of outcomes. With the concentration of imprisonment falling among poor, minority families, much of the readings in this course will focus on family life in urban communities of color, however, we will spend a little time exploring broader accounts, including those of rural communities and encourage students to consider impacts for families exposed to incarceration due to white-collar crimes.

When people think about sexuality, they often adopt a biological view - seeing sexuality as "driven" by hormones and nature. This course adopts a different approach by viewing sexuality through the lens of sociology - as shaped by social processes, including social interaction, institutions, and ideologies. The course will focus on examining three sociological aspects of sexuality: 1) The social, historical, and cultural factors that shape sexual behaviors, desires, identities, and communities; 2) The ways in which sex and sexuality are constantly regulated and contested at multiple levels of society, including within families, schools, workplaces, and religious and political institutions; and 3) The sources, causes, and effects of sexual inequality. While our focus will be on sexuality, we will also study how other identities (including gender, race, class, religion, etc.) influence and affect it. Students will be encouraged to question their taken-for-granted assumptions about sex and sexualities and to formulate critical perspectives on issues pertaining to sexuality in today's public discourses. This course is sex-positive in that it assumes that knowledge about sexuality is empowering, not dangerous. The readings and discussions will be frank, and students will be assisted in developing a language for and comfort level with discussing a wide range of sexual topics in a respectful and sociological way. In the process, students will be challenged to improve their critical thinking, researching, writing, and public speaking skills.

Through readings and discussion in this senior seminar, you will develop a better understanding of causes and consequences of race and class inequalities by looking at how racism and capitalism have shaped American history and society. We will explore how both capitalism and racism have evolved and how sociologists have understood the relationship between capitalism (and resulting class inequalities) and racism (and resulting racial inequalities). Among the historical periods we will look at our Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Movement era, and the current Black Lives Matter and abolitionist movement. Important topics that we will discuss are slavery, exploitation, discrimination, reparations, the carceral state, white privilege, racial resentment, public goods, immigration, genocide and settler colonialism. We will be reading excerpts from the following books: Abrajano, Marisa A., and Zoltan L. Hajnal. 2017. White Backlash: Immigration, Race, and American Politics. Alexander, Michelle. 2020. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Coates, Ta-Nehisi. 2015. Between the World and Me. Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt. Black Reconstruction in America: Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880. Kaba, Mariame. 2021. We Do This Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice. Haymarket Books. . Kendi, Ibram X. 2019. How to Be an Antiracist. Klein, Naomi. 2015. This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate. McGhee, Heather. 2021. The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together. Ruffin, Amber, and Lacey Lamar. 2021. You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism.

America is the richest country in the world and yet roughly three million American children now grow up in families surviving on just $2 a day. As America's richest 0.1% have seen their incomes more than quadruple over the last forty years, the incomes for 90% of Americans have barely changed. These financial disparities reflect deeper inequities in educational opportunity, incarceration rates, social status and more. In this course, we will examine the nature and consequences of American inequality. Through close reading and spirited discussion, we will address such questions as: What is the meaning of meritocracy in an age of profound inequality? What is the lived experience of American poverty and American privilege? How are race and gender inequalities (re)produced throughout the life course? And, finally, how do all of these issues manifest in the successes and struggles of students at Notre Dame?

Though sociologists are not fortune tellers, life course sociology has documented the human life course enough to reliably understand how and why people's lives are patterned in certain ways. This course seeks to understand how and why people change or remain the same throughout their lives. We will explore how lives are shaped by specific historical contexts, how individuals actively construct their life course within historical and social constraints, how our lives are intertwined (and how this shapes human action), and how the impact of life transitions on life trajectories is contingent on the timing of a particular change in a person's life. We will investigate patterns common in the different stages of our life course as well life course pathways related to family relationships, education, health and religion. Including all of these elements of life course sociology gives a fuller understanding of how individual lives are lived within our communities as well as global contexts, and also how lives are rooted in intersections of gender, class, race, sexual orientation and other statuses.

This workshop will complete 2 years of student sociological research on the Lilly Endowment-funded project on cultural change and religious secularization in the U.S., following up on the Pizzo Rome Scholars Program led by Professor Smith. Students will finalize data analysis and interpretation and read and discuss the scholarly publication drafts from the project.

Social networks are an increasingly important form of social organization. Social networks help to link persons with friends, families, co-workers and formal organizations. Via social networks information flows, support is given and received, trust is built, resources are exchanged, and interpersonal influence is exerted. Rather than being static, social networks are dynamic entities. They change as people form and dissolve social ties to others during the life course. Social networks have always been an important part of social life: in our kinship relations, our friendships, at work, in business, in our communities and voluntary associations, in politics, in schools, and in markets. Our awareness of and ability to study social networks has increased dramatically with the advent of social media and new communication tools through which people interact with others. Through email, texting, Facebook, Twitter and other platforms, people connect and communicate with others and leave behind traces of those interactions. This provides a rich source of data that we can use to better understand our connections to each other; how these connections vary across persons and change over time; and the impact that they have on our behaviors, attitudes, and tastes. This course will introduce students to (1) important substantive issues about, and empirical research on, social networks; (2) theories about network evolution and network effects on behavior; and (3) tools and methods that students can use to look at and analyze social networks. The course will be a combination of lectures, discussions and labs. Course readings will include substantive research studies, theoretical writings, and methodological texts. Through this course students will learn about social networks by collecting data on social networks and analyzing that data.

Undergraduate Research Abroad in Sociology offers students a chance to engage in hands on research, either by working on a faculty members research project or by pursuing one s own research question unrelated to a senior thesis project. By the end of this course, students should demonstrate a deepened sense of empiricism and methodological understanding.

This senior-level course focuses on individual sociologists in each lecture and teaches about their contribution to the topic. The class has required readings to prepare for each lecture and covers complex contemporary topics such as stigma, one-dimensional societies, and the effects of colonization on societies, just to name a few

This course looks at the trends in the digital society - inequality, big data, changing norms, loss of privacy, gamification, changing ways of producing and consuming new - and asks what are the implications for our everyday lives and for the institutions and norms which shape how we live, of the increased connectedness of our age. We will explore the structure and features of digital technologies and social networks and their implications for collective behavior from economic, political and social perspectives.

This course explores the relationship between justice and mercy at the intersection of theology, literature, and mass incarceration. This interdisciplinary encounter aims to be mutually illuminating. Whereas theological reflection is often employed as an interpretive lens for diagnosing the injustice of mass incarceration, this course also asks: in what ways might mass incarceration equip us in turn to critique and re-imagine the historical limits and failures of theological reflection? One text that is central to this encounter is Dante Alighieri’s Comedy. Strikingly, it is the same poet who defines hell explicitly in carceral terms as a ‘blind prison’ (Inferno, 10. 58–59; Purgatorio, 22. 103) who garners praise, not least by Pope Francis himself, as a ‘prophet of hope’ uniquely situated to narrate how the infinite mercy of God meets fallen humanity. Together, we will investigate this charged ambiguity between carceral despair and prophetic hope as present in, and via paired readings of, the Comedy and key texts addressing mass incarceration (Michelle Alexander, Dwayne Betts, Angela Davis, Mariame Kaba, Vincent Lloyd, Reuben Jonathan Miller, Andrew Skotnicki, et al.), with the goal ultimately of understanding the evolution(s) of justice as variously punitive, restorative, transformative, and authorial.

Urban sociology studies the way that cities shape social life, considering spatial context as fundamental to understanding the social world. This course will explore three essential components of the city: 1) its formation, 2) its geographical and physical structure and composition, and 3) social organization among its residents. We will pivot between an examination of macro-level processes of the shape and character of the city, and the micro-level processes though which the urban context shapes the lives and social interactions of those who reside within it

This course employs the genocide in Rwanda and the conflict that ravaged northern Uganda over a twenty year period to explore the histories that precipitated genocide in Rwanda and conflict in northern Uganda. Through this, the course casts a critical lens upon the political institutions of the modern world, and critiques popular reductionist explanations that regard conflicts in Africa as driven simply by primordial ethnic tension.

This course will integrate the experience of teaching in London Catholic schools with a reflection on practice informed by contemporary scholarship. Students who are successful in applying for placements with Catholic secondary schools in London will spend 10-15 hours per week on-site in their school, working with staff and students in a variety of ways. They will also meet weekly, as a class, to discuss their experiences and to explore the broader context of their experiences. Beginning with an introduction to the English Catholic school, its history and relationship with the State, the course will include: the Catholic school and the common good; teaching and learning in the UK tradition; controversy in the face of religious pluralism, secularisation and the question of the separation of Church and State; Catholic school ethos; spiritual capital and leadership of the Catholic school.

This course will challenge commonly held perceptions of the environment and looks at how it shapes and reflects on past and present socio-political systems. The course aims to explore the relationship between social and political transformation and environmental change, especially relating to questions of sustainability.

In this module, students will have the opportunity to deepen knowledge on, and engage with, contemporary issues of diversity and equality advocacy. Students will explore the kinds of social movements and collective activism that have driven, shaped or challenged human rights internationally, taking a 'bottom-up' approach. Case studies will be used for in-depth exploration of tensions between equality and diversity and to examine the forms, functions and outcomes of collective action in relation to the cases considered.

The relationship between power, authority, and different government systems, the impact of civil society on the state, the emergence and influence of social movements on the polity and the social forces that may lead to behavior beyond the rules, such as terrorism, war, conflict and peace

Social networks is one of the fastest growing sub-areas within the discipline of sociology. The science of social networks focuses on measuring, modeling, and understanding the different ways that people are connected to one another. This is one of the only sub-areas of sociology that has a body of theory accompanied by a distinct methodology. SNA (Social Network Analysis) is not just about analytic techniques. Many years of social network studies have extensively represented rich sociological theory traditions such as structuralism, interactionism, and relational perspectives. This course is designed to provide students with the opportunity to (1) Understand basic network concepts and theories, (2) Use social-scientific terminology to describe patterns of structure and change observed in networks, (3) Understand and be capable of using measures based on graph theory and matrix algebra to analyze and describe social networks, (4) Understand the way that social network concepts, theory, and measures can be applied to shed light on a wide variety of phenomena across different fields of study in the social sciences and beyond.

Undergraduate Research Abroad in Sociology offers students a chance to engage in hands-on research, either by working on a faculty member's research project or by pursuing one's own research question unrelated to a senior thesis project. By the end of this course, students should demonstrate a deepened sense of empiricism and methodological understanding.

The introduction of this module was motivated by concerns to promote transformation by encouraging students to think critically about the world around them and not simply to take for granted differences and divisions between them. A key aim of the module is to open up race, gender and other social identities and their intersections as topics for discussion and academic reflection and to encourage students to reflect on what they understand by race and gender, and whether and how this impacts on their own lives.

This course focuses on the literatures and practices relevant to the study of cultural transformation in the U.S. since 1990 and how it has affected young adult interest in American institutional religion. Participating students are actively involved in a grant-funded empirical research project studying the causes of cultural change in the U.S. and the ways those shaped the religious outlooks and interests of members of Gen X and Millennials. The course will focus both on learning methods of social research, theories of culture and cultural change, and the sociology of religion. Registration by permission of the instructor only.

The aim of this module is to introduce students to sociological theory by examining some of the key ideas of classical thinkers and how these have been extended into the writings of modern sociological theorists. The course will also examine the ways in which sociological theory can help us to understand aspects of everyday life. The first section of the coure deals with the role of 'classical' theory where we will outline the work of Marx, Weber and Durkheim. The second section examines how some of the core ideas of these classical thinkers were developed further in the work of functionalism, symbolic interactionism, Neo-Marxism, feminist theory and network theory. The final section deals with the sociology of Norbert Elias and Pierre Bourdieu. The lectures will also discuss the theme of an individual and society dualism or to use sociological jargon, an agency and structure dichotomy, which runs throughout the sociological tradition. We will elaborate upon the meaning of these concepts- and others such as micro and macro- as we proceed during the course. For the time being it would be useful to think of the concepts of individual and society (or agency and structure) as representing a contrast between sociologies that foreground the free individual, action, and creative people (agency) as opposed to sociologies that focus on the socially constraining forces of society, or a social system that shape and determine what we do. On the one hand, it is us as agents that freely create our society. On the other it is society or the social system that determines or shapes us as individuals. Such a dualism is at the heart of our everyday existential experience but it is also evident in how sociologists think.

The Sociology Internship[ is a community-based learning course designed to give students some practical experience in the area of urban affairs, social welfare, education, health care, or business, in order to test their interest, complement their academic work, or acquire work experience preparatory to future careers. Students are placed in a community agency in the South Bend area and normally work seven hours per week as interns under the supervision of an experienced practitioner. Scheduling hours is a flexible process in order to accommodate the intern's availability and the needs of the host agency. While there are no prerequisites, preference is given to Sociology majors, ALPP or SCPP majors, PSIM minors, and students who have had course work in an area related to social concerns. This is a graded course. In addition to field work, academic work includes reading scholarly works related to the field placement, periodic group meetings with the instructor and others in the course, periodic short reports, and a final paper. Departmental approval is required. The following is a list of agencies that have accepted interns. Students may also request placement in an agency they find on their own (subject to approval by the instructor). La Casa de Amistad Salvation Army of St. Joseph County (Social Services) Sex Offense Services of St. Joseph County (must complete paper work and training a semester in advance) Early Childhood Development Center Good Shepherd Montessori School Robinson Community Learning Center Upward Bound College Preparatory Program, UND AIDS Assist Center for Hospice & Palliative Care, St. Joseph County (usually requires two-semester commitment) Sr. Maura Brannick Health Center at Chapin Street The CASIE Center (Child Abuse Services, Investigation & Education) Family Justice Center Indiana Legal Services

This is the first part of a Catholicism and the Disciplines (CAD) seminar about immigration issues—especially those related to the México-U.S. border. For this part (two credits), we will meet in class to read and to discuss social scientific research about such topics as why migrants leave their home countries, what they encounter and experience when attempting to cross the border, the responses of U.S.-based citizen groups to unauthorized border crossings, and the effectiveness of current U.S. enforcement policies. We also normatively evaluate these responses and policies, particularly from a Catholic perspective (but also from other faith, non-religious perspectives). Lastly, we will process and reflect on our immersion trip to the Southern Arizona borderlands. (the co-requisite class, Mexico-U.S. Border Immersion Experience, requires separate registration and takes place over the semester's mid-term break), including discussing what a uniquely Catholic border policy would look like, strategies to raise awareness about what is going in these borderlands, and migration issues and responses to them in other parts of the world. Immersion Description: This is the second (experiential-learning) part of a Catholicism and the Disciplines (CAD) seminar about immigration issues—especially those related to the México-U.S. border. Like the first corequisite part (Mexico-US Border Seminar), students will receive two credits for successfully completing it. Over the semester's mid-term break, we will travel to the Southern Arizona borderlands for a weeklong immersion trip. Among the activities in which we will engage on the trip are: (1) observing Operation Streamline legal proceedings; (2) attending a humanitarian aid training; (3) touring a Border Patrol facility; (4) going to the border wall and learning about its environmental impact; (5) hearing from Catholic and leaders of other faith traditions about their social justice work along the border; (6) visiting Arivaca and Nogales to experience everyday life in a border community; and (7) participating in a Samaritans' humanitarian desert trip. Students will be notified about their acceptance status via email after submitting the application. There are fees associated with this seminar. This is a graded course.

What is the role of religious congregations in urban communities? Do communities with more congregations mobilize collectively at higher rates to address local issues or provide access to more social service programs? Are higher levels of social connectedness found in urban areas with a greater concentration of religious congregations? Essential to examining these and related questions is understanding the methodologies used to study religious congregations and their social consequences. Students will thus learn about and gain hands-on experience, for example, mapping via Geographic Information Systems (GIS), conducting survey research, and analyzing textual and visual data using computational methods. Students will apply such methodologies in the field during trips to Chicago and gain insight into community-based research through meetings with religious leaders to hear about their work. The course involves both research trips to Chicago (1 credit) and a (2 credit) co-requisite class “Religion and Urban America: The Windy City Experience.” Please click on this link (https://nd.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cuaV4VZ6VjZoJ7g) to fill out a survey about your availability for the former. You can expect to hear back within a few days after you complete the survey about your approval for the course. Those granted approval will need to register for both the 2-credit and 1-credit parts of the course. Enrollment is determined on a rolling basis.

Directed Readings in Sociology offers a student the chance to work closely with a member of the faculty on a topic that is not available through any of the regularly offered courses. This independent study course allows for the student, under the guidance of the faculty mentor, to draw up a reading list and study plan for in-depth reading throughout the semester. The student is responsible for periodic oral and/or written reports and at least one major paper. To qualify for this course, a student must have a GPA of at least 3.5 in Sociology. A formal application is required. Students should have a clear idea of the topic they want to pursue and the faculty member they have asked to direct them before requesting a copy of this form from the Director of Undergraduate Studies. This is a graded course, no exceptions. Department Approval Required. (Before department approval is given, the student must have the application signed by the faculty member, the DUS in Sociology, and an Assistant Dean in the A&L Undergraduate Studies office.)

Directed Research in Sociology offers students a chance to engage in hands-on research, either by working on a faculty member's research project or by pursuing one's own research question unrelated to a senior thesis project. By the end of this course, students should demonstrate a deepened sense of empiricism and methodological understanding. This is a graded course, and a formal application is required. (See the DUS for a copy.) Students engaged in a faculty member's research project should work out a study plan and evaluation process for assigning a final grade with the faculty member. Students engaged in their own research project should (1) submit their research questions, hypotheses, data source, and methodology to their faculty director at the time of application to the course, and (2) submit a written research report by the end of the semester, as part of the final evaluation process. Department Approval Required.

The Sociology Senior Thesis is a two-semester course where students are required to complete an original research project under the direction of a faculty advisor. Additionally, the Senior Thesis is a clearly and precisely written polished document, therefore writing is central to the process. Students are required to meet with the Director of Undergraduate Studies before registering for the class. The Thesis fulfills two of the required 40000 level classes and is required for all students on the Honors Track