Program Specialty Areas

Course Description: Every day we are told that mental illness is on the rise and that our modern way of life is proliferating mental illnesses, but where does mental illness come from and how does it impact our lives? What are its social causes and consequences? This class will explore the sociological roots and repercussions of mental illness. We will learn about the ways in which social identity and position impact mental health. We will also investigate emerging technological and biosocial frameworks, as well as the effects of race, gender, sexuality, and intersecting forms of stratification on health and illness. The prerequisite for this class is SOC 101 or 210 or 226.

Course Description: How do we evaluate whether the research and evidence we consume is sound and whether the conclusions presented are believable?  This is an essential skill in a polarized world where we can't always count on honest presentation of evidence. This introductory course in social research methods will answer that question by providing an overview of how sociologists study the social world.  You will learn about the basic tools needed to conduct social research while also developing the skills necessary to critically evaluate the research of others. We will begin with a discussion of the fundamental concepts and issues involved in social science research and move on to consider a variety of approaches to social research, including qualitative research methods, surveys and experimental research design.  Students will learn these methods through firsthand experience with data collection and hypothesis testing. The course assumes no background in research methods or statistics. 

Course Description: This course provides a basic introduction to the application and interpretation of statistical analyses in the social sciences. By the end of the course, you will be familiar with a variety of basic statistical techniques that allow you to examine interesting social questions. We will begin by learning how to describe the characteristics of groups. We will then proceed to discuss how we can examine and generalize about relationships between characteristics. Emphasis will be placed on understanding and interpreting the meaning of statistics that are used to describe and generalize about the characteristics of groups. Last, we will learn how to use one of the computer programs (SPSS) that is widely used to perform statistical analysis.

Sociological analysis of public and private organizations and bureaucracies in the modern world, with attention to formal and informal structures, power, careers, status systems, and organizational change. Case materials from government, universities, business.

Topics include interpersonal exchange, cognitive consistency, conceptions of justice, small groups, friendship networks, social support networks, and techniques for analyzing networks. Topics vary each term; consult department.

Historical development of the contemporary community form. Emergence of modern patterns of urban life.

Study of social interaction during childhood and adolescence; emphasis on social interaction in various types of families and peer groups.

Study of villages, towns, cities, suburbs, and metropolitan areas. Their social problems, organization, and change.

Industrialism and industrialization; development of work, the labor force, and careers. Unions, management, and industrial relations. Worker participation in management and other alternative work arrangements.

Facts and theories of unequal distribution of income, honor, prestige, life chances, opportunities, social mobility, status attainment. Implications for social integration and conflict.

Organization and functions of school systems; differential opportunities and stratification; educational developments as effects and causes of social change; community conflict; internal organization of schools.

How social forces affect law and how law affects society. The relationships among legal and other institutions in society. The roles of lawyers, judges, and juries.

Social and cultural influence on housing and urban design and the reciprocal impact of the built environment on social organization, interaction, and personality.

According to the UN Trend Report on Global Forced Displacement the year 2021 witnessed a devastating world-wide crisis as 90 million people across the globe were forced to flee their homes. This is more than double the number of just ten years ago and estimates are for a further increase to 100 million in 2022. Men and women are roughly equal in their representation. Estimates of LGBTI individuals have been difficult to discern. This course examines the gender dynamics that impact and emerge from displacement. Issues such as reproductive health, trafficking, sexual and gendered violence, shelter, livelihoods, climate emergencies, conflict, labor, and other topics will be addressed. Drawing on the research produced in academia, in the humanitarian and development sectors and from the perspectives of the displaced we consider the conditions creating forced displacement, its consequences and its gendered forms. After an introduction to broad issues in migration and gender, students will undertake collaborative projects that focus on displacement in a particular region.

Course Description: This course develops an understanding of the dynamic interactions between people and their biogeophysical environments — as mediated through the capitalist political economy and cultural norms, values, and ideologies — with emphases on theorizing, describing, and interpreting the socioecological transformations that made our world of imperial modernity, and assessing present-day issues such as the Green New Deal, agroecology, and regenerative land management practices. By the conclusion of the term, students should be able to analyze anthropogenic global heating, post-carbon energy transition, community resilience, and climate justice through the conceptual frameworks (among others) of Merchant’s autonomous nature, Altvater’s fossil capital, and O’Connor’s second contradiction.

Course Description: Illegal drugs like heroin, cocaine, marihuana and many others are the source of a good deal of controversy and debate. Too often, however, these discussions are plagued by distortions about illegal drugs and illegal drug users. In this course, then, we will attempt to identify and correct some of these distortions by looking at what the social scientific research says about illegal drugs and their effects and about the extent of illegal drug use and abuse in the United States. We will also consider how the illegal status of drugs contributes to many distortions by looking at how illegal drugs were regarded before they were criminalized as compared to how they came to be regarded after their criminalization. Then, because the illegal status of drugs causes many to see their use as escapist, we will examine and critique some of the theories that have been developed to explain the reasons why people use illegal drugs. We will close by assessing the effectiveness of various policies meant to address the illegal drug problem including those that seek to control and reduce the size of illegal drug markets, those that focus on treatment of illegal drug users and those that promote drug decriminalization and state regulation of drug markets as a solution.

Meaning of work; occupational development and socialization; occupations and careers; social control of work; occupational cultures and lifestyles; relations between occupations.

Analysis of economic institutions from a sociological perspective. Historical and contemporary viewpoints drawing on material from developed and underdeveloped, capitalist, and state socialist societies.

One-credit community service placement in sociology.

Orientations to the superempirical; the interaction of religious beliefs and institutions with secular society. Classical and contemporary theories and data.