| SOCI 101S.01 | Introduction to Sociology (4 credits) | Nibert, David |
| This course will examine the cultural and social structural roots of human social interaction and will explore the sources of social conflict and social problems. At the end of the course, each student should understand and be able to use the functionalist, conflict, and interactionalist perspectives of society; have an awareness of the social structural that underlie the day-today realities of human societies; be familiar with the causes of social conflict and the consequences of conflictual social relations; and develop an awareness of the relationship between her/his own biography and social history. The objectives of this course will be achieved through lectures, class discussions, videotape presentations, and assignments outside of class. Students are expected to respond actively to assigned readings by discussing the principal ideas and by using relevant examples to support or question these ideas. | ||
| SOCI 101S.02
SOCI 101S.03 |
Introduction to Sociology (4 credits) | Pankhurst, Jerry |
| This course serves as an introduction to the cultural and structural patterns of human behavior as seen through the sociological perspective. The content of this course, as presented through readings, lectures, exercises, films, and discussions, focuses upon norms, social interaction, social organization, and social change. The course addresses socio-cultural differences in life styles through an analytical approach which views social behavior as the result of a complex integration of institutional affiliations (e.g., religious, family, educational, political, and economic). The course also introduces students to the discipline of sociology and to sociology as a profession. This section of Sociology 101 will have a lecture and discussion format. Grades are based on three examinations and several exercises. | ||
| SOCI 101S.04 | Introduction to Sociology (4 credits) | Plante, Rebecca |
| This course will examine the cultural and social roots of human social interaction and will explore the sources of social conflict and social problems. We will develop the Asociological imagination@ B a creative, adaptive approach to understanding the sociostructural forces underlying humanity. Focusing on the U.S., we will explore methods for studying social structures and individuals. Topics will include: socialization and identity; family and intimate relationships; gender, race, and class; deviance and conformity; and social change. Lectures and discussions will be combined with media resources; by the end of the semester, students will be media-literate, sociologically savvy, and aware of the interplay between individuality and culture. | SOCI 101S.05 | Introduction to Sociology (4 credits) | McEvoy, Alan |
| This course examines the cultural and structural patterns of human behavior. The content of this course focuses upon norms, social interaction, social organization, and social change. This course pays special attention to the characteristics of social institutions and how they shape the human conduct. | ||
| SOCI 110C/S.1W | Cultural Anthropology (4 credits) | Smith, Stephan |
| This course is an introduction to the perspective of cultural anthropology. The course pays particular attention to the concept of culture and to the tremendous diversity of cultural patterns around the world. Topics include fieldwork as method and experience, institutions of society, and symbol and meaning. Students will read descriptions of societies from several different ethnographic areas, including the United States. We will end the term with a consideration of the role of anthropology and anthropologists in the world today. Writing intensive. | ||
| SOCI 210S.01 | Sociology of the Family (4 credits) | Plante, Rebecca |
| What is happening to Athe family@? Is this core social institution under attack, threatened, or in danger of extinction? How do we see other aspects of our social life inside the intimate world of American families? Using a variety of sources and texts (including media), we will explore families as pluralities but as an important aspect of U.S. social structures. In this context, we will look at socialization, sexualities, gender/race/class/ethnicity, intimacy, divisions of labor, work, children, and power. This course relies on student participation and lectures, and will enable students to become media-literate and sociologically adept. | ||
| SOCI 270S.01
SOCI 270S.02 |
Sociology of Minority Groups ( 4 credits) | Nibert, David |
| Since humanity developed the capacity to produce an economic surplus, masses of people have been oppressed and had the fruits of their labor appropriated by relatively small groups of privileged people. This course will examine the historical and contemporary causes for the continued oppression of entire categories of people, including various ethnic groups, women and people with different sexual orientations. Special attention will be given to economic factors. The objectives will be achieved by lectures, class discussions, videotape presentations, and assignments outside of class. Students are expected to respond actively to assigned readings by discussing principal ideas and by using examples to support or question these ideas. | ||
| 301S | Topic: Sociology of Sexuality(4 credits) | Plante, Rebecca |
| How can we study sexuality as a social phenomenon? Isn=t sex something private, personal, and intimate? This course will answer these questions while posing multiple others. To understand the social nature of sexual experiences and variations, we will focus on the United States and use gender, race, and class as primary variables. While not writing intensive, this course will be >thinking intensive=, requiring students to be open-minded and willing to participate in discussions and lectures. Students will have choices for their assignments and will develop sociological imagination and media literacies. | ||
| 320.1W | Work, Occupations, and Organizations (4 credits) | Kanner |
| This course explores the nature of work, the workplace, and occupations in contemporary American society and in the global economy. Our investigation will focus on the social rather than the economic or technical dimensions of work, concentrating on the larger subcultural and cultural connections that join together work and workers. Scholarships in the social sciences has flourished -- the sociology and anthropology of work, industrial sociology and psychology, labor economics, gender and work, and the international division of labor. Work absorbs most of the days and most of the years of most adults in the world. Over history, across cultures, across occupations, the nature and meanings of work and workers vary widely. Our study will include attention to historical, cross-cultural, and contemporary transformations in work. In the Western world view, work has come to be regarded as both curse and salvation. We will attempt to understand the symbolic and literal realities of this idea. Recent attention to occupational safety, on-site quality to life, women and their changing roles in the workforce, and the global expansion of multinational corporations will be topics of special attention. As the nature of work becomes more cosmic and more atomic, the roles and identities of the individual worker are constantly re-negotiated. Plants closing, a a work force aging beyond the traditional time of retirement, the international division of labor, and the explosion of the information technology industries have combined to create a topography of labor and occupation vastly different than the work world at the turn of the century. This course relies on a combination of theoretical and analytical frameworks, and the number of case studies designed to illustrate a range of issues in the sociology work. | ||
| 360S.1W | Sociological Theory (4 credits) | Doubt, Keith |
| Although sociology has an important, growing applied dimension, this application rests on theory and research. This course examines theory as it relates to the general body of sociological knowledge, specific school of thought, and research methodology. We examine concepts, theorists and specific schools of thought. The focus is threefold: (1) a review of the work of some classical theorists (e.g. Durkheim, Weber and Marx), (2) a description and contrast of contemporary sociological theories (e.g. conflict, functionalism, and symbolic interaction), and (3) and application of theory toward a critical/analytical understanding of society. Requirements of the course include an extensive reading beyond a major textbook, plus meeting writing intensive standards. (At least three semester hours in Sociology is a prerequisite. It is advisable that students taking this course have had several courses in sociology at the 200 and 300 level.) | ||
| SOCI 370S.01
SOCI 370S.02 |
Criminology (4 credits) | McEvoy, Alan |
| This course will emphasize explanations of criminal behavior, consequences of crime for victims and for society, types of juvenile and adult crime, and societal responses to crime. The strengths and limitations of the criminal justice system will be examined, and various approaches to corrections and to crime prevention will be considered. Special attention will be given to the problem of criminal violence, the reasons for it and responses to it. Emphasis also will be given to how difficult groups such as the police, the victims, and the criminal themselves view criminal conduct. | ||
| SOCI 498.1W
SOCI 498.2W |
Senior Thesis (4 credits) | Lewis, Linda |
| Required of all Sociology majors. Prerequisites: Soci 305; Soci 360 must be completed or taken concurrently. | ||
| Wittenberg’s official curriculum and academic policies are contained in the Academic Catalog. The latest edition of the Catalog is available online. | ||