SOCI 101 S Sec. 1 / Introduction to Sociology (4 Credits) / Professor McEvoy
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 101S Sec 2 & 3 / Introduction to Sociology (4 credits) / Professor Plante
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 sociological imagination through 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 110C/S/W / Sec 1 & 2 / Cultural Anthropology (4 credits) / Professor Smith
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.
SOCI201 / Sport in Culture / Professor Dawson
At a time of major political change in the world, this course will examine the nature and role of international sport in the emerging global village. Students will seek to uncover the unique elements of sport in the USA and to explain its appearance in terms of the nation's dominant system of cultural values. Sport will be placed against the broader, sometimes contradictory, backdrop of American culture. Sport will also be analyzed in the following cultures: Japan, China, the "New Europe" (former Eastern Bloc), South Africa and New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
SOCI 245 C/S/W / Women and the Family in EA / Professor Lewis
This course is a comparative analysis of the position of women in the context of the family in China, Japan, and Korea. Major topics will include Confucian ideology and the traditional social order; the impact of colonialism and modernization, Christianity and communism in the 20th century; and contemporary society and women's work. The emphasis will be on systems of constraint and sources of empowerment for women in East Asia today.
SOCI 277 C/R/W / Islam and Islamic Societies / Professor Pankhurst
This course will provide a broad introduction to the religion of Islam, accompanied by an examination of the connections between Islam and the varied life of Muslim societies and of Muslim minority communities in non-Muslim societies. Given the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the West's military reprisals in Afghanistan, the increased intensity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and other problem situations, knowledge of these issues has become of highest priority. We will seek to understand the complex sources of conflict in areas in which Islam is implicated in some way; we will also try to become acquainted with the rich cultural life of Muslims. We will consider Muslim societies all over the world, but, in support of the minor in Africana Studies, we will emphasize Islam in Africa and African American Islam.
Course format: lecture/seminar, with much group discussion. Graded Requirements: A variety of writing exercises throughout the term, oral presentations, examinations and a term project. This course is Writing Intensive (W).
Prerequisite: None
SOCI 290S/W / Global Change / Professor Nibert
Examination of the theories, processes, dynamics, and consequences of global change with respect to the emergence of global economic and political systems. Topics include the emergence of industrialization and colonialism, contemporary relationships of advance capitalist nations to the Third World, growing levels of poverty, hunger, repression, and continued environmental destruction.
SOCI 301S Sec 1 / Beauty and the Body: Exploring Culture / Professor Plante
This course will introduce participants to a social scientific, interdisciplinary examination of the body and beauty. We will study how appearance is situated within historical, material, and social contexts. The course has distinct foci, including beauty pageants; the commercialization of bodies and looks; bodily permutations, including bodybuilding and body modification, including piercing, tattooing, and ritual 'bodyplay'; eating
disorders; and plastic surgeries. We will use gender, ethnicity, class, and sexuality to inform our analyses and discussions. Our materials will be cross-cultural, contemporary, and historical, to a lesser extent. The Western experience will provide the foundation for our explorations, however.
SOCI 301L Sec 2 / The Numbers Game: Facts versus Symbols / Professor Doubt
This course dramatizes the tension between two leading modes of inquiry in the social sciences: data analysis (descriptive and inferential statistics) and semiotics (the study of signs and their significance with respect to social meaning). The course will draw upon various academic fields:
This course is designed to appeal to majors in sociology, political science, and psychology interested in developing their knowledge of data analysis, communication majors interested in the rhetorical study of scientific discourse, statistics minors interested in an atypical study of their subject, and philosophy majors interested in the philosophy of science.
SOCI 360 W / Sociological Theory / Professor Doubt
This course will survey the history of modern social thought and the establishment of sociology as an empirical science. We will focus on key theorists who have made substantial contributions toward defining the limits and character of sociological inquiry. We will compare and contrast competing conceptual paradigms (functionalism, conflict theory, critical theory, exchange theory, ethnomethodology, symbolic interaction, and phenomenology) and study recent significant developments within the field (rational choice theory, feminism, semiotics, and queer theory). The course will require intensive readings of challenging but rewarding texts. The course will also require clearly written and analytically astute papers. Two to three hours of outside preparation - involving reading, journal writing, and library research - are required for each class. (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 / Criminology / Professor McEvoy
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 / Senior Thesis / Professor Nibert
Comprehensive written project in collaboration with sociology faculty and an oral defense. Required of all Sociology majors. Prerequisites: Soci 305; Soci 360 must be completed or taken concurrently.
