SOCI 101S 01&02 Introduction to Sociology Pre-requisites: None
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 101 Introduction to SociologyPre-requisites: None
Each day, we go about our lives, sometimes experiencing things that make us pause and reflect. But most often, we go about our daily lives through a series of routine and taken for granted experiences. The discipline of sociology offers us a new way of looking at our lives and those taken for granted experiences. It stimulates discoveries, understandings, and new ways of thinking about the world around us. This course is intended to challenge your ways of thinking by increasing your consciousness of the world around you. It will also help you develop skills to better understand the social reality of our lives. Students will learn fundamental sociological understandings and participate in exercises that encourage using these understandings to critically reflect on their personal lives, their communities, and societies worldwide. With our combined efforts, by the end of this course, you will understand sociology’s basic concepts, theories, and methods that will ultimately help you be a more informed and engaged citizen of your community and our global society.
SOCI 110C/SW 01 Cultural AnthropologyPre-requisites : None
This course introduces students to key concepts, methods, and approaches in cultural anthropology. Topics addressed include culture theory, fieldwork, language, ethnicity, tourism, media, popular culture, globalization, gender relations, social change, war, peace, development, and religion, among others. As this list suggests, anthropology is a discipline that draws on many other fields, and our course readings reflect that cross-disciplinarity. A special focus on indigenous peoples of the world and humans rights issues will be explored. Course will include some opportunities to participate in applied anthropology projects and research. Ethnographic setting sexplored in this class range from the contemporary United States to Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Europe.
SOCI 201 S 1W Social Character as Reflected in American Television SeriesPre-requisites: 1 course (min. 3 hours) in SOCI
The content of this course is the “collective consciousness” of American society and the various ways in which it is represented in American television series. The subject is examined through different conceptual perspectives: for instance, a Weberian perspective (David Riesman's The Lonely Crowd), a Marxian perspective (C. W. Mills’s White Collar), a Durkheimian perspective (Robert Bellah’s Habits of the Heart), and a postmodern perspective (Jean Baudrillard’s America). Readings are used to analyze different television series such as “Father Knows Best,” “Family Ties,” “The Simpsons,” “Coprock,” “The Simple Life,” “The Sopranos,” and “Desperate Housewives.” The television shows are selected not to provide a comprehensive survey of American television, but to exemplify the arguments of sociological literature on American social culture. The objective is to develop a critical, sympathetic, and historical understanding of the American social character and the ways it has changed through history. Competing perspectives are presented. Students are asked to evaluate the character and limits of these perspectives.
SOCI 250S 01 & 02 Sociology of DeviancePre-requisites: None
Sex, violence, insanity, fear and loathing! This course focuses on public perceptions and responses to behavior that is considered a violation of societal rules. Sociological theory, research, and case examples will be employed to help the student understand the causes and consequences of a variety of behaviors labeled as deviant. The emphasis will be on examining the patterns of interaction within which deviant behavior emerges, the impact of certain types of deviance on others, as well as attempts to prevent or reduce these behaviors by agents of social control. Of paramount concern will be our effort to understand the meaning of deviant behavior from the perspective of both the deviant actors and the audience that expresses disapproval.
SOCI 270S 01 Sociology of Minority GroupsPre-requisites: None
Since humanity developed the capacity to produce an economic surplus, countless masses of earthlings have been oppressed, and many have had their labor appropriated, by relatively small groups of privileged humans. This course will examine the historical and contemporary causes for the continued oppression of entire groups, including various ethnic groups, women, the impoverished and other species of animals. Special attention will be given to the roots of oppression with an in depth look at the entanglement of oppression of humans and other animals. This analysis will be woven into an examination of the treatment of devalued humans in the United States. The course will include class discussions, videotape presentations, and assignments outside of class. Students are expected to respond actively to assigned readings by discussing key ideas and by using examples to support or question these ideas.
SOCI 277 C/R 1W Islam and Islamic SocietiesPre-requisites: None
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 and subsequent reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq, the ongoing struggle of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the devastation of the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia and elsewhere in the Indian Ocean basin, 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 give a special emphasis to Islam in Africa and to 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) and can be taken for either “C” or “R” credit in General Education. Prerequisite: None.
SOCI 280S 01&02 Animals and SocietyPre-requisites: None
Increasingly, social scientists are focusing on the ethical, environmental and social consequences of human treatment of other animals. This course will examine how human societies have viewed and treated other animals and how the interactions and the structure of the relationship between humans and other animals affect both those animals and human social organization. For example, some scholars argue that cultural practices that define and use nonhuman animals as food contribute significantly to various forms of environmental devastation. Human health research indicates that high rates of heart disease and cancer in many cultures can be attributed to the consumption of animals. Others suggest that human perception and treatment of nonhuman animals are related in significant ways to such enduring problems as racism, sexism and violence against vulnerable groups of people. This course will examine the causes of human exploitation of other animals and the issues that frame the animal rights debate.
SOCI 292S 01 Population GeographyPre-requisites: None
Cross-listed as GEOG292; you may enroll in either SOCI 292 or GEOG 292. From now until the middle of the 21st century, in only fifty years, the world's population will increase by 50% from 6 billion at the end of 1999 to close to 9 billion in 2050. October 12, 1999 has been chosen as the official date marking the advent of a planet with 6 billion inhabitants. On October 5, 2005, the total population of the World had reached 6,470,751,717; an increase by almost half a billion in just six years. Between 1995 and 2005, the growth rate was 78 million people per year, the equivalent of a new Egypt added every year. In 2050, Africa and Asia will be home to 20 and 60% of the world's population respectively. Developed nations will have twice as many elderly people as youth and the population of many in between will be in decline. The world's productive land is a constantly changing resource. Climatic variations, natural disasters, and human intervention are constantly at work changing the boundaries of productive land. Arable land covers 3% of the world's surface. Despite the fact that this land is continually being lost to urbanization, the total area under cultivation is rising because of deforestation. During this course we would look at demographic data, population distribution and composition, theories of population growth and change. We will focus on basic demographic processes, as mortality, fertility, and migration. This class will be helpful in understanding the demographic processes in different cultural, social, and political settings.
SOCI 301 Women and PovertyPre-requisites: None
This is an upper-level seminar on the sociological, economical, and political issues facing women in the context of poverty. The course will examine the diverse nature of the poverty experience for women in the United States and the world. Topics covered will include the Appalachian experience, the Native American Experience, the African-American Experience as well as other groups through individual student presentations. It is desirable that students have Gender and Society, SOCI 245, before this seminar. A high level of writing is expected.
SOCI 307 1Z Research MethodsPre-requisites: SOCI 101S or SOCI 110C/S and minimum math placement 23 and a stats class. Note: Stats may be taken concurrently with SOCI 307. Additional one hour meeting time for lab work to be determined by instructor and students on the first day of class.
This course will introduce students to the design and implementation of various social science research methods. The course examines every phase of the research process including the development of testable research questions, integration of theory into the empirical process, choosing effective methods for study, and various techniques for collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and reporting data. Students will construct and implement research designs using various quantitative and qualitative methods, primarily in preparation for the completion of their independent senior thesis project. This is a required course for sociology majors.
SOCI 370 01 CriminologyPre-requisites: 1 course (min. 3 hours in SOCI)
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.
SOCI 380S 1W Identity, Self, and SocietyPre-requisites: 1 course (min. 3 hours) in SOCI
This course will survey leading theories of self and identity in the tradition of symbolic interaction and apply them creatively and critically to the everyday world. After studying the conceptual positions of George Herbert Mead, Charles Cooley, and Erving Goffman on self, the course will test the explanatory character of these positions against demanding subjects like madness, prejudice, friendship, and leadership. The course will also address how self and identity are important issues in areas of postmodernism, feminism, and colonization. The question that will center our inquiries is, How is the individual dependent upon as well as autonomous from the social community?
Lectures, group discussions, films, writing assignments, and tests will be oriented toward addressing this question. While taught from a sociological perspective, the course will encompass an interdisciplinary approach; it will draw upon readings in psychology, education, philosophy, theology, and political science.
This course is also an opportunity for students to integrate service to the community with their actual course work. Students engage in service learning activities at the NAMI drop-in center, a meeting place for people suffering from serious and chronic mental illness near Wittenberg University. Readings on schizophrenia and madness will be interwoven into the topic of identity and self-understanding and reinforced through students’ service activity.
