Law is everywhere. Law permits, prohibits, enables, legitimates, protects, and prosecutes. Law shapes our day-to-day lives in countless ways. This course examines the connections and relationships of law and society using an interdisciplinary social science approach. As one of the founders of the Law and Society movement observed, "law is too important to leave to lawyers." Accordingly, this course will borrow from several theoretical, disciplinary, and interdisciplinary perspectives (such as sociology, history, anthropology, political science, critical studies, and psychology) in order to explore the sociology of law and law's role primarily in the American context (but with some attention to international law and global human rights efforts). The thematic topics to be discussed include law and social control; law's role in social change; and law's capacity to reach into complex social relations and intervene in existing normative institutions and organizational structures.
Mode of Instructions: Remote synchronous lecture for 3 hours per week, and 2 - 3 hours of asynchronous discussion on Canvas per week. Cross-listed with Legal_ST 206-0
Our climate is rapidly changing. Rising sea levels and increasing ocean acidity, higher temperatures, more droughts, melting glaciers, wilder weather patterns, and mounting environmental disasters mean that climate change is increasingly visible in our daily lives. What role does human society play in these changes, and what consequences does society suffer as these changes occur? This course is an introduction to environmental sociology during which we will employ an intersectional, sociological perspective to look beyond the scientific basis for environmental problems to understand the social roots of environmental issues. We will cover a variety of topics in environmental sociology, including new directions in sustainable development and how actors such as corporations, the media, and social movements impact public opinion and environmental issues. Further, we will critically examine the gendered, racial, and socioeconomic production of disparate environmental risks.
This course is an introduction to research methods from a sociological point of view. It aims to show how sociologists (and related social scientists) do research. We will examine fundamental concepts in research design (from sampling to bias), many different types of methods (from experiments to surveys), research ethics, and the benefits and limitations of various methodological approaches. In this hands-on course, we will learn about various methods, research ethics, and the fundamentals of research design by interacting with scholarly articles and practice and by looking at how social science research factors in our everyday lives (from social media posts to stories on the nightly news). A capstone project includes development of a full research proposal. This course is conducted completely online.
SOCIOL 276-0 Punishment, Inequality, and Mass Incarceration's Future
In 1970, just under 200,000 people were incarcerated in the United States. Today, that number is nearly two million—plus an additional 3.4 million people under community supervision. The US leads the world in incarceration, with stark racial disparities in who is behind bars. How did we get here? What institutions and actors drive incarceration and its inequalities? How has it shaped American society? Most importantly, what can we do about it?
In this interdisciplinary class, we will look backward in time to understand the origins of mass incarceration and forward to anticipate its evolution amidst calls for abolition and a resurgence of “tough on crime” politics. We will examine both traditional and unexpected sites of punishment (from courts and prisons to public parks), interrogate the impacts of different criminal justice actors, and discuss mass incarceration’s social consequences. Along the way, the course highlights the intersecting roles of race, anti-Blackness, class, gender, and sexuality in contemporary punishment. Altogether, these discussions will shed light on questions of inequality, racial justice, the law, state power, and the meaning of freedom. Students from all fields are welcome.
We all interact with organizations. You are interacting with an organization right now. Much of everyday life, whether it is school, work, shopping, or eating occurs within the context of organizations. The goal of this course is to teach you to think analytically about the organizations you interact with. We will examine why organizations are the way they are, how scholar's understandings of organizations have changed over time, and how scholars today think about organizations.
Why do we buy what we buy? How does that shape our social and physical world? Explore how consumerism shapes and is shaped by modern life in this summer seminar. We’ll cover the intimate world of individual and group decision-making as well as the historical emergence of American consumers as economic and political forces. Along the way, we’ll uncover the implications of consumption, from welfare and credit to environmental and equity issues. This course draws connections between everyday choices, cultural meaning, and the political economy.
