SOCIOL 101-8 Why Are Some Countries Richer than Others?
Why have some countries witnessed repeated industrial transformations, whereas others have economies that remain significantly non-industrial and agricultural? When and how did certain countries “get ahead” of others in the global economy? To what extent can less-developed countries “catch up” with more developed ones? How does “globalization” affect these chances? These are some of the questions that we will explore in this class. The goal of the seminar is to enhance our understanding of differences in levels of development among countries of the world, and to explore competing hypotheses designed to explain those differences. We will examine both the contemporary global economy and the historical processes that brought the current situation into being.
What is Latinx futurism? Most of the imagined futures we are exposed to in the United States have been crafted by white authors. From Isaac Asimov’s science fiction novels about robots to high-production value blockbusters. An alternative cannon, Afrofuturism, has begun to blaze a path for understanding why the political, racial, and cultural position of those doing the imagining matters. In do so, Afrofuturism aims to inspire us to think carefully about how we deal with the pressing social issues of our time and have offered a new lens for thinking about the future. This discussion-based seminar takes this as a departure point and works towards including Latinx futurism in this frame. This seminar is an introduction to a way of thinking sociologically about technology, science, and society from the perspective of Latinx and Latin American communities. In their reading and writing assignments students will explore a broad array of topics, from the origins of postcolonial states, Zapotec science, and borderlands epistemology.
Sociology is a field of study that examines how people and groups interact, navigate, and make decisions within the structure and constraints of their social world. Often these social processes go unobserved or unacknowledged, and sociologists treat it as their job to shed analytical light on how people experience and participate in society. Through sociological analysis, we can answer questions like: How did Evanston become largely segregated by race? Why is it illegal for people to sell their kidneys? Is suicide contagious? Why would someone pay for Instagram followers?
Sociology is a huge field of study, and includes and enormous variety of topics and methods. Each week, we will focus on a specific area of sociological study (Culture, Gender, Race, Family, Money, Deviance, etc.) with the goal of offering you a general overview of the types of questions sociologists ask and how they answer them. By the end of the quarter, you will be able to think sociologically about your own world, and hopefully develop a budding interest in one or more of the areas we discuss in class.
This class will explore the nature of race in an effort to understand exactly what race is. It seeks to understand why race is such a potent force in American society. Close attention will be paid to the relationship between race, power, and social stratification. The course will examine the nature of racial conflict and major efforts to combat racial inequality.
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 how actors such as corporations, the media, and social movements impact public opinion around environmental issues. Further, we will critically examine the gendered, racial, and socioeconomic production of disparate environmental risks. A primary, central focus of this sociology course is environmental inequality, and students engage with a wide range of theories to examine environmental issues of their own choosing. This is not a public policy course.
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.
The main emphasis in this course is on how sociological theory informs social research. We will read selections of classical social theory and then look at how various scholars have used that theory to help them analyze some aspect of society. We will keep moving between theoretical statements and applications or refinements of that theory. The course will be a mix of lectures and discussion.
This course examines the relationship between law and the distribution of power in society, with a particular emphasis on law and social change in the United States. Readings will be drawn from the social sciences and history, as well as selected court cases that raise critical questions about the role of race, gender, and sexual orientation in American society. Among the material we will examine are the documents made public in the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Students should be aware that some of this material is graphic and disturbing.
This course is an opportunity for students to critically examine what is often a taken-for-granted aspect of social life: gender. This course will involve learning about gender as well as applying gender theory. We will study a variety of theoretical approaches to the study of gender, with particular focus on how problems are identified and theories are developed. We will examine emergent cases of gender theorization – childhood gender and sexuality panics, bathroom surveillance, and the intersex experience, among others. By the end of the term, students will be able to 1) describe and compare theoretical anchors for the sociological study of gender and 2) in writing, apply gender theory to original ethnographic data. This is a reading-heavy upper division course and prior course experience in gender/sexuality studies (by way of taking Gender & Society or other course work) is strongly advised.
SOCIOL 376-0 American Politics and Policy from the New Deal
This course traces the social and political development of public policy in the United States from the New Deal to the present day. Among other topics, it is concerned with industrial relations, social policy, fiscal policy, immigration policy, banking and securities regulation, civil rights, and health care. Why has public policy in these areas developed in the myriad ways that they have—and not in other ways that they might have plausibly developed? By the end of the quarter, students should understand the basic structure and content of public policy in each of these different areas, and they should be able to formulate and defend their own views on the origins, development, and future prospects of these policies..
How do developments in the life sciences affect our understandings of who we are, how we differ, and how social inequalities are created, perpetuated, and challenged? This seminar explores how scientific claims and technological developments help transform cultural meanings of race, gender, and sexuality. Conversely, we will consider how cultural beliefs about race, gender, and sexuality influence scientific knowledge and medical practice. By studying a range of cases, we will explore the dynamic interplay among expert findings, social identities, and political arguments.
From abstinence-only sex education programs to the public response to songs like WAP by Cardi B & Megan thee Stallion, we are bombarded with messaging that sexuality is stigmatized. But why is sexuality so taboo? How do social forces shape the way we view, experience, and regulate sexuality? Using a sociological lens, this course explores the intersection of sexuality and stigma. We will begin by exploring foundational theories of both stigma and sexuality in the social sciences. Armed with these frameworks, we will then engage with in-depth case studies of different stigmatized sexualities, including homosexuality, bisexuality, asexuality, HIV/AIDS, infidelity, sex work, kink, ethical non-monogamy, and disabled sexualities. The course will empower students to interrogate their own assumptions and to critically examine the forces that perpetuate sexual inequality in society. By the end of the course, students will have gained a deeper understanding of how stigma operates at both the individual and structural level. The final assignment requires students to write a proposal for a research project that would answer a sociological question of their choice about stigma and sexuality.
In this course we will rethink two classical ideas—the state and capitalism— in light of contemporary technological change. We move beyond treating technology as a neutral tool and instead analyze it as a social, political, and cultural force that actively reorganizes and is reorganized by power, labor, governance, capital, and everyday life. We explore topics such as the rise of the tech-billionaire class, platform economies and gig work, bureaucracy, algorithmic systems, misinformation, e-governance, environmental regulation, smart cities as intertwined sociotechnical systems rather than isolated innovations. Through comparative works from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the United States, the course sheds light on the global political economy while attending to national differences, local histories and cultures. We will also explore how social actors resist, subvert and contest technological power to imagine alternative futures. The course equips students with classical frameworks and critical conceptual tools for analyzing the intertwining of technology, politics, and economy in modern life.
Why are younger people more likely to identify as transgender than older people? What are the challenges, opportunities, and dangers of asking about gender and sexuality on the U.S. Census? Can survey researchers account for gender and sexual fluidity? This seminar examines the emerging field of “queer demography,” which aims to measure the size and characteristics of the LGBTQ population. We will read and discuss research about queer and transgender families, aging, health disparities, and more. Along the way, we will learn to critically analyze survey questions and statistical methods for assumptions about gender, sex, and sexuality. We will also think deeply about social categories and the politics of measurement more generally. This course is interdisciplinary and draws from sociology, science and technology studies, statistics, gender and sexuality studies, critical quantitative methods, and public health. Students of all backgrounds are welcome—we will work together to break down and contextualize the readings.
Whether you are a seasoned sports enthusiast or simply a Super Bowl commercial fan, there is no denying the influence of sport in contemporary society. The sociology of sport explores how sports reflect evolving societal norms, contribute to individual and national identity, and reify or challenge existing social inequalities. This 300-level seminar course is intended to provide students with the opportunity to further their knowledge of core sociological concepts through the lens of sports. In the first half of the quarter, we will explore connections between sport and individual identity, including race, gender, class, embodiment, and morality. In the second half of the quarter, we will examine sports in relation to macro-social themes, including education, the economy, and culture. Students will have the opportunity to observe and analyze sporting events, and to engage in thoughtful evaluation of contemporary sporting debates. Over the course of the quarter, students will gain experience in ethnographic observation, data analysis, theory building, critical thinking, and collegial discussion.
This course is part of the quantitative methods sequence for graduate students in sociology. For most of the course, we will focus on regression-like methods for categorical outcomes, notably binary outcomes, ordered outcomes, nominal outcomes, count outcomes, and (if time permits) event outcomes. The course will also include discussion of practical issues in performing statistical analysis of secondary data. I assume that you the enter class either having data at hand to perform an analysis or that you can find data on your own. The major goals of the course are for students (1) to become proficient enough in regression models for categorical variables to understand, explain, and critique its use in articles appearing in sociology journals and (2) to be able to perform a competent analysis of data that is of sufficient quality to appear as an article in a sociology or social science journal. The major assignment for the course will be for students to write a paper that is a data analysis of secondary data. The final paper should be similar to a draft of a publishable article, although there will be some required sections not found in a regular article..
SOCIOL 403-0 Field Methods: Qualitative Data Collection
This graduate course is an introduction to ethnographic field methods. Students will learn how to conduct participant observation and in-depth interviews, two methods that often work in tandem in ethnographic sociological studies. We will discuss various aspects of research design and practical strategies to manage and adequately analyze and make sense of the considerable volume of data that ethnographic studies commonly generate. We will discuss epistemological issues, attending to how to use empirical ethnographic data to generate conceptual and theoretical conclusions, and we will also demarcate the capabilities and limitations of ethnographic research. Throughout the course, we will reflect on questions of research ethics, power, and representation.
The ubiquity of modern technology has rendered its effects of producing and reproducing power relations increasingly visible. Despite the increased visibility of these effects, the underlying sociological dynamics through which technology is constructed and the mechanism by which power operates through it are elusive. This graduate seminar follows a genealogical approach to the sociology of technology to explore the theoretical and empirical basis behind the thesis that technology and society are co-constituted. To do so, the readings and discussion of this seminar are organized around fundamental questions in the sociology of technology that touch on a wide variety of empirical domains: How and under what conditions do individuals and organizations innovate? How does power become embedded in artifacts, algorithms, and infrastructure? How is the agency of individuals and organizations inflected or shaped by technology? How do visions of the future and expectations surrounding technology operate as modern ideology? We will additionally explore some of the key debates surrounding the study of technology across the social sciences.
This course is designed to provide an overview of recent scholarship in sociology and the social sciences on contemporary families in the United States and other industrialized countries. We will focus on research that considers how families have changed over the last century and how the structure, functions, and experiences of family life vary across race/ethnicity, class, gender, sexual identity, and national context.
SOCIOL 476-0 Social Science Fiction: Methods, Models and Stories
Social Science Fiction is a class that centers on methods, models, and storytelling. Indeed, it is not concerned with the latest, greatest analytic methods or the hottest, super models stalking the academic milieu. Rather, the course reviews how social scientists use fictional simulations—demographic methods and agent-based models—to explore social phenomena, and how authors incorporate social science into their storied, fictional representations of our world. To this end, we will review the ways social scientists use simulations to tell stories about social systems, study the methods that authors use in literary stories to connect and convey information to readers, and investigate the ways that scholars can utilize fictional storytelling to recognize and communicate novel insights about their research.
This seminar offers a space for graduate students to discuss topics related to college TAing and teaching. The course covers the following topics: practical skills and strategies to be an effective and efficient teaching assistant, particular TAing/teaching challenges for women, minority, international, and LGBT instructors, leading discussion sections and lecturing, how to create inclusive classrooms, how to construct a syllabus, defining your teaching philosophy, and perspectives on student evaluations.
