DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY

In this course we will examine one of the most destructive, evil and perplexing phenomena haunting society: genocide - i.e. , the on a large scale organized exclusion and killing of populations defined by race, ethnicity, nationality or religion. . In the first section of this course students will be introduced to ideational, rational and psychological explanations of genocide. Causes of genocide can be found at different levels of analysis. We will focus on theories at three different levels. First, we will look at how national and international processes such as modernization and political leadership cause genocide (macro level ). Second, we will look at why individuals decide to participate in or condone mass killings (micro level ). Third, we will look at what role subnational groups such as religious communities play (meso level ). In the second part of this course, we will assess the validity of different explanations through the comparative study of three particular cases: the Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide and Rwanda. Students will explore a fourth case on their own. We will end the course with a discussion on foreign intervention.

Students will improve their analytical skills by drawing connections between social science theory, historical monographs, memoirs of genocide survivors, journalistic accounts, policy documents, documentaries and public debates on foreign intervention. Upon completing the course, students will not only be acquainted with the main types of explanations offered for genocide, but they will also be able to evaluate the evidence supporting the various explanations. In turn, this should help students to develop and evaluate proposals to end and prevent mass killing.

This course examines inequality in American society with an emphasis on race, class, and gender. Lectures emphasize the mechanisms through which inequality develops and comes to be seen as legitimate, natural, and desirable. We will also examine the economic, social, and political consequences of rising inequality. We will place special focus on poverty and inequality in Native North America.

This course provides an introduction to thinking about food from a sociological perspective. We will gain an initial understanding of how different social forces have shaped and continue to shape the way we grow, distribute and consume food, both in the United States and elsewhere around the world. We will look at the role played by culture and politics, as well as economics, in shaping our past and present food system. At the same time we will gain an initial understanding of concepts central to sociology, such as the social construction of seemingly natural choices involving the food we eat, or how social inequality affects such choices. Through looking at the issue of food, we will also become acquainted with different areas in sociology, such as the sociology of health and medicine, and development and globalization.

Logic and methods of social research, qualitative and quantitative analysis of social data, and ethical, political, and policy issues in social research. Foundation for further work in social research.

Instructor varies. See Caesar for current description.

Most of our waking hours are spent participating in various types of formal organizations - schools, corporations, churches, or (unfortunately) prisons. We generally begin our lives in hospitals, and often end our days in nursing homes. While we want to join some organizations (e.g. Northwestern - go Cats!), we also avoid others like plague (e.g. the DMV). But where do organizations come from? What do they have in common? How to they shape who we get to know, how we get ahead or fall behind? Why do organizations change or fail to change?

We will begin to answer these questions using three main theoretical frameworks - sometimes referred to as "rational," "natural," and "open" systems approaches - that pull together the aspects of organizations in coherent approaches with different emphases and implications. By the end of the quarter, you will be able to think analytically about organizations from these different and sometimes competing perspectives. This should enable you to think about how you might better survive and thrive in our organizational world.

This course is a critical sociological look at education in the United States - with a focus on contemporary debates and issues. The course will cover how sociologists have both theoretically and empirically looked at schooling practices, what and how students learn, and how schools fit into the larger society including how the educational system in the US interacts with political, economic, family, and cultural institutions. We will also spend much time focusing on how one's educational experiences and opportunities are shaped by their gender, class, and ethnic/racial statuses. We will focus on K-12 and college with specific topics including college admissions, same-sex schooling, and Teach for America. Throughout all of these issues and topics, we will examine how schools both challenge and support existing systems of inequality.

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. 

From the violent mass displacement in Syria to the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, crisis tends to unmask the sharp inequalities between and within nations that structure our social and political world. This course will consider the ways in which inequality is manifested both within and between nations through the lens of disaster, austerity, and migration, paying particular attention to socio-historical constructions of life worth saving and life which is not. Students will be asked to consider the rise of the transnational capitalist class, and how colonial legacies and sustained inequality between nations has given way to economic imperialism and increased inequality within them. By the end of the quarter, students should have a better understanding of how states, institutions, and racial formations contribute to global inequalities, and the global nature of local phenomena under neoliberal economic regimes.

This course introduces some of the main topics of medical sociology: the social construction of health and illness; inequalities in the distribution of illness and health care; the globalization of health care; and the organization of health care work, the medical professions, and the health care system. Students will learn about variations in who gets sick and why, how the health professions evolved in the United States and how the health care "turf" has been divided among professions, whether and when patients and their families participate in medical decision making, why physicians have more authority and receive higher incomes in the U.S. than elsewhere, what doctors do when interns and residents make mistakes, what the relationship is between hospitals and other health care organizations and how that relationship has changed over time, how the American healthcare system compares to other healthcare systems, how expenditures on preventive medicine compare with expenditures on high-tech cutting-edge medicine, and why the U.S. invests so much in high-tech medicine.

Independent research projects carried out under faculty supervision. Prerequisite for 398-2: B- or better in 398-1.

Contemporary approaches to important theoretical issues. Emphasizes the relationship between theory and current research. Content varies. Topics may include functionalism, neo-Marxism, rational action, feminism, or symbolic interactionism. May be repeated for credit with change in topic.

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, and national context. In a seminar format, we will be discussing studies that draw on a variety of methods including ethnography, interviews, public opinion surveys, archival data, and demographic analysis. The core topics include 1) marriage and cohabiting relationships; 2) fertility and parenting; 3) social norms and attitudes regarding a variety of family-related behaviors and family structures; 4) relationships with extended and fictive kin.

This course aims to supports graduate students who are writing dissertations about public opinion, attitudes, behavior, or survey experiments. The lab seeks to enhance the research productivity and career success of graduate students, by giving them opportunities to design, administer, and analyze survey questions of their own design. Students will leave the course with pre-tested survey items.

Independent study for work on second-year paper.