Global Arc

This course provides an overview of contemporary Chinese society. Chinese society is best understood through a number of different intrinsically-linked and mutually-interdependent aspects. For this reason, we will explore its history, cultural practices, government, economy, and family structure.

A review of the stages of communism, including reform and dismantling. Comparisons of social classes and ethnic groups under the old system and their readiness for recent changes. Treatment of workers, farmers, intellectuals, officials, and new entrepreneurs. Comparative approach to China, Russia, and other countries formed from the Soviet Union. Two ninety-minute classes.

A study of selected topics of current interest in the sociology of Latin America. The specific subject matter will vary from year to year, reflecting the changing interests of both faculty and students. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

An examination of gender as an integral component of socioeconomic development in advanced and less-developed countries, with a focus on the United States and selected areas of Latin America. Special attention will be given to processes of industrial restructuring on a global scale that have increased the participation of women in the formal labor force. An understanding of the relationship between gender inequality and social order will be a central object of inquiry. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

Sexuality is fundamental to the organization of society -- both in the U.S. and across the world. Though sexuality carries important personal significance, the understanding of why and how it influences our lives is inextricably woven into a complex, global fabric. The aim of this course is to unravel this fabric and reveal the deeply globalized nature of sexuality in the modern era and how this shapes understandings of sexuality, the sexual identities available to us, and how the state regulates it -- especially from a global, comparative perspective.

The goal of this course is to examine how the constructs of race, class, and gender develop and change over time and by place. We will discuss various theories of race, gender, and class. In addition, we will consider how coexisting social hierarchies shape identities, determine life chances, establish relationships of marginality and privilege, and generate social stability and conflict. Racial formation, intersectionality, black feminist thought, and symbolic boundaries will be among the theoretical approaches discussed.

This course investigates poverty in America in historical and contemporary perspective. We will explore central aspects of poverty, including low-wage work and joblessness, housing and neighborhoods, crime and punishment, and survival and protest. Along the way, we will examine the cause and consequences of poverty; study the lived experience of severe deprivation and material hardship; evaluate large-scale anti-poverty programs with an eye toward what worked and what didn¿t; and engage with normative debates about the right to housing, living wages, just punishment, and other matters pertaining to American life below the poverty line.

Examines a wide range of issues regarding race, ethnicity and nationalism in Latin America. We will explore the basic sociological, political and cultural concepts of nation, race and ethnicity, emphasizing how they are used in the region. Race and ethnicity have taken on special meanings in Latin America that are disctinct from other regions. Much of the course will focus on how that came about and how race is manifested. We will emphasize comparisons to the U.S. as well as across countries within Latin America. The course will cover populations of African and indigenous origins.

A survey of past and present perspectives on the origin, development and social consequences of capitalism, covering various aspects including classical political economy and sociology theories, long-term cycles, revolutions, state actors, the welfare state, imperialism, international trade, international finance, labor relations, consumerism, ecology, neoliberalism and the future of capitalism.

In this course, we focus not on ethnoracial groups, but on particular cases which illustrate how race is used as a means to divide, sort, and rank human beings. Readings include sociological, historical, and anthropological studies of ethnoracial dynamics in the U.S., Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. We examine key conceptual and epistemological issues in comparative research on race; and compare how different societies have constructed ethnoracial boundaries. We conclude by considering the possible future(s) of the U.S. racial order by discussing ethnoracial attitudes, multiraciality, immigration, and 'Latin Americanization.'