Global Arc

What is gender? Does it still matter in the 21st century? If so, how and why does it matter? And how does this vary around the world? This course will examine how gender shapes our identities (e.g. how we learn gender), how it shapes our interactions with others (e.g. within romantic relationships), and how it shapes and is shaped by institutions (e.g. the media, the workplace and college). We will look not only at how our gender privileges us, but also how we are both subject to and participate in producing gender inequality in our everyday lives. U.S and cross cultural readings and screenings will be used for the class.

An introduction to the sociological study of race and ethnicity which begins by encouraging students to exercise some critical distance from the core concepts of race and ethnicity. Topics will include comparative racism, immigration, the experiences of the second generation, whiteness, the culture of poverty debate, slums and ghettos, and the debate over the "underclass." Two lectures, one preceptorial.

Three main questions will be considered: (1) How "natural" is the family institution? (2) How essential is it? and (3) How well is it working in current American society? Comparative perspective on the analysis of childhood and society, marriage and divorce, and main contemporary trends. Proposed alternatives to the family and future developments. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

This course provides an introduction to microsociology, also called social psychology. The purpose of this course is to help you build an understanding of the relationship between the social and cultural context on the one hand and individuals' self-understanding, experience and behavior, on the other. You will become familiar with the sociological analysis of seemingly personal phenomena including identity, perception and attention, memory, emotion and the body. We will take a distinctly sociological (rather than psychological) approach, examining how cultural contexts and institutional settings shape and pattern subjectivity.

This course will examine a wide range of issues regarding immigration, citizenship and identity from a global perspective, though with an emphasis on the United States. We will explore the basic sociological, political and cultural concepts of formal and informal citizenship, migration, immigration, ethnicity, and race, emphasizing how they are used and their relation with one another in various contexts. Much of the course will focus on how migration has shaped lasting ethnic differences.

Equal parts art, programming, and statistical reasoning, data visualization is critical for anyone who seeks to analyze data. Data analysis skills have become essential for those pursuing careers in policy evaluation, business consulting, and research in fields like public health, social science, or education. This course introduces students to the powerful R programming language and the basics of creating data-analysis graphics in R. We use real datasets to explore topics ranging from networks (like trade between counties) to geographical data (like the spatial distribution of insurgent attacks in Afghanistan).

An introduction to the social, political, and economic organization of modern Mexico. The course traces the evolution of Mexico's fundamental institutions from their birth after the Mexican Revolution of 1910, through their flowering during the 1950s and 1960s, to changes in the neoliberal era of the 1980s and 1990s. The course ends with a consideration of Mexico's current position as a partner in the North American Free Trade Agreement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

A historical and analytical overview of war focusing on the origins and consequences of organized violence, the experience of battle, the creation and behavior of warriors, and the future of such conflicts. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

This mandatory course for concentrators is intended to provide the groundwork for understanding sociological arguments, evidence, research, and writing. It provides students with the opportunity to try their hand at interpreting and evaluating arguments in the sociological literature and constructing their own arguments for a sociological study. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

An overview of the research process in social science, including techniques of sampling, methods of data collection, principles of measurement, problems of inference and proof, basic methods of data analysis, and ethical considerations. Two lectures, one preceptorial.