Global Arc

The subject matter of this course varies from year to year. Typical topics are sociology of the environment and sociology of law. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

Examines the cultures of classes within American society and asks to what extent people's identities, relationships, or chances for social mobility are shaped by their class culture. Looks at high and popular culture as well as mass media, paying attention to patterns of cultural consumption ("taste") and asks how these patterns work to reproduce the class structure.

This seminar uses the lenses of race, class, gender, and sexuality to help students understand undergraduate life at Princeton. We will make sense of how the experiences you have had over the past four years are strongly influenced by historical, cultural, social, technological, and biological forces. The aim is to develop a sociological understanding of the Princeton experience, and use that to reflection more generally on the organization of communities. Topics covered include Sports, Town-Gown relationships, Nightlife, Academics, Sexual Assault, Eating Clubs, Admissions, Systematic Racism, the concepts of merit, inclusion, and equality.

Over the past 20 years, we have witnessed rapid advances in our ability to collect and analyze human DNA. For the first time, social scientists can integrate molecular genetic data into studies of the processes that shape social and behavioral outcomes like education and BMI. How do genes affect a person¿s chances of developing depression? Do genetic influences vary across environments? What is the difference between race and genetic ancestry? We review the ugly history surrounding genes and social outcomes, introduce the key concepts of molecular genetics, and explore recent discoveries in human genomics and their implications for society.

An introduction to the study of elites, this course surveys the role of education, inheritance, and employment in access to high incomes, wealth, power, and status; changing patterns of wealth concentration; elites and democratic politics; conflicts among business and educational elites; elite culture and consumption; and changes in influence and celebrity in the age of the internet and social media.

This seminar focuses on the structural and institutional foundations of racial discrimination in the United States. It emphasizes the contributions of sociologists, some of whom will participate as invited guests. The course gives a historical overview followed by an investigation of key legislative actions and economic factors inhibiting racial equality. Subsequent topics include migration and immigration; urban development; and residential segregation. The end of the course reviews resistance movements and policies aimed at addressing systemic racism, including restorative justice and reparations.

This course examines economic phenomena from a sociological perspective. We first consider conceptual tools that sociologists have used to understand economic life and connections between economy and society. We then apply these concepts to an array of topics including labor markets, work, firms, commodification and consumption, credit and finance, social stratification and inequality, and transformations in 21st century capitalism.

This course will examine our individual and collective identities -- especially as they relate to sexuality, race, gender, and class. We will specifically focus on the social processes that produce these identities, how identities change over time, and the individual and collective anxieties that occur when identities become destabilized. This course will also focus on how power, privilege, and oppression intersect with our identities.

What is the social basis for the production and distribution of carbon emissions, the source of human-induced climate change? Which people, companies, and countries are responsible? On whom do the effects fall? What makes change possible? We examine the institutions that try to govern carbon emissions, with a focus on different types of governments, social movements, and private firms. We consider how these actors are both similar and different across rich and poor countries, and across the global, national, and urban scales. And we debate proposed solutions that rely on the analyses and evidence that we have studied earlier in the course.

In 2022, the Supreme Court took up two cases on affirmative action in higher education admissions, and hence on the meaning of merit ---one involving Harvard, the other the University of North Carolina. Meanwhile, in 2021, Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel advised German Social Democratic chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz to use the anti-meritocratic campaign theme of respect that helped him get elected. What is meritocracy and where did it come from? Is it a good way to organize society? What does the future of meritocracy look like? This class will explore the myth and reality of meritocracy to answer these questions.