Global Arc

Environmental sociology has become a lively subfield of the discipline. This is especially true as environmental conditions related to global warming present challenges to individuals and groups working at every level of social organization. This seminar will consider the history of efforts to bring environmental concerns into social theory and research. Our readings and class discussions will focus primarily on some of the most influential ideas that advanced contemporary understandings of our relationships to natural ecosystems, and which have helped create the framework of environmental institutions and laws in the US since the 1830s.

This course uses sociological methods to examine the roles that race, class, and gender play in the making of U.S. educational systems. We will explore the challenges of schooling in an increasingly diverse society, devoting great attention to the complex factors that produce inequities in P-16 education. We will also interrogate many assumptions and themes that dominate contemporary discussions of U.S. education, including merit, school discipline, and college access. The course introduces students to leading approaches to the sociological study of education and offers fresh perspectives on pressing educational issues facing society.

Money seems to represent the ultimate symbol of economic rationality, an impersonal and interchangeable medium of exchange. Money is also feared as morally dangerous, replacing personal bonds with cold greed. This seminar offers a fundamentally different sociological explanation of how money works. Examining different monetary worlds including households, college campuses, law firms, art galleries, sharing economies, and more, we will explore how our multiple moneys are shaped by cultural meanings, moral concerns, and social relations. Our economic lives, from this perspective, are as social as religious, family or education.

This course will introduce core concepts in political and historical sociology through a broad overview of American political history from the revolutionary period to the present. We will focus on large scale processes such as state formation and the rise of capitalism, as well as the ways in which distinctions related to factors such as race, class, and gender have influenced patterns of political contention over time. In doing so, we will address topics including social networks, class formation, political opportunity structures, movement dynamics, civic engagement, public opinion, and state-centered accounts of political behavior.

This course approaches contemporary African issues through the lens of population studies. What theories explain the recent fertility declines observed in so much of the developing world, and why have some African countries failed to adhere to that path? What traits are characteristic of African households today, and how were present-day family relations shaped by pre-colonial norms? Discussions will stress intra- and cross-continental comparative analysis to foster an appreciation for characteristics, trends, and challenges that are uniquely African.

The course examines poverty and inequality in relation to processes of globalization that have transformed the means of economic mobility for working people in the U.S. We raise questions about government institutions acting on behalf of different constituencies and according to varying criteria of economic "deservedness;" and evaluate vibrant debates about the role of democratic government in promoting social justice. Among the subjects covered are poverty and religion, social and cultural capital among the poor, and poverty, crime, incarceration, and entrepreneurship.

Science is a critical part of our modern world. But how is it actually done? And how does it affect our daily lives? Placing science in social context is essential to understanding it as a process, as an institution, and as a powerful and influential force in society. With examples such as controversies over cold fusion and HIV-AIDS research, the practices of genetic testing and brain scan analysis, the questions of nuclear weapons and climate change, forms of expertise and public policy, this course will introduce you to the exciting and growing field of the sociology of science.

You are probably reading this course description on a computer. By day's end you may talk to a friend on your cell phone, buy something on the internet with a credit card, bicycle to campus, or drive to the store. Technology is everywhere and it is easy to see how it influences our lives, but where do new technologies come from, how are they picked up and used, and how do our values and social norms influence their design and development? Addressing these questions with examples from the railroad to cybernetics, from the birth control pill to DRM, this course provides an introduction to the field of the Sociology of Technology.

We will study the various forms of movements of populations in the Middle East in relation to social dynamics. The course will emphasize the urban and territorial impact of migrants' presence in several Middle Eastern cities by highlighting the forms of segregation and cosmopolitanism that result from differentiated legal and social statuses. The course will go beyond the single approach of legal integration by exploring cultural production and initiatives that are directly or indirectly related to the experience of migration and which bear witness to new forms of integration underlining migrants' agency.

Is higher education still a pathway to opportunity? This course will examine issues related to college access, aid, and accountability. We will begin by reviewing recent research on topics such as: the changing demographics of students, the definition of "merit" in admissions, the challenges of assessment, and student loan debt. We will consider how college is increasingly associated with later outcomes such as income, occupation, health, and family formation. We will also discuss the politics of higher education reform and whether innovations like online courses can reshape the future of postsecondary schooling.