Global Arc

Using detailed studies of four major centers (San Antonio, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York), this course will analyze the historical and contemporary experience of several Spanish-speaking populations. Discussion will focus on two questions: (a) Are there common experiences or characteristics that justify the categorization of these varied groups under a single ethnicity? and (b) What racial, class, and gender divisions exist within these groups? Two lectures, one preceptorial.

By using examples from the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America, this course employs a comparative approach to investigating religion as a source of strength among immigrants -- including exiles and refugees -- as they undertake perilous journeys. Key questions addressed include: How does religion transform (and how is it transformed by) the immigrant experience? How is religion used to combat stereotypes? Are there differences between the ways men and women or dominant groups and racial minorities understand religion? Two lectures, one preceptorial.

Classical and contemporary theories of organizations as collective tools, as cultural systems, and as actors in changing environments. Research on problems of innovation and survival, authority, and control in business firms, public bureaucracies, and voluntary associations. Special emphasis on the historical development of managerial ideologies in the U.S. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

An introduction to the study of communications media. Topics include: growth and impact of literacy, printing, telecommunications, and broadcasting; communications and the modern state (for example, secrecy, surveillance, intelligence); organization, control, and effects of the media; cross-national differences in communications policy and institutions; impact of computers and electronic communication. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

The course offers a sociological account of production, consumption, distribution, and transfer of assets. Examining different sectors of the economy from corporations and finance to households, immigrants, welfare, and illegal markets, we explore how in all areas of economic life people are creating, maintaining, symbolizing, and transforming meaningful social relations. Economic life, from this perspective, is as social as religion, family, or education. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

What kinds of social forms do we organize ourselves into, what makes these forms endure, and where does change come from? In this course, we will explore classic and contemporary theories of organization with a special focus on technology in organizations. We'll discuss engineering cultures, skilled work, entrepreneurship, innovation, risk and failure in the context of such cases as the dot com boom, the rise of Silicon Valley, and the imprint of office technologies in the workplace. As companies pick up, produce, or respond to technological change, we'll witness and discuss some of the great questions and theories of social organization.

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.

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.

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.