View real-time listing of classes and sections offered.
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Studies and compares social groups and institutions and their inter-relationships. Includes culture, socialization, deviance, stratification, race, ethnicity, social change, and collective behavior.
Studies and compares social groups and institutions and their inter-relationships. Includes culture, socialization, deviance, stratification, race, ethnicity, social change, and collective behavior.
Studies and analyzes modern social problems such as crime, delinquency, family dysfunctions and inequality and exploitation of people in contemporary society. Class requires volunteer experience in community agencies.
Examines the benefits and challenges of diversity in the United States. Explores history and life experiences of people from various racial and ethnic groups. Provides a forum for constructive interaction among people of different racial, ethnic, social, economic, and religious backgrounds.
Discusses the family in the context of society and its seven sociological institutions: family, media, government, economy, technology, education, and religion. Evaluates how changes in these institutions have facilitated many changes in the structure and function of the modern family. Examines traditional, current, and anticipated definitions of the family using core sociological theory and research tools. Evaluates cultural influence on the family. Focuses on strengthening marriages at the levels of dating, mate selection, marriage, newly wedded adjustment, parenting, finance, proactive family maintenance, and elderly family experiences. Emphasizes the application of one's own life and family experiences while maintaining scientific rigor and critical awareness.
Examines sociological perspectives on gender roles globally. Addresses the effect of social construction of gender roles in various cultures around the world. Investigates how roles have changed over time and the consequences of these changes to broader societal norms globally and in the United States.
Studies ethnic and racial minority groups and the development of formal and informal relationships shared by these groups and the majority group. Explores the roles and origins of these groups and the concepts of prejudice, ethnic inequalities, current minority group movements, cross-cultural issues, economic, political, and educational aspects of majority-minority relations.
Presents selected topics in Sociology. Approaches subjects from a cross-disciplinary perspective. Requires a project demonstrating competency in the specific topic. May be repeated for nine credits toward graduation.
Teaches how to conduct social science research. Introduces different research methods in social sciences, including experiments, surveys, field research, and unobtrusive research. Covers the following topics: steps in scientific research, the ethics of social research, research design, the logic of sampling, and strengths and limitations of each type of data collection method.
Examines religion from a sociological perspective. Analyzes religion as a social phenomenon. Discusses religious organizations, religion and politics, and religion and social class.
For students who desire a better understanding of United States and world education systems. Examines and investigates educational trends and issues such as private vs. public systems; dropout rates; desegregation; student achievement/failure; education policies; race; class; gender issues; the 'Hidden Curriculum'; and education reform using Sociological theory and empirical research.
Explores the distribution of political power at the national and international levels from a variety of theoretical perspectives. Pays particular attention to the power wielded by international media conglomerates and the influence of international institutions such as the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund.
Examines individual's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in social contexts. Analyzes human behaviors from a sociological perspective. Includes the history of sociological social psychology, perspectives and research methods in sociological social psychology, the social psychology of stratification, self and identity, socialization over the life course, social psychology of deviance, mental health and illness, social attitudes, sociology of emotions and relationships, and collective behavior.
Examines work and occupations in historical and contemporary contexts. Examines current employment patterns and trends, the nature of labor markets and jobs, the gendered arrangements of paid and unpaid work, the organization and management of work. Explores transformations in occupational settings resulting from changes in economy and labor market. Focuses on the macro level (the effects of advancements in technology, bureaucratization and unionization on the division of labor), the micro-level (job satisfaction and alienation), and on the interface between macro and micro levels (job prestige, rewards, effects of ethnicity, age, and other characteristics).
Explores in detail several different approaches to understanding the social causes of and solutions to environmental degradation. Discusses the development of a wide variety of theory-based critiques of various social institutions (e.g., economic, political, religious) and how these institutions' values can create and perpetuate unsustainable practices.
Examines the strengths and weaknesses of several different definitions of deviance. Explains deviant behavior from a variety of theoretical perspectives and summarizes the existing data on several different forms of deviance, i.e., individual violations of social mores, street level crime, corporate crime, and crimes committed by nation states.
Traces the history of new media through a sociological approach. Utilizes sociological theories of mass media and new media, (internet, smartphones, social media, etc.) and their impact on identities and institutions. Refers to sociological theories created in the pre-internet era – such as symbolic interactionism – to explain the pervasive presence of new media in society as well as our use of them.
Studies social structure, culture, environment (urban/rural axis), inequality, and poverty in American Society. Examines Spanish Harlem, Detroit, Appalachia, and the Bitterroot Valley of Montana.
Explores the social aspects of aging at the personal, group, and larger social levels of society including the social implications of aging, the theories of aging, as well as formal and informal support of medical care, housing, and well-being of elderly persons. Includes the study of the identify the biological processes of aging and its impact on the roles and relationships elderly person experience in the later stages of life. Emphasizes the individual's experience in the context of national and global demographic trends, cultural and ethnic diversities and economic realities across the classes and across political boundaries.
Examines the roles that non-human animals play in human societies. Utilizes sociological approaches to study human-animal relationships and to critically evaluate the ideologies which justify these relationships. Pays particular attention to human relationships in North America to domestic pets, livestock, and wildlife.
Introduces rural life across the globe. Discusses the views of agrarian writers and thinkers. Explores rural values, rural communities, rural race relations, and rural poverty. Evaluates how the rural perspective provides a platform for critique of modern societal transformations in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Examines the contributions of key theorists such as Durkheim, Weber, Marx, DuBois, and Addams to the development of contemporary sociology. Applies key theoretical concepts and frameworks created and used by classical sociologists to current and historical social issues.
Teaches methods of conducting survey research. Explains how to construct, validate, and administer surveys, how to conduct interviews, how to report data, and how to interpret findings.
Examines major contemporary sociological theories that provide the basis for sociological research and the interpretation of social processes. Explores the nature of sociological theory and theory-building to understand the difference and connection between theoretical, methodological, and empirical works in sociology. Covers influential theoretical frameworks, such as structural functionalism, Frankfurt School, exchange and rational choice theories, symbolic interactionism, phenomenology, poststructuralism, postmodernism, feminism, and world systems theories.
Analyzes societies and their component parts. Evaluates various endogenous and exogenous forces which bring about social change. Examines historical and contemporary processes of social change and stratification. Explores current social conditions and applicable methods of social change. Offered once every other year.
Presents selected topic in Sociology and will vary each semester. Requires a project demonstration competency in the specific topic. May be repeated 3 times with different topics.
For qualified students who wish to undertake a well-defined project or directed study related to an area of special interest. Requires individual initiative and responsibility. Includes limited formal instruction and faculty supervision. Projects may include writing a publishable paper, passing a competency exam, producing an annotated bibliography, oral presentation, or other options as approved by instructor. May be repeated for a maximum of 6 credits.
