Graduate

SOCY 200A Social Theory 1

The first in a three-quarter theory sequence that surveys major schools of modern social and political thought, including political economy, structuralism, post-structuralism, phenomenology, global Marxisms, post-colonial theory, critical race theory, and queer and feminist theory. Each quarter covers three thematic modules from the following: the history of sociology and the social sciences; the Enlightenment and the social turn; modernity and its others; political economy; culture and cultural politics; identity, subjectivity, consciousness; the social production of difference; the human and its others; space, place, and power.

Credits

5

Instructor

Deborah Gould

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to sociology graduate students or by permission of the instructor.

Quarter offered

Fall

SOCY 200B Social Theory 2

The second in the three-quarter theory sequence that surveys major schools of modern social and political thought, including political economy, structuralism, post-structuralism, phenomenology, global Marxisms, post-colonial theory, critical race theory, and queer and feminist theory. Each quarter covers three thematic modules from the following: the history of sociology and the social sciences; the Enlightenment and the social turn; modernity and its others; political economy; culture and cultural politics; identity, subjectivity, consciousness; the social production of difference; the human and its others; space, place, and power.

Credits

5

Instructor

Hillary Angelo

Requirements

Prerequisite(s): SOCY 200A. Enrollment is restricted to sociology graduate students or by permission of the instructor.

Quarter offered

Winter

SOCY 200C Social Theory 3

The third in Sociology’s three-quarter theory sequence that surveys major schools of modern social and political thought, including political economy, structuralism, post-structuralism, phenomenology, global Marxisms, post-colonial theory, critical race theory, and queer and feminist theory. Each quarter covers three thematic modules from the following: the history of sociology and the social sciences; the Enlightenment and the social turn; modernity and its others; political economy; culture and cultural politics; identity, subjectivity, consciousness; the social production of difference; the human and its others; space, place, and power.

Credits

5

Instructor

Lindsey Dillon

Requirements

Prerequisites: SOCY 200A and 200B. Enrollment is restricted to sociology graduate students or by permission of the instructor.

Quarter offered

Spring

SOCY 203 Sociological Methods

Approaches methods as a series of conscious and strategic choices for doing various kinds of research. Introduces students to the epistemological questions of method in social sciences; to key issues in technique, particularly control, reliability, and validity; and to good examples of social research.

Credits

5

Instructor

Rebecca London

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to sociology graduate students and by permission number.

Quarter offered

Fall

SOCY 204 Methods of Quantitative Analysis

Students are provided with intuitive explanation of fundamental concepts in statistics and learn how to use statistics to answer sociological questions. Experience and guidance in using computers to efficiently analyze data are provided.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to sociology graduate students and by permission number.

SOCY 205 Field Research Methods

Gives students first-hand experience doing fieldwork with an emphasis on participant observation and some interviewing. Students submit weekly field notes and a final project analysis. At seminar meetings, field experiences and relevant literature are examined.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to sociology graduate students and by permission number.

SOCY 206 Comparative Historical Methods

Overview of research strategies and methods used in historical and social sciences. Students read works exemplifying a variety of analytical approaches. Written assignments cultivate critical skills, weighing of tradeoffs inherent in all methodological choices, and elaboration of hypothetical research designs.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

SOCY 208 Writing Practicum

Writing intensive course designed to facilitate the completion of the master's thesis, orals field statement, or the dissertation in sociology. The seminar is convened by a faculty member in conjunction with students and their adviser or appropriate committee chair. Students are expected to produce and present drafts of work completed in the seminar.

Credits

5

Instructor

James Doucet-Battle

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to sociology graduate students and by permission number.

Quarter offered

Spring

SOCY 209 The Analysis of Cultural Forms

Examines material and symbolic forms such as media products, cultural artifacts, language, nonverbal communication and social practices using discourse, textual, content, interpretive, and conversation analyses as well as ethnography and different channels of communication. Theoretically, relies on cultural studies, communication studies, cultural sociology, film studies, and ethnomethodology.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to sociology graduate students.

SOCY 220 Global Transformation: Macrosociological Perspectives

Classical concepts and contemporary approaches in macrosociology, the study of large-scale, long term social change. Readings drawn primarily from the Marxian and Weberian traditions (new institutionalism, varieties of neo-Marxism, environmental history, state centrism) as they focus on agrarian and industrial structures and commodity chains; household, village, and neighborhood organization; social movements and revolutions; culture, ideology, and consciousness; policy analysis; comparative urban, national, and civilizational development.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to sociology graduate students.

SOCY 222 Political Sociology

A survey of major works and themes in the relationship of politics and society, with primary emphasis on the compatibilities and contradictions of pluralist, elite, and class perspectives on the state.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

SOCY 223 Sociology of the Environment

Advanced treatment of the dominant ideas of nature and the environment in the West and their relationship to the development of Western capitalism. Leading Western theories of environmental crisis and their relation with ideologies of environmentalism and environmental movements.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

Repeatable for credit

Yes

SOCY 224 Globalization: Theories and Social Movements

Examines the structures, processes, and movements associated with globalization processes. Reviews political economy theories, cultural theories systems, state industrial policies, and popular responses to globalization. Also assesses contribution of resistance movements informed by class, ethno-nationalism, religion, or gender.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

Repeatable for credit

Yes

SOCY 225 Political Economy for Sociologists

Examines rudiments of historical materialism in light of advances in cultural and ecological Marxism. Basic categories of Marxist political economy. Thematic focus on the first and second contradictions of capitalism in world economy today.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

SOCY 227 Learning from Environmental Historians

Looks at several major themes in the sociology of the environment and asks how the works of environmental history address those themes. Includes reflections on how history as a method interrogates social questions. Possible themes include: sustainability; social justice; universalism vs. particularity; city and country; and social movements.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

SOCY 229 Work and Labor Markets in the New Economy

Focuses on the interaction of work restructuring and existing race/class/gender inequalities. Themes include: the labor process and theories of consent; labor market segmentation; job and occupational segregation; information technologies, flexible work, and post-industrialism; flexible employment relations; and low-wage service and labor markets.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

SOCY 230 Theory and Method in the Sociology of Marx

Examines theoretical and methodological implications of Marxist theory for empirical social research. Analyzes how historians and social scientists apply Marxist method in explaining society, social change, globalization, culture, and late capitalism. Goal is to assist students to employ Marxist theory and method creatively in their research projects.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

SOCY 240 Inequality and Identity

Explores recent theoretical and empirical studies of race, class, gender, and sexuality with an emphasis on the production of identities and their relationship to processes and structures of power in a postcolonial context.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to sociology graduate students.

SOCY 241 Cross-National and Cross-Cultural Research

Seminar examining theoretical and methodological issues in doing cross-national and cross-cultural research. In addition to a consideration of different research paradigms and approaches, representative works from each comparative tradition are examined.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

SOCY 242 Feminist Research Seminar

Provides scholarly support to students doing feminist research. Examines issues concerning conceptualization of feminism and feminist research. Explores relation of feminist research to intersections of gender, class, and race; to the self; to power; and to transformative social praxis. Students present and are given assistance with their work, as well as listen to, read, and assist with the work of others.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

SOCY 244 Race and Ethnicity

A critical survey of the theoretical issues of persistence and change, public policy, and recent empirical studies in the field of race and ethnic relations. Readings introduce comparative race relations and a historical background of major theoretical paradigms in the field which purport to explain race and ethnic relations in general and race relations in America specifically.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

SOCY 245 Feminist Theory

Examination of shifts in 20th- and 21st-century feminist theory and epistemology. Explores the decentering of universalist feminist theories and asks what constitutes feminist theory after gender has been decentered. Considers various deconstructive challenges to second-wave feminist theory based on the politics of race, ethnicity, nation, sexuality, and class. Focus changes regularly.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to sociology graduate students.

SOCY 246 Class, Culture, and Movement

Analyzes impact of ethnicity, gender, and religion on the class situation of laboring people in a globalized economy by intensive reading and critique of classic studies, explaining how social movements reflect combinations of social relations and cultural practices.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

SOCY 247 Race and Class

Introduces the student to the recent literature on race and class. Covers several different theoretical perspectives including internal colonialism, labor market segmentation theories, racial formation, and neo-gramscian cultural analyses. In addition to study of theory, also compares theoretical perspectives to the historical experience of minority groups, in particular, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to sociology graduate students.

SOCY 249 Feminisms and Cultural Politics

Focuses on the role feminist discourses play in contemporary cultural politics with the main focus on the politics of sex, sexuality, and sex work. Begins with considerations of (mis)representations of feminisms in popular cultures; considers the relationship between academic and popular feminisms; and interrogates the meaning of terms post-feminism and third-wave feminism.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

SOCY 250 Course Design and Grant-Writing Seminar

A professional training seminar devoted to the philosophical, conceptual, and practical issues of course design, pedagogy, and grant writing. Topics covered: institutional contexts; curriculum (including syllabi, course content, assignments, evaluation); pedagogy; teaching as work/labor process; grant writing; budgets.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to sociology graduate students.

SOCY 252 Symbolic Interactionism and Sociology of Emotions

Examines classic and contemporary theories and concepts that play a major role in sociological studies of identity, symbolic and social interaction, and the sociology of emotions. Examines how cultural forms, rules, and rituals define, structure, and mediate emotions and how identities are situated within social institutions.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

SOCY 253 Race, Crime, and Justice

Covers empirical research on "race, crime, and justice" from multiple methodological and theoretical traditions in social science research. The course draws on historical examples of slavery, state violence, and crimes against humanity across the globe. Also covers research on the entanglement of race and crime in the United States, both historically and today.

Credits

5

Instructor

Pedroza

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

SOCY 255 Engaging Cultural Studies

Examines feminist and ethnic studies production, appropriation, and transformation of cultural studies theories and methodologies. Considers the utility of various theoretical apparatuses and methodological strategies employed in the interdisciplinary site that combines feminist, ethnic, and cultural studies.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

SOCY 256 Urban Sociology

Introduction to core writings and key theoretical pardigms in urban sociology. Examines the history and contemporary conditions of cities in the U.S. and the urban experience. Urbanization, suburbanization, community, social inequality, urban politics, relationship between the built environment and human behavior.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

SOCY 257 Colonialism, International Law, and Global Justice

Examines colonialism, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and legal remedies, and the role of the International Criminal Court (ICC); traces the history of colonial expansionism, starting from the Roman Empire to the present American imperial dominance in global politics.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

SOCY 258 Global Lay Justice Systems and Direct Democracy

Introduces historical analysis of lay justice participation. Examines global exploration of the use of lay judge institutions in citizen's movements and the assumption that juries are a derivative institution of democratic ideals. Focuses on corporate media creation of anti-jury sentiment.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

SOCY 259 Space and the Politics of Difference

Brings together the fields of sociology and geography to explore the complex and multiple ways of thinking together space and social difference. Course texts examine the co-constitution of space with bodies, subjectivities, and social formations.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

SOCY 260 Culture, Knowledge, Power

An introduction to theoretical approaches and exemplary studies of culture, knowledge, and power which critically interrogate the relationship between cultural formations and the production, circulation, and meaning of knowledges, materials, artifacts, and symbolic forms. Explores the concrete ways that power is organized and operates through different forms and sites, how it interpolates with other forms of power, and examines knowledges and culture as specific forms of power and sites of political struggle.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to sociology graduate students.

Quarter offered

Winter

SOCY 261 Sociology of Knowledge

Explores three main issues: the social determination of knowledge, including natural science; the character of intellectual labor and intellectuals as a social group; the role of organized knowledge and knowledge industries in contemporary social change. Texts examined include class-based theories (Lukacs, Mannheim, Gramsci), feminist standpoint analysis (Smith, Harding, etc.), and theories of postmodern culture (Lyotard, Harvey, etc.).

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

SOCY 262 Cultural Practice and Everyday Life

Examines contemporary debates about the role of mass produced expressive symbols in modern industrial societies, and the circumstances of cultural production for its impact on the creation, organization, and use of cultural artifacts. Concern with the use and experience of popular symbols for the ways that their use involves the creation of meanings and the role of such meanings in the social organization of society.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

SOCY 263 Cultural Politics of Difference

Considers the cultural turn and the turn to difference in understanding relations of power and struggles over representation in studies of race, media, and culture. Examines national identity, difference, subjectivity, and authenticity, especially as they bear on quests to create new identifications, alignments, and efforts to protect existing identities.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

SOCY 264 Science, Technology, and Medicine

Explores social and cultural perspectives on science, technology, and medicine. Analyzes theoretical approaches that open up black boxes of scientific and biomedical knowledge, including the politics of bodies, objects, and health/illness. Links are made to medical sociology.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

SOCY 268A Science and Justice: Experiments in Collaboration

Considers the practical and epistemological necessity of collaborative research in the development of new sciences and technologies that are attentive to questions of ethics and justice. Enrollment is by permission of instructor. Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

Credits

5

Cross Listed Courses

BME 268A, FMST 268A, CRES 268A

SOCY 268B Science and Justice Research Seminar

Provides in-depth instruction in conducting collaborative interdisciplinary research. Students produce a final research project that explores how this training might generate research that is more responsive to the links between questions of knowledge and questions of justice. Prerequisite(s): SOCY 268A, BME 268A, FMST 268A, or ANTH 267A. Enrollment is restricted to graduate students and by permission of the instructor.

Credits

5

Cross Listed Courses

FMST 268B, BME 268B, ANTH 267B

SOCY 282 Social Policy Research

Policy research. Covers a variety of theoretical perspectives found in policy studies. Surveys various methodological approaches used in policy research. Theories and methods linked to research agendas on the various phases of the policy life cycle. Students are required to design a research proposal.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

SOCY 290 Advanced Topics in Sociological Analysis

The topics to be analyzed each year vary with the instructor but focus upon a specific research area. Enrollment restricted to graduate students by consent of the instructor.

Credits

5

Instructor

Julie Bettie, Naya Jones, Hiroshi Fukurai

Repeatable for credit

Yes

SOCY 290W Sociological Analysis Working Group

This two-credit course, repeatable for credit, brings together faculty and graduate students interested and actively engaged in a particular research area, and does so in a variety of ways. May include: close readings and discussion, invited speakers, sharing of student and faculty work, and field trips. Working group framework enhances one-on-one mentoring experiences by creating a scholarly community and support structure on campus for scholars in this area, and by introducing students to a range of faculty on our campus and beyond. Also fosters peer-to-peer learning and collegiality among graduate students researching similar topics. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

Credits

2

Instructor

Steve McKay

Repeatable for credit

Yes

Quarter offered

Fall, Winter, Spring

SOCY 293 Going on the Job Market

A seminar devoted to the practical problems of securing a job as a professional sociologist. Topics covered: researching colleges, universities, and public and private organizations that employ sociologists; designing a curriculum vitae; writing an application letter; preparing a job talk; handling questions during the interview process; the etiquette of visiting (and its aftermath); finding out about them; and the terms of employment: what is negotiable and what is not.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

SOCY 294 Writing for Social Scientists

Seminar on the genres of social science writing, and the problems of starting and finishing a publishable thesis, book, or article. For advanced graduate students working on the composition of their dissertations and journal articles.

Credits

5

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.

SOCY 295 The Pedagogy of Sociology

Graduate students develop, enhance, or deepen their pedagogical knowledge and skills in the field of sociology and other social sciences.

Credits

2

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to sociology graduate students at all stages of their graduate careers.

SOCY 297 Independent Study

Students submit petition to sponsoring agency.

Credits

5

Repeatable for credit

Yes

SOCY 299 Thesis Research

Students submit petition to sponsoring agency.

Credits

5

Repeatable for credit

Yes

Cross-listed courses that are managed by another department are listed at the bottom.

Cross-listed Courses

LALS 186 Field Research Methods

Introduction to field research methods that consider theory, methodological challenges, and epistemology in conducting research. Explains the research process, including designing research questions, interview instruments, concepts maps, and methods of data collection, and data analysis. (Meets the methods requirement in Latin America and Latino studies.)

Credits

5

Cross Listed Courses

SOCY 186

Requirements

Prerequisite(s): LALS 100; and LALS 100A or LALS 100W. Enrollment is restricted to junior and senior Latin American and Latino studies majors, minors, and combined majors and Sociology majors.