Course Descriptions

Course Description

This course will closely examine how social forces in society shape our behavior and penetrate our being. After all, we are all the product of our society and vice versa. Our identities, hopes, fears, grievances and satisfactions derive from the patterns of socialization orchestrated within human groups. In this class, students will be introduced to the basic concept of sociological imagination and principles of sociological reasoning. Many societal issues will be examined through the practice of classical theories and sociological perspectives. As we journey through the course, students will become more familiar with the nature of sociology, social construction of reality, micro and macro sociological analysis, and concepts such as culture, socialization, social structures, self and society, stratification, gender inequality, love, marriage, and divorce. Finally, the course will explore the sociology of health, medicine, and the mind-body connection.

Grading Policy

Research paper 24% Three exams 60%Cass project and participation 8%Quiz 8 %

Texts

James M. Henslin, Sociology: A Down to Earth Approach (eighth or ninth edition), 2008Reading packet available at Paradigm (407 W. 24th St.)

Course Description

How are our individual choices shaped by society? How do our choices help shape society? These are two primary questions we will address in Introduction to the Study of Society. The sociological imagination will be one of our primary tools as we explore society and our place within it. Since we are studying society and therefore ourselves, opportunities to use our sociological imaginations are all around us - in our everyday interactions, in global events, even in the music we hear.

The first part of the course explores some of the ways sociologists view society, and also how we study the social world. In addition, we will examine culture, socialization, deviance and the structure of organizations.

The second part of the course focuses on inequalities. Stratification takes many forms; we will explore social class, race and ethnicities, and gender. During this segment we will pay particular attention to inequalities within the institutions of families and education.

Grading Policy

Three in-class multiple choice, short answer and essay tests 20% each

Sociological journal - several short written assignments 25%

Class participation, including individual and group activities during lecture and discussion sections 15%

Texts

Blair-Loy, Mary, Competing Devotions: Career and Family among Women Executives, Harvard University Press, 2003

McIntyre, Lisa J., The Practical Skeptic: Core Concepts in Sociology, Fourth Edition, Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2008

McIntyre, Lisa J., The Practical Skeptic: Readings in Sociology, Fourth Edition, Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2008

Nathan, Rebekah, My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005

Course Description:

This course offers an introduction to the theories, methodologies, vocabulary, and themes of the discipline of sociology.  During the semester, we will explore the linkage between individuals and the larger cultures, contexts, and groups in which they live their lives in order to better understand the structure and function of social interaction, human behavior, and the institutional framework of society.  The over-arching purpose of the course is to instill in you the “sociological imagination”, which can then be used to decipher current social issues and patterns of everyday life.The format of this course is designed to offer students the benefits of both a large lecture class and a small discussion seminar.  On Mondays and Wednesdays, the class will be led by Dr. Crosnoe in a traditional lecture format.  For the third hour, the class will be broken up into smaller units for discussion sections on either Thursday or Friday.  This section, led by one of the teaching assistant, will offer a forum for students to discuss class materials from earlier in the week, explore some new and old topics in greater depth, and engage in exercises intended to provide real world applications of sociological concepts.

Course Readings:

Giddens, Anthony, Mitchell Duneier, Richard Applebaum, and Deborah Carr. 2009. Introduction to Sociology, Seventh Edition. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.

Massey, Garth (Ed.). 2008. Readings for Sociology, Sixth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.

Course Requirements:

Each student is expected to attend all three weekly class meetings, including the Friday discussion section.  Students should complete all readings prior to the class period for which they are assigned and also be ready to contribute to class discussion.There will be THREE examinations during the semester (75% of final grade).  The exams will draw from both readings and class lectures.  Make-up examinations will not be administered except in extreme circumstances and only if I am notified beforehand.  All make-up examinations are 100% essay.Students must also complete THREE short papers during the semester (25% of total grade).  These two-page papers are intended to encourage you to think about current issues and events in a sociological way.  Topics will be assigned two weeks before the due date.  No late assignments will be accepted.

Description

Sociology 302 will offer insights to understand how social forces in society shape our behavior and influence our being. After all, we are the product of our society and vice versa. Our identity, hopes, fears, grievances and satisfactions derive from the patterns of socialization orchestrated within human groups. In this class, you will become familiar with the nature of sociology, macro-micro perspectives, sociological approaches, and concepts such as culture, socialization, social structures, social interaction, self and society, institutions, stratification, gender inequality, love, marriage, and divorce. Finally, we explore the sociology of health and the mind-body connection. In this course, we will: a) create an environment that encourages active participation and discussion in the learning process; b) Use a variety of techniques in the teaching and learning process, and c) we will assess and evaluate your work and give timely feedback.

Grading Policy

A short project paper (4-5 pages) 20% 

Three exams 20% each

Class participation and group projects 10%

Pop quizzes 10%

Class Attendance: Regular attendance is required. The repercussion of being absent a total of 4 or more classes, without justifiable reason, is that the final grade will automatically be lowered by one letter.

Texts

James M. Henslin, Sociology: A Down to Earth Approach, 2007, (seventh or eight editions)

Reading Packet: in addition to your general sociology text, you are provided with more readings on certain topics for in-depth analysis and discussion. These readings are photocopied articles available as a packet under my name at: Paradigm (407 W. 24th St)

Course Description

This course introduces the science of Sociology by focusing on five broad topics: (1) What is Sociology?, (2) The Individual and Society, (3) Social Institutions, (4) Social Inequality, and (5) Globalization and Social Change. In the process, we'll examine important concepts, theories, and methodologies used by sociologists working on both the micro and macro levels. We'll look at interconnections between social institutions (i.e., the family, education, the economy), as well as the way in which institutional change has caused widening income inequality in the U.S. and around the world. Widening inequality has had particularly negative consequences for men of color and women of all races and ethnicities. Finally, we'll examine the process of globalization and some of its economic, political, and cultural consequences. Much of the data that we look at will focus on the U.S., but given our increasingly interconnected world, other societies will be considered as well. Class format will be primarily lecture, due to class size. We'll try to demonstrate Sociology's relevance to everyday life, as well as public policy making.

Grading Policy

4 exams 70% 
Pop quizzes 15% 
Paper (2-3 pages) 15%

Good academic performance requires regular attendance and punctuality. Students are allowed three (3) absences during the semester without penalty (excluding our introductory class meeting), regardless of whether these absences are from lecture or lab. These non-penalized absences are intended to cover such circumstances as illness, family emergencies, university scheduled events, etc. Students who miss more than three classes, regardless of the reason, will have their semester grades reduced by one full percentage points for each absence beyond the three allowed. The one exception to this policy concerns absences for religious reasons, assuming proper notification is given.

Texts

Introduction to Sociology,, 6th ed., Giddens, Duneier, and Appelbaum. W.W. Norton, 2007
Any additional readings will be made available in a packet and/or on Blackboard

Description

Though most of us cannot imagine society without an organized police force, policing is a relatively modern phenomenon in the United States.  Like other social institutions, policing has experienced significant reforms in purposes and powers over time.  Many of these reform efforts have been implemented in hopes of reducing police abuse of power and corruption, forging positive relationships with the larger community, and improving crime prevention/detection.  In this course we will first consider the purposes and structure of policing and the shifting roles and powers of police officers.  Next we will consider several critical issues in modern day policing, including police misconduct and racial profiling.  Finally, we will consider limits on the ability of the police to control crime, and the ways in which individuals and communities work to police themselves.

Required Texts

Alpert, Geoffrey P., Roger G. Dunham, and Meghan S. Stroshine. 2006. Policing: Continuity and Change. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.

Moskos, Peter. 2008. Cop in the Hood: My Year Policing Baltimore’s Eastern District. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Proposed Grading Policy

Exams (90%) Writing Assignments (10%)

Description:

Course will cover a range of ethical questions related to issues of life and death.  Classes are divided into four topics:  1) General Value and Definitional Issues;  2) Issues of Creation; 3) Issues of Termination; 4) Comparative Summary

Required Texts:  Required course readings will be selected from subset of the following:

A FRAMEWORK FOR ETHICAL DECISION MAKING:

• http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/framework.html

MORAL DILEMMAS:

• http://www.iep.utm.edu/e/ethics.htm

WHEN DOES HUMAN PERSONHOOD BEGIN?

• http://www.religioustolerance.org/abo_when.htm
• http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/irv/irv_04person1.html
• http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/submitted/Perry/personhood.html

GENERAL CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS

• http://www.lifenews.com/

PERSONHOOD BIBLIOGRAPHIES

• http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/B-PERSON.html
• http://www.columbia.edu/~syw10/personhood.html

TIME.COM

• http://www.time.com/time/2001/stemcells/

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE

• http://www.aaas.org/spp/cstc/issues/cloning.htm

AMERICAN BIOETHICS ADVISORY COMMISSION

• http://www.all.org/abac/person.htm
• http://www.all.org/abac/cloning.htm

STEM CELL RESEARCH AND APPLICATIONS

• http://www.aaas.org/spp/sfrl/projects/stem/main.htm
• ActionBioscience.org
• http://www.actionbioscience.org/biotech/mcgee.html
• ActionBioscience.org - Primer On Ethics and Human Cloning
• CNN article (interactive) http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/stemcell/
• Remarks by President Bush http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/08/20010809-2.html
• Stem Cells: Changing the Debate on Cloning http://discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfId=1249176

ABORTION

• Roe V. Wade http://www.tourolaw.edu/patch/Roe/
• Ohio ESL http://www.ohiou.edu/esl/project/abortion/
• NPR: 30th Anniversary of Roe v .Wade http://www.npr.org/news/specials/roevwade

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

• The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy- Capitol Punishment http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/c/capitalp.htm
• "Speech in Favor of Capital Punishment" by John Stuart Mill http://ethics.acusd.edu/Mill.html
• Furman v. Georgia. http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/furman.html
• Capital Punishment Statistics http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cp.htm
• ACLU Execution Watch http://archive.aclu.org/executionwatch.html
• Illinois Commision on Capital Punishment http://www.idoc.state.il.us/ccp/
• Death Penalty Information Center http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=404&scid=45
• 'The Innocents': Someone Else's Crime http://discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfId=1258280
• "The Plea": PBS, Dateline http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/plea/four/cook.html

WAR

• Just War Theory:
  1. http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0206/opinion/johnson.html
  2. http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20011029&s=falk
  3. http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/j/justwar.htm
  4. http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pol116/justwar.htm

• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/persona/synopsis.html
• New Yorker Article http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040712fa_fact

Grading Policy:

20% Class participation and daily assignments

40% Mid-term

40% Final

The purpose of this course is to examine the various experiences, perspectives, and expressions of Chicanas in the United States. This involves examining the meaning and history of the term, "Chicana" as it was applied to and incorporated by Mexican American women during the Chicano Movement in areas of the Southwest U.S., such as Texas and California. We will also explore what it means to be Chicana in the United States today. The course will begin with a historical overview of Mexican American women's experiences in the U.S., including the emergence of Chicana feminism. We will discuss central concepts of Chicana feminism and attempt to understand how those concepts link to everyday lived experiences. Specifically, the relationship between gender, race/ethnicity, and class will be key as we discuss issues that have been significant in the experiences and self-identification of Chicanas, such as: family, gender, sexuality, religion/spirituality, education, language, labor, and political engagement. We will be engaging in interdisciplinary analysis not only concerning cultural traditions, values, belief systems, and symbols but also in relation to the expressive culture of Chicanas, including folk and religious practices, literature and poetry, the visual arts, and music. Finally, we will examine media representations of Chicanas through critical analyses of film and television portrayals.

DESCRIPTION

This is an introductory course in statistics for undergraduate majors in sociology.  The basics of descriptive and inferential statistics and quantitative reasoning will be covered.  Descriptive statistics involves organizing and summarizing important characteristics of the data.  Statistical inference involves making informed guesses about the unknown characteristics of a population based on the known characteristics of a sample. Students are expected to know how to carryout elementary mathematical operations.

REQUIRED TEXT

 R. Johnson and P. Kuby (2012) STAT, 2e. Cengage Learning ISBN-10: 0538733500  ISBN-13: 978-0-538-73841-5  (available from http://books.google.com)

 COURSE REQUIREMENTS

There will be 3 in-class examinations graded on a 100 point scale, and a comprehensive final exam worth 100 points. Roughly 75% to 90% of the points on the examinations are accounted for by problems requiring the student to work toward a solution, with the remainder accounted for by true and false or multiple choice questions.  Examinations will be based entirely on topics covered in lectures. In-class examinations are non-cumulative; they cover only the material since the previous exam. Students must take all exams to pass the course. Make up exams will be given only in the case of documented emergencies or illness.

Problems: There will be 5 problem sets worth a total of 200 points. Problem sets include material from the book as well as handout problems. Problem sets must be received in class no later than the dates indicated. No credit will be given for assignments turned in late.

Course Description

The goal of this course is to help students develop statistical literacy. The course will examine data analysis, inference; graphical and numerical summaries of numerical and categorical data; correlation and regression; and estimation, confidence intervals, and significance tests. There will be an emphasis social science examples and cases.

The course is divided into three main sections: (1) Descriptive Statistics; (2) Inferential Statistics; and (3) Applied Techniques. Descriptive statistics will allow you to summarize and describe data. Inferential Statistics will allow you to make estimates about a population (e.g., this entire class) based on a sample (e.g., 10 or 12 students in the class). The third section of the course will help you understand and interpret commonly used social science techniques that will help you to understand sociological research.

Grading Policy

Grades: Grading for this class is very straight forward. Final grades are based on students' total point score as determined by performance on exams, problem sets, and class participation. Grades are based on a percentage of 200 points: 1 midterm (35 points) and 1 final exam (65 points); 5 lab assignments (15 points each); and class participation (25 points).

Exams: Exams will be cumulative. Exams are progressively weighted in recognition of the cumulative nature of the course and to allow you a chance to "get your head into the course" before final grades are determined.

Problem Sets: There will be 5 problem sets in the class worth 15 points each. Each assignment will be turned in during lab. No credit will be given for assignments turned in late.

Class Participation: Worth 25 points. TBD

Course grades will be assigned in the following manner based on a 200 point system:
A+ 193-200
A 186-192
A- 180-185
B+ 174-179
B 166-173
B- 160-165
C+ 154-159
C 146-153
C- 140-145
D+ 134-139
D 126-133
D- 120-125
F <120

Attendance and participation is MANDATORY. It is very unlikely that you'll do well or even pass this class if you do not regularly attend (i.e. miss only 1 or 2 class meetings) class. You must attend at least once during the first week of class to guarantee your place in it. If you fail to do so, you may be administratively dropped at the discretion of the course instructor and/or department.

Texts

James Levin, James Alan Fox, and David R. Forde, Elementary Statistics in Social Research, (11th Edition), Pearson Press, ISBN 978-0-205-57069-0

Course Description

The goal of this course is to help students develop statistical literacy. The course will examine data analysis, inference; graphical and numerical summaries of numerical and categorical data; correlation and regression; and estimation, confidence intervals, and significance tests. There will be an emphasis social science examples and cases.

The course is divided into three main sections: (1) Descriptive Statistics; (2) Inferential Statistics; and (3) Applied Techniques. Descriptive statistics will allow you to summarize and describe data. Inferential Statistics will allow you to make estimates about a population (e.g., this entire class) based on a sample (e.g., 10 or 12 students in the class). The third section of the course will help you understand and interpret commonly used social science techniques that will help you to understand sociological research.

Grading Policy

Grades: Grading for this class is very straight forward. Final grades are based on students' total point score as determined by performance on exams, problem sets, and class participation. Grades are based on a percentage of 200 points: 1 midterm (35 points) and 1 final exam (65 points); 5 lab assignments (15 points each); and class participation (25 points).

Exams: Exams will be cumulative. Exams are progressively weighted in recognition of the cumulative nature of the course and to allow you a chance to "get your head into the course" before final grades are determined.

Problem Sets: There will be 5 problem sets in the class worth 15 points each. Each assignment will be turned in during lab. No credit will be given for assignments turned in late.

Class Participation: Worth 25 points. TBD

Course grades will be assigned in the following manner based on a 200 point system:
A+ 193-200
A 186-192
A- 180-185
B+ 174-179
B 166-173
B- 160-165
C+ 154-159
C 146-153
C- 140-145
D+ 134-139
D 126-133
D- 120-125
F <120

Attendance and participation is MANDATORY. It is very unlikely that you'll do well or even pass this class if you do not regularly attend (i.e. miss only 1 or 2 class meetings) class. You must attend at least once during the first week of class to guarantee your place in it. If you fail to do so, you may be administratively dropped at the discretion of the course instructor and/or department.

Texts

James Levin, James Alan Fox, and David R. Forde, Elementary Statistics in Social Research, (11th Edition), Pearson Press, ISBN 978-0-205-57069-0

Prerequisites:
 SOC 317L

 Course

Description:

This course offers hands-on instruction to undergraduate majors in the logic of inquiry and its application in sociological research. Students will gain practice in survey research by composing and analyzing the results of a questionnaire administered to undergraduates on campus.

Grading Policy:

Attendance is required. Weekly lab is mandatory.

Homeworks (4) 50%

Cumulative Final Exam  30%

Lab 20%

Texts:

Neuman, Basics of Social Research

Course Description

This course provides a general introduction to the process of social research.  We will first cover a number of basic issues that are central to most social research methods.  The remainder of the course will be devoted to an examination of specific methods used in research.  Although methods such as unobtrusive observation, experimentation, and in-depth interviewing will be covered, a large part of the course will focus on surveys and the methods used to employ and analyze them.

Required Readings

Babbie.  The Basics of Social Research, Second edition and later.

Grading

Lab assignments                      10%

Mid-term exam                        25%

Final exam                               25%

Research Paper                        40%

Class and lab attendance is not required but is strongly encouraged.

Course Goals and Objectives

As it is the case that the majority of adult criminals began their criminal and/or incarceration careers asjuveniles, it is impossible to understand the causes of crime without understanding the causes of juveniledelinquency. This course will introduce you to a range of theories about both the causes of juveniledelinquency and the origins of criminal definitions. In contrast to the politically-charged, mass-mediatedopinions and ideologies about delinquency and crime that you have been exposed to throughout your life,we will ground our study of delinquency in the knowledge that has resulted from the systematicinvestigation of delinquency and crime by social scientists. Consequently, you should expect to confrontyour own mass-mediated assumptions in the next fifteen weeks. Additionally, we will explore numeroustheories in this course, but your approach should be one of integrating these various perspectives ratherthan choosing your favorite. In other words, there is no one theoretical perspective that can fully satisfyevery question regarding delinquency and crime (or any other phenomena, for that matter). Rather, eachperspective enhances – but never completes – your comprehension of the whole. Remember that.By the end of this quarter you will have gained:1. A deeper knowledge of what society is, and how we cannot know our selves without knowingour society.2. A familiarity with major sociological approaches to studying delinquency.3. An ability to comprehend delinquency from a multitude of theoretical points of view.4. An ability to think far beyond conventional assumptions about delinquency.I recognize that it can sometimes be intimidating to speak up in class. However, since the communicationof ideas is the basis of society, discussion, debate, and dissent are expected in this class. You areabsolutely free to argue with me or with anyone else in the class, and any fear that your grade willsomehow suffer for this is ludicrous and unfounded. If you disagree with something stated in class, it isyour responsibility to argue your point. To do less is to deny yourself, and possibly others, completecomprehension. Furthermore, please note that poison scowls, crossed arms, bad vibes, murderous glares,and other such nonverbal communications of harumphy disagreement will be understood by me in thesame manner as a raised hand, which is to say that I will expect that you have something useful to say.Since this is a college-level course, I expect that your ideas will be well-formulated and based on a criticalunderstanding of the topic. This class will challenge many of your beliefs about the social world. If youfind yourself troubled by anything discussed in this class, it is only because you are beginning to think.

Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime. —AristotleYou are far more intelligent than you have been led to believe.

Required Text

Regoli, Robert M., John D. Hewitt, & Matthew DeLisi. 2008. Delinquency in Society: Youth Crime inthe 21st Century, 7th edition. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. ISBN: 0073401544.

Requirements and Grading Policy

Whether you are taking this course out of intellectual curiosity or to fill a requirement, your attendanceand active participation is expected. Comprehension, participation, and the application of ideas ratherthan the relatively simple ability of regurgitating memorized terms will be emphasized. Each of thefollowing is discussed in detail further below.Attendance/Participation 10%Pop Quizzes 30%Midterm Examination 30%Final Examination 30%Grading Scale: Final grades will be determined using the standard grading scale:A 93-100

A- 90-92

B+ 87-89

B 83-86

B- 80-82

C+ 77-79

C 73-76

C- 70-72

D+ 67-69

D 63-66

D- 60-62

F below 60

Description

The main goal of this course is to introduce students to social demography, the study of social causes and social consequences of population processes. Social demographers are interested on the social origins of population change and the meaning and implications of population processes. While we will introduce the main conceptual and theoretical aspects of social demography, we will focus on the social demography of Latin America and Africa. Social demography encompasses a remarkably diverse scope of research questions—some questions we will cover in this course include:

Why do women live longer than men?

• Why do people have fewer children now than in the past?
• Why do people have fewer children in developed than in less developed countries?
• Why population explosion is not a realistic problem anymore?
• What is brain drain?

A second goal for this course is to encourage students to think sociologically about the antecedents and implications of demographic processes in different societies. The third goal for this course is for students to become critical consumers of demographic information and critical thinkers about social demography.

Grading and Requirements

Grades will be based on five exams, which are a combination of multiple choice and short answer questions. We will have one exam for each of our themes: mortality, fertility, migration, families and households, and age and sex composition/population change over time. The exams are not cumulative. Each exam will contain 20 questions, with each question worth 1 point.

A=93-100; A-90-92; B+=87-89; B=83-86; B-=80-82; C+=77-79; C=73-76; C-70-72; D+=67-69; D=63-66; D-=60-62; F < 60.

Required Textbook

Weeks, J. R. 2008. Population: An Introduction to Concepts and Issues, 10th Edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. Additional readings will be posted on the Blackboard site for the course.

Why have Jews been hated and mistrusted for so long? How, if at all, does judeophobia differ from other types of xenophobia or racism?  In which societies have we historically seen intense hatred or mistrust of Jews? Where do we see it today? And where do we see the opposite phenomenon: philosemitism?

In this upper-level undergraduate course, we tackle these and related questions. We identify distinct types of judeophobia/antisemitism over 2,500 years, identifying when and where new and discrete layers of antisemitic ideas developed and flourished. Although our primary focus is on antisemitism in contemporary and historical Christian and Muslim societies, we begin in the antisemitic bedrock—Ancient Greece and Rome. We also look at antisemitism in peripheral societies which have had few Jews, if any (e.g., Japan). Finally, we consider judeophobia among Jews themselves—that is, the enduring phenomenon in which some Jews have not only internalized antisemitic discourse but have become “self-hating.”

Throughout the course, we use antisemitism to explore more general ideas in social theory, including habitus, globalization, and the nature of conflict related to race, ethnicity, class, and ideology. Perhaps most surprising and disturbing—this being a university—we look at the repeated role of intellectual elites in generating and justifying new forms of judeophobia, and in so doing, perpetuating this ancient hatred.

Grading

To be provided by instructor. 

Description:

This course provides an introduction to applied sociology, with an emphasis on helping students learn about applications of sociological knowledge and methods in the nonacademic world.  The course will be divided into five basic parts.  The first will address the question of what applied sociology is and why it’s important.  The second will examine the relationship between theory and applied sociology.  In the third part of the course, we’ll look at examples of applied sociology in the areas of criminal justice, the environment, education, health care, community organizing, and diversity in the workplace, among others.  The fourth part of the course will examine careers in applied sociology, both freelance and within the context of organizations.  Finally, we’ll consider some important challenges faced by applied sociologists.  These include working with the media, client interests, political influences, public perceptions, as well as the role of values and ethics.  Class format will be a mixture of lecture, discussion, and group activities.  Speakers from the community will be invited where appropriate.

Required Texts:

Solution Centered Sociology: Addressing Problems Through Applied Sociology (1998) by Stephen F. Steele, Anne Marie Scarisbrick-Hauser, and William J. Hauser. Sage.  (free online in PDF format.)

Applied Sociology: Terms, Topics, Tools, and Tasks (2008) Second Edition.  Steven F. Steele and Jammie Price. Centage.

Doing Sociology: Case Studies in Sociological Practice (2009) edited by Jammie Price, Jeff Breese, and Roger Straus. Lexington Books (tentative)

Attendance Policy:  You’re allowed three (3) absences during the semester without penalty (excluding our introductory class meeting).  These non-penalized absences are intended to cover such circumstances as illness, family emergencies, university scheduled events, etc.  If you miss more than three classes, your semester grade will be reduced by one full percentage points for each absence beyond the three allowed.  The one exception to this policy concerns absences for religious holidays, assuming proper advance notification is given. 

 Grading Policy:  

 Average of two exams 50%

 Average of group projects 35%

 Average of pop quizzes 15%

Cross listed with J349T/RTF 331

Course Description

What are social media doing to us? And we to them? Drawing on literatures from media studies, sociology, communication, and management, this course invites students to engage in critical analysis of the causes, patterns, and consequences of using social media in a global context. Building on cases from diverse cultures and nations, the course provides a rich comparative perspective. The course has three components.

*We start with major debates on the role of communication and media technologies in network society, globalization, and transnationalism.

* In the second part, we focus on how macro social forces and institutions such as state and market shape the development of social media and other new communication technologies. We explore how social inequalities and cultural differences affect digital divides.

* In the third part, we investigate how social media and other new technologies have facilitated changes in politics, organizations, networks, as well as media and culture.

Grading

Class Participation 20% (includes mini assignmnet, 10%  and class presentation 10%)

Research practices 30%

Final Project 50% (includes proposal 10%, presentation 20%  and final paper 20%))

Description: 

This course provides a broad introduction to present-day Latin American politics and society. During the semester, we will focus on drug-trafficking and urban destitution in Brazil and Mexico, party politics, collective action, and environmental suffering in Argentina, the current political situation in Chavez’s Venezuela, and migration from Central American and the Caribbean to the United States. In each case, we will study what is specific to the national histories of each country and what can be analyzed as common to the history and present reality of the sub-continent.   

 Texts:

Robert Gay. Lucia. Testimonies of a Brazilian Drug Dealer’s Woman

Javier Auyero. Routine Politics and Collective Violence

Javier Auyero and Debora Swistun. Flammable. Environmental Suffering in an Argentine Shantytown.  

 Course Requirements:

Since the class is organized around lectures, discussions of the required readings, group presentations, and films ATTENDANCE IS MANDATORY.There will be FIVE quizzes (10 questions each) on the assigned readings. Dropping your lowest score, the sum of the remaining FOUR stands for 50% of your final grade. There will also be a final exam (10 page paper). Note on grades: If your final grade (addition of FOUR best quizzes and final) is: 100-93, then your grade is an A; 92-90, then your grade is an A --; 89-85 then you grade is a B +; 84-80 then your grade is a B; 79-76 then your grade is a C; 75-65 then your grade is a D; 64 or below is an F.50% of your grade: Best four of five quizzes50% of your grade: Final examYou can earn extra-credit by doing oral presentations on assigned readings  

Description:

This advanced course provides grounding in the principal techniques of demographic analysis together with an understanding of how mortality and fertility determine the growth and structure of human populations. Topics include demographic rates and measures, the life table, population projection, and indirect estimation of demographic rates from incomplete data.

Required Texts:

The text for this course is Demography: Measuring and Modeling Population Processes by Samuel Preston, Patrick Heuveline, and Michel Guillot (Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2001).  In addition to chapters from this text, some journal articles will be assigned to complement the text, either as background, or as additional material.  A slightly more accessible basic text that corresponds fairly well to the subject matter we will cover is Colin Newell's Methods and Models in Demography(Guilford, 1990), which participants may wish to consult for an alternative presentation of some material.  Many of the classroom presentations and homework exercises will use Excel.

Grading Policy:

There will be both a mid-term and a final exam for this course, as well as weekly or bi-weekly homework assignments.   The homework will account for 30 percent of the course grade, the mid-term will account for 30 percent, and the final exam for 40 percent. 

 Prerequisites:

While there are no formal prerequisites for this course, some mathematical background is necessary, and a course in Calculus would be useful.  

 Description

This course is an exploration of how social characteristics of individuals—race, class, gender, sexuality, (dis)abilities —affect their capacities to enter specific labor markets. Over the course of the semester we will sociologically unpack what work means, the creation of labor markets, and finally, how race and employment are interrelated. Jobs are gender segregated; and in all of this, race matters. We will critically examine work over the 20th and 21st centuries through a gendered, racial lens to get at how race and gender work in the labor market. The purpose of this course is to sociologically examine concepts such as labor markets, globalization, care work, sex work, and gender/ racial segregation of the work place. This course is cross-listed with Asian American Studies and Women’s Studies.

The readings are organized around key questions/ issues, which form course modules. These course modules are the following:

1)    What is labor?

2)    What are labor markets?

3)    How are race, labor and citizenship tied?

4)    Gender and work

5)    Case study: Garment work

6)    Case study: Caring work

7)    Case study: Surrogacy

Readings

Course package

Grading and Requirement

Class attendance

Attendance to class is mandatory.  You may miss up to two classes, without affecting your grade.  Subsequently, for every class you miss your grade will fall by 1/2 a grade.  For example, if you miss four classes, you grade will change from an A to a B.

Participation: 20%

Four Short Papers: 80%

Immigration patterns have significantly affected the development of U.S. society since its inception.  In the 1990s, the United States experienced a record number of new immigrants, and the present decade is maintaining a high volume of immigration, perhaps heading to another record.  This course uses a sociological perspective to address various impacts of immigration in U.S. society.

II.  Course Aims and Objectives

Aims

This course is designed to help students develop an awareness of the significance of immigration in U.S. society.  In the course, students learn to use sociological approaches to better understand the nature of immigration in U.S. society, including an understanding of how immigration affects large (macro) and small (micro) social units.

 Specific Learning Objectives

Gain background information on the development of immigration patterns in U.S. society and discuss the social forces that affect these patterns from the perspective of historical and recent immigration trends.

Review and discuss different social perceptions and attitudes about immigration trends in U.S. society.

Review and analyze government statistical reports concerning annual immigration conditions and characteristics.

Develop an awareness of the significance of immigration for the development of U.S. society.

Review major laws affecting immigration patterns in U.S. society

Gain an ability to analyze current immigration dynamics from a sociological perspective

Format and Procedures

The course is designed with the expectation that it will follow an intertwined format of lectures and class discussions.  A key expectation is that students will come to class prepared to discuss thematic issues covered in the class, or at least come to class with a curious and critical predisposition to become intellectually engaged in the class. All students are expect to contribute to class discussion, with a high regard for an open academic dialogue, which values respect for the ideas, opinions, and views of others. Class attendance is expected and highly encouraged.

During the course students will be asked to give formal and informal anonymous feedback regarding the teaching techniques and progress of the course.  The purpose of the student feedback is to help create an effective learning experience.

Assumptions

My assumptions about the nature of immigration in U.S. society is that it a) follows an historical course, b) flows from the interaction between human agency and social structures, c) takes normal paths of social division and degrees of accommodation and social incorporation, d) is partly affected by social constructions regarding different national-origin groups, and e) has its most profound significance within the dynamics of social reproduction.

Course Requirements

1. Class attendance and participation policy

To get the most out of this class you should attend all classes and arrive on time.  Also, you should review previous lecture notes and bring questions to class about points you did not clearly understand—including points from the assigned readings.  Please be attentive in class (turn off phones or set to vibration). You are greatly encouraged to participate in class discussion, and please do so in a manner that respects the rights of others to also participate.  If you have a problem hearing the lectures and discussion, or viewing class presentations, please let me know immediately. Class participation is taken into consideration (10%) for the final grade.

Texts

a) Required books/readings:

Portes, Alejandro, and Ruben Rumbaut.  2006.  Immigrant America:  A Portrait.  Berkeley, CA:  University of California Press. (PR)

Min, Pyong Gap.  2006.  Asian Americans:  Contemporary Trends. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press. (M)

 On-line articles (these are free on-line articles accessible through the UT library or other public sources)

 b) Websites to review: let’s make sure that these are the websites that are reviewed for each topic section.

Census Bureau: http://www.census.gov/

Population Reference Bureau: http://www.prb.org/

Office of Immigration Statistics: http://www.dhs.gov/ximgtn/statistics/

Migration Policy Institute: http://www.migrationpolicy.org/

Pew Hispanic Center: http://pewhispanic.org/

UT Austin Center for Mexican American Studies: http://www.utexas.edu/depts/cmas/

UT Austin Center for Asian American Studies: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/aas/

UT Austin Center for African and African American Studies: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/caaas/

Assignments, Assessments, Evaluation, Dates

a) The course contains three regular exams and a “replacement” final exam. Regular exams will consist of multiple-choice items and an essay question, and the final exam will consist of essay questions. The final exam can be taken to replace the grade of a regular exam.  All exams have to be taken on the dates specified; the only exception to this rule are cases involving a truly pressing situation (medical) or involving authorization by UT Austin.  In such exceptional cases, makeup exams for the first two regular exams have to be taken within a week after the originally designated dates in the sociology room for make-ups. In the rare possibility that a student needs to take a makeup for the third exam, arrangements with have to be made with me. Makeup exams will consist of essay questions. Students who miss a scheduled exam must alert me beforehand and consult with me regarding the makeup.  There is no procedure for making up the final exam outside of cases that are of a true exceptional and unusual personal pressing situation. Students have to take all exams on the dates and times specified.  Exams cannot be taken earlier or later than the dates and times specified.

 b) Students are required to submit a report (minimum of 6 pages double space) based on a review of two articles on immigration-related research that have been published in peer-reviewed journals.  Guidelines for writing this research report are given at the end of this syllabus.  I have selected the following journals for students to review and select the articles: International Migration Review, American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review,Ethnic and Racial Studies, Black Studies, Journal of Asian American Studies, Social Forces, and Social Science Quarterly. Additional journals may be added to this list during the semester. Please consult the course schedule below for the due date of the research report.  Late research reports will be accepted up to one class meeting late, but will be assessed a 10-point late penalty. Students have to give the URL address of the articles if they are accessible on-line, or provide a copy of the first page of each article if they are not accessible on-line.

 c) All dates specified in this syllabus for course topics, exams, and papers are subject to change given unforeseen developments.

 4. Use of Blackboard

It is my intention to use Blackboard (http://courses.utexas.edu) to help manage the course and to pursue interaction with students.  I plan to use Blackboard to make announcements, distribute information, communicate with students, and post grades.  Students are encouraged to use Blackboard to communicate and share comments and information.  Please check your Blackboard site regularly to look for communications from me or from other students in the class.  Support for using Blackboard can be obtained from the ITS Help Desk at 475-9400, Monday through Friday, from 8am to 6pm. 

Grading

 a) Three regular exams (40 multiple-choice items and an essay question): 100 points per exam x 3 regular exams = 300 points

 b) Research report: 40 points

 c) Final course grades will be determined based on the percent of total points made out of a grand total of 340 points:  90%-100% = A, 80%-89.5% = B, 70%-79.5% = C, 60%-69.5% = D, below 60% = F.

Cross listed with AFR 374/WGS 322

Note:  322V and SOC 321K Surveillance and Social Control cannot both be countes.

This course will provide an overview of theories in the emerging field of Surveillance Studies, with a focus on race, gender, power. We will examine transformations in social control and the distributions of power in U.S. and global contexts, with a focus on populations within the African diaspora. As such, this is a Black Studies course.

Course topics include: the Trans-Atlantic slave trade; prisons and punishment; the gaze, voyeurism and reality television watching; the Internet; airports and state borders; biometrics and the body.

Students will be encouraged to develop critical reading and analytical skills. Through the use of films, the Internet and other visual media, students will be challenged to better understand how surveillance practices inform modern life.

Students who acquire six or more unexcused absences will receive a failing grade.

Your participation grade will be based upon your informed participation and not solely on your attendance. You are expected to contribute informed opinions based on a close reading of the assigned materials and engagement with the themes of the course. Sharing your personal opinions, while important, will not solely constitute informed discussion.

Required Texts:

Christian Parenti. 2003. The Soft Cage: Surveillance in America From Slave Passes to the War on Terror. New York: Basic Books.

All other required readings will be available for purchase as a course kit.

Grading Policy:

Participation and Journal:       20%

Mid-Term Test:                     25%

Research Project:                   20%

Film Review                           15%

Final Test:                             20%

Description:

In this course we will analyze the family as a social institution, using sociological perspectives.

Studying the family can be tricky in that we all have our own experiences being part of families. It is

important, then, to go beyond our own experiences to explore both the private aspects of the family as

well as public aspects of the family using various kinds of empirical data. Shifting definitions of the

family provide a starting point for an exploration of the history of “the family”. Throughout the course

we will explore if and how the family is declining and changing using conservative, liberal, centrist and

feminist perspectives. Specific topics will include parental and child roles; gender, race and social class as

stratification systems which influence families; how the family intersects with, is shaped by, and shapes

other social institutions, with particular attention to the economy and the world of work as well as state

and social policies; and cohabitation, divorce and stepfamilies as three important changes in the US

family over the last several decades.

The primary objectives for this course are:

• To use a sociological perspective in studying families, with an emphasis on diversity within and

between families.

• To think about families in societal context.

• To sharpen critical thinking skills by participating in class discussions and other group activities and completing writing assignments that require analysis and revision.

Questions we will address include:

• What is the definition of family? (Why is this a complicated question?)

• What social-structural forces shape family processes?

• How is the family a gendered institution?

• How does government attempt to shape families? Support families?

Texts:

! Ferguson, Susan J. (ed.). 2010. Shifting the Center: Understanding Contemporary Families, Fourth Edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

! Bogle, Kathleen. 2008. Hooking Up: Sex, Dating and Relationships on Campus. NYU Press.

! Coontz, Stephanie. 2006. Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered Marriage. New York: Penguin.

! Lareau, Annette. 2011. Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life, Second Edition with an Update a Decade Later. Berkeley: University of California Press.

! Stone, Pamela. 2007. Opting Out? Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home. Berkeley: University of California Press.

(All books available for purchase at the Co-op on Guadalupe.)

! Additional readings may be posted to our BlackBoard course site.

Grading and Requirements:

Literature Review (30% total)

Select a topic of interest to you. The literature review will form the basis for the group presentation.

There will be peer review (worth 5%) as well as instructor comments on this assignment. You will

submit a memo detailing your revisions with the final draft. More details on a handout.

Group Presentation and Class Discussion (20%)

Students will be put into groups based on topics selected for the literature review. Each group will have responsibility for leading a class session on a specific topic relating to the sociology of education.

This will include: presenting materials from outside the course readings drawing connections with relevant course readings posing discussion questions The presentation should tie together thematically, and use guiding questions. This is up to the group to decide in consultation with the instructor. Each group member is responsible for contributing academic articles for integration into the final presentation. Groups should use some sort of visual aid and handout in their presentation.

Thematic synthesis (10%)

Each student will find a news article and write a two-page essay, using themes and material encountered during the course. Be prepared to discuss during class.

Other indicators of participation (40%)

Reading Journal: (22.5%) Total of six entries. 6 one-page single-spaced entries related to required course reading. More details on a handout.

Discussion leading (5%): Each student will lead discussion once during the semester.

Other assessment: (12.5%) Excessive absences will negatively affect your grade. Merely

showing up to class, however, is not sufficient participation. Ways that I assess participation

include contributions during class discussions and the level of preparedness for presentations.

Grades: The final grades will be computed as follows:

Literature Review 120 points 30%

Literature review 100 points

Peer review 20 points

Group Presentation 80 points 20%

Thematic Synthesis 40 points 10%

Participation 160 points 40%

Reading Journal 90 points

Discussion Leading 20 points

Other assessment 50 points

TOTAL 400 points 100%

A 94-100% 400 – 376 C+ 77-79% 319 – 308

A- 90-93% 375 – 360 C 74-76% 307 – 296

B+ 87-89% 359 – 348 C- 70-73% 295 – 280

B 84-86% 347 – 336 D 60-69% 279 – 240

B- 80-83% 335 – 320 F 59% or less 239 - 0

CR 70% or more 280 +

Prerequisites

UPPER-DIVISION STANDING REQUIRED. COMPLETION OF SIX SEMESTER HOURS OF SOCIOLOGY.

Course Description

An investigation into the nature of criminal events including, homicide, rape, robbery, property crimes and white-collar crimes. Also examines the US criminal justice system.

Grading Policy

Three tests (no final) Occasional quizzes

Texts

Mark Warr, Companions in Crime, Cambridge University Press

Prerequisites

UPPER-DIVISION STANDING REQUIRED. COMPLETION OF SIX SEMESTER HOURS OF SOCIOLOGY.

Course Description

An investigation into the nature of criminal events including, homicide, rape, robbery, property crimes and white-collar crimes. Also examines the US criminal justice system.

Grading Policy

Three tests (no final) Occasional quizzes

Texts

Mark Warr, Companions in Crime, Cambridge University Press

Course Description

This course will provide an introduction to the American criminal justice system, its policies and procedures. The primary focus will be on the roles and functions of the police, the courts and corrections, with a special emphasis on how well or not so well the system operates. We will also spend some time on recent innovations in criminal justice policy.

The class periods will be devoted to lectures, guest speakers, and videos. The lecture material will sometimes correspond very closely with the material in the text and sometimes it will supplement the assigned readings. I encourage class discussions and questions and hope that the material will be sufficiently interesting and controversial to motivate class participation.

Grading Policy

There will be four exams - three during the session and a comprehensive final. The exams will be multiple choice/true false. The three exams during the session will count 20% toward the final grade and will consist of 50 questions. The final exam, which is comprehensive, is worth 40% and will consist of 100 questions. The exams will cover all of the material - assigned readings, lectures, guest speakers and videos.

I do not grade on the basis of need and I do not negotiate grades. If you "need" a particular grade, you can figure out what it will take to obtain that grade. There is no extra credit and it is not possible to change the exam dates.

Grades for the course are determined in the following manner.90 to 100 A80 to 89 B70 to 79 C60 to 69 D< 60 F

Regarding rounding of grades, in my book, 88.7 is not 90, 79.1 is not 80 and 57.7 is not 60. If your final grade is .5 or higher, I will round up to the next whole percent. If you are taking the course pass/fail, a pass is 60 or above.

Texts

James Inciardi, Criminal Justice,9th edition

 Course Description

 This course is designed to give you a broad introduction to the field of social psychology, a topic that is investigated in both psychology and sociology departments. I have three aims for the course: (1) I want to provide you with an overview of the field of social psychology; (2) I want to introduce you to the various research methodologies that social psychologists use to investigate a phenomenon empirically; and (3) I want you to be able to spot applications to the “real world” of the material we discuss. Students enrolled in this course should have upper division standing, and, ideally, they should have taken courses in either sociology or psychology. This course is not cross-listed with psychology, which means that it does not count towards the requirements for a degree in psychology (but of course you still get credit for it as an upper-division sociology course). 

Even in a class of this size, I will occasionally call on people and ask them to give me their understanding of a topic we are discussing. Although I do not restrict lecture topics to what appears in the text, the most effective discussions – and the way for you to get the most out of this class in general – is to do your readings prior to the class for which they are assigned. This will help you immensely with lectures and ultimately with the tests. 

Texts

John D. DeLamater, & Daniel J. Myers, Social Psychology (7th edition). Thompson/Wadsworth (2010). [PLEASE NOTE: This version of the book is a restructured one; do not rely solely on older editions without a close comparison to the 7th] 

Grading

Final grades are based on three exams, in-class exercises, and a brief writing assignment. 

Description:

This course examines the social and cultural construction of gender, focusing on women and men in U.S. society.  We will explore how gender is experienced by different groups of men and women, with a focus on race/ethnicity, sexuality, class, and nationality.  The course begins with description of current gender stereotypes in popular culture, and differences in the socialization and education of girls and boys.  Next we will examine gender differences in the workplace, exploring the reasons for the persistent gap in pay between employed men and women.  The third part of the course examines women’s changing relationship to the home and work, including changes in the meanings of marriage and motherhood, with a focus on the lives of impoverished women.  This section also reviews public policy responses to women’s poverty.  The final part of the course examines the impact of globalization on men and women around the world.

Texts:

C.J. Pascoe, Dude, You’re a Fag, Univ. of California Press, 2007.

Kristen Schilt, Just one of the guys?, University of Chicago Press, 2010.

Susan Thistle, From Marriage to the Market, Univ. of California Press, 2006.

Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas, Promises I can keep, Univ. of California Press, 2005.

Carolina Bank‐Mu.oz, Transnational Tortillas: Race, Gender, and Shop‐Floor Politics in Mexico

and the United States. ILR Press, 2008.

The Education of Shelby Knox (DVD).

Grading and Requirement:

Grades in the class will be based on three examinations and four homework assignments. The

first two exams are worth 30 percent, and the third is worth 20 percent of the final grade. All

examinations will have an essay format (Blue Books are required). Make‐up examinations will

be given only to those absent for university‐approved reasons. The final 20 percent of the grade

is based on written homework assignments. The assignments require students to write 2‐page

essays. Essay questions will be distributed in class and posted on Blackboard. They will be due

the following class period. No late assignments will be accepted. Evaluations (letter grades) are based on mastery of the material and quality of the writing.

Description:

This course examines critical American social problems that threaten the very fabric of our collective life as a nation.  These include problems in the economy and political system, social class and income inequality, racial/ethnic inequality, gender inequality and heterosexism, problems in education, and problems of illness and health care.  The course has three main objectives.  One involves providing students with the theoretical and methodological tools needed to critically analyze these problems from a sociological perspective.  A second involves providing students with current data and other information documenting the seriousness of these problems.  The final objective focuses on evaluating social policies addressing these problems (e.g., welfare-to-work programs, pay equity legislation), with special reference to questions of social justice, the common good, as well as public and individual responsibility.  Class format will be a mixture of lecture and discussion, with a strong emphasis upon the latter.  This course carries a writing flag.

Required Readings: 

A packet of readings to be purchased from Paradigm at 407 W. 24th St.

Additional readings will be made available on Blackboard

Attendance Policy:

Regular attendance and punctuality are expected.  You’re allowed three absences without penalty during the semester (excluding our introductory class meeting).  The nonpenalized absences are intended to cover such situations as illness, family emergencies, university sponsored trips, etc.  Students who miss more than three classes, regardless of the reason, will have their semester grades reduced by one full percentage points for each absence beyond the three allowed.  The one exception to this policy concerns absences for religious reasons, assuming proper notification is given.

Grading Policy:

Four Short Papers (2-3 pages) 65%

Class Participation 20%

Pop Quizzes 15%

Course Description

This course examines health status and health care disparities among racial/ethnic minority groups in the United States.  We will review the complex relationship between social class (socioeconomic status) and health status, the effect of race/ethnicity on health outcomes and access to healthcare, and specific health issues for major racial/ethnic minority groups in the U.S. The topics include conceptual issues central to understanding how low socioeconomic status leads to poor health, understanding how conscious, unconscious, and institutionalized racial bias affects medical care and health outcomes, and addressing ideas for reducing health disparities among racial/ethnic minorities.

Course Objectives

At the completion of this course, the student will learn and understand:

• the patterns of racial/ethnic differences in health status,  in access to health care, in quality of health care
• the hypotheses and theories that seek to explain health disparities among different racial/ethnic minorities
• the social and environmental factors that are prominent in the perpetuation of  health disparities across the life span

Required Text and Readings

Barr, Donald A. (2008)  Health Disparities in the United States: Social Class, Race, Ethnicity, and Health.  The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore (ISBN 13: 978-0-8018-8821-2, ISBN 10: 0-8018-8821-2)

LaVeist, Thomas A. (2005)  Minority Populations and Health: An Introduction to Health Disparities in the United States.  Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Imprint (ISBN 0-7879-6413-1)

Additional readings: In addition to above textbooks, other course materials including additional readings will be posted to blackboard each week.  Readings should be completed for the week they are assigned.

Course requirements and exams:

Exams (total 300 points): There will be three in-class exams worth 100 points each.  The in-class exams will cover the readings and lecture materials covered prior to that exam. The format of the in-class exams will be multiple-choice, true and false, and short/medium-answer questions. Missed exams will be counted as zero unless arrangements are made in advance.  Make-up exams will be given only if a physician’s note or other verifiable document is provided.

Essay (total 100 points): In addition to exams, students will write one short paper designed to assess the understanding of current health status and causes of health disparities among racial/ethnic minorities in the US and the complex relationship between socioeconomic status and race in US health care systems. This paper should be no longer than 5 pages (double spaced) and must returned in person in class.  E-mail attachments will not be accepted.

Class Components (total 100 points): The in-class component will be measured by pop quizzes and class participation.  There will be 10 pop quizzes given periodically at the instructor’s discretion, based on weekly readings, class discussions, and short-films shown during class, and should last no more than 10 minutes.

Description:

The course is devoted to the study of gender politics in the Islamic world. It is designed to help students gain a better knowledge of the Islamic world and, at the same time, increase their understanding of major sociological concepts such as gender, social organization, culture, and politics. It shows how culture is mediated by politics, resulting in diverse interpretations of the cultural tradition and in different policies with respect to gender. We start by examining the themes and issues that are part of the common denominator of the Islamic tradition. We then consider how the diversity can be explained and what factors contribute to it. The focus is on women’s rights, which have been a key political issue in several countries and internationally.

Texts:

E.W. Fernea, Guests of The Sheik: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village. Anchor, (GS) 1965.

M. M. Charrad, States and Women’s Rights: The Making of Postcolonial Tunisia, Algeria and

Morocco. Berkeley: Univ of California Press, 2001 (SWR)

Fadela Amara, Breaking the Silence: French Voices from the Ghetto. Berkeley: UC Press 2006 (BTS).

Joni Seager, The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World. 4th ed. Penguin. 2009. (Atlas).

Articles will be placed on Blackboard.

Grading and Requirements:

Students are encouraged to take an active role in discussing readings and raising questions. I expect students to attend class and to complete the assigned readings prior to coming to class.

Exam 1 25%

Exam  2 40%

Exam 3 20%

Team presentation 10%

Class participation 5%

Description

The course will introduce the major dimensions of globalization and the main questions that the topic raises for scholars and activists.  This introduction to a broad, complex, constantly changing field should provide a foundation for continued thinking and learning about globalization. 

The writing assignments are intended to help you develop greater skill, versatility and confidence as a writer by practicing different writing strategies and techniques for requesting and receiving useful feedback on written work.  The final review essay provides an opportunity to demonstrate all that you have learned about writing and about globalization.

The assignments for the course should take an average of about six hours per week to complete.

Texts

Ritzer, George.  2007. The Globalization of Nothing.  2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA:  Pine Forge Press.

Eitzen, D. Stanley and Maxine Baca Zinn, eds.  2012.  Globalization:  The Transformation of  Social Worlds.  3rd ed.  Belmont, CA:  Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Requirements and grading

Tests

Hour exam at midterm 7.5%

Second hour exam 7.5%

Informal writing

In class writing, quizzes and class participation (daily) 15%

Soliciting and giving feedback on writing (“peer reviews” when  papers are due) 15%                                                                                

Formal writing

Formal papers, including revisions (250-500 words) 35%

Final book review essay, in lieu of a final exam (1000-1250 words) 20%

Description

Immigration patterns have significantly affected the development of U.S. society since its inception.  In the 1990s, the United States experienced a record number of new immigrants, and the present decade is maintaining a high volume of immigration, perhaps heading to another record.  This course uses a sociological perspective to address various impacts of immigration in U.S. society.

Aims

This course is designed to help students develop an awareness of the significance of immigration in U.S. society.  In the course, students learn to use sociological approaches to better understand the nature of immigration in U.S. society, including an understanding of how immigration affects large (macro) and small (micro) social units.

 Specific Learning Objectives

Gain background information on the development of immigration patterns in U.S. society and discuss the social forces that affect these patterns from the perspective of historical and recent immigration trends.

Review and discuss different social perceptions and attitudes about immigration trends in U.S. society.

Review and analyze government statistical reports concerning annual immigration conditions and characteristics.

Develop an awareness of the significance of immigration for the development of U.S. society.

Review major laws affecting immigration patterns in U.S. society

Gain an ability to analyze current immigration dynamics from a sociological perspective

Format and Procedures

The course is designed with the expectation that it will follow an intertwined format of lectures and class discussions.  A key expectation is that students will come to class prepared to discuss thematic issues covered in the class, or at least come to class with a curious and critical predisposition to become intellectually engaged in the class. All students are expect to contribute to class discussion, with a high regard for an open academic dialogue, which values respect for the ideas, opinions, and views of others. Class attendance is expected and highly encouraged.

During the course students will be asked to give formal and informal anonymous feedback regarding the teaching techniques and progress of the course.  The purpose of the student feedback is to help create an effective learning experience.

Assumptions

My assumptions about the nature of immigration in U.S. society is that it a) follows an historical course, b) flows from the interaction between human agency and social structures, c) takes normal paths of social division and degrees of accommodation and social incorporation, d) is partly affected by social constructions regarding different national-origin groups, and e) has its most profound significance within the dynamics of social reproduction.

Texts

a) Required books/readings:

Portes, Alejandro, and Ruben Rumbaut.  2006.  Immigrant America:  A Portrait.  Berkeley, CA:  University of California Press. (PR)

Min, Pyong Gap.  2006.  Asian Americans:  Contemporary Trends. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press. (M)

On-line articles (these are free on-line articles accessible through the UT library or other public sources)

b) Websites to review: let’s make sure that these are the websites that are reviewed for each topic section.

Census Bureau: http://www.census.gov/

Population Reference Bureau: http://www.prb.org/

Office of Immigration Statistics: http://www.dhs.gov/ximgtn/statistics/

Migration Policy Institute: http://www.migrationpolicy.org/

Pew Hispanic Center: http://pewhispanic.org/

UT Austin Center for Mexican American Studies: http://www.utexas.edu/depts/cmas/

UT Austin Center for Asian American Studies: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/aas/

UT Austin Center for African and African American Studies: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/caaas/

Grading and requirements

1. Class attendance and participation policy

To get the most out of this class you should attend all classes and arrive on time.  Also, you should review previous lecture notes and bring questions to class about points you did not clearly understand—including points from the assigned readings.  Please be attentive in class (turn off phones or set to vibration). You are greatly encouraged to participate in class discussion, and please do so in a manner that respects the rights of others to also participate.  If you have a problem hearing the lectures and discussion, or viewing class presentations, please let me know immediately. Class participation is taken into consideration (10%) for the final grade.

a) The course contains three regular exams and a “replacement” final exam. Regular exams will consist of multiple-choice items and an essay question, and the final exam will consist of essay questions. The final exam can be taken to replace the grade of a regular exam.  All exams have to be taken on the dates specified; the only exception to this rule are cases involving a truly pressing situation (medical) or involving authorization by UT Austin.  In such exceptional cases, makeup exams for the first two regular exams have to be taken within a week after the originally designated dates in the sociology room for make-ups. In the rare possibility that a student needs to take a makeup for the third exam, arrangements with have to be made with me. Makeup exams will consist of essay questions. Students who miss a scheduled exam must alert me beforehand and consult with me regarding the makeup.  There is no procedure for making up the final exam outside of cases that are of a true exceptional and unusual personal pressing situation. Students have to take all exams on the dates and times specified.  Exams cannot be taken earlier or later than the dates and times specified.

b) Students are required to submit a report (minimum of 6 pages double space) based on a review of two articles on immigration-related research that have been published in peer-reviewed journals.  Guidelines for writing this research report are given at the end of this syllabus.  I have selected the following journals for students to review and select the articles: International Migration Review, American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review,Ethnic and Racial Studies, Black Studies, Journal of Asian American Studies, Social Forces, and Social Science Quarterly. Additional journals may be added to this list during the semester. Please consult the course schedule below for the due date of the research report.  Late research reports will be accepted up to one class meeting late, but will be assessed a 10-point late penalty. Students have to give the URL address of the articles if they are accessible on-line, or provide a copy of the first page of each article if they are not accessible on-line.

Three regular exams (40 multiple-choice items and an essay question): 100 points per exam x 3 regular exams = 300 points

Research report: 40 points

Final course grades will be determined based on the percent of total points made out of a grand total of 340 points:  90%-100% = A, 80%-89.5% = B, 70%-79.5% = C, 60%-69.5% = D, below 60% = F.

Contains a Writing Flag

Course Description

This is a research and writing course designed to explore moral imperatives, violation of these imperatives, and perhaps most interestingly how we justify such violation. The standards are high. You will have to work hard and long. You will love it!

We will find ourselves quickly enmeshed in how law and the legal system engage moral considerations. We will come face to face with religion's influence on law. Any discussion of law, morality and religion is incomplete without consideration of interest groups and attendant issues of equality. Interests and equality imply economic relations and power. Power implies coercion, control and conflict. These general topics will be anchored in an exploration of specific topics such as eugenics, abortion, capital punishment, doctor assisted suicide, and war.

The first portion of the course will concentrate on quick overviews of specific questions. With these overviews in hand, you will be asked to break into three or four groups of five (plus or minus). Each group will choose a specific topic, such as physician assisted suicide, capital punishment, eugenics, or war. As a group you will be asked to develop a set of ideas consistent with the general framework developed in the early sessions of class.

Grading Policy

Individually, you will be asked to write a 16-20 page paper on the chosen topic. This paper will be handed in for initial grading and editorial comment. Your grade on the initial draft will constitute 40% of your final grade. The paper will be handed back to you for revision. You will be asked to hand in the revised version at the end of class. This final version of the paper will be graded and will also constitute 40% of your grade.

The remaining 20% of your grade will come from class participation. In addition to in-class discussions and assignments, you will be asked to write amongst yourselves, via Discussion Board, about various assigned topics throughout the semester. Attendance is required. More than three unexcused absences will lower your grade one full point -- A to B, B to C etc. I know this is tough, but so am I.... Not to fear, I will make every effort to ensure classes are worth attending.

Texts

Assigned readings and questions for written discussion, via Discussion Board, will be found on "ASSIGNMENTS."

Description  

This course is an upper division introduction to topics in linguistic anthropology.  Languages, like other communication systems, are adapted to new and different environments in which they are spoken, creating and maintaining social realities, reproducing cultural traditions, and conveying messages in a complex interplay of new and old information, sometimes necessary and sometimes frivolous, packaging meaning in various ways that generally conform to standards that can be articulated,  As speech is an important mode of human communication, we start by outlining basic concepts allowing for the description of linguistic form,  In the end we will focus as much on language use as on language structure, and in the process we will examine various expressive speech genres, metaphors that we live by, the power of language, gender preferences in communication, language learning, proverbs, jokes, and multilingualism, among other topics. We will examine these forms, processes, and contexts in an effort to deliver the tools necessary for describing and understanding the multiple ways in which language, culture, and society interact.

Goals

The goals of this course are to introduce students to the study of language use from a sociocultural perspective and to develop skills (through fieldwork and data analysis) in analyzing the role that language plays in the structure and interpretation of human interaction. Students will collect language data from a "speech community" in a setting of their choice, and will use this data: 1) collectively as a basis for examining and questioning concepts discussed in lectures and readings such as ethnicity, identity, power, and gender as they are constructed through language, and 2) individually as a basis from which to generate an analytical paper, which shows an understanding of the major ideas covered in the course but which is specific to student interests.

Grading and Requirement:

Two midterm exams 25% each

10 page analytical paper based on fieldwork due on the last class day 25%

Comprehensive final exam 25%

No penalty for one unexcused absence, but further such absences can lower one’s course grade by two and a half percentage points for each instance.  Exams include information from lectures,readings, and films.

Texts:    

Susan Blum    2009.  (ed.)  Making sense of Language.  Oxford  

Cross listed with PBH 358D

Course Description: 

This is a new course that covers the essentials of health policy in the United States and compares the health care financing and delivery system in this country to those of other developed nations.  Students will learn the history of health-related legislation in the United States and investigate why this nation, unlike others, developed an employment-based health care financing system based on an insurance model rather than a publicly funded universal system.  Students will investigate the major political forces that have determined the structure of the health care system in the U.S. and examine issues related to differential access for minority Americans and those in marginal jobs that do not offer insurance coverage. 

Students will also become familiar with the legislative history of Medicaid and Medicare and the various changes that have been introduced to these programs since their introduction.  The course will examine mechanisms of reimbursement to doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers.  We will also examine the role of the pharmaceutical industry and investigate the control and regulations of drugs.  Students will learn about the structure and role of the National Institutes of Health and other major funders of medical research. 

Given the fact that the debate concerning the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (health care reform) will be a central political issue for the next few years, students will learn about the history of health care reform over the twentieth century and debate various aspects of health care reform.  After taking this course the student will understand the various issues involved in the current health care debate and their implications for the future of American medicine and the health of the population.  In the future difficult debates concerning the rationing of care, end-of-life issues, and other difficult decisions will have to take place.  After taking the course the student will be equipped to engage in these debates.

The course will consist of two lectures per week and a discussion session in which students will form small groups and discuss the issues raised in lecture.

Prerequisites:   

Introduction to Public Health with a grade of at least B for public health majors; upper division standing for sociology majors.  The course is restricted to public health and sociology majors.

Required readings: 

T.R. Reid (2009).  The Healing of America:  A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care.  New York:  Penguin. 

Web-based readings will also be assigned.

Grading: 

The final course grade will be based on two hourly examinations and a short essay (approximately ten pages) on a topic of the student’s choice.  To determine the final grade these weighted scores will be summed and the weighted total curved so that approximately 15% of the class receives an A, 15% A-, 15% B+, 15% B, 30% C, etc.  Attendance is mandatory and will be factored into the final grade.  Three unexcused absences will result in an automatic full letter grade drop in the final grade.  More than six unexcused absences will result in a failing grade.

Description

Population studies or demography is an interdisciplinary field, encompassing the study of the size, distribution, and composition of human populations, and the processes of fertility, mortality, and migration through which populations’ change. These processes are closely connected to many of the pressing problems facing contemporary societies. For instance, the funding of health care in developed countries is a major issue because of declining fertility and population aging. Civil unrest in parts of Africa and the Middle East are, in part, a function of persistently high fertility rates. These processes are also important drivers of many contemporary environmental problems. Finally, a grasp of population processes is important for a deeper understanding of the population explosion in urban areas and the higher transmission and impact of AIDS in the developing world. 

This course provides an overview of the field of population studies. A sociological approach is emphasized, but economic, geographic, anthropological, and biological perspectives will also be used. Attention will be given to a) the demographic concepts needed to objectively evaluate population issues and b) the substantive content of the population issues. Emphasis will be given to evaluating the evidence regarding debates on population topics. 

Reading Materials 

Required text: Population: An Introduction to Concepts and Issues, 10th edition, 

John R. Weeks. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co. ISBN-10: 0495096377 

On-line Readings: There are a number of short reading assignments, marked with an [EL]. These readings can be found in External Links section of the class Blackboard site and should be read prior to class period. 

Grading and Requirement:

You are expected to complete all readings for the day's class before coming to class. Read as actively as possible. Class time will be an opportunity to discuss and further explore the readings, so it is essential that everyone comes prepared to participate. Our class periods will be more productive and enjoyable when we all begin with the same materials. 

There will be TWO examinations during the semester, each worth 20% of your final grade. The exams will draw from both readings and class discussions. The exams are not cumulative. Each will include multiple choice and short answer questions. Make-up examinations will not be administered except in extreme circumstances and only if I am notified beforehand. All make-up examinations are 100% essay. 

You must also complete TWO assignments and ONE short paper during the semester. The assignments—on mortality and fertility—are designed to familiarize you with demographic data on the web, give you an overview of your country of choice, and help you identify your country’s population angle that most interests you and that you will explore in more detail in the short paper. Each assignment is worth 15% of your final grade. The short paper is worth 25% of your grade. 

The final 5% of your grade is based on attendance/class participation. I expect you to show up and engage (i.e., not text, sleep, or read the newspaper) with classmates, the TA, and me in the class. 

Description

The purpose of this course is to introduce the student to some of the more important theoretical foundations of the discipline of sociology and to current debates in modern social theory. The first part of the course covers select classical theorists. The second part provides an introduction to twentieth-century social theory and critical perspectives on the classical foundations of sociology. The third and final part presents a highly influential response to these challenges by a leading sociological theorist of our day. Throughout the course, the main topics of interest are the rise and transformation of modern society, the changing relationship between the individual and social institutions, the role of social structures and agency in social theory, the role of moral and instrumental action in agency theory, the challenge of critical theory to the social sciences, and contemporary attempts at a critical and multidimensional theory of society.

This course challenges students to think theoretically and critically about society and its material and cultural construction. The readings for the course are difficult but not inaccessible. This course will be fruitful if, and only if, students make a serious commitment to do the reading and to attend class. If this commitment is made, the social world might never look and feel quite the same. At least this is my goal and I aim to deliver.

Grading Policy

Three short papers 75%

Three one to two page memos on reading 15%

Class participation 10%

Short papers: Students must write three papers, each approximately five pages in length. One paper is due for each of the three parts of the course.

Memos: For the first part of the course, I will ask you to write three memos, each approximately one page in length. One memo will be on Karl Marx. The second memo will be on Emile Durkeim. And the final memo is on Max Weber.

Texts

All texts have been ordered through MonkeyWrench Books (110 E. North Loop, Austin, TX 78751; tel. (512) 407-6925)

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert Tucker, Norton

Emile Durkheim, On Morality and Society, ed. Robert N. Bellah, Chicago

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Roxbury

Georg Simmel, On Individuality and Social Forms, ed. Donald Levine, Chicago

Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, Norton

Michel Foucault, The Foucault Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow, Pantheon

Jurgen Habermas, Jurgen Habermas on Society and Politics: A Reader, ed. Seidman, Beacon

Description:

This course focuses on some of the major theoretical paradigms and concepts in sociological inquiry.  Its format will combine lectures with class discussions; everybody should come having done the daily readings and prepared to talk about the material.

Texts:

Craig Calhoun et al. (editors), Classical Sociological Theory, London: Blackwell, 2002

Erving Goffman, Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, New York: Anchor Books, 1959

Mancur Olson, The Logic of Collective Action, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, London: Routledge, 1992

Grading and Requirements:

First Exam 30%

Second Exam 40%

Final Exam 30%

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Descripton

One of the first things I think young people, especially nowadays, should learn is how to see for yourself and listen for yourself and think for yourself... this generation, especially of our people, has a burden, more so than any other time in history. The most important thing that we can learn to do today is think for ourselves (Malcolm X, cited by Patricia Hill Collins in Malcolm X: In Our Own Image. Edited by Joe Wood. 1992: 59; my emphasis).

Introduction

I begin this syllabus with a quote from Malcolm X.  Malcolm X spoke these words during a time when African Americans were changing the very definitions of what it meant to be Black. In this quote he urges Black youth to re-define themselves, re-infuse blackness with new meanings, and re-constitute themselves. His words are an exemplar of agency, propelling people into re-making themselves and their history.

But how does one go about re-making oneself?  Or speaking sociologically, what are the sources of individual agency? How do the structures of everyday life shape our experiences, our choices, and ultimately, our sense of self?

At a fundamental level Malcolm X is grappling with an issue that animates social theory— and that is, the constitution of the individual. How is human subjectivity formed? Does society fully structure us, or do we somehow autonomously generate our subjectivities? How do we conceive of ourselves— to paraphrase Malcolm X, “how to see for yourself and listen for yourself and think for yourself”— given that we making meaning of the world around us based on inherited categories, and the concomitant meanings imposed on us?

The constitution of the individual in society, and the constitution of society are central concerns for sociology.  In this class we will take on the individual, who is at once autonomous and socially determined, as our primary subject of inquiry. We will begin with Descartes, and then move onto the classical social theorists, Durkheim, Marx, and Weber. Central to their theories is the conceptualization of the individual as social, as constituted only within society. Yet, there are fundamental differences in their conception of society, history, and individuality. Over the course of the semester we will examine the basic sociological questions of structure, agency, the basis for knowledge, human action, social change, and individual emancipation through looking at classical theorists mentioned above, as well as recent scholars such as Erving Goffman, Michel Foucault, Susan Bordo, and Judith Butler.

This course is designed to give you a broad overview, rather than an in-depth examination of any one theorist. We will read translations, or the original texts by the various theorists. In addition, we will watch videos and films to help grasp the concepts we come across in our readings.

Texts 

The SIX required books that I recommend you buy on Amazon, or Half Price Books. 

1. Marshall Berman, All That is Solid Melts Into Air. Used copies from $ 6.33/- on Amazon.com
2. W.E.B. Du Bois, Souls Of Black Folk. (Norton Critical Editions, edited by Henry Louis Gates). Available from $3.84/- onwards on Amazon.com.
3. Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of a Prison. Used books around $8/- and new ones around $10/- on Amazon.com
4. Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. The cheapest version at Amazon ishttp://www.amazon.com/Presentation-Self-Everyday-Life/dp/0385094027/ref=pd_sim_b_7, published by DoubleDay).
5. Arlie Hochschild, Managed Heart: The Commercialization of Feeling. (The original was published in 1983, but I don’t think many prints are available. The book was re-issued in 2003. I’d prefer you buy the older version, but the newer version works for our purposes).
6. Max Weber (translated by Talcott Parsons) The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.Used copies available for $3/- on Amazon.com

Reading package:  The reading package is available on Blackboard.

Grading and Requirements

Class attendance

Attendance to class is mandatory.  You may miss up to two classes, without affecting your grade.  Subsequently, for every class you miss your grade will fall by 1/2 a grade.  For example, if you miss four classes, you grade will change from an A to a B.

Participation: 10%

Participation in class makes huge a difference. I encourage you to ask questions, express doubts, answer your classmates’ questions, and engage intellectually. I urge you to complete all readings so that we can have active participation. Our collective success this semester hinges on your individual participation; participation is crucial for not just your own learning experience, but also your classmates’ learning in the classroom.

“Surprise” quizzes: 10%

Over the course of the semester, you will receive in class “surprise” quizzes over the readings. The quiz is open book, to be answered in class. As a result, it is absolutely necessary for you to bring your books to class.

Goffman exercise and presentation: 20%

This is a group assignment due towards the end of the semester; you will work in groups, and submit a 10 page double spaced group report. We will discuss this further at the time of the assignment. The entire group will receive a group grade, which is 20% of your overall grade. If you do not put in 100% effort, then your entire group’s grade will be negatively affected.  We will have class presentations based on this particular project.

Take home exams: 60%  (Mid-term: 30%,  Final: 30%)

I encourage you to work in groups to discuss your answers and prepare outlines; however, each one of you will write your exam individually. I will consider it as academic mis-conduct if two or more students turn in the exact same exam, or an exam with similarly structured sentences. Such exams will not be graded.

Missed exams/ late submissions: You have your syllabus with you, and you know when assignments are due. Late exams or assignments will NOT be accepted.