Alexander Weinreb

Asking questions, seeking answers: An introduction to research design and data collection

Description

This course introduces students to the core professional problem in sociology: how we go about asking and answering questions about patterns of social organization and human behavior. Spanning what are known as “qualitative” and “quantitative” approaches, it is organized into three core sections. First we deal with how to pose questions, including questions that threaten our own deeply held beliefs, as well as those of other important interests. Second, we deal with basic techniques of research design and data collection. Third, drawing on a sample of published studies from across several sociological subfields, as well as other types of social research, we critically evaluate the extent to which other researchers have navigated these methodological hurdles. By the end of the course, students should be able to both critically evaluate the methodological underpinnings of most social research, as well as design their own robust studies.

Text

H. Russell Bernard’s Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. E-copies of other readings will be made available by the Professor.

Course description

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 continuity and change in antisemitic discourse.

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 anti-Semitic discourse but have become “self-hating.”

Throughout the course, we use antisemitism to explore more general ideas in social theory, including 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.

Asking questions, seeking answers: An introduction to research design and data collectionDescription

This course introduces students to the core professional problem in sociology: how we go about asking and answering questions about patterns of social organization and human behavior. Spanning what are known as “qualitative” and “quantitative” approaches, it is organized into three core sections. First we deal with how to pose questions, including questions that threaten our own deeply held beliefs, as well as those of other important interests. Second, we deal with basic techniques of research design and data collection. Third, drawing on a sample of published studies from across several sociological subfields, as well as other types of social research, we critically evaluate the extent to which other researchers have navigated these methodological hurdles. By the end of the course, students should be able to both critically evaluate the methodological underpinnings of most social research, as well as design their own robust studies.

Text

H. Russell Bernard’s Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. E-copies of other readings will be made available by the Professor.

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. 

This is a professionalization course. Its main purpose is to provide practical training to developing a career in social demography. We'll focus on three tracks. The first covers the contemporary structure of academic and non-university labor markets, sources of financing for each, and intellectual fashions and fads. We'll look at how each of these affects publication prospects and hiring. We'll also try to take into account likely changes in each of them.

The second track is focused more narrowly on how to work. We'll cover questions like: what research questions merit research papers? How should work be best presented visually? How abstruse can one make one's scholarly prose? What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of working on one, two or three topics?

A third track is focused on technical topics, in particular project development and design, and grant-writing.

The training seminar is held Friday mornings. For one hour of the course, we are joined by colleagues throughout the University for the PRC brownbag lecture.

Description:

Why have Jews been hated and mistrusted for so long? Is Judeophobia like any other type of xenophobia or racism?  Where do we see hatred and mistrust of Jews today? And where do we see the opposite phenomenon: philosemitism?

In this upper-level undergraduate course, we tackle these and related questions. We survey trends in Judeophobia/anti-Semitism over 2,500 years, identifying continuity and change in anti-Semitic discourse. Although our primary focus is on anti-Semitism in contemporary and historical Christian and Muslim societies, we also explore the ancient anti-Semitic bedrock—Ancient Greece and Rome—as well as anti-Semitism in peripheral societies which had few Jews, if any (e.g., pre-modern Japan, contemporary Africa). Finally, we consider Judeophobia among Jews themselves—that is, the enduring phenomenon in which some Jews have not only internalized anti-Semitic discourse but have become “self-hating.”

Throughout the course, we use anti-Semitism to explore more general ideas in social theory about boundary-making, models of racial, ethnic and cultural conflict, and perhaps most surprising and disturbing—this being a university—the repeated role of intellectual elites in generating and justifying new forms of judeophobia, and in so doing, perpetuating this ancient hatred.

Texts/readings:

Excerpts from:

-        Peter Schafer’s Judeophobia: Attitudes toward the Jews in the Ancient World

-        Robert Wistrich’s A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad

-        Gavin Langmuir‘s Towards a Definition of Anti-Semitism

-        Jean Paul Sartre’s Anti-Semite and Jew

-        David Goodman’s Jews in the Japanese Mind: The History and Uses of a Cultural Stereotype

-        Stephen Norwood’s The Third Reich in the Ivory Tower: Complicity and Conflict on American Campuses

-        Donald Horowitz’s Ethnic Groups in Conflict

Grading/Assignments:

50% on exams and tests

40% on a group project (focusing on one aspect of anti-Semitism, historical or contemporary)

10% on class participation

Special notes:

In an effort to create a positive learning environment that is focused on lectures and exchanges in the classroom, the in-class use of laptops will be prohibited.

Asking questions, seeking answers: An introduction to research design and data collection

This course introduces students to the core professional problem in sociology: how we go about asking and answering questions about patterns of social organization and human behavior. Spanning what are known as “qualitative” and “quantitative” approaches, it is organized into three core sections. First we deal with how to pose questions, including questions that threaten our own deeply held beliefs, as well as those of other important interests. Second, we deal with basic techniques of research design and data collection. Third, drawing on a sample of published studies from across several sociological subfields, as well as other types of social research, we critically evaluate the extent to which other researchers have navigated these methodological hurdles.

By the end of the course, students should be able to both critically evaluate the methodological underpinnings of most social research, as well as design their own robust studies.

Text

H. Russell Bernard’s Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. E-copies of other readings will be made available by the Professor.

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