SOCIETY SECTOR (ALL CLASSES)

Sociology provides a unique way to look at human behavior and the world. Sociology is the systematic study of the groups and societies in which people live. In this introductory course, we examine and analyze how social structures and cultures are created, maintained, and most importantly, how they affect behavior. The course deconstructs our taken for granted world of social interactions and behaviors and examines what theory and research can tell about human social behavior.

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the discipline of sociology including its history, theorists, ethical concerns, approaches, major intellectual debates, and important figures. We will read case studies and research articles about popular sociological areas of inquiry: race and racism, gender, sexuality, sexism, homophobia, constructions of the family, and economic stratification. We will also make connections between concepts and data with social issues addressed in documentaries and class discussions. Finally, students will engage in various class exercises—both in and outside of the classroom—that encourages them to “do” sociology.

Course Professor:
Tamara Nopper

Please Note:
Courses offered through the College of liberal and Professional Studies are open to students in the College of Arts and Sciences, but LPS imposes some restrictions on registration. During the pre-registration period, most seats in LPS classes are reserved for LPS students. Once all of the non-reserved places are filled, College students will find that they cannot register without permission. Please be aware that the Sociology Department cannot grant permission and/or override the restrictions LPS has imposed. These registration restrictions will be lifted on the second day of classes. At that time, College students will be able to register for any LPS courses that still have openings but must go through LPS to do this.

LPS’S phone number is 215-898-7326.

DIST CRS SOCIETY - CL OF 09 AND PRIOR

This course approaches some of today’s important social and political issues from a sociological vantage point. The course begins by asking where social problems come from. The main sociological perspectives of Marx, Weber and Durkheim are developed in connection with the issues of inequality, social conflict and community. We then turn to the social construction of social problems by examining how various issues become defined as social problems. This involves a consideration of the role of the media, social experts and social movements. The last section of the course considers how social problems are addressed. Here we discuss the relative strengths and weaknesses of government programs and regulations versus market-based approaches. We also discuss the role of philanthropy and volunteerism. Finally, we consider the risk of unanticipated consequences of reforms. Along the way, we will consider a variety of social issues and social problems, including poverty, immigration, crime, global warming, and education.

A sociological analysis of how society defines and attempts to control deviance. Please note: while this course will cover the range of topics in deviance, it will use medical and biotechnological examples and theories to illustrate and explore the ideas covered. Topics include labeling theory, stigma, social organization, tradition, social power, crime, sexual deviance, drug use, and racism, among others. Theoretical and methodological issues will be discussed and evaluated.

Course Professor:
Colette Joyce

Please Note:
Courses offered through the College of liberal and Professional Studies are open to students in the College of Arts and Sciences, but LPS imposes some restrictions on registration. During the pre-registration period, most in LPS classes are reserved for LPS students. Once all of the non-reserved places are filled, College students will find that they cannot register without permission. Please be aware that the Sociology Department cannot grant permission and/or override the restrictions LPS has imposed. These registration restrictions will be lifted on the second day of classes. At that time, College students will be able to register for any LPS courses that still have openings but must go through LPS to do this.
LPS’S phone number is 215-898-7326.

The objective of this class is to introduce students to the dynamics of family systems across time, place, class and culture. Specifically, we will adopt sociological, demographic and economic perspectives to study the formation of households, fertility trends, divorce and remarriage, work and family, poverty and non-nuclear family forms. Emphasis on cross-national difference between families will demonstrate the effects of state policies of family outcomes.

Course Professor:
Carla Medalia

Please Note:
Courses offered through the College of Liberal and Professional Studies (LPS) are open to students in the College of Arts and Sciences, but LPS imposes some restrictions on registration. During the pre-registration period, most seats in LPS classes are reserved for LPS students. Once all of the non-reserved places are filled, College students will find that they cannot register without permission. Please be aware that the Sociology Department cannot grant permission and/or override the restrictions LPS has imposed. These registration restrictions will be lifted on the second day of classes. At that time, College students will be able to register for any LPS courses that still have openings but must go through LPS to do this. LPS’S phone number is 215-898-7326.

CULTRL DIVERSITY IN US - CL OF 12 & AFTER
GEN REQ I: SOCIETY - CL OF 09 & PRIOR
CROSS LISTED: ASAM-006 URBS-160

This course examines theoretical approaches about cultural and racial assimilation in the United States and considers how relevant they are to the experiences of different ethnic and racial groups. Specifically, we will read original work regarding the melting pot theory, Anglo-conformity, internal colonization theory, panethnicity theory, and optional ethnicity theory to determine how they 1) conceptualize assimilation; 2) their assumptions about discrimination, racism, and meritocracy; 3) how they deal with power and inequality; 4) embedded desires regarding the right and ability to assimilate; and 5) the relevance of the models for different groups.

We will contextualize these conversations to the historical and political moments when approaches gain currency. We will conclude with an exploration of contemporary theories regarding the future of racial groups and racial hierarchies in the United States.
Our reading of original theoretical texts will be complemented with social history, sociological research and data, legal scholarship, and documentaries. In the interest of time, the course will not be able to cover each ethnic group in the history of the United States.

Course Professor:
Tamara Nopper

SOCIETY SECTOR (ALL CLASSES)

The course serves as an introduction to the study of population and demography, including issues pertaining to fertility, mortality, migration, and family formation and structure. Within these broad areas we consider the social, economic, and political implications of current trends, including: population explosion, baby bust, the impact of international migration on receiving societies, population aging, racial classification, growing diversity in household composition and family structure, population and environmental degradation, and the link between population and development/poverty.

This course is an introduction to the major topics in the study of population and the field of demography. We will cover population change in both developed and developing countries, focusing on trends and driving factors. Throughout the course we will highlight matters that have contemporary significance such as AIDS, the environment, immigration, urbanization, population aging, the disease burden among the poor in developing countries, and population policies related to reproductive health and fertility.

Course Professor:
Caroline Sten

Please Note:
Courses offered through the College of Liberal and Professional Studies (LPS) are open to students in the College of Arts and Sciences, but LPS imposes some restrictions on registration. During the pre-registration period, most seats in LPS classes are reserved for LPS students. Once all of the non-reserved places are filled, College students will find that they cannot register without permission. Please be aware that the Sociology Department cannot grant permission and/or override the restrictions LPS has imposed. These registration restrictions will be lifted on the second day of classes. At that time, College students will be able to register for any LPS courses that still have openings but must go through LPS to do this. LPS’S phone number is 215-898-7326.

HUM & SOC SCI SECTOR (NEW CURR ONLY)
CROSS LISTED: ANTH-012 HIST-012

This course analyses the current state of globalization and sets it in historical perspective. It applies the concepts and methods of anthropology, history and sociology to the analysis and interpretation of what is actually happening in the course of the semester that relates to the progress or decline of globalization. We focus on a series of questions not only about actual processes but about the growing awareness of them, and the consequences of this awareness.

In answering these questions, we distinguish between active campaigns to cover the world (e.g. Christian and Muslim proselytism, opening up markets, democratization) and the unplanned diffusion of new ways of organizing trade, capital flows, tourism and the Internet. The body of the course will deal with analytical types of globalization, reviewing both the early and recent history of these processes.

The overall approach will be historical and comparative, setting globalization on the larger stage of the economic, political and cultural development of various parts of the modern world. The course is taught collaboratively by an anthropologist, an historian, and a sociologist, offering the opportunity to compare and contrast distinct disciplinary points of view. It seeks to develop a concept-based understanding of the various dimensions of globalization: economic, political, social, and cultural.

Course Professor:
Brian Spooner
Mauro Guillen

This is a course on the sociology of religion. It is planned as a freshman seminar. If there is room for non-freshman, so much the better; but we are going to run it as a freshman seminar. By which I mean: I assume that participants are new to college and new to sociology, much less to the sociology of religion. So at the same time that we shall learn something about the social bases of a rather fundamental feature of human life – the practice of religion – we are also going to learn about learning in college, and about sociology more generally.

The seminar will be organized around reading books, three most likely: One about some general ideas in the sociology of religion; one about the dynamic history of congregations and sects in the United States; and one about evangelicals and race, also in the United States. Sometimes we shall be using sociological ideas to understand the organization of religion.

Sometimes we shall use problems in religion to learn about general issues in the social sciences, such as the problem of collective action. This is a fancy-sounding term for something you may have encountered already: How do you get people to work together for a common purpose when any one person can reap the advantages of whatever the group is doing without actively participating: This is as much a problem when you are trying to run a religion as when you are trying to keep a common space in a dorm clean. There will also be an emphasis during the seminar in learning how to read, discuss, and think in an organized, productive fashion.

COLLEGE QUANTITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS REQ.
DIST CRS SOCIETY - CL OF 09 AND PRIOR
CROSS LISTED: HSOC-100

As a science, sociology uses various tools to establish knowledge about the social world, as one step in the process of producing explanatory (and ideally, predictive) theory. The purpose of this course is to introduce students to different sociological methods, including survey research and associated quantitative/statistical analysis, interviewing, ethnography, historical-comparative and archival research, experimentation, and computer simulation. We will review basic mechanics for applying these methods, and discuss the assumptions behind each, and the kind of insight each yields. Students gain hands-on experience in applying several of these methods through class assignments.

COLLEGE QUANTITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS REQ.
CROSS LISTED: HSOC-111

This course develops some of the major measures used to assess the health of populations and uses those measures to consider the major factors that determine levels of health in large aggregates. These factors include the disease environment, medical technology, public health initiatives, and personal behaviors. The approach is comparative and historical and includes attention to differences in health levels among major social groups.

(Satisfies Society General Requirement)

This course is concerned with the structure, the causes and correlates, and the government policies to alleviate discrimination in the United States. The central focus of the course is on employment discrimination by race, ethnicity and gender. After a comprehensive overview of the structures of labor markets and of nondiscriminatory reasons for the existence of group differentials in employment and wages, various theories of the sources of discrimination are reviewed and evaluated. Actual government policies and alternatives policies are evaluated in light of both the empirical evidence on group differences and the alternative theories of discrimination.

This course is a study of the field of bioethics using the tools of sociology. The study of bioethics as a discipline and as a profession will be explored by addressing a series of topics that have been prominent in the field. We will use sociological concepts and theory to investigate American bioethics, rather than conduct a study of the merits of the debates themselves. This approach will consider the cultural, social, political, and symbolic meanings of these bioethical issues. We will address questions about the stakeholders in the debates, the timing of the debates, the rise and fall of certain issues, and the charismatic influence of key players. A key component in the readings will be the connections to bio-medicine and issues of treatment versus enhancement. Readings will be drawn from philosophy, bioethics, sociology, feminist studies, and sociology of medicine.

Course Professor:
Collette Joyce

Please Note:
Courses offered through the College of Liberal and Professional Studies (LPS) are open to students in the College of Arts and Sciences, but LPS imposes some restrictions on registration. During the pre-registration period, most seats in LPS classes are reserved for LPS students. Once all of the non-reserved places are filled, College students will find that they cannot register without permission. Please be aware that the Sociology Department cannot grant permission and/or override the restrictions LPS has imposed. These registration restrictions will be lifted on the second day of classes. At that time, College students will be able to register for any LPS courses that still have openings but must go through LPS to do this. LPS’S phone number is 215-898-7326.

COLLEGE QUANTITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS REQ.
CULTRL DIVERSITY IN US - CL OF 12 & AFTER
GEN REQ IV: FRML REAS - CL OF 09 & PRIOR

This course offers a basic introduction to the application/interpretation of statistical analysis in sociology. Upon completion, you should be familiar with a variety of basic statistical techniques that allow examination of interesting social questions. We begin by learning to describe the characteristics of groups, followed by discussion of how to examine and generalize about relationships between the characteristics of groups. Emphasis is placed on the understanding/interpretation of statistics used to describe and make generalizations about group characteristics. In addition to hand calculations, you will also become familiar with using PCs to run statistical tests.

Gender is an important organizing principle of society, shaping social institutions, individuals’ identities and interactions with others. In this course, we will first examine the theoretical perspectives underlying how gender is socially constructed and how structural constraints limit individual choice. We will also explore how gender operates in social institutions such as the family, the educational system, the labor market and in the media and how it influences individuals’ identities and interactions. We will also examine how gender inequality intersects with race and class inequality. Finally, although the primary focus of this course will be gender in contemporary American society we will examine how gender operates in other societies.

Course Professor:
Laryssa Mykyta

Please Note:
Courses offered through the College of Liberal and Professional Studies (LPS) are open to students in the College of Arts and Sciences, but LPS imposes some restrictions on registration. During the pre-registration period, most seats in LPS classes are reserved for LPS students. Once all of the non-reserved places are filled, College students will find that they cannot register without permission. Please be aware that the Sociology Department cannot grant permission and/or override the restrictions LPS has imposed. These registration restrictions will be lifted on the second day of classes. At that time, College students will be able to register for any LPS courses that still have openings but must go through LPS to do this. LPS’S phone number is 215-898-7326.

DIST CRS SOCIETY - CL OF 09 AND PRIOR

This course will cover the founding classics of the sociological tradition including works of Tocqueville, Marx and Engels, Weber, Durkheim, Mauss, Simmel, and G. H. Mead. We will also examine how the major traditions have continued and transformed into theories of conflict, domination, resistance and social change; social solidarity, ritual and symbolism; symbolic interactionist and phenomenological theory of discourse, self and mind.

COLLEGE QUANTITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS REQ.

This course provides an introduction to basic demographic concepts, data, indicators, and techniques. The course emphasizes hands-on applications of techniques in the analysis of population dynamics in the U.S. and elsewhere. Students will learn about the main sources of demographic data, including censuses, surveys, and vital statistics, and methods to estimate demographic processes (e.g. mortality, fertility). Students will leave the course with a solid grounding in a) the sources and limitations of demographic data; b) the construction of basic demographic indicators; and c) appropriate use of basic demographic techniques to answer questions about human populations.

CULTRL DIVERSITY IN US - CL OF 12 & AFTER
DIST CRS SOCIETY - CL OF 09 AND PRIOR
CROSS LISTED: AFRC-135

After introducing students to the major theoretical concepts concerning law and society, significant controversial societal issues that deal with law and the legal systems both domestically and internationally will be examined. Class discussions will focus on issues involving civil liberties, the organization of courts, legislatures, the legal profession and administrative agencies. Although the focus will be on law in the United States, law and society in other countries of Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America will be covered in a comparative context. Readings included research reports, statutes and cases.

SOCIETY SECTOR (ALL CLASSES)
CROSS LISTED: FOLK-137

This course relies on a variety of sociological perspectives to examine the role of media and popular culture in everyday life, with a particular emphasis on the organization of the mass media industry, the relationship between cultural consumption and status, and the social significance of leisure activities from sports to shopping. Specific course topics will include the marketing of Disney, Nike and Starbucks; how consumers experience nightlife in the city; and the rise of new media technologies in the digital age.