Credit: 0.5-4
Credit: 0.5-4
Credit: 0.5-4
Credit: 0.5-4
Credit: 0.5-4
Credit: 0.5-4
Credit: 0.5-4
Credit: 0.5-4
Credit: 0.5-4
The world?s religions are repositories of human wisdom throughout the ages. In this course, we will consider these traditions sociologically; that is, we will distinguish the variety of social forms that religion takes from the wisdom that religion attempts to manifest. We will consider the complex relationships between religious expression and social context. We will consider questions such as these: How can religious experience be understood sociologically? How does religion change as society modernizes? What role does religion play in effecting social and political change? How are contemporary American relating to religious traditions? How do cultures decide what?s religious and what?s secular? A strong theoretical orientation will serve as a foundation for an exploration of current socio-religious issues such as secularization, privatization of religious experience and authority, the resurgence of religion in political life, divisions between liberal and conservative religion, and religious themes in popular culture. Prerequisite: Sociology 101 or permission of instructor.
Credit: 0.5-4
Credit: 0.5-4
People in the United States are keenly aware of social differences, yet few have a very precise understanding of "social class," the magnitude of social inequality in U.S. society, or why social inequality exists at all. This course provides a semester long examination of social stratification--a society's unequal ranking of categories of people--in historical, comparative, theoretical, and critical terms. The historical focus traces the development of social inequality since the emergence of the first human societies some ten thousand years ago, with particular attention to the effects of the Industrial Revolution and, more recently, the Information Revolution. The comparative focus explores how and why societies differ in their degree of inequality, dimensions of inequality, and justifications for inequality. Attention is also given to the extent of social differences between high and low income nations in the world today. The theoretical focus asks how and why social inequality comes to exist in the first place (and why social equality does not exist), both in a national and an international context. Finally, this course offers a true diversity of political approaches, presenting arguments made by conservatives, liberals, and radicals about the degree of inequality in the United States and in the world. Prerequisite: foundation course or permission of the instructor.
Credit: 0.5-4
Critics of the health care system charge that the current system delivers "sick" care, not "health" care. Policies emerging from the 1980s-era opposition to government involvement, the critics argue, have left us with skyrocketing medical costs, increasingly unequal access to health care, little public accountability, and increasing rates of chronic illness. This class will examine these charges by first discussing the social context of health and illness: who gets sick, who gets help, and the medicalization of social problems. We will then look at the health care system (historical development, medical education, institutional settings). We also will explore the interaction between people and their health care providers with respect to language, information exchange, and power relationships. We will then look at the advent of managed care and how it has changed the system in the United States. Several administrators and providers from the community will share their perspectives on these trends. The course will close with a discussion of reform and change within the medical institution and a brief look at health care systems in other countries. Prerequisite: introductory foundation course.
Credit: 0.5-4
We all come from families, and the family is therefore a familiar social institution. But family is constituted not just by our individual experiences but also as a product of historical, social, and political conditions. This course will examine how these conditions have shaped family life as we know it today. We will look at the social construction of the family, the psychosocial interiors of families, and how governmental policy has shaped and will shape families in the future. In addition, we will discuss the increasing diversity of family structures, the institution of marriage, and the social construction of childhood and parenting. Our underlying framework for analysis will be the gendered nature of family systems. Prerequisite: introductory foundation course in sociology.
Credit: 0.5-4
This mid-level course examines the social conditions that give rise to law, how changing social conditions affect law, and how law affects the society we live in. In the first few weeks, it focuses on how classical social theorists-the so-called founders of sociology-viewed the law and its relationship to the rapid social change unfolding before their very eyes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In the next several weeks, it explores how social actors such as the environmental, civil rights, and free speech movements attempt to use the law, litigation, and legal institutions as instruments of social change. Turning this question around, it then looks at how legal processes, actors, and institutions-criminal trials, lawyers, and the courts, to name a few-interact with the media to shape public opinion, to protest, and to take collective action. This course also explores the diverse ways in which individuals experience and interpret the law and why this matters for understanding how law operates in the real world. In the final weeks of the semester, it probes how broader cultural shifts in American society are radically redefining the role and scope of our legal system. Prerequisite: foundation course in sociology.
Credit: 0.5-4
The primary objective of this mid level seminar is to explore the social construction of gender in U.S. society as we question common assumptions that limit our collective understanding of the human experience. The focus of course discussion is specifically on issues which seem to be particularly affected by our societal understanding of women as presently constructed; for example, sexual harassment, rape, and domestic violence. Prerequisite: foundation course or permission of the instructor. This course also satisfies a requirement of the women's and gender studies concentration, the law and society concentration. It may be counted toward the American studies major.
Credit: 0.5-4
This mid-level seminar provides the opportunity for students to become conversant with the wide range of experiences that may appropriately be called "sexual harassment." The course is guided by the principle that sexual harassment is not, as many seem to think, simply a by-product of sexual desire or misguided attraction. Sexual harassment is about power--gaining power or retaining power in institutional settings. We will explore this concept both as legal construction, calling for specific determinants, and as a normative concept which arises in casual conversation and lived experience.
Prerequisite: introductory foundation course or permission of the instructor. This course also satisfies a requirement of the concentrations in African and African-Ameican studies and law and society, and it may be counted toward the major in American Studies and Women's and Gender studies.
Credit: 0.5-4
This course explores the social world(s) we live in by analyzing what we eat, where it comes from, who produces it, who prepares it, and how. In the first few weeks of class, we examine the patterned culinary choices of ordinary Americans like ourselves; how American "foodways" are differentiated by gender, race/ethnicity, and class; and how political, social, and historical forces have shaped these patterns in ways that are not necessarily obvious to the sociologically untrained eye. We then shift our focus away from ourselves and our own sociologically conditioned eating habits to analyze the local, regional, and global processes and actors that bring food to our table. One of the major themes here is the greater social and spatial distances that our food travels from field, farm, or factory to consumers in the United States and in other parts of the Western Hemisphere, and how these distances complicate and sometimes obscure the unequal power relations at the root of food production and consumption. Our exploration of the global ties that bind consumer and producer ends with a look at how social activists around the world have organized collectively to reduce these distances and inequalities. Prerequisite: foundation course in sociology.
Credit: 0.5-4
Humans are essentially social beings, and so living in communities is fundamental to our humanity. This course will examine the nature and dynamics of community. The changing character of community in modern and postmodern society will provide the central theme of our investigation. Given Kenyon's location, we will pay particular attention to rural community life. The course will close by examining efforts to build effective communities. Throughout our investigation, we'll consider the central place of community study as a method for understanding human society within sociology. Prerequisite: introductory sociology course or permission of instructor.
Credit: 0.5-4
Especially since the civil rights, student, and anti-war movements of the 1950s and 1960s in the United States, sociologists have studied how individuals mobilize collectively and self-consciously to promote social change at a national level. Building on this tradition, this mid-level course examines a recent wave of protest movements that self-consciously organize across national borders. Under what circumstances and with what chances of success do national movements form alliances that cross borders? Is it true that globalization has generated new resources and strategic opportunities for the rise of transnational movements? In an age of accelerated globalization, do national borders still contain movements in any significant way? We will address these questions and others using case studies of contemporary environmental, anti-sweatshop, indigenous rights, and religious movements. Prerequisite: introductory sociology course.
Credit: 0.5-4
Credit: 0.5-5
Credit: 0.5-4
Credit: 0.5-4
Our common sense tells us that certain acts are ?wrong?; that particular persons who engage in them are ?deviant.? But common sense suggests little about how and why a particular act or actor comes to be understood in this way. This course explores the origins and significance of deviance within social life. The distinction between being different and being deviant is carried throughout the semester. Emphasis is also given to the increasing importance of psychotherapy in our response to the deviant. This course provides a substantial introduction to criminology with consideration of the social characteristics of offenders and victims, crime rates, and various justifications of punishment. This course should be of interest to students within many majors who are concerned with theoretical, practical, and ethical questions concerning the concepts of good and evil as foundations of human society. Prerequisite: introductory foundation course or permission of instructor.
Credit: 0.5-4
Sociology has long recognized the different roles of men and women in society, but the systematic, sociological analysis of how and why these roles have been developed and maintained is relatively new. This course will analyze the social construction of gender and its salience in our everyday lives. Using sociological theory and the context of gender, we will link the private experiences of individuals to the structure of social institutions. The course will begin with the familiar world of socialization and move to the more abstract level of institutions of social control and sex-based inequalities within social institutions, including the economy and family. We will conclude by discussing the sociological possibilities for change in our social constructions of gender and sex roles. Prerequisite: introductory foundation course in sociology.
Credit: 0.5-4
The first part of this mid-level course will examine the underlying philosophical and sociological foundations of modern science and rationality. It will begin by analyzing the differences between the ancient Greek and medieval view of physics, causality, movement, and organic nature and the modern worldview of natural science in Galileo, Descartes, and Newton. We will then turn to study the debates within the philosophy of science (Burtt, Popper, Kuhn, Quine, Feyerabend, and Rorty) and the sociology of science (Scheler, Ellul, Leiss, Marcuse, and Habermas) about the nature of scientific inquiry and the social/political meaning of scientific discoveries. Does science investigate the essential reality of nature or is it more influenced by the wider social relations and practical activity of modern industrial life? Does science reflect objective reality and universal truth or is it a social construct reflecting the particular needs and functional interests of society?
The course then turns to examine the applied relationship between science and society. We will deal with the full range of the rationalization of modern society: the application of science and technological rationality (efficiency, productivity, and functionality) to economic (workplace), political (state), and social (cultural legitimation) institutions. We will examine the process of modernization and rationalization in science, labor, politics, the academy, nature, and ecology. Finally, we will discuss the debates within the environmental movement between the deep ecologists and the social ecologists. Of particular importance is the latter's return to the Greek polis and Aristotelian physics for insights into the crisis of Western reason and Enlightenment science and its vision of small-scale technology, local communities, and participatory democracy. Readings will be from Aristotle, T. Kuhn, M. Berman, H. Braverman, E. A. Burtt, M. Horkheimer, S. Harding, F. Capra, W. McKibben, and M. Bookchin. Prerequisite: introductory foundation course or permission of instructor.
Credit: 0.5-4
This course will examine the development of theories of ethics and social justice, from the ancient Hebrew tradition of Torah and the prophets, the New Testament writers Luke and Matthew, the Greek drama of Aeschylus, and the political philosophy of Aristotle, to modern discussions about social, political, and economic justice. We will explore how modern social theory has employed ancient Hebrew and Greek teachings as the basis for social ethics. Questions of justice, freedom, economic development, individualism, and alienation will be major themes in this study of liberalism, Christianity, and Marxism. Special emphasis will be on contemporary debates about the ethics of democratic capitalism, including conservative theology and philosophy and radical liberation theology. Readings will be from the Bible, Aeschylus, Aristotle, Pope John Paul II, M. Friedman, E. Fromm, R. Pirsig, E.F. Schumacher, and N. Wolf. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor. This course is cross-listed as RLST 380.
Credit: 0.5-4
This mid-level course focuses on the American legal system's effect on racial, ethnic, and minority groups in the United States as well as on the manner in which such groups have influenced the state of the "law" in this country. It is intended to stimulate critical and systematic thinking about the relationships among American legal institutions and selected racial, ethnic, and minority populations.
The class will examine various social and cultural conditions, as well as historical and political events, that were influenced in large part by the minority status of the participants. These conditions will be studied to determine in what ways, if any, the American legal system has advanced, accommodated, or frustrated the interests of these groups. Through exposure to the legislative process and legal policy making, students should gain an appreciation for the complexity of the issues and far-reaching impact that legal institutions have on the social, political, and economic condition of racial, ethnic, and minority groups in America. The primary requirement of this course is completion of a comprehensive research project. Prerequisite: foundation course or permission of instructor. Enrollment limited to fourteen students. This course may be counted toward the law and society concentration and the American studies major.
Credit: 0.5-4
This course examines the influence of shared meanings and practices on a variety of dimensions of contemporary American social life, including race, class, religion, political participation, close relationships, economics, and social commitment. We will consider the following questions: What is culture? How does culture operate in society? How does culture interact with social institutions and with individuals? How do we study culture sociologically? Fundamentally, cultural sociology is a way of seeing society; the goal of the course is for you to learn to see the structured meanings and practices that order all of our lives, and the possibilities the culture provides for us to influence our society's future course. Our emphasis is distinctly on the contemporary American cultural mainstream. We will discuss in class the question of whether or not such a "mainstream" exists and if so, how we might understand it. Our starting assumption is that it is essential for Americans to understand the themes of their own culture if we are to be responsible global citizens. Prerequisites: foundation course or permission of instructor.
Credit: 0.5-4
Credit: 0.5-4
Credit: 0.5-4 QR
Credit: 0.5-4
Credit: 0.5-4
The purpose of this course is, as stated in the title, to guide students to draw linkages from classical tradition to the formation of contemporary sociological theory. Toward this end, discussion will be guided by the personal biography of each theorist: their family background, where they were educated, and what events or persons they were influenced by as they formulated the theories for which they are known. As such, the emphasis here is placed upon acquiring breadth of knowledge, rather than depth. (For a more comprehensive understanding of the theorists discussed in this class, students are directed to SOCY 371: Classical Theory and SOCY 372: Contemporary Social Theory.) Prerequisites: One introductory course in sociology or permission of the instructor.
Credit: 0.5-4
Knowing how to answer a question, including what constitutes good evidence and how to collect it, is a necessary ability for any sociologist, or for any student reading the sociological research of others. This course provides an introduction to the conduct of research, including scientific, interpretive, and critical approaches. The primary goal is to understand when and how to use research strategies such as experiments, survey questionnaires, interviews, fieldwork, and analysis of historical documents. Students will conduct small-scale research projects using these techniques. SOCY 271 Is required for all sociology majors. At the same time, the course welcomes anyone who wishes to gain competence in basic research skills. Prerequisites: introductory foundation course or permission of instructor.
Credit: 0.5-4
Credit: 0.5-4
Credit: 0.5-4
Credit: 0.5-4
This course examines the development of classical social theory in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In the first part, we will stress the philosophical and intellectual foundations of classical theory. We will examine how social theory integrated modern philosophy, political science (law), and historical political economy in the formation of a new discipline. Distinguishing itself from the other social sciences, classical sociology, for the most part, rejected the Enlightenment view of positivism and natural science as the foundation for social science as it turned instead to German idealism and existentialism for guidance. The second part of the course will examine the classical analysis of the historical origins of Western society in the structures and culture of alienation (Marx), rationalization (Weber), and anomie and division of labor (Durkheim).
Of special interest will be the analysis of the early humanistic works of Marx, his ethical and political writings, and his later critique of political economy; Weber?s historical sociology and theory of Western and non-Western religions and their relation to the development of capitalism; and, finally, the foundations of "positivist" social science in Durkheim's work on suicide and law, and his later "idealist" sociology in his theory of primitive classifications, religion, and sociology of knowledge. At the methodological level, we will study the three different views of classical "science": critical science and dialectical method (Marx), interpretive science and historical method of understanding and value relevance (Weber), and positivistic science and method of naturalism and realism (Durkheim). Prerequisite: permission of instructor.
Credit: 0.5-4
In this core course we will investigate the twentieth century's major theories concerning the nature of society and the human social process. Most of these sociological theories are American in origin, but some developments in Western European thought will also be included. Specific theories to be discussed include (1) functionalism, (2) symbolic interactionism, (3) sociology of knowledge, (4) critical theory, and (5) intersection theory. The consideration of the intellectual and social contexts in which these theoretical traditions have arisen will be central to our analysis throughout. This course will be of value to students interested in developing a systematic approach to understanding society and should be especially relevant to those concentrating in the social sciences. Prerequisites: introductory foundation course and one additional sociology course or permission of instructor.
Credit: 0.5-4 QR
Ever wonder how sociologists gather the information on which they base their claims? Curious about all those charts and graphs in newspapers and magazines? Thinking about a career in marketing or survey research? This course is designed for students who want to "get their hands dirty" and actively participate in doing and understanding social research.
Students in the course will engage in the design, implementation, and analysis of a sociological research project. Participants will: pose and investigate a research question, gather and analyze data, and prepare their findings for presentation. Students will become acquainted with SPSS for data analysis and learn to construct and interpret tables and other graphical displays. These skills will help prepare them for graduate school, for the job market, and for being more informed consumers of social research. Prerequisites: foundation course and one additional sociology course. SOCY 271 highly recommended.
Credit: 0.5-4
This course focuses on learning to use qualitative methods to answer questions about social life. We will discuss individual and group interviews, observational techniques, and content analysis of documents and visual images. Students will practice using these techniques by carrying out a semester-long research project using these methods. We will also discuss the "nuts and bolts" of designing a research project, writing research proposals, collecting data, analyzing data, and writing up qualitative research. Finally, we will contextualize this practical instruction with discussions of research ethics, issues of reliability and validity in qualitative research, the relationship between qualitative methods and theory-building, and the place of qualitative methods in the discipline of sociology. Enrollment limited to fifteen. Prequisite: one introductory course in sociology and at least one other sociology course.
Credit: 0.5-4 QR
Credit: 0.5-4 QR
Credit: 0.5-4
Credit: 0.5-4
Credit: 0.5-4
This upper-level seminar critically examines several genres of literature on the social roles of men and women at both the social-psychological and structural levels of society. We will discuss, in particular, concepts such as socialization, attitudes, interpersonal behavior, work roles, stratification by race and class as related to gender, and social problems that arise due to gender inequality. Enrollment is limited to fourteen. This course also satisfies a requirement of the concentrations in African and African-Ameican studies, law and society, and women?s and gender studies, and may be counted toward the major in American studies.
Credit: 0.5-4
The primary objective of this upper-level seminar is to pursue a comprehensive examination of contemporary issues which determine social stratification in the United States and, thereby, impact public policy and societal values. Some of the topics which may be addressed during the course of the semester are race relations in the U.S., gender, work, family, sexuality, poverty, and religion. The topics covered from one semester to the next may change radically or not at all, though they will be of importance to any discussion of the institutional forces which govern our society. Please note that this class will be strictly limited to no more than fourteen students. Prerequisite: foundation course in sociology, one mid-level course in sociology, or permission of the instructor.
Credit: 0.5-4
Credit: 0.5-4
Credit: 0.5-4
Credit: 0.5-4
Credit: 0.5-4
This upper-level seminar explores the emerging paradigm of intersection theory. Its principal objective is to develop an understanding of the ways in which the salient identities of class position, race, and gender function simultaneously to produce the outcomes we observe in the lives of individuals and in society. While there is a large body of literature in each of the three areas (class, race, gender), only recently have theorists and researchers attempted to model and analyze the ?simultaneity? of their functioning as one concerted force in our everyday lives.. We will pursue this objective in this seminar by exploring the roles of gender and race/ethnicity in the United States during the early development of capitalism and in the present, by reexamining key concepts in conflict theory through the lens of intersection theory, and by studying the roles of class, gender, and race/ethncity at the level of the global economy today as in the past. Prerequisites: SOCY 361, SOCY 362, or permission of the instructor. It is also recommended that students have taken SOCY 231 or SOCY 241. This course also satisfies the senior seminar requirement of the African and African-American Studies concentration and may be counted toward the American Studies and Women?s and Gender Studies majors.
Credit: 0.5-4
Recent years have seen the growing political importance of identity in the global south. Indigenous movements, religious and ethnic nationalism, and class-based identities have impacted the practice of democracy, relations between social groups, and transnational structures of power. But is what we see a detrimental splintering of identities and belongings or a new era of diversity and pluralism? What will latter-day identities do for democratization and social conflict? This course focuses on the political effects of identity in Latin America, Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Permission of instructor.
Credit: 0.5-4
Credit: 0.5-4
Credit: 0.25-4
This course is for students who wish to do advanced work beyond regular courses or to study topics not included in course offerings. Prerequisites: permission of instructor and department chair.
Credit: 0.5-4
This course is for students pursuing departmental honors. Prerequisites: permission of instructor and department chair.
Credit: 0.5-4
This course is for students pursuing departmental honors. Prerequisites: permission of instructor and department chair.