Sociology

• CAS SO 418: Seminar: Sociology of Medicine
  Focuses on the medical profession, sources of its power and authority, the effects of recent changes in financing and delivery of healthcare. Medical training and decision-making analyzed. Doctor-patient interaction and the use of alternative treatments.
• CAS SO 420: Seminar: Women and Social Change in the Developing World
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: major or minor in sociology or anthropology.
  Studies women in nonindustrial countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, stressing empirical research, theory, and methodology. Comparisons between regions and with industrial countries. Focus on sex segregation, female labor force participation, migration, fertility, family roles, and women and political power. Also offered as CAS IR 425.
• CAS SO 434: Seminar: Sociology of Mental Illness
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS SO 201 and CAS SO 203; or consent of instructor.
  An evaluation of current theories and research on the social sources and consequences of mental illness. Featured topics for discussion include social-psychological perspectives on the definition, diagnosis, etiology, and treatment of mental disorders.
• CAS SO 437: Seminar: Sociology of Culture
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior or senior standing and at least two 300-level sociology courses or consent of instructor.
  Examines the mutual interdependence between social structure and culture, focusing on the ways in which belief, faith, knowledge, symbol, ritual, and the like both produce and are products of social organization.
• CAS SO 438: Seminar on International Migration
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior or senior standing.
  Explores the social dynamics of contemporary international migration, ranging from the development of transnational migrant communities to the impact of state policies that strive to regulate migrant labor flows.
• CAS SO 440: Seminar: Political Sociology
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS SO 203.
  Explores the "deep cultural" level behind the daily conduct of politics. A theoretical framework relying upon Tocqueville and Weber is developed and then applied to unveil the political cultures of the United States, Germany, England, Russia, and Mexico.
• CAS SO 444: Seminar: Sociology of Education
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: Junior or Senior standing.
  Explores how learning is executed in different settings and persons are selected to fit in various parts of our culture and how the institution of education contributes to social stability and change. Contemporary educational reforms are reviewed and their effects are analyzed.
• CAS SO 448: Culture, Markets, and Inequality
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS SO 201 and CAS SO 203.
  This seminar examines commerce as a cultural process, focusing on cultural production and consumption practices in fields like fashion, music, and bodily goods and services. Traces the cultural construction and maintenance of gender, race, and class inequalities in markets.
• CAS SO 457: Seminar: Sociology of Mind
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS SO 203.
  Illustrates the various sociological approaches to "mental" phenomena and elucidates some recent developments in cognitive sociology.
• CAS SO 462: Seminar: Great Theorists
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS SO 203.
  This seminar examines the ideas of Montesquieu, Saint-Simon, Wollstonecraft, Tocqueville, Martineau, Spencer, Pareto, Veblen, Simmel, and Du Bois through critiques of these seminal concepts: "relative deprivation," "the survival of the fittest," "conspicuous consumption," "the circulation of elites," and "double consciousness."
• CAS SO 491: Directed Study
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: approval of CAS Advising Office, junior or senior standing, and consent of instructor.
  Individual instruction and supervised study project in sociology for concentrators and nonconcentrators.
• CAS SO 492: Directed Study
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: approval of CAS Advising Office, junior or senior standing, and consent of instructor.
  Individual instruction and supervised study project in sociology for concentrators and nonconcentrators.
• CAS SO 521: Seminar: Epidemiology
  This seminar analyzes the social and biological determinants of population health differences in a global context. Students examine gender and the health effects of inequality, political upheaval, historical trauma, environmental injustice, migration, and social policies.
• CAS SO 534: S: Mod&Soc Chng
  This course description is currently under construction.
• CAS SO 541: Modernity Seminar I
  This seminar looks at the phenomenon of modernity from a multidisciplinary point of view. Discussed are the cultural foundations of modernity, specifically and primarily nationalism but also Romanticism, science, and major political ideologies. Also analyzed are modernization and development as studied by the social sciences, modernism, and postmodernism in literary and cultural studies; and the nature of man and society in the perspectives of modern philosophy. Also offered as CAS AN 541. Either or both of SO 541 and SO 543 may be taken for credit.
• CAS SO 543: Modernity Seminar II
  This seminar looks at the phenomenon of modernity from a multidisciplinary point of view. Discussed are the cultural foundations of modernity, specifically and primarily nationalism but also Romanticism, science, and major political ideologies. Also analyzed are modernization and development as studied by the social sciences, modernism, and postmodernism in literary and cultural studies; and the nature of man and society in the perspectives of modern philosophy. Also offered as CAS AN 543. Either or both of SO 541 and SO 543 may be taken for credit.
• CAS SO 559: Seminar: Deviance and Social Control
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior or senior standing, and at least one SO course at the 300-level or above, or consent of instructor.
  Sociological explanations of types of deviancy and methods of controlling it. Students select research topics ranging from behaviors and conditions perceived as deviant (e.g., crime, terrorism, sexual deviance, addictions) to methods of control (e.g., law, medical treatment, social exclusion, war).