Courses

• GRS SO 702: Proseminar: Sociological Methods
  Designed primarily for first-year graduate students. Review of major sociological methods.
• GRS SO 708: Contemporary Sociological Theory
  Covers the basic elements of the major theoretical paradigms in modern sociology, covering topics and problems in the philosophy of social science and current controversies in the field.
• GRS SO 765: The Sociology of Religion
  Explores the relationship between religion and society, considering religious language, symbols, communities and practices as social phenomena and the social processes at work in congregations and denominations, new religious movements and conversion, religious communal identity and ethnic conflict.
• GRS SO 803: Seminar: Gender Stratification
  This course will allow students to further their understanding of the persistence of inequality between women and men in the workforce. What has changed and what has remained the same? We will examine the nature and causes of inequality in post/industrial societies, especially in the United sttes. Students will have the opportunity to engage in independent scholarship in the seminar, exploring their own questions about gender and work in greater depth.
• GRS SO 804: Seminar: The Family
  Implications for contemporary family life of global economic and cultural processes. Topics include pre-industrial polygyny in China; working-class family and kinship in industrializing U.K.; African American slave families in the antebellum South; the rise of the "modern" family system; and contemporary family forms and processes including gay and lesbian families, the effects of reproductive technologies on family life, and the intergenerational complexities of racial-ethnic families enmeshed in poverty, drugs, and the criminal justice system.
• GRS SO 808: Seminar: Ethnic, Race, and Minority Relations
  Formation and position of ethnic minorities in the United States, including cross-group comparisons from England, Africa, and other parts of the world. Readings and field experience.
• GRS SO 811: Seminar: Sociology of the Nonprofit Sector
  Introduction to sociological research on that part of society known as the nonprofit sector, including nonprofit organizations, community-based organizations, voluntary associations, and social movements. Focus on some of the literature’s major themes: civil society, social capital, and nongovernmental organizations.
• GRS SO 812: Seminar: Religion and Social Identity
  This seminar will explore a variety of theoretical perspectives on the social formation of modern persons, asking how those insights inform an understanding of individual and collective religious identity. Students will also participate in field research foxused on the intersection of religious and social identities.
• GRS SO 815: Seminar: Sociology of Law
  Criminal law as a form of social control. The effect of social processes and social systems on the legal definition of crimes and the administration of criminal justice.
• GRS SO 817: Seminar: Community Sociology
  The study of communities in different settings; their organization and contribution to building a social and moral order in urban areas. The historical development of communities and the way persons adapt to urban life through communities are also considered.
• GRS SO 818: Medical Sociology
  Sociological factors in physical and mental illness as they operate in the community, hospitals, and interpersonal relations. Current research on selected topics in medical sociology; contributions to sociological theory and their practical application.
• GRS SO 820: Graduate Study in Women and Social Change in the Developing World
  Studies women in nonindustrial countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Stresses empirical research, theory, and methodology. Comparisons among regions and with industrial countries important. Focus on sex segregation, female labor force participation, migration, fertility, family roles, and women and political power.
• GRS SO 822: Advanced Seminar in Religion and Social Change
  This seminar examines the tools sociology brings to understanding the relationship between religious ideas and practices and the processes of micro and macro social change. It will cover both major theoretical perspectives and relevant research literature, with focused attention on a variety of historical and contemporary cases.
• GRS SO 834: Seminar: Mental Illness
  Sociology and social psychology in study of incidence and prevalence of mental illness, organization of treatment institutions, doctor-patient relationships, and community psychiatry.
• GRS SO 837: S:Soc Ofculture
  This course description is currently under construction.
• GRS SO 838: Seminar on International Migration
  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.
• GRS SO 839: Seminar: State Building and Failure in the Developing World
  Considers the political significance of failed and fragile states in the developing world in the post-9/11 era. Students analyze historical patterns of state formation and its relevance in contemporary society.
• GRS SO 840: Seminar: Political Sociology
  Explores sociological perspectives on political and civic life, including studies of political culture and ideology, social movements, elites and power, and community activism. Reviews classical perspectives on the state in society, and debates over individualism and participation in civil society.
• GRS SO 844: Seminar: Sociology of Education
  
• GRS SO 848: Culture, Markets, and Inequality
  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.

Back to full list of Graduate School of Arts & Sciences