Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the Student Link for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

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  • 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 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: Seminar: Sociology of Culture
    Sociology of culture in the twenty-first century. Focuses on the connection between the mind and culture. Examines the interdependence between culture, society, and individuals, and how belief, faith, knowledge, symbol, ritual, and the like both produce and are products of social organization.
  • 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: Comparative Political Cultures
    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, China, Japan, and Mexico.
  • GRS SO 847: Seminar: Global Sociology
    (Meets with GRS IR 748.) Examines different sociological perspectives on global social dynamics and processes.
  • GRS SO 852: Contemporary Debates in Sexualities Research
    Engages debates about sexual identities, practices, and communities, conceptualizing sexuality as both a social construct and an institution. Students consider how sexualities operate across social contexts, their effects on systems of inequalities, and their intersections with race, class, and gender.
  • GRS SO 859: Deviance and Social Control
    This seminar explores sociological explanations for why and how certain attributes and behaviors are defined as deviant, the consequences of deviant labels, and how rules and sanctions are created and enforced. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Social Inquiry II, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Social Inquiry II
    • Research and Information Literacy
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • GRS SO 860: Seminar in Economic Sociology
    Introduction to core theoretical perspectives and debates in contemporary economic sociology (structural/network, cultural, institutional/political and performativity) with a special attention paid to morality of markets, commensuration and construction of value, money, credit and finance and inequality.
  • GRS SO 890: Seminar: Global Health: Politics, Institutions, and Ideology
    What is global health? Who are the main actors in global health debates? This seminar explores the politics of global health, providing students with sociological tools, concepts, and knowledge to help make sense of conflict in contemporary global health debates. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry II, Writing-Intensive Course, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Social Inquiry II
    • Research and Information Literacy
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • GRS SO 947: Dr Field Conc
  • GRS SO 951: Professionalization Workshop
    Provides an introduction to the professional culture norms and workings of the graduate program, familiarization with faculty's ongoing research and publications, and an overview of departmental, college, and area-wide resources
  • GRS WR 698: Teaching Composition
    The goals, contents, and methods of instruction in college-level writing. General teaching- learning issues. Required of all graduate writing fellows and teaching fellows.
  • GRS WR 699: Teaching College Writing
    The goals, contents, and methods of instruction in college-level writing. General teaching- learning issues. Required of all graduate writing fellows and teaching fellows.
  • GRS WS 700: Directed Study WGS
    Directed study in Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies.
  • GRS WS 801: Theories and Methods in Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies
    Explores the variety and complexity of theories and methods in the interdisciplinary fields of women's, gender, and sexuality studies. Provides a forum for assessing research strategies used by gender and sexuality scholars. Required for the WGS Program Graduate Certificate.
  • GRS XL 741: 1001 Nights in the World Literary Imagination
    What is The Thousand and One Nights? How has this ever-expanding collection appealed to its diverse audiences? Focus on Nights structure and themes, notable translations and offshoots in western literature and art, and later appropriations by Arab and Muslim writers. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Writing-Intensive Course.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • GRS XL 742: Travel Writing and the Muslim World
    How have Muslim travelers past and present written about places and people they saw abroad, and how have Western travelers in the Muslim lands described their travels in "the East"? Readings include Nasir Khusraw, Ibn Battuta, Eliza Fay, and Robert Byron.
  • GRS XL 743: Alexander the Great in the East
    Study of the various narratives about Alexander the Great, also known as Sikandar or Iskandar, as conqueror, philosopher-king, and hero, in medieval Middle Eastern and Asian literatures. Modern filmic representations of the historical figure are also compared.

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