Courses

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

• CAS SO 483: Gentrification Studies
  This seminar explores the process of urban gentrification from an interdisciplinary perspective, examining the variegated histories, geographies, and sociologies of gentrification globally, thinking through comparative urbanism. It considers definitions of gentrification, how theorizations developed over time, and key concepts.
• CAS SO 497: Understanding Meritocracy
  PreReq: Junior or Senior standing and at least two previous Sociology courses; or consent of instructor. Challenges students to sociologically evaluate the concept of meritocracy, its origins, its societal implications, and contemporary adoption as an ideal worth striving for. Reviews empirical research on perceptions around and explanations of social inequality. Explores how beliefs about inequality are mobilized in class and racial conflict and in what ways people's beliefs are or aren't likely to change. Fall term. Effective Fall 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry II and Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Social Inquiry II
• CAS SO 499: Field Practicum
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS SO 100 and SO 201, requires some foundational knowledge of sociological ideas and methods. - Joins real world experience in social change and social impact work with seminar-based coursework that encourages critical reflection, develops professional experience, and builds skills of sociological research and analysis. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area:
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  • Social Inquiry II
• CAS SO 701: Advanced Sociological Theory (Classical)
  Primarily for first-year graduate students. Required for master's degree in sociology. Advanced survey and review of classical sociological theory and theorists.
• CAS SO 702: Proseminar: Sociological Methods
  Designed primarily for first-year graduate students. Review of major sociological methods.
• CAS 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.
• CAS SO 712: Qualitative Methods
  Introduces qualitative methods in sociology, highlighting ethnography and interviews. Strengthens students' evaluation skills, enhances understanding of the logic of qualitative design, and allows students to employ qualitative methods and develop a research proposal.
• CAS SO 716: Macro Organization Theory
  Graduate Prerequisites: graduate standing. - Organization theory aims to explain the origins, persistence, and disappearance of organizations. This seminar introduces the major theoretical approaches and debates in organizational theory. Besides providing a roadmap to the field, it also aims to help generate original research ideas.
• CAS SO 721: Seminar on Social Networks
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (GRSSO702) or equivalent graduate research methods course; or consent of instruct or. - Explores the theoretical justifications for the study of social networks using classical and contemporary formulations as well as empirical research. Also covers mainstream methods and computer applications for the visual and quantitative analysis of social networks.
• CAS SO 724: Quantitative Methods in Sociological Analysis
  Introduction to a wide range of standard statistical techniques typically used in the sociological analysis of large-N data. Covers quantitative approaches to sociological research, basic univariate and bivariate analysis, multiple regression, and binary logistic regression.
• CAS SO 742: Urban Inequality
  Presents key theoretical approaches to the study of the city and uses them to investigate features of urban inequality; examines how space is produced and utilized to marginalize at the bottom and seclude at the top of the social structure.
• CAS 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.
• CAS SO 770: Topics in Sociology
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: For Advanced Methods in Social Networks - Students should have taken a course in the fundamentals of social networks. - Topics seminar that takes in-depth look at a social issue. May be repeated for credit as topics change. Two topics are offered Fall 2021. Section A1: Meritocracy. This course critically evaluates the concept of "meritocracy," its origins and contemporary adoption as an ideal worth striving for. What would a true meritocracy look like, what are its societal implications and what social processes may stand in its way? Section B2: Advanced Methods in Social Networks. Course covers applications of common advanced methodologies in the analysis of social networks like blockmodeling, ERGM, topic modeling and HLM for ego networks. Focus will be applications of methodologies analyzing small and medium size network data. Topic for Spring 2022, Section A1: The Craft of Theorizing Research. Research projects are like gems that need polishing and the craft of polishing them to uncover a theoretical contribution can partly be learned. This intensive course is designed to help participants polish their gems-in- the- making and sharpen their emerging contributions. The seminar is primarily designed for doctoral students who have already collected and/or analyzed data. The common denominator for participants is that they be engaged in research projects reliant on qualitative or quantitative data (e.g., archives, interviews, field observations, and surveys) and be willing to share with the class a draft analytical memo, paper, or chapter from their research.
• CAS SO 800: Student Editorial Interns Practicum
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: currently enrolled in Sociology graduate program. - Students get familiarized with day-to-day practices of running an academic journal, including the overall workflow, including initial evaluation of submitted manuscripts, selecting and inviting reviews, evaluating reviews and editorial decision-making. Also assist in other tasks, such as post-publication promotion of articles through social media, organizing virtual discussion forums and connecting authors to classroom instructors.
• CAS SO 803: Seminar: Gender Stratification
  Considers how the social production of gender contributes to various forms of gendered inequalities in employment, the family, dating markets, media representation, etc., with a special emphasis on how race, class, sexuality, and disability mediate the process.
• CAS SO 804: Seminar: The Family
  Explores the rise of "modern" families and the plurality of contemporary family forms and processes including gay and lesbian families and new reproductive technologies. Particular attention to social and economic inequalities and their implications for family life. Also offered as GRS AA 804.
• CAS 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.
• CAS SO 818: Medical Sociology
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120) - 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. 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.
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  • Research and Information Literacy
  • Social Inquiry II
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• CAS 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.
• CAS 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.