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 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.
• CAS SO 838: Seminar on International Migration
  Graduate Prerequisites: graduate standing. - The course will explore key themes in international migration. It will emphasize connections between current topics in immigration, and sociological theories that explain immigrant pathways, mobilities, and outcomes. Students will engage in analytical memo-writing that make these links, and write a final term paper. Throughout, the course will emphasize how the intersection of inequalities--of legal status, gender, race and class--shape immigration processes. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Social Inquiry II, Research and Information Literacy.
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  • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • Research and Information Literacy
  • Social Inquiry II
• CAS 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.
• CAS 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.
• CAS SO 847: Seminar: Global Sociology
  (Meets with GRS IR 748.) Examines different sociological perspectives on global social dynamics and processes.
• CAS 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.
• CAS SO 852: SEX DEBATES
  SEX DEBATES
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  • Research and Information Literacy
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• CAS SO 859: Deviance and Social Control
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120) - Graduate Prerequisites: graduate standing. - 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.
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  • Research and Information Literacy
  • Social Inquiry II
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• CAS 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. Effective Spring 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Social Inquiry II, Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Ethical Reasoning
  • Social Inquiry II
• CAS SO 890: Seminar: Global Health: Politics, Institutions, and Ideology
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120) - 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.
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  • Research and Information Literacy
  • Social Inquiry II
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• CAS SO 897: Understanding Meritocracy
  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 947: DR FIELD CONC
  DR FIELD CONC
• CAS SO 951: Professionalization Workshop
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: currently enrolled in Sociology graduate program. - 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
• CAS SO 952: Professionalization Workshop
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: currently enrolled in Sociology graduate program. - 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.
• CAS SY 101: Senior Year Topics
  SY101 is an activity and discussion based class focused on a specific topic area to help students prepare for life after college. Topics vary by section number.
• CAS TL 500: History and Theory of Translation
  The goal of this course is to familiarize students with the history of translation and the main trends in Translation Studies. Students learn to apply concepts acquired in class to analyze and critique translations and develop their own strategies. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking.
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  • Aesthetic Exploration
  • Critical Thinking
  • Historical Consciousness
• CAS TL 505: Literary Style Workshop
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: Admission to the MA program in translation or permission of instructor . First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120) - Workshop cultivating awareness of and sensitivity to style, cohesiveness, and patterning in literary English. Topics range from text-type to subtle effects of rhythm and sound. Imitation practice. Emphasis on translators' process, from strategic decisions to editing. Workshop format. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing- Intensive Course, Critical Thinking, Creativity/Innovation.
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  • Creativity/Innovation
  • Critical Thinking
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• CAS TL 540: Translation Seminar
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: Proficiency in a second language. ; Undergraduate Corequisites: (CASTL542) - Graduate Prerequisites: Proficiency in a second language. ; Graduate Corequisites: (CASTL542) - Translation seminar where students produce substantial literary translations into English from their language of choice with the guidance of the instructors and language-specific mentors. Students hone their translation skills, read, and discuss articles about practical issues of translation. Students are required to register for co-requisite CAS TL 542.
• CAS TL 541: Translation Today
  Undergraduate Corequisites: (CASTL542) - Weekly lectures and discussions with prominent literary translators from Boston and elsewhere. Students engage with a variety of languages and several genres: poetry, drama, essay, fiction, and more. Focus on concrete, practical translation issues arising from the speakers' work. Students are required to register for co-requisite CAS TL 542. Effective Spring 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, The Individual in Community, Creativity/Innovation.
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  • Creativity/Innovation
  • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • The Individual in Community
• CAS TL 542: Literary Translation
  Undergraduate Corequisites: (CASTL540 OR CASTL541) - Guest lecture series in literary translation. Mandatory co-requisite with CAS TL 540 and CAS TL 541. This course cannot be taken on its own.