Courses
SOCI-101D P3 Intro to Sociology (3)
This course provides students with a general introduction to the field of Sociology and the major concepts employed for studying the interrelations between the individual, groups, and society.
Formerly titled: P3 Sociology in the 21st Century
Typically offered:
Attributes: P3 YLIB
Fall & SpringANTH-106D P5 Cross-Cultural Interact (3)
This course examines how cultural differences affect intercultural understanding and cooperation in areas such as business, communications, and foreign aid.
Attributes: ISRS P5 YLIBANTH-209 P5 World Cultures (3)
This course provides an in-depth analysis of certain societies across major geographical and cultural regions. Students will address themes which both separate and unite diverse societies. Particular attention is given to ethnographic methods, interaction with unique value systems held by diverse societies, and the material culture that facilitates one’s understanding these societies. Written ethnography and material culture are assessed in terms of the art and politics of social representation.
Attributes: P5 YLIBSOCI-217D Latino Health Care Issues (3)
As the Latino population continues to grow in the U.S., an increasing number of community-based professionals (educators, social workers, health care providers) find themselves working in a variety of Latino community settings. Beyond Spanish language skills, developing cultural literacy represents a critical tool for effective interaction and communication. This course is designed to help students develop an appreciation for the dominant cultural traditions shaping the beliefs, values, and practices/customs of the many Latino communities and how different Latino communities vary from one another.
Must have a minimum of one semester of Spanish to register.
Typically offered:
Attributes: HHHD YLIB
SpringSOCI-221 CC Helpng Professns Action (3)
This course helps students understand clients and caregivers in health care and human service organizations. Over the years clinics, hospitals, social work nonprofits, and government agencies have grown to serve more people. Longer periods of training and practice are required for the professionals, who utilize increasingly sophisticated technologies and techniques. A professional culture can develop that is very different from the lives of patients and clients. Organizations with religious roots have had to change as they have accepted government contracts to deliver services to people of different faiths, or no faith. Students will explore all the ways that communities have changed, and what this means for the organization and provision of health care and human services.
Attributes: CC YLIBSOCI-233 Populat, Programs, & Hlth (3)
Targeted initiatives and programs that address specific health topics across a diversity of populations are an essential tool for public health professionals. Different communities and populations may require different approaches for purposes of health promotion and education. This course allows students to consider various population-level characteristics (such as language, gender norms, or family structure) that must be taken into account when designing interventions and programs. Students develop programs to reach and educate community members from specific populations about certain health conditions such as diabetes, alcoholism, or HIV/AIDS. Cultural sensitivity, empathy, and personal self-awareness are stressed as essential for this type of work.
Typically offered:
Attributes: YLIB
SpringPOSC-233 CentrlAmViolence&Migration (3)
This course provides students with an introduction to the politics of Central America focusing on two of the biggest issues this region faces: violence and migration. Focusing on both the countries as individuals and Central America as a region the course explores domestic, regional, and international implications of these two issues as well as the various form it takes. Since the end of WWII, Central America has faced violence in a multitude of manners. During the Cold War Central America experienced civil wars, genocide, and state sponsored violence against its citizens. Since the end of the Cold War, political repression has continued to be a factor in the region but violence by gangs, drug traffickers, and femicide have swept the region. The high levels of violence combine with poverty, lack of economic opportunity, government corruption, and environmental disasters to drive high levels of migration both within the region as well as to the United States. This course will explore those dynamics.
Attributes: YLIBANTH-238 P5 Global Health (3)
This course explores key elements of global health including tropical diseases, emerging infectious diseases, chronic disease transitions, environmental health threats, healthcare access, healthcare policy and administration, and cultural dimensions of health in diverse social environments and international political contexts. Questioning the distinction between “international” and “global” health, this course emphasizes both disagreements and commonalities in promoting health among diverse, under-resourced, and challenging populations.
Typically offered:
Attributes: P5 YLIB
FallANTH-241D P3 Medical Anthropology (3)
Medical anthropology explores health and medical issues from a cross-cultural and evolutionary perspective, highlighting the diverse ways in which different cultures deal with human conditions of illness and disease. The focus is on the intersection between culture and biology. Topics include traditional healing practices, social epidemiology, relationships between humans and other primates, and the effects of globalization on disease transmission and treatment.
Attributes: HHCF P3 YLIBWGST-275 P5 IndigenousWomenGlobally (3)
This course is designed to expose the students to the richness of the culture and literatures of women from indigenous communities, such as Native Americans, Australian Aborigines, and Dalit women from India. We will consider the systemic oppression that they have been and continue to be subject to due to race, caste, gender, and class. The traditional and historical status of these women in relation to their social, economic and political status today will be discussed. These silenced voices will be presented and analyzed in the individual stories, memoirs, songs, poetry, and fiction of women from specific indigenous communities.
Attributes: P5 WGST YLIB ZCIVSOCI-285 Soc Research Design & Meth (3)
This course is designed for majors and minors in Criminology, Criminal Justice, and Sociology. It provides the methodological foundation for much of the course content in those programs. Completing this course will, therefore, prepare students to better understand the content of those courses and to further develop their own critical-analytical skills. There is an emphasis in this course on experimental and quasi-experimental research designs. These are the principle tools for establishing causal relationships for explaining specific outcomes, such as the impact of community policing on violent crime, the effectiveness of child protective services with immigrant families, or the impact of bail reform. The central goal in this course is for students to walk away with a general sense of how criminologists, criminal justice professionals, and sociologists test their beliefs and knowledge about general social phenomena, such as crime, criminal behavior, the criminal justice system.
Attributes: YLIB ZRESSOCI-314 US Race Relations (3)
Race remains one of the most influential social categories and controversial topics in US society today. For this reason, to understand US society it is necessary to seriously consider the role race and race relations. Students in “US Race Relations” will examine contemporary patterns of institutional racism and systematic inequality alongside interpersonal forms of discrimination, prejudice and stereotypes. The notion of race as a social construction will be emphasized and this will be placed in a broader sociohistorical context. The intersections of race with other forms of social inequities (for example, gender-based inequality) will also be considered.
Attributes: WGST YLIB
Pre-requisites: SOCI-101D D- OR SOCI-101T D- OR SOCI-103 D-SOCI-315 Our Gendered World (3)
Gender is a major organizing factor across all societies. This course examines genders as social constructions, focusing on how notions of gender change over time and vary across societies. This contrasts with perspectives that frame gender as a fixed biological category. Students consider how gender inequalities take form through social patterns, and examine how hierarchical gender systems are reproduced via links between social structures and interpersonal experiences.
Typically offered:
Attributes: WGST YLIB
Spring
Pre-requisites: SOCI-101D D- OR SOCI-101T D- OR SOCI-103 D-GTLY-330 Cross Cultural Aging (3)
This course examines aging in various social and cultural contexts worldwide, as well as within the U.S. Particular attention is given to transformations associated with demographic and other societal changes. Among the various topics in the course are: longevity, meanings of aging and the life course, the social status of elders, migration and aging, the family, the law, gender and sexuality, spirituality and aging, and formal and informal care.
Attributes: YLIB
Pre-requisites: -SOCI-330 Special Topics (3)
SOCI 330: Fall 2013 Topics
Section 01 Topic: Punishment Perspectives
In this class, the student will examine the sociology of punishment. This is an upper-level undergraduate course, and it is expected that students will read and critically examine both the classics in the field and current theoretical developments, in the United States and beyond. The student will be challenged to understand the socio-historical context of various theoretical developments and to compare and contrast perspectives. Emphasis also will be placed on identifying and critiquing the policy implications associated with punishment perspectives. At the same time, substantial coverage will be given to the system’s increasing reliance on community-based sanctions and release mechanisms. The administrative and operational elements of community sanctions and release mechanisms will be examined, as will the legal and treatment–oriented conditions associated with doing time in the community. Particular attention will be given to the latest developments in community-based sanctions and evaluation research relating to their effectiveness.Section 02
Attributes: YLIB
Spring 2013 Topic: Religion and Society
The purpose of this special topics course, Religion and Society, is to explore a variety of religious institutions, communities, practices and beliefs across society. The emphasis will be on contemporary developments and the ways in which religious communities have adapted themselves to modern life in an advanced capitalist society. Students will consider their own faith traditions in the context of other faith traditions.
Pre-requisites: SOCI-101D D- OR SOCI-101T D- OR SOCI-103 D-SOCI-344 Soc Determ Hlth & Healthcr (3)
A basic premise of this course is that health needs and health outcomes at the individual, community, and population levels depend significantly on the social, economic, and environmental conditions under which people live and work. Students examine the critical connections between health outcomes and a range of factors such as poverty, illiteracy, health literacy, malnutrition, inadequate housing, and low-paid, unstable employment. A basic aim of this course is to consider such factors in relation to the incidence of infectious and chronic diseases with the goal of developing effective prevention strategies to promote healthy individuals and communities. Students in this course thus consider (a) how social, economic, and environmental conditions contribute to the spread of disease, (b) how societies contribute to the perpetuation of these conditions, and (c) what strategies and policies have proven effective in alleviating morbidity and mortality for populations living under these conditions.
Typically offered:
Attributes: YLIB
VariableSOCI-381 Your Life Thru Film (3)
Your Life Thru Film introduces students to key theories and paradigms that continue to shape sociological analysis. From Marx, Weber, and Durkheim forward, these theories and paradigms frame social research and generate a range of influential perspectives for understanding and interpreting the social world. On the one hand, students will examine the concepts and detailed arguments underlying particular theoretical traditions. This will inform students about the unique contributions of key theorists and how sociological thought continues to evolve and develop. On the other hand, students will apply these concepts and arguments to particular social topics, such as the war on drugs, teen pregnancy, or US race relations. This will inform students about the practical uses of these theoretical traditions for guiding research and for linking the results of one’s research to a larger body of literature.
(This course was formally known as ‘Thinking Sociologically,’ students may only receive credit for this course once).
Attributes: YLIB
Pre-requisites: SOCI-101D D- OR SOCI-101T D- OR SOCI-103 D-SOCI-419 Department Capstone (3)
The purpose of this course is to provide students in the Sociology major with a cumulative experience that requires them to analyze certain topics within the conceptual framework of the discipline.
Attributes: YLIB
Pre-requisites: -SOCI-2111 Aging and Life Courses (3)
In Citizenship and Civic Engagement courses, students will gain the knowledge, skills, and perspectives they need to become contributing citizens in a diverse and complex society. These experiences help ensure a commitment to collaboratively working across and within community contexts and structures to achieve civic aims in a democracy.
Aging is not simply a physical and biological phenomenon, it is also shaped by social processes at both the individual and societal level. This course is designed to provide students with an overview of some of the major concepts, theories, issues and research findings relating to aging and the life course, especially as viewed by sociologists. Additionally, the students will also learn about issues of aging by meeting regularly with elders in the surrounding community as part of the CEL component of the course.
Among the different topics examined in the course are: social and cultural dimensions of aging, stereotyping and ageism, important social policy issues relating to the elderly; and specific topics such as: demographic factors; aging and the family; aging, health and healthcare issues; diversity in the aging experience; intergenerational equity issues, and policy and politics of aging.
Attributes: CCE YLIBSOCI-2323 Multicltr Ident & Conflict (3)
This course explores how the members of societies, cultures, and nations navigate the diversity of their identities, understand the goals of equity, and engage with one another for full inclusion. These three spheres – society, culture, and nation – are the principle arenas in which a diversity of communities compete for recognition, respect, resources, and power. Students explore how debates and conflicts over diversity, equity, and inclusion take shape in each of these arenas and how the lives of everyone are impacted by the consequences of these debates and conflicts.
Attributes: DEI YLIBSOCI-2325 Groups and Diversity (3)
In Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion courses, students will develop the understanding necessary to participate in a variety of diverse communities. Students will use these learning experiences to increase their self-awareness; that is, to understand and explore the cultural basis of their own values, beliefs, and priorities. The course asks students to work closely and productively with others, in order to recognize, understand, and address complex problems from a variety of perspectives. In applying these approaches, students develop the practice of successful collaboration, which includes self-awareness and an understanding of the relationship between individual initiative and the potential of working with different others (across disciplinary approaches and alongside disagreement).
Typically offered:
Attributes: DEI YLIB
SpringSOCI-2424 Death and Dying (3)
This course examines how individuals and societies respond to death, dying, and bereavement. Particular attention is given to the experience of people who have reached an advanced age, but the course more generally studies individuals whose functional abilities have severely declined and who are approaching death. Students analyze issues and controversies pertaining to old age, death, and dying within a framework for ethical decision-making that encompasses four ethical standards of reasoning. These are (1) a utilitarian approach, (2) a duties approach, (3) a rights approach, and (4) a justice/fairness approach. Among the topics and controversies addressed in this course are suicide, euthanasia, and end-of-life ethical debates along with how different institutions and professionals manage death and dying across different cultural settings.
Typically offered:
Attributes: ER YLIB
FallSOCI-2425 Understanding Families (3)
This course explores varying types of families in contemporary US society and transnationally. Students will consider a range of studies of families that incorporate qualitative and quantitative methods, along with different study designs. Explorations of how researchers frame their understanding of families, develop research questions, and conceptualize families will shape this course. The ethical implications pertaining to studies of families—and human subject research more generally—will also be considered. In Ethical Reasoning courses, students will examine the moral aspects of situations specific to the coursework and participate in ethical reasoning and problem-solving to address them. In this process, students will develop an awareness of ethical perspectives and common ethical dilemmas, acquire knowledge of relevant values, ethical standards, and obligations, and apply different methods and approaches to decision-making that produce ethically justifiable results. Students will also reflect upon their own values and the significance of ethical reasoning for their personal, professional, and civic lives. The Ethical Reasoning Core Area addresses two of the All College Learning Outcomes (ACLOs): Ethical Reasoning and Integrative and Applied Learning. These outcomes are linked to specific student learning outcomes at the course level.
Attributes: ER YLIBSOCI-2484 Understanding Racism (3)
Racism is a highly contentious and divisive notion. The purpose of this class is to understand what racism is, how racism works, and why racism persists. For this, students explore a variety of perspectives and multiple methods of investigation. These perspectives include interpersonal racism, systemic racism, intersectionality, and critical race theory. Methods of investigation include qualitative and quantitative techniques for operationalizing, observing, measuring, and analyzing racism. While the focus of this class is contemporary US society, we also consider historical US racism and racism in other societies. Comparisons with the past and with other societies allows students to better understand which features of contemporary US racism are unique and which are shared by others.
Typically offered:
Attributes: ER YLIB
Spring