Sociology 216SE - Special Topics in Sociology: 'Sociology of the Self'

Who are you? This course asks: how have the 20th and 21st-century social sciences constructed the self, and what are the consequences of these understandings? Topics will include the major shifts in historical understandings of the self in the West, including the growth of "identity;" the development and impact of medicalization and scientization in the social sciences; the competing theoretical traditions of the self in sociology; cultural meanings and stigma; and how dominant Western constructions of the self influence global understandings. This course consistently considers understandings of the self from a lens of power: who gets the authority to decide who we are; what does inequality look like at the level of the self, and why does how we view ourselves matter? Readings will include classical and contemporary texts in sociology as well as selections from philosophy, history, and psychology.

Prereq: SOCI-123.