Sociology 790R - Systems of Social Exclusion

This course examines forms, conditions, causes, and experiences of social exclusion and marginalization through a deep engagement with theoretical and empirical scholarship from sociology and, as appropriate, intersecting disciplines. We will examine exclusion and inclusion in an array of topical contexts including immigration, the criminal legal system, and poverty, among others. Our work will pay attention to perspectives that explicitly engage the concept of exclusion as well as those that do not make the connection to exclusion explicit, yet inform our understanding of social exclusion and marginalization. Questions about the relationship between theory, question, and method will factor partially into our work, with topics including the linkages between theorization and operationalization of integration and exclusion as well as exclusion and inclusion in the construction of sociological evidence. The course will be structured around readings and other materials (e.g., podcasts, visual art) and applications of sociological approaches and perspectives, with the course culminating in an intellectual product that furthers students? own research trajectories and ideas.