A study of the sociological dimensions of urban life. Main areas of inquiry: the processes of urban change; the city as a locus of various social relationships and cultural forms; urban poverty and social conflict; homelessness; and strategies for urban revitalization. Prerequisite: SOC 101. Enrollment limited to 35.

This course examines sexuality from a sociological perspective, focusing on how sexuality is constructed by and structures major social institutions. We examine the social construction of individual and collective identities, norms and behaviors, discourses, institutional regulation, and the place of sexuality in the state, education, science and other institutions, and social movements. Consideration of gender, race, class, time and place are integrated throughout.

According to C.W. Mills, the "sociological imagination" allows us "to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society." This course will help students develop their sociological imaginations by reading memoirs written by both U.S. and international authors who’ve published in English, and asking sociological questions of the stories being told.

This course engages with the various dimensions of globalization through the lens of gender, race and class relations. We study how gender and race intersect in global manufacturing and supply chains as well as in the transnational politics of representation and access in global media, culture, consumption, fashion, food, water, war and dissenting voices. Prerequisite: SOC 101. Enrollment limited to 35.

The effects of climate change put great strain on societies, testing the very structures that organize people’s lives and livelihoods. Using sociological frameworks and theories of globalization, inequality, intersectionality, science and technology, policy, migration, sustainability, environmental justice, social movements, and human rights, this course will examine the social, political, and economic impacts of climate change, as well as the ways that local and global groups prepare, mitigate, deny, adapt to, and organize in the face of climate change and its impacts.

This course examines social structures and meanings that shape contemporary family life. Students look at the ways that race, class and gender shape the ways that family is organized and experienced. Topics include the social construction of family, family care networks, parenthood, family policy, globalization and work. Prerequisite: SOC 101. Enrollment limited to 35.

Qualitative research methods offer a means of gaining insight and understanding into complex perspectives held by people about social practices and social phenomena. Whereas good quantitative research captures scale, good qualitative research reaches the depth of perceptions, views, experiences, behaviors and beliefs. Qualitative research deals with meanings; it seeks to understand not just what people do, but why they choose to do what they do.

For first-year students and sophomores; juniors and seniors with permission of the course director. Perspectives on society, culture and social interaction. Topics may include the self, emotions, culture, community, class, race and ethnicity, family, gender, and economy. Colloquium format. Enrollment limited to 30.

For first-year students and sophomores; juniors and seniors with permission of the course director. Perspectives on society, culture and social interaction. Topics may include the self, emotions, culture, community, class, race and ethnicity, family, gender, and economy. Colloquium format. Enrollment limited to 30.

This colloquium will expose students to contemporary political literature of the Arab world in translation. Through their critical engagement with this literature, students will gain a nuanced, tangible, and deeply dimensional understanding of contemporary life in the Middle East and the many diverse and complex ways in which lives of the region’s peoples are shaped by their political circumstances. Enrollment limit of 20.