Over the last century the reach of corporations has gradually extended into all facets of our lives, yet most of us rarely stop to think about the corporation as a social entity. This course will focus on the social, economic and legal foundations that both shape its power and provide a dominant logic for its actions. We will examine the implications of corporate power and processes for communities, workers and the environment.

This seminar is premised on the idea that bodies are socially and culturally located and produced. Norms pertaining to, for example, social class, gender, race and sexuality shape the body. The kinds of inequalities that bodies encounter ? and the privileges that some bodies may enjoy - have effects on our identity. Power and powerlessness are inscribed in bodies, making them reflections of unequal power relations in society. In this course bodies will be considered as surfaces to be shaped and as artifacts that define the person in the body according to wider social assumptions.

Topics course. This course may be repeated for credit with different topics (up to 2 times). This seminar will survey studies of rock and pop music from theoretical perspectives in the sociology of culture and cultural studies. The course will concentrate on analyses of rock and pop music from the last three decades. We will first take an overview of theories of culture that inform many recent studies.

This class will explore the relationship between people and their environments. Using sociological theories, we will examine how environmental issues are constructed and how they are contested. In examining a series of particular environmental problems, we will consider how social, political and economic structures are related to environmental degradation. Enrollment limited to 35. Prerequisite: SOC 101.

This course examines the institution of education from a sociological perspective, exploring issues of power and privilege, relationships between education and other social institutions, and the varying purposes of education in society. A recurring theme throughout the course is meritocracy. We will consider how merit is defined in education, factors that affect who succeeds in the educational system, and whether meritocratic education is a viable goal.

This course analyzes - and at times challenges - the ways in which we understand health, illness and medicine. The course is divided in roughly three parts: first dealing with definitions and representations of health and illness, the second with the significance and impact of biomedical dominance, and the third with the intersections of health, illness and medicine with gender, race, social class and sexual orientation.

For first-year students and sophomores; juniors and seniors with permission of the course director. Perspectives on society, culture, and social interaction. Topics include the self, emotions, culture, community, class, ethnicity, family, sex roles, deviance and economy. Colloquium format.

Admission by permission of the director of the South Asia concentration. Normally, enrollment limited to South Asia concentrators only.

We will consider people?s understanding of their own and others? mental states from a variety of perspectives: comparative psychology, neuroscience, cognitive, cross-cultural and developmental. The class will analyze and discuss primary psychological research on how such a "theory of mind" develops and the role it plays in social behavior and communication, as well as what is known about the brain mechanisms that underlie it and individual variations in theory of mind development arising from cultural, sensory and neurological differences. Enrollment limit of 20 students. (E)

How is violence legitimized and what is its legacy for both perpetrator and victim? When are war and sacrifice not murder? What are the political implications of a nonviolent morality? This course considers the rhetoric and phenomena of violence and non-violence in a variety of religious traditions in South Asia, both modern and premodern. Particular emphasis is placed on the ethical and social consequences of these practices, and the politics of the discourse that surrounds them. Texts and films concerning Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Christianity, and Islam.