36 courses with the subject SO, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
SO 132Issues and Investigations in Sociology3
Context and Perspectives: Institutions and Power This course introduces the student to the discipline of sociology as both a body of knowledge and as a perspective from which to view the world. This course examines the basic concepts, theories and methods of sociology inquiry in the context of a substantive area. The goal is to develop in students an appreciation of the social forces that shape, organize and constitute human behavior. Typically Offered: Fall and Spring
Experimental courses explore curriculum development, with specific content intended for evolution into a permanent course. A topic may be offered twice before it becomes a permanent course. Students may repeat experimental courses with a different topic for credit. Typically Offered: As needed
Experimental courses explore curriculum development, with specific content intended for evolution into a permanent course. A topic may be offered twice before it becomes a permanent course. Students may repeat experimental courses with a different topic for credit. Typically Offered: As needed
Context and Perspectives: Institutions and Power This class studies issues of poverty and homelessness in the United States spanning over the past few centuries and focuses on the most recent century's evolution to contemporary social policy. The course emphasizes how poverty and homelessness issues have been framed in popular culture in comparison to evolving social policy, and considers how these collective frameworks have changed over time. The class offers an examination of street survival, how issues of homelessness are defined as social problems, and the various ways societies have attempted to deal with homelessness. Typically Offered: Once a year
Context and Perspectives: Culture, Change, and Behavior This course explicates the basic principles of sociology in the context of an investigation of the socio-cultural milieu within which drug use occurs. The aim is to locate patterns of drug use and abuse within a historical, legal and sociological context, to familiarize students with methods of intervention and treatment, and to develop a more accurate appreciation of the effect of various drugs on the individual. Typically Offered: Once a year
Context and Perspectives: Institutions and Power This course examines the nature and significance of social problems in contemporary society. The specific problems addressed vary from year to year, but may include poverty, racism, youth alienation, illiteracy, gender- related issues, war and environmental crises. These concrete problems will be studied from a variety of sociological perspectives which address aspects of the social construction of problems; for example, processes through which problems are discovered, defined and publicized. Such processes and the problems they shape will be considered within the context of a sociological overview of historical and structural tendencies in modern societies. Typically Offered: Fall and Spring
Context and Perspectives: Race, Gender, and Inequality A long history of scholarship in sociology ties US slavery to the development of capitalism and modern business and finance. This classic work builds on theories by Durkheim and Weber, augmented by new research across disciplines. The argument begins with W.E.B. Du Bois’ Souls of Black Folk (1903), Eric Williams’ Slavery and Capitalism (1944), and Oliver Cox’s Caste, Class and Race (1948). While the work of these three Black sociologists grounds important new research, in keeping with a general misperception that Race and slavery are specialty issues, it has not gotten the attention it should. This course is designed . to give students a framework for appreciating the centrality of the relationship between slavery and capitalism in the US, and translating that into new ways of understanding how tacit racism, hidden and unacknowledged, is structured into business and society today. This will help students navigate the increasingly diverse worksites of tomorrow Typically Offered: Once a year
Context and Perspectives: Institutions and Power This course examines the process of deviance in American society and other cultures, with a focus on sociological theories of deviant behavior and deviant groups. The origins, organization and societal reactions to forms of deviant behavior, such as juvenile delinquency, drug abuse, prostitution, pool hustling, mental disorders, violence and white-collar crime, will be examined and discussed. A further focus will be on the problems and possibilities of doing research on deviant groups. Typically Offered: Fall and Spring
It is estimated that there are more than 30 million slaves worldwide, and that this number is expected to continue increasing. SO 248 will investigate the phenomenon of human trafficking and global slavery from a number of frameworks including historical, cultural, economic, and political as well as through a variety of lenses, such as sex, race, religio and environmental. Students will explore the realities of exploitation, objectification, alienation, and violence associated with human trafficking through a mixed methods approach utilizing video, readings and research. The course will explore how businesses and consumers benefit from supply chains that are supported by the forced labors of individuals around the world, and the resulting human and environmental impact of forced labor practices. Typically Offered: Every two or more years
Context and Perspectives: Institutions and Power This course explores how our understandings and experiences of health and illness are socially conditioned. It also examines the different levels at which we are oriented to the possibility of illness in everyday life. Hence, studying the social meanings of health and illness provides for a deeper understanding of ourselves and the situations that we inhabit. Through readings from the social sciences, literature and philosophy, as well as films, class discussions and written exercises, students will explore a variety of issues related to understanding the phenomena of health and illness. Course evaluation will be based on written exercises, a final paper and class participation. Typically Offered: Once a year 2026-2027-Undergraduate 267
Context and Perspectives: Institutions and Power This course emphasizes sociological principles as they relate to the industrial setting. It reviews traditional and contemporary theories of industrial societies and industrialization. The course analyzes general features of the social system, such as roles, statuses, values, strains and communication. The course stresses the relationship between industry and other institutions in society. Typically Offered: Once a year
Context and Perspectives: Culture, Change, and Behavior Technological changes including AI and human machine interaction, have a major impact on the way our society looks and how people function within it. Many such changes, are initially felt in the workplace, as our workplace formation and relations have an indelible impact on social formation and relations. However, the relationship also works in reverse, with human social interaction not only shaping how technology is adopted and used both inside and outside of the workplace, but also comprising essential aspects of technology and AI. Technology, AI, society, and work form a triadic relationship, with each impacting and affecting the other in foreseeable and unforeseeable ways. This course examines this relationship on a national and international level. Through readings, videos, observations and class discussions, students will engage in an exploration of the interaction effects between human social interactional competencies and technology, AI society and work. Typically Offered: As needed
Context and Perspectives: Culture, Change, and Behavior This course explores the cultural bases and interpretations for monetary exchange across cultures geographically and temporally. It begins with cultures that lack all forms of exchange, e.g. hunter-gatherer cultures, then goes on to discuss the development and theories of monetary exchange from an anthropological perspective. It examines standard (e.g. Keynes, Innes, von Mises and more innovative views of money, e.g. Graeber. Each of these theories of money is evaluated anthropologically, showing the advantages of each depending on the cultural context in which they are evaluated and applied. This course is designed to help students evaluate monetary theory and modern political-economic ideas from the perspective of anthropology across a wide ranger of cultures and therefore the Diversity designation is requested.
Total Credits 12 Other courses offered in a particular semester may also count toward the Gender and Sexuality Studies Minor. Students can check with the Gender and Sexuality Studies minor coordinator for more information.
Context and Perspectives: Culture, Change, and Behavior This course examines the nature, origin, and evolution of our species, languages, and societies. We look back through some 17 million years of fossil history up to and through the primate family tree, including the latest great apes, humans. We consider Darwin's prediction in the 19th century that humans probably began in Africa and then examine the evidence that began to accumulate around the world for the origin of early humans. We examine the two major hypotheses for the evolution of Homo sapiens: the Multiregional Theory (that our species originated at many times in many places from Homo erectus) and the Recent Out of Africa (ROA) hypothesis that says that although Homo erectus left Africa several hundred thousand years ago, Homo sapiens left only in the last 50-100,000 thousand years ago and rapidly displaced other members of our genus, e.g. Homo neanderthalensis. With this basis, we examine the evolution of societies and language.
Context and Perspectives: Values, Ethics, and Society This course examines how values and valuation arise in human societies. It examines how cultures of business arise and how they influence one another and the societies in which the businesses operate. An initial introduction to the science of cultural explanation is followed by an anthropological discussion of stocks, commodities, and derivatives. The course develops and expounds concepts to enable the participants to analyze and apply their knowledge of companies as outputs of societies. Typically Offered: Once a year
Context and Perspectives: Culture, Change, and Behavior Sports play a major role in society. They are a major industry, a major recreational outlet, and one of the main mechanisms Americans and others around the globe use for keeping fit and socializing with friends. This course examines the role sports play in a range of social settings, including professional sports, sports in educational institutions, and sports for personal recreation and leisure activities. The course will cover such topics as inequality, the social construction of race, gender and class through sports, socialization into the culture of sports, sports and identity, deviance and sports (including drug use and violence), the globalization of sports, and sports and the media. Typically Offered: Fall and Spring
Context and Perspectives: Culture, Change, and Behavior This course examines how various forms of modern mass media represent the values and lifestyles of American culture, and how we experience the mass media in our everyday lives. The course will look at forms of media in terms of their socio-historical developments, and study how their histories have been shaped by, and helped to shape, the political-economic structure and cultural lifestyles of American society. The course centers largely on sociological analyses of specific audiovisual examples. These analyses will be conducted in class discussion and written exercises. Typically Offered: Fall and Spring
Context and Perspectives: Culture, Change, and Behavior The course explores cultural dimensions of social life associated with development of consumerism in contemporary societies. The emergence of a "consumer society" and corresponding cultural sphere will be outlined. General themes include the commodity basis of cultural practices, the social control of imagination and desire, and the nature of modernity. Specific topics include the rise of popular culture, advertising as a social institution, socialization and the consumer role, marketplace settings and rituals, consumer movements and critiques, and consumption-related environmental problems. Consumption contexts considered include shopping malls, the modern home, tourism and popular entertainment. Typically Offered: Once a year
Context and Perspectives: Culture, Change, and Behavior This course introduces students to Native American culture and society, with "American" broadly construed to include North, Central, and South America. Topics to be covered include the pre-history of Native Americans (how and when did humans first arrive in the Americas), and the history of indigenous peoples throughout the Americas since Columbus. It also discusses Native American beliefs and religions, from cultures with rich theistic and supernatural beliefs to communities that lack a concept of God or the supernatural as understood in industrial societies. We look at contemporary Native American cultures, diversity, and their struggles with encroachment on their lands - looking at gold exploration in Brazil, oil pipelines in the US and Canada, and drug cartels in Meso/Central America. We discuss the future of these groups, their languages, and their cultures and why this is important to all Americans, from Tierra del Fuego to Nome, Alaska. Typically Offered: Once a year
Context and Perspectives: Race, Gender, and Inequality Film as a medium appears in many different formats and settings from television broadcasts to theaters and from DVDs to computers. Social issues and social relations are presented in virtually unexamined fashion and audiences are expected to draw on cultural presuppositions and understandings to achieve an understanding of the film's themes and contents. The course examines several different film styles in order to better understand the methodologies used by film makers to construct understandability. Film styles to be examined include ethnographic, documentary, social commentary and narrative-fiction. Within these different film styles a number of social issues and social relationships will be considered including, in part, the following: cultural pratices and social norms; gender and power relationships; cross dressing and gender transformation; commentary on political and social issues; and, witnessing, truth-telling, trust, honesty and morality in social relationships. Typically Offered: Once a year
Experimental courses explore curriculum development, with specific content intended for evolution into a permanent course. A topic may be offered twice before it becomes a permanent course. Students may repeat experimental courses with a different topic for credit Typically Offered: As needed
Experimental courses explore curriculum development, with specific content intended for evolution into a permanent course. A topic may be offered twice before it becomes a permanent course. Students may repeat experimental courses with a different topic for credit. Typically Offered: As needed
Context and Perspectives: Values, Ethics, and Society Students engage in approximately two hours of weekly public service within agencies or organizations in the Greater Boston area. In their journals and class discussions, students reflect on both the purposes of that work as well as on its limits as a response to specific needs within the community and more general problems of social justice. Students also conduct participant observation field explorations at their sites. The course explores issues of social responsibility and citizenship in the professions and business world in relation to the social problems that students become acquainted with through their community work. Typically Offered: Fall and Spring 2026-2027-Undergraduate 269
Context and Perspectives: Culture, Change, and Behavior Immigrants go to other lands in search of the economic opportunity and financial security not available in their own homeland. Drawn by the lure of jobs, immigrants frequently set course for industrialized countries, where the demand for labor is high. However, once arriving in these countries, many immigrant groups reject the available jobs and strike their own path by entering into entrepreneurship and opening their own businesses. In the US, this pattern has played out countless times, as new groups arrive and take the mantle of immigrant entrepreneurship previously held by past groups. This course will examine the phenomena of immigrant entrepreneurship, taking account of past examples as well as current trends. By studying immigrant entrepreneurship, students will achieve a better understanding of what drives certain immigrant groups to chance everything by opening up their own businesses, and how immigrants are able to use the resources available to them to become successful. Typically Offered: Every two or more years
Context and Perspectives: Institutions and Power This is an economic sociology course that concerns markets How do people and firms make decisions about market transactions? How do we assign value/prices to items? How do people use money? How are markets constructed, and what is the relationship between the economy and civil life/society? Moreover, why is it that dominant conceptions of market behavior are portrayed as asocial, acultural, and apolitical? Students will learn sociological approaches to economic behavior, which provide a rich understanding of how people and firms engage in market transactions. Students will also learn how sociological approaches contrast with economic approaches as well as how they are compatible. Typically Offered: Every two or more years
3 Globalization Students explain the various ways in which peoples, countries, and 3 regions differ in terms of language, environment, religion, culture, 3 economics, and politics and some of the consequences of those differences; explain the ways in which peoples, countries, and regions are interdependent and interconnected; and identify and critically evaluate global challenges (e.g., climate change, regional conflicts, or the coordination of formal institutions and informal social networks) and 3 global processes (e.g., the diffusion of industry and culture, colonialism, 3 imperialism, or mass migration). Please note: this is a full comprehensive list and all courses are not offered every semester. 3 Course Title Credits 3 English & Media Studies 3 EMS 261 The Victorian Period 3 3 EMS 336 Creative Writing: Climate Fiction 3 3 EMS 381 Diasporic Literature and Culture 3 3 EMS 382 Caribbean Literature 3
SO 345Race and Racialization at the U.S.-Mexico Border3
Context and Perspectives: Race, Gender, and Inequality Texas used to be part of Mexico. Relations along the border have been problematic ever since U.S. citizens entered Texas illegally in the 1820s-1830s bringing slaves with them into a Mexican Republic that had outlawed slavery years before. This class considers ongoing troubles at the U.S.-Mexico border since the early history of U.S. incursions into Texas. Treaties such as the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo promised the former residents of Texas U.S. citizenship and title to their lands, but were not honored by the U.S., and citizens of Mexican/Spanish descent were illegally stripped of their rights and possessions. This class also studies how U.S. immigration policy has changed over the course of the past hundred years and considers the shaping of contemporary Latin and White “American” cultures. Overall, the course will critically analyze and critique the many common assumptions and stereotypes that drive U.S. attitudes on immigration policies. What if policies were more informed?
Experimental courses explore curriculum development ,with specific content intended for evolution into a permanent course. A topic may be offered twice before it becomes a permanent course. Students may repeat experimental courses for with a different topic for credut. Typically Offered: As needed
This course presents opportunity for superior students to engage in specialized study. (Allows repetition for credit.) Typically Offered: Fall and Spring
This course permits the intensive study of selected topics in small groups of more advanced students. (Allows repetition for credit.) Typically Offered: Every two or more years
An internship provides students with an opportunity to gain on-the- job experience and apply principles and issues raised in the academic discipline to a work environment. Student are required to attend pre- internship workshops sponsored by the Center for Career Services, meet regularly with a faculty advisor, and develop a final paper or special project. Typically Offered: Fall and Spring
Employee Experience is increasingly being seen as a requirement for organizations to be competitive in attracting and keeping talent. Historically, organizations have taken a transaction approach in their employee relationships where salary and benefits was enough. What we are seeing today is that employees often need more. In fact, focusing on financial benefits can have the opposite effect of reducing loyalty and engagement to the organization overall. The question becomes, “How might we create employee experiences that create not only less turn-over and more engagement, but employee ambassadors as well as better outcomes across experience channels?” This course will examine the concept of employee experience, and more generally experience design, as it relates to developing workplace practices and organizational cultures. We will explore the benefits of making employee experience a key part of organizational strategy, and linking it to other concepts like customer experience.
