39 courses with the subject SOAN, 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.
SOAN 110Introduction to Anthropology6
Anthropology is the study of all human beings in all their diversity, an exploration of what it means to be human throughout the globe. This course helps us to see ourselves, and others, from a new perspective. By examining specific analytic concepts—such as culture—and research methods—such as participant observation—we learn how anthropologists seek to understand, document, and explain the stunning variety of human cultures and ways of organizing society. This course encourages you to consider how looking behind cultural assumptions helps anthropologists solve real world dilemmas. Sophomore Priority section is available Offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2 CX,
Sociology is an intellectual discipline, spanning the gap between the sciences and humanities while often (though not always) involving itself in public policy debates, social reform, and political activism. Sociologists study a startling variety of topics using qualitative and quantitative methods. Still, amidst all this diversity, sociology is centered on a set of core historical theorists (Marx/Weber/Durkheim) and research topics (race/class/gender inequality). We will explore these theoretical and empirical foundations by reading and discussing influential texts and select topics in the study of social inequality while relating them to our own experiences and understanding of the social world. Sophomore Priority section is available Offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026, Spring 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: SI, Social Inquiry Tags: CL: 100 level CCST Seeing and Being Cross-Cultural Faculty: Liz Raleigh · Annette Nierobisz · Wes Markofski
Most of us “go to work” at some point in our lives. Whether it’s a summer job, a side hustle or a life-long career, people invest a lot of our time and energy into planning to be, preparing for, and operating as members of the “workforce.” Work shapes all aspects of people’s lives from their ability to provide for basic needs to their personal and social identities. In industrialized societies work is often characterized by membership in complex formalized organizations. However recent history and sociological theory raise a lot of questions about how work and organized labor may be changing. How do we define success? Who makes the most money and why? Have recent events like the pandemic changed the way we approach work? This course will cover classic and contemporary research into social organizations and the shifting landscape of work in post-industrial society. Topics will include the rise of complex for profit and nonprofit organizations, inequality in the workplace, sex work and illicit labor, and recent trends in the labor force. Not offered in 2025-26 Liberal Arts Requirements: IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry Tags: CL: 100 level
SOAN 114Modern Families: An Introduction to the Sociology of the Family6
What makes a family? How has the conception of kinship and the ‘normal’ family changed over the generations? In this introductory class, we examine these questions, drawing on a variety of course materials ranging from classic works in sociology to contemporary blogs on family life. The class focuses on diversity in family life, paying particular attention to the intersection between the family, race and ethnicity, and social class. We’ll examine these issues at the micro and macro level, incorporating texts that focus on individuals’ stories as well as demographics of the family. Offered: Winter 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies QRE, Quantitative Reasoning SI, Social
SOAN 125Southeast Asian Migration and Diasporic Communities
Advanced Writing and Senior Integrative Exercise – Required 12 credits Students will work on their comprehensive exercise during their senior year, completing the comps writing course, SOAN 396, in the fall and the comps independent work course, SOAN 400, in the winter.
SOAN 201Colonialism, Oil, And The War On Terror: The Global Middle East6
Through processes like colonialism, oil extraction, and the war on terror, the Middle East forms an important pivot, shaping global political and economic structures. This course will examine how the Middle East has developed in dynamic interaction with the wider globe. Yet, we will resist the urge to treat the Middle East merely as an object of Western intervention. Rather, we will explore how the West and wider globe are also shaped by this interaction. In particular, we will examine how ideas about modernity, secularism, and liberalism—key elements of contemporary Western identity—are shaped through dynamic interconnection with Middle East. Not offered in 2025-26 Liberal Arts Requirements: IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: CL: 200 level MEST Supporting Group 1
Gentrification, a process of neighborhood-level class displacement, whereby devalued urban areas are redeveloped into trendy hubs, is one of the predominant modes of urban change in the twenty-first century. In this class, we will first develop a general understanding of how gentrification works. Then we will direct ethnographic attention to explore how gentrification takes place in specific contexts around the globe. We will examine how social boundaries, power relationships, and identities are reorganized through gentrification; how class and racial disparity are produced and enforced; how the social meaning of place impacts neighborhood change; and how communities have resisted gentrification. The department strongly recommends that Sociology/Anthropology 110 or 111 be taken prior to enrolling in courses numbered 200 or above. Not offered in 2025-26 Liberal Arts Requirements: IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry Tags: CL: 200 level
This course introduces linguistic anthropology, the study of language in social contexts. People use language to navigate the world and to make judgments about others. Has anyone ever correctly guessed your background after you used a specific word (pop vs. soda)? Have you ever been teased due to your accent? By surveying cross-cultural research from around the world, we ask: How do linguistic practices contribute to the construction of social identity and social difference? How might perceptions of language create and reinforce social divisions and inequality? Students will also consider ways they may advocate for linguistic social justice.
This course focuses on special topics in the public sociology of religion. We will look at the intersection of race, religion, and politics in the U.S.; the intersection of science and religion in Indigenous-led environmental and land back movements; secular and Islamic feminism in Egypt and Indonesia; and democracy, secularism, and religious tolerance in Indonesia, Egypt, and globally. As we do so, we will examine core theoretical perspectives and empirical developments in the contemporary study and sociology of religion. Recommended Preparation: Completion of SOAN 110 or SOAN 111 with a grade of C- or better. Offered: Spring 2026 Credits: 6 Liberal Arts Requirements: IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry Tags: CL: 200 level RELG Pertinent Course RELG XDept Pertinent Faculty: Wes Markofski
Food is the way to a person’s heart but perhaps even more interesting, the window into a society’s soul. Simply speaking understating a society’s foodways is the best way to comprehend the complexity between people, culture and nature. This course explores how anthropologists use food to understand different aspects of human behavior, from food procurement and consumption practices to the politics of nutrition and diets. In doing so we hope to elucidate how food is more than mere sustenance and that often the act of eating is a manifestation of power, resistance, identity, and community. Offered: Spring 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry Tags: CL: 200 level ENTS Society, Culture and Policy LTAM Electives LTAM
When sociologists and anthropologists conduct their research, how do they know which method to choose? What assumptions guide their decision? What challenges might they encounter? What are their ethical obligations? In this course, we'll explore a diverse range of methods, from in-depth interviews to large-scale surveys and participant observation fieldwork. Students will also learn how to craft feasible research questions, select the right method, collect and analyze data, and communicate research methods effectively. This course is an essential foundation for SOAN majors, equipping students with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in their comps experience. Offered: Spring 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: QRE, Quantitative Reasoning SI, Social Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2
Both the U.S. and global populations are trending toward a world with far fewer young people than ever before. So, what does it mean to grow up in a rapidly aging society? This course explores age, aging, and its various intersections with demographic characteristics including gender, sexuality, race, and social class. We situate age and aging within the context of macro-structural, institutional, and micro-everyday realms. Some topics we will examine include: media depictions and stereotypes; interpersonal relationships and caregiving; the workplace and retirement; and both the perceptions and inevitable realities of an aging population. Offered: Fall 2025 Liberal Arts Requirements: IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies QRE, Quantitative Reasoning SI, Social Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: AMST Democracy Activism AMST Space and Place CL: 200 level AMST Production Consumption of Culture PPOL Social Policy & Welfare Faculty: Annette Nierobisz
Pairing classics in Africanist anthropology with contemporary re-studies, we explore changes in African societies and in the questions anthropologists have posed about them. We address issues of representation and self-presentation in written ethnographies as well as in African portrait photography. We then turn from the visual to the invisible realm of African witchcraft. Initiation rituals, war, and migration place selfhood and belonging back in this-world contexts. In-depth case studies include, among others: the Cameroon Grassfields, the Bemba of Zambia, and the Nuer of South Sudan. The department strongly recommends that Sociology/Anthropology 110 or 111 be taken prior to enrolling in courses numbered 200 or above. Offered: Spring 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2 CX,
India is a region of immense diversity where more than one billion people live. We will explore social structures in India–through a focus on key areas of everyday life such as family, religion, economy, systems of stratification and social movements. Close attention will be given to religious nationalism, globalization and militarism as dominant trends affecting contemporary India. We will consider: How has India been represented in the Western imagination and why do such representations matter? What are the forces of modernity and tradition in India? What are the similarities and differences in systems of stratification in India and the United States? Not offered in 2025-26 Liberal Arts Requirements: CX, Cultural/Literature IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry Tags: ASST South Asia CL: 200 level GWSS Elective POSI Elective/Non POSC
An ethnographic approach to beliefs and practices regarding health and illness in numerous societies worldwide. This course examines patients, practitioners, and the social networks and contexts through which therapies are managed to better understand medical systems as well as the significance of the anthropological study of misfortune. Specific topics include the symbolism of models of illness, the ritual management of misfortune and of life crisis events, the political economy of health, therapy management, medical pluralism, and cross-cultural medical ethics. The department strongly recommends that Sociology/Anthropology 110 or 111 be taken prior to enrolling in courses numbered 200 or above. Not offered in 2025-26 Liberal Arts Requirements: CX, Cultural/Literature IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: ACE Applied CL: 200 level PPOL Public Health
SOAN 278Urban Ethnography and the American Experience
American sociology has a rich tradition of focusing the ethnographic eye on the American experience. We will take advantage of this tradition to encounter urban America through the ethnographic lens, expanding our social vision and investigating the nature of race, place, meaning, interaction, and inequality in the U.S. While doing so, we will also explore the unique benefits, challenges, and underlying assumptions of ethnographic research as a distinctive mode of acquiring and communicating social knowledge. As such, this course offers both an immersion in the American experience and an inquiry into the craft of ethnographic writing and research. The department strongly recommends that Sociology/Anthropology 110 or 111 be taken prior to enrolling in courses numbered 200 or above. Offered: Winter 2026
The FBI receives praise and criticism for shutting down Backpage.com. A conspiracy theory about online furniture company Wayfair goes viral. Jeffrey Epstein is arrested. What do these disparate events have in common? They are all recent incidents that raise the question: when and how will the United States respond to the crime of human trafficking? In the past several decades activists and governments around the world have been increasingly focused on addressing human trafficking. However, there is often disagreement about the best way to understand and attempt to prevent a crime that is tied to a complex host of social, political, and cultural forces. This course will cover how human trafficking is defined, measured and studied as well as the cultural and political factors that affect how it occurs and how we try to respond to it. Topics will include labor, sex and organ trafficking, globalization, migration and inequality, and the criminalization/decriminalization of sex-based labor. The department strongly recommends that Sociology/Anthropology 110 or 111 be taken prior to enrolling in courses numbered 200 or above. Not offered in 2025-26 Liberal Arts Requirements: IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies SI, Social Inquiry Tags: CL: 300 level
Since the 1980s, the United States criminal justice system has embarked on a social experiment we now call, “mass incarceration.” The outcome – unprecedented rates of imprisonment, particularly in BIPOC communities – has had devastating consequences for individuals, families, neighborhoods, and American society. This course explores the causes and consequences of mass incarceration. Potential topics include: race, class, gender, and age in the prison system; the impacts of incarceration on children and intimate partners who get left behind; punishment strategies such as solitary confinement and the death penalty; the lucrative business of the prison industrial complex; and the promise of prison abolition. The department strongly recommends that Sociology/Anthropology 110 or 111 be taken prior to enrolling in courses numbered 200 or above. Not offered in 2025-26 Liberal Arts Requirements: IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies QRE, Quantitative Reasoning SI, Social Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: ACE Theoretical AFST Social Inquiry AMST Democracy Activism AMST Space and Place CL: 300 level AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity PPOL Social
SOAN 312How Rude: (Im)politeness and (Dis)respect in Language
Expressions of politeness and impoliteness differ between societies. From smiling at strangers to addressing a woman as “ma’am,” what is polite in one setting can be strange or antagonistic in another. This course focuses on cross-linguistic expressions of (im)politeness and (dis)respect, but also touches upon non-verbal behavior and communication. Older cross-cultural literature has focused on the positive
SOAN 313Woke Nature: Towards an Anthropology of Non-Human Beings6
The core of anthropological thought has been organized around the assumption that the production of complex cultural systems is reserved to the domain of the human experience. While scholars have contested this assumption for years, there is an emerging body of scholarship that proposes expanding our understandings of culture, and the ability to produce meaning in the world, to include non-human beings (e.g. plants, wildlife, micro-organisms, mountains). This course explores ethnographic works in this field and contextualizes insights within contemporary conversations pertaining to our relationship with nature, public health, and social justice movements that emerge within decolonized frameworks. Recommended preparation: SOAN 110 or SOAN 111. Not offered in 2025-26 Liberal Arts Requirements: IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: ACE Theoretical CL: 300 level ENTS Topical Seminar GWSS Elective
We live on a planet marked by ruin, devastation, and destruction—conditions associated with the concept of the Anthropocene, a geological era that recognizes the inescapable consequences of human activity on the planet. This course examines these consequences through the lens of environmental anthropology to explore various socio-cultural strategies implemented by societies around the world. Themes explored include notions of unpredictability, precarity, resilience, and survivance as avenues for understanding the impacts of profound environmental change, as well as new opportunities for place-making, community, and sustainable futures. Recommended preparation: Introductory courses in SOAN or ENTS. Offered: Fall 2025 Credits: 6 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies Tags: CL: 300 level ENTS Society, Culture and Policy LTAM Pertinent Courses Faculty: Constanza Ocampo-Raeder
SOAN 327Greece at a Crossroads: History, Landscape, and Material Culture Program6
The Culture of Modern Greece: The Ethnography of a Society in Transition This course focuses on the culture(s) of Modern Greece from the 1960s onward, drawing on authors from across the social sciences to identify key realms that make life in Greece distinct. Theories and methods of anthropology will be discussed with special attention to how ethnographies in Greece have changed over the past decades. Students will try on different lenses as they conduct ethnographic research and examine the world through theories of space, ritual, performance, gender, and symbol. This structure will allow students an understanding of contemporary Greek society and a developing awareness of their own cultural conditionings and ethnocentrisms. Offered: Spring 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry Tags: CL: 200 level Faculty: Alex Knodell
Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Greece at a Crossroads program.
SOAN 330Sociological Thought and Theory6
Many thinkers have contributed to the development of sociology as an intellectual discipline and mode of social inquiry; however, few have had the influence of Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, and Max Weber. This course focuses on influential texts and ideas generated by these and other theorists from sociology’s “classical era,” how these texts and ideas are put to use by contemporary sociologists, and on more recent theoretical developments and critical perspectives that have influenced the field. Recommended Preparation: The department strongly recommends that Sociology/Anthropology 110 or 111 be taken prior to enrolling in courses numbered 200 or above. Offered: Fall 2025 Liberal Arts Requirements: SI, Social Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: ASST Disciplinary ASST Methodology CL: 300 level CCST Principles Cross-
Our ways of perceiving and acting in the world emerge simultaneously from learned and shared orientations of long duration, and from specific contexts and contingencies of the moment. This applies to the production of anthropological ideas and of anthropology as an academic discipline. This course examines anthropological theory by placing the observers and the observed in the same comparative historical framework, subject to the ethnographic process and to historical conditions in and out of academe. We seek to understand genealogies of ideas, building on and/or reacting to previous anthropological approaches. We highlight the diversity of voices who thought up these ideas, and have influenced anthropological thought through time. We attend to the intellectual and political context in which anthropologists conducted research, wrote, and published their works, as well as which voices did/did not reach academic audiences. The course thus traces the development of the core issues, central debates, internecine battles, and diversity of anthropological thought and of anthropologists that have animated anthropology since it first emerged as a distinct field of inquiry to present-day efforts at intellectual decolonization. Offered: Winter 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2 111 AND one 200 or 300 level SOAN course with a grade of C- or better. Tags: ASST Methodology CL: 300 level Faculty: Constanza Ocampo-Raeder
Student must have completed any of the following course(s): SOAN 110 or SOAN
SOAN 335The Politics of Public Art6
In this class we will explore the politics of public art. While we will look at the political messaging of public art, we will also seek to understand how public art, through its integration into a social geography, has a political impact beyond its meaning. We will see how art claims public space and structures social action, how art shapes social groups, and how art channels economic flows or government power. By tracing the ways that art is situated in public space, we will examine how art enters into urban contest and global inequality. For the purposes of this class, we will focus primarily (but not exclusively) on public art in urban settings. Class activity will include exploration of public art and students will be introduced to key concepts of urban spatial analysis to help interrogate this art. The department strongly recommends that Sociology/Anthropology 110 or 111 be taken prior to enrolling in courses numbered 200 or above. Not offered in 2025-26 Liberal Arts Requirements: SI, Social Inquiry Tags: CL: 200 level
Using ethnographies, this seminar explores the meanings of reproductive beliefs and practices in comparative perspective, particularly the relation between human and social reproduction. It focuses on (but is not limited to) ethnographic examples from the United States/Canada and from sub-Saharan Africa (societies with relatively low fertility and high utilization of technology and societies with mostly high fertility and low utilization of technology). Topics examined include pregnancy and birth as rites of passage and sites of racialization; abortion; biological vs. social motherhood; maternal morality; stratified reproduction in reproductive technologies and care work; love and sexual economies. Expected preparation: Sociology/Anthropology 110 or SOAN 111 or GWSS 110, and an additional SOAN course, or instructor permission. Offered: Spring 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: AFST Social Inquiry CL: 300 level Faculty: Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg
SOAN 396Advanced Sociological and Anthropological Writing
This course explores different genres of writing and different audiences for writing in the social sciences, focusing particular attention on scholarly articles published in professional journals in sociology and anthropology. To that end, students both analyze sociological and anthropological articles regarding commonalities and differences in academic writing in our two sister disciplines. Students work on their own academic writing process (with the help of peer-review and instructor feedback). The writing itself is broken down into component elements on which students practice and revise their work. Offered: Fall 2025 Grading: S/CR/NC
Senior sociology/anthropology majors fulfill the integrative exercise by writing a senior thesis on a topic approved by the department. Students must enroll in six credits to write the thesis, spread as the student likes over Fall, Winter, and Spring terms. The process begins with the submission of a topic statement in the preceding spring term and concludes with a public presentation in spring of the senior year. Please consult the Sociology and Anthropology website for a full description. Offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026, Spring 2026 Grading: S/NC Faculty: Wes Markofski · Liz Raleigh · Annette Nierobisz · Cheryl Yin · Pamela Feldman- Savelsberg · Constanza Ocampo-Raeder · Daniel Williams
