38 courses with the subject SOCI, 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.
SOCI 101Introduction to Sociology1.00
An introduction to sociology, with special emphasis on American society, using a historical and comparative focus. Introduces students to some of the basic concepts and methods used by sociologists. Students consider a selection of topics: racial inequality, class reproduction, gender roles, work and society, social movements, bureaucracy, and crime and deviance. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Examines some of the chief methodological and theoretical approaches used in the social sciences, primarily focusing on Marx, Durkheim, and Weber. In addition to original texts, works of anthropology and sociology are used to integrate the classics with a contemporary focus. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year, No Senior Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Familiarize students with theoretical and historical perspectives of racial inequality and other ethnic and minority group relationships. Coursework approaches race as a socio-historical construct in the US and explores the consequences of this construction to modern day interactions and institutions such as education, labor market, criminal justice system, housing and wealth. Course readings, lectures, and discussions are intended to aid students in gaining a clear understanding of the role race and ethnicity have played in shaping contemporary US society as well as the larger social world we live in and to therefore contribute to each student's self-understanding and to a better understanding of others whose racial-cultural backgrounds are different.
SOCI 214Stories of Our Lives: Narratives, Meanings, and Identities1.0
Narratives, meanings, and identities are important elements of human culture, and students are guided through a research-intensive review of how to study and make sense of these pervasive, if often subtle and taken-for-granted categories. Narratives are the stories we learn, share, and retell that help us understand the world and our place in it. Meanings include the embedded assumptions and values that we assign to social situations and encounters. Identities are often given to us through social structures but are also intensely personal and provide ways for us to cultivate a sense of self. Students explore narratives, meanings, and identities by learning and practicing qualitative research techniques such as interviews, oral histories, content analysis, and observation. Qualitative data analysis software is used to plan, organize, and analyze the research, and students gain hands-on experience in all stages of the qualitative research process. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year, Senior Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: The Process of Writing Core Component: None
An interdisciplinary exploration of gender and sexuality as primary markers of social inequality in our society and among the most salient organizing agents of our everyday lives. Course readings span several disciplines, including literature, history, philosophy, sociology, and psychology. Students analyze gender and sexuality using comparative historical and sociological perspectives. Subthemes of the course include culture, socialization, body and performance, intersectionality, essentialism, privilege, resistance, and social change. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges Core Component: None
Introduction to concepts, theories, and issues related to mass media and society. Over the last 200 years tremendous changes have revolutionized the nature of mass communication in modern societies. Designed to provide a basic understanding of the nature of mass media and its social significance. Students address the impact of different types of communication from information exchange, to news, to entertainment, to
An introduction to international migration, with a focus on post-World War II migration. Geographically, students focus on immigration to the United States from Latin America, where the bulk of post-1965 immigrants come from. Begins by introducing students to basic concepts and approaches related to migration studies. Students further examine different stages in the migration process, including the processes of migration, the adaption/incorporation of immigrants in U.S. society, and the future "assimilation" of their children. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges Core Component: None
SOCI 240Fascism and Right-Wing Extremism: A Historical Sociology1
The rise of right-wing extremist movements and of their influence within 'mainstream' political parties and governments has been a major feature of world politics in recent years. This course deals with these trends in a number of major countries (including the US, UK, Germany and India), examining the various sociological approaches that attempt to explain these movements through analyses of economic change, cultural change, and racial/ethnic ideologies. Centrally, students are asked whether or not there are parallels or continuities between these movements and the historical Fascism of the 1919-1945 period. Students will consider the major theoretical approaches to the study of Fascism and Populism in the sociological literature and survey some key examples of historical Fascist regimes and movements. Students will also study movements, both in the present and the past, which have attempted to oppose right wing extremism, asking whether they comprise a coherent political tradition. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
The words "nature" and "the environment" conjure up visions of wild animals and open landscapes, but are people part of nature, too? Shows how nature and human culture are intertwined, both in terms of how we shape our environment as well as how it shapes us. Through a series of case studies, students explore this relationship, focusing especially on the way that nature and culture are "political": inequalities, social problems and movements, and power relations all flow from the way that we interact with our environment. Takes a global, comparative, and historical view of this process, and includes the following special topics: the rise of environmental awareness and environmental social movements; globalization and environmental values; consumption and the environment; environmental inequalities and justice; risk, technology, and environmental politics; and public policy and the environment. Crosslisted: ANTH 245 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges Core Component: None
SOCI 250Sociological Research Design and Methods1.00
Provides a broad overview of how sociologists gather and analyze information to generate and test hypotheses about the social world. Students learn how to develop research questions and hypotheses, how to measure sociological concepts with concrete variables, how to select an appropriate and unbiased sample, and how to evaluate the ethics of the research design. Students are provided hands-on experiences conducting quantitative and qualitative research. Students engage in a range of social science methodologies, such as survey research, content analysis, qualitative interviews, participant observation, and experiments. They gain proficiency with quantitative and qualitative data analysis software. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year, Senior Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: Quantitative and Algorithmic Reasoning and The Process of Writing Core Component: None
Students learn how to apply sociological principles to the study of education. Students examine how educational systems both maintain and challenge social inequality. Students consider the many ways that that education differentially allocates resources based on race/ethnicity, class, gender, and other characteristics. Students apply sociological theory and research methods to investigate contemporary educational policies and issues.
Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Recommended: Prior completion of at least one research methods course, preferably SOCI 250 Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing Core Component: None
Corequisite
None
SOCI 304Sociology of Disasters1.0
Offers an introduction to the theory and research on the sociology of disasters, with a focus on cases from Latin America and the Caribbean. Students learn how to use a sociological perspective to examine disasters as socially constructed phenomena. Students interrogate the "naturalness" of disasters by focusing on questions of vulnerability, disaster preparedness, government response and recovery, as well as questions of coloniality and power. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Urban structures and problems are examined with an emphasis on the ways in which cities are embedded in a broader social and cultural milieu. The traditional concern of the impact of urban development on behavior is juxtaposed to an analysis of current fiscal problems and the potential for cities to grow, stagnate, or collapse. Major/Minor Restrictions: None
Bodies are raced, classed, and gendered, and unequally valued depending on social context and social system. Bodies are regulated and disciplined, through invisible coercion as well as brute force. Yet bodies also resist. Students examine the different social meanings and values human bodies accrue as well as the multiple possibilities of agency and transformation. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Analyzes social structure and social stratification, emphasizing economic class, life styles, differential prestige, and inequality. The theory of social class and its measurement is discussed, and the change and stability of social class is considered. Comparative examples of stratification are examined, although the emphasis is on the American class system. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges Core Component: None
Introduces students to approaches to the study of international migration, immigrant assimilation and adjustment, ethnic social and economic stratification, and immigration policy formation and analysis. These topics are explored within the historical and contemporary context of the United States and New York. The class considers theoretical perspectives that have been applied to the study of migration as well as approaches used by sociologists and geographers in empirical analyses of US immigration, immigrant populations, and ethnic relations. These analytical issues are considered in detail for immigrant and ethnic groups within New York State and the New York metropolitan community. Finally, students consider the relationships among patterns of immigration and ethnic relations, cultural change, international relations and transnational linkages, and US immigration policy reform. Crosslisted: GEOG 318
Food is fundamental — it sustains us and is essential for our survival — but food is more than just what we eat. Food is also a commodity with complex global markets and ecological impacts; it is highly regulated through our political processes and institutions; and it forms a key part of our culture and the social rhythms of everyday life. Students explore these many dimensions of food, focusing especially on key questions about where it comes from, how it is produced, and how it is embedded in our economic, political, and cultural institutions. Students participate in a service learning internship at Common Thread Community Farm in Madison, NY. Also involves field trips to and guest speakers from local food and farming communities. Crosslisted: ENST 319 enrolled courses) on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, from 8 a.m. until 12 p.m., in order to accommodate the farm internship component of the course. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing Core Component: None
SOCI 201 or SOCI 250 or ENST 232 and students must have an open morning (no other
Corequisite
None
SOCI 320Social Deviance1.00
Examines the nature and consequences of deviant behavior in modern society. Students develop an understanding of the historical development of the study of deviance, the main theoretical perspectives on deviance, and some of the substantive concerns in the study of deviant behavior. This includes conceptualizations and definitions of deviance, the emergence and management of deviant identities, deviant careers, deviant subcultures, accounts of deviant behavior, and the social control of deviance. Specific types of deviance studied include substance use, sexual practices, non-violent crime, violent crime, mental illness, and youth subcultures. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Introduces students to the uniqueness of sociological perspectives in understanding health care, and the social factors that influence health care. Students employ several levels of analysis: social history, social interaction, work roles, organizations, organizational relationships, and social policy. The framework for this course is that of social organization to show that the social organization of a society influences, to some degree, the type and distribution of disease, illness, and death found in that society. A major focus is on social determinants of health (SDoH) and the role that different institutions (i.e pharmaceutical and insurance companies, media, and others) play on medicalization. The social organization of a society also influences, to a significant degree, how the system of medical care responds. The values and assumptions underlying the medical definition of health are not necessarily the same as those underlying the sociological definition of health. A focus of the course is to examine race, class, and gender issues that influence the delivery of healthcare in this country. Attention is given to such topics as social epidemiology, the social demography of health, social stress, and illness behavior. Students also review the sick role, doctor-patient interaction, medical health professionals, hospitals and other health care agencies, and the healthcare delivery system in the United States and other countries. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year, Sophomore Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Nationalism is on the rise in the United Kingdom and the United States again, as well as in China, Russia, and elsewhere. But what exactly is nationalism? Why does it arise? And what are its effects on society? Students explore nationalism through case studies, both from history and in today's news. Students investigate the relationship between nationalism and other social constructions of identity, such as language, religion, ethnicity, and gender. Also examines contemporary phenomenon undermining nationalism: transnationalism, multinationalism, and globalization.
Draws on a wide range of theoretical perspectives to understand the enduring appeal of sporting practices, as well as the various processes of conflict, control, and power in and around sport institutions. Students examine major theoretical and empirical work in the sociology of sports in order to better understand the complex relationship between sport and society. Guiding questions include the following: Why do people play sports? Do all people play the same sports in the same ways? Is sport a microcosm of society? To what extent do sports matter in our daily lives? Are sports and politics separate or interrelated? Students examine various topics and issues such as gender and representation, violence and deviancy, sexuality and homophobia, commercialization and college sport, race and inequality, and sport and the media. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Designed to introduce students to the field of criminology, the concept(s) of crime, the dilemmas modern criminologists encounter in conducting research, and the major theoretical perspectives on crime and criminal behavior. Emphasis is placed on sociological determinants of criminal behavior, as well as the functioning of the US criminal justice system. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Takes the human life span as the primary unit of analysis. Individuals live their lives within socio-historical contexts and age-based frameworks. It is this framework that orders transitions between the various stages of life, constructs the various roles that individuals occupy over the course of their lives, and provides the set of historical conditions, ideas, and institutions by which individuals give meaning to their existence. Human lives are characterized by both continuity and change, and each human must negotiate the path of his or her life through a web of institutional networks. These pre-existing frameworks through which individuals travel are subject to the constraints of the past but are also open to possibilities created by each new generation. Understanding this complex relationship can not only broaden our notion of what it means to be human, but
SOCI 333LSociology of the Life Course Field Component/Lab0.25
This community-based learning "field" component, offered on an irregular basis, is an add-on to SOCI 333. It entails a minimum of 20 hours in the "field," conducting interviews, attending workshops, fulfilling assignments, and constructing a final project in the form of a podcast in partnership with a community- dwelling elder. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Focuses on the structural and cultural elements surrounding death and dying. Students examine death from the perspective of US- based health-care professionals, family members, institutions, the funeral industry, and the dying themselves. In so doing, students discuss who has access to "a good death," ethical issues in how death is defined, how these realities are shaped by structural inequalities, and policy suggestions for the future. Initially, students focus on intersections between death and dying, COVID-19, race, gender, and age. From there the course readings expand out to biographical, journalistic and social science sources to explore cross-cultural rituals of death, dying, and grieving.Students visit (in some cases, virtually) a hospice home for the dying and/or a funeral home, and a local cemetery, participate in a Death Café, and explore writing their own obituaries. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
SOCI 348Contested identities: Popular Culture in America
Popular culture is an important site for the expression of cultural identity and social conflict in America. This course views popular culture as an essential site in the cultural politics of America that involves the
Students will explore contemporary landscapes of housing and homelessness in the United States and beyond. They will investigate the roots of housing crisis and questions why homelessness persists in highly developed nations like the U.S. Using a mix of lecture and discussion, the course draws on geographical theories and tools of analysis to consider alternative housing futures, including movements for housing justice. Crosslisted: GEOG 353 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing Core Component: None
Drawing on theoretical and empirical research, as well as visual media and print news reporting, students explore gender as a primary market of social inequality in our society and a major impetus for social change. Specifically, students analyze how gendered ideologies, practices, and contexts shape social institutions such as work, family, medicine, sport, military, religion, and the beauty industry. They examine how institutions and bodies become contested sites for gender and sexual politics. Students also pay close attention to how gendered ideologies work in tandem with race, class, and sexual expectations, constraining (and sometimes enabling) bodies and lives. Students are encouraged to analyze US culture with a gendered lens. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Examines the relationship between power, politics, and social change with a special focus on social movements. Considers questions such as: What leads to social movement? What do social movements do? What are the tools they use? The approach is historical and comparative. Students consider what social movements can tell us about society, and apply key social scientific concepts to considerations of collective action. Students also consider the building blocks of social movements from the perspective of a social movement participant. By studying social movements through the perspectives of both scholar and activist, students gain helpful tools for collective action and social change. Crosslisted: ANTH 368 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges Core Component: None
Draws on interdisciplinary research and writings to explore the ways in which the nature, distribution, meanings, and everyday life experiences associated with health, medicine, and illness are shaped by historical, cultural, political, and economic factors. Covering both micro- and macro-sociological terrains, students utilize a gendered lens to critically analyze the construction of gendered medical problems and doctor-patient encounters throughout history, women's experiences in a male-dominated health care system, and social movements in response to medical injustices. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Since classical times, philosophers and historians have studied and recorded the details of everyday life with an eye to grasping the meaning of social practice. The past 50 years, however, have seen the bourgeoning of an exciting body of critical theory on the quotidian. Much of this work is concerned with profound questions about how the systems, structures, and practices of modernity shape basic human interactions with things, with places, and with other persons, and how these, in turn, reproduce social structures. This course presents sociological and anthropological texts concerned with everyday domesticity, cuisine, gesture, movement, activity, entertainment, talk, schooling, and bureaucracy, and explores the theoretical paradigms of knowledge, practice, and power to which these texts are ultimately addressed. Crosslisted: ANTH 378
Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty. Credits: variable Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
In this capstone seminar for the sociology major, students conduct original sociological research on the topics of their choice. Research projects grounded in sociological theory, review relevant literature on the topics, and collect and analyze data to find their own results. Each student's project results in a significant thesis paper, through which students learn the process of doing sociological research and writing a sociological article. Seminars focus on a variety of broad topical areas in sociology, depending on the instructor. When Offered: Fall semester only Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: Only Senior Recommended: All Sociology majors should plan to take this course in the fall of their senior year. Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty. Credits: variable Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: None
Serves as a bridge to the Honors Thesis Workshop. Students develop a proposal and collect initial data for a substantive, research-based thesis project, to be completed in SOCI 495. When Offered: Fall semester only ANTH 211) Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: Only Senior Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
SOCI 101 and SOCI 201 and SOCI 250 and (SOCI 251 or SOCI 253 or SOCI 254 or
Corequisite
None
SOCI 495Honors Thesis Workshop1.00
With the guidance of their instructor from SOCI 494 and a topical adviser from among the continuing faculty in sociology, students work to complete the projects begun in SOCI 494. When Offered: Spring semester only Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: Only Senior Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to seniors who have completed SOCI 494 Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
