Analyzes the causes and consequences of current social problems in the United States: race and ethnic relations, poverty, crime and delinquency, the environment, drugs, and problems of educational institutions.

Examines the role of meaning in social life, with a focus on how different theories of culture allow analysis of the relationship of culture to exchange, authority, solidarity, and domination. Analysis of key cultural artefacts (movies, texts, monuments, etc.) is combined with the study of theories of social performance, fields of cultural production, and semiosis. The role of culture in social transformation is also considered.

This course will explore the determinants, nature, and effects of the increase in cross-border flows of goods, services, capital and people that we have come to associate with the term "globalization". We will investigate how globalization affects domestic & world inequality, the role of institutions, and world & local cultures. The course will include readings from economics, history, world-system theory, and cultural analysis.

Political sociology focuses on the social foundations and patterns of political behavior and the socio-historical mechanisms for political stability and political change. Its focus is not restricted to the formal rules that characterize a given political system, such as laws, regulations, or electoral systems: political sociology rather emphasizes how power, in its multifaceted and complex nature, is socially configured and reproduce global power.

Examines gender stratification - the relative level of equality of men and women in a given group - in comparative and cross-historical perspective. Several theories are presented to explain the variations, from gender-egalitarian to highly patriarchal groups. Prerequisite: Six credits of Sociology or instructor permission.

This course covers sociological approaches to death and dying. Topics include social theory and theorists as they relate to death, American culture history, and contemporary issues regarding death and dying.

Demography is the scientific study of human populations. We will emphasize fertility, mortality, and migration, and the social and economic factors that affect them.

This course is an early level course, which aims to introduce students to a sociological perspective on popular culture, and to examine the working of selected sociological concepts in several examples of popular culture. A familiarity with introductory level sociology is suggested, but not required. The course has two parts. In the first we will become acquainted with sociological perspectives and theories on culture; in the second we will look at several popular novels and movies and discuss how they might be interpreted sociologically.

This course will examine various types of inequality (race, class, gender) in the US and abroad. We will discuss sociological theories covering various dimensions of inequality, considering key research findings and their implications. We will examine to what extent ascriptive characteristics impact a person's life chances, how social structures are produced and reproduced, and how individuals are able or unable to negotiate these structures.

The pharmacological revolution, symbolized by drugs such as Prozac and Ritalin, is a cultural as well as a medical phenomenon. The course explores the history of the revolution and the confluence of social changes driving it forward. Also considered are its implications for self, the definition of psychic distress, and the norms and values that structure how we live. J-term courses require approval for SOC major/minor credit.