This course explores mental health and illness in social context, focusing especially on the history, definitions, social and cultural determinants, and consequences of conceptualizations and treatment of mental illness. It includes an examination of perceptions of mental illness in popular culture, and the spread of psychiatric ideas in more global context. Pre-requisite: six credits of Sociology

This course focuses on various aspects of religion and society such as American culture, gender and the family, politics, science, religious diversity and pluralism, violence, and other emerging issues.

Focusing on the fundamental concepts of sociology with special attention to sociological theory and research methods, this course is a more advanced version of introductory sociology. The course is designed to enable students to learn more deeply about the various ideas and concepts of the sociological tradition and to develop their capacity to use them. This course counts in place of SOC 1010 for sociology major and minor requirements.

The class introduces the 'new social studies of childhood' and the idea that the experience of childhood is a social construction, not a string of biological facts. Topics include: how caring for children varies across time & space, and considering childhood in the context of Western cultural trends - increasing inequality, unequal distribution of overwork, poverty, war, liberty, decreasing privacy, consumerism, sexualization, networked society.

This course will provide an understanding of how sociologists interpret the body in modernity. Topics will include the body in consumer culture, the gendered body, body modification, identity and the body, technology and the body, the regulation of bodies, and vulnerable bodies. Students will be able to understand the central issues and concepts used by sociologists who study embodiment and the relationship between the body and society.

This course focuses on drug use and drug control in contemporary American society. This course examines how race and class relate to patterns of drug use and addiction, as well as to drug policy, legislation, and enforcement. Further, the course highlights the political economy of drug control by studying the ongoing "war" on drugs, the recent legalization of marijuana, and the current opioid "epidemic." Also covers drug culture.

Focuses on the construction of gender and sexuality, and of the many ways human groups regulate and attach meanings to these categories. Some general themes addressed will be: contemporary and historical definitions of gender, sex, and sexuality; gender socialization; the varieties of sexual identities and relationships; embodiment, childbearing, and families in the contemporary United States. Prerequisite: At least 3 credits in Sociology or permission of instructor.

In 1932, referring to the American dream, James Truslow Adams portrayed America as a nation in which life can be "better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement." To subsequent generations of Americans and immigrants this meant endless upward mobility and material prosperity but, also, the denial of persistent social inequality. This course examines both sides of the American Dream.

This course is an exercise in critical thinking and writing. We will investigate connections between race and crime in contemporary America. To do so, we will explore constructions of crime and race and patterns of victimization, criminality and punishment. We will uncover shifting definitions of crime and the ways that institutions, policies and practices shape patterns of punishment.

This course explores the social construction of love and sexualities. Beginning with historical perspectives, the class also compares the organization of intimate life in the United States and other countries. Students evaluate the impact of social inequalities in gender, class and race on the construction of choice and commitment. The class considers how consumer capitalism, the state, and culture interact to shape our intimate practices.