Migration results from inequality, whether internal to societies or between countries. People migrate to better their lives, moving from poorer countries to wealthier ones in search of upward mobility. This makes migration a virtually unstoppable force, but it crashes into the immovable object known as the state. The resulting border conflicts and immigrant struggles to assimilate define the problem of immigration in the US.

This course considers the nature and effects of consumer society; it explores the theories, practices, and politics of modern consumption. Topics include the historical development of consumer society; the role of consumption in creating personal and political identities; the cultural and social meanings of seemingly impersonal objects like money; the commodification of social life; and the politics of consumption.

Comparison of family organizations in relation to other social institutions in various societies; an introduction to the theory of kinship and marriage systems.

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.

Topics vary from semester to semester and will be announced.

This course explores the social dimensions of health and illness, focusing especially on the social experience of illness, the social determinants of disease, and the role and meaning of medicine and public health in modern U.S. society. The class examines how we define health problems and their solutions, and it considers the ways in which race, gender, class, age, and sexuality matter for understanding health-related experiences and discourses.

This course delves into sociological approaches to health, including the social construction of health and wellness, medicalization, the intersections of culture, power and inequality with systems of diagnosis and treatment, the social determinants of health, and the subjective experiences of health and disability/illness. Prerequisite: Six credits of Sociology or instructor permission.

This course provides the opportunity to offer a new topic in the subject area of sociology.

Markets, firms, and money are part of everyday experience. Economists insist that they should work similarly independently of their social context. The central idea of economic sociology is that economic institutions are 'embedded' in social relations. We will study what embeddeness means, and what it implies. We look at how institutions constitute markets; how rationality varies; and how money interacts with social relations in unexpected ways.

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.