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SOC 211 - Introduction to Sociology

An introduction to sociological perspectives on patterns of human conduct ranging from fleeting encounters in informal gatherings to historical processes of institutional persistence and change. Topics of discussion and research include the stratification of life chances, social honor and power in human populations, and the differentiation of these populations by gender, race, age, ethnicity, and other characteristics both achieved and ascribed; the integration of differentiated roles and statuses into systems capable of maintaining their structure beyond the life span of living individuals, and capable as well of revolutionary and evolutionary social change; and the interrelationships of familial, economic, political, educational, and religious institutions in the emerging world system of late modernity.

SOC 231 - Organizations

This course provides a broad introduction to the analysis of organizations in sociology and related fields. Organizations are a ubiquitous feature of social, economic, and political life, and involve a striking variety of cases, ranging from corporations, community nonprofits, and state welfare providersÌýto firefighting teams, symphony orchestras, hospitals, rape crisis centers, and universities. They represent social sites in which we spend a substantial proportion of our daily lives, profoundly shaping opportunity, power, identity, and everyday interactions both within their boundaries and in the broader society. We address variation and change in the nature of organizations, and the consequences of organizational structure and form for how organizations operate, what and who individuals and groups can and cannot do or become, and how societies evolve. Topics include organizational types and forms (e.g., hierarchical vs. network; corporations, nonprofits, cooperatives; standing vs. temporary organizations); organizations and power; organizational ecologies or systems; organizations, inequality, and social stratification; organizations and community; and organizations, mobilization, and social movements.

SOC 245 - Sociology of Race and Ethnicity

This course examines sociological analyses of race and ethnicity in the United States, emphasizing how racial and ethnic categories are socially constructed, and how their social construction is linked to social inequality. We will trace the development of sociological theories to explain how race and ethnicity are connected to social inequality in the U.S. Topics include the social construction of race and ethnicity; racial formation theory; Duboisian sociology; wealth inequality and racial capitalism; the relationship between immigration and racialization; racism and discrimination; settler colonialism and indigeneity; and race and spatial formation.

SOC 280 - Social Movements

Why do some social movements fail, while others succeed? The goal of this course is to introduce students to sociological theories of social movement success and failure. Through a review of classical and contemporary theories and case studies of women's liberation, gay liberation, abortion, civil rights, environmentalism, and the peace and disarmament movements, we will identify key analytical questions and research strategies for studying contemporary social movements in depth. Among the perspectives reviewed will be classical approaches (de Tocqueville, "mass society," and "relative deprivation"), as well as more recent perspectives that focus on rational choice, resource mobilization, political process, and new social movements.

SOC 311 - Research Methods

The primary objective is to provide background for empirical research in the social sciences. Specific objectives include deepening understanding of the logic of inference by exploring the relationship between empirical observations and causal models and introducing basic research techniques. Topics include the logic of inference, the nature of evidence, and a nonmathematical introduction to quantitative social analysis, emphasizing regression.

SOC 320 - Feminisms: Theory and Practice

This course examines how sociologists understand feminism as a form of empowerment and how feminist thought has fundamentally reshaped sociological theory and practice. As a thriving subfield of sociology, the study of feminisms engages a wide range of activist expressions and social movements that collectively challenge institutionalized authority in the United States and across the globe. Alongside feminist theory and practice, the readings explore how feminist sociology is applied in real-world research and activism, moving from foundational literature to the practical implementation of feminist methods. They also examine the impact of feminist theories and models on sociological research, including case study methods, oral history, and qualitative interviewing developed to understand marginalized standpoints. The course further traces the impact and institutionalization of feminist ideas within state governments and nonprofits. In addition, the course explores feminist epistemology within the sociology of knowledge and the emergence of women's and gender studies. Specifically, we examine the dynamic process of knowledge production in relation to academic positioning, standpoint diversification, and curriculum transformation. Ultimately, students will evaluate the evolving interplay between sociology and feminism and consider how this relationship continues to shape the defining characteristics and central issues of the field today.

SOC 322 - Gender and Work

Gender is a central organizing principle in social relations and is deeply embedded in how work is organized, rewarded, and experienced. This course provides an overview of the theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions of scholarship in the area of gender, work, and organizations. Emphasis on the intersection of gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity, and class. Topics include inequalities in the labor force, low wage and informal work and poverty, sex/sexuality in the workplace, masculinity/femininity at work, work/family conflict and the division of labor in the home, and how the institution of family, gender, and work culture are integrated into work practices, policies, and programs.

SOC 326 - Science and Social Difference

Is race biological? Do men and women have different brains? Categories such as race and gender are often presumed to be socially constructed classifications linked to difference. At the same time, references to scientific claims that prioritize the biological underpinnings of behavior and outcomes are common. This raises questions about the role of biology in determining differences between men and women, among racial/ethnic groups, and regarding sexuality, and how these ideas relate to the design of science policy and practice. Considering a series of contemporary cases, students in this course will examine the reciprocal relationships between scientific inquiry, science politics, social identity, and belonging. The course does not attempt to resolve these often contentious topics, but rather focuses on the processes by which ideas about difference are transmitted to students of science and the public; how social groups and identities are taken into account in science research, technological design, and clinical studies; who gets to "do science"; and the people and groups invested in the outcomes.

SOC 327 - Sociology of Friendship

Friendship and friendship groups are a central feature of social life that foster support, solidarity, and shared connection among people. Friendships are socially structured and patterned, making them of interest to those who study group relations and group formation. This course engages with scholarly debates on the meaning and significance of friendship across the life course. It focuses on social boundaries and identities reproduced and/or challenged through the experience of friendship, and examines the development and effects of hierarchies of status and power and of friendship norms and social pressure. Particular emphasis will be on the role of networks, technological developments, organizations, and institutions in structuring trust, connection, and social solidarity among people. A focus on friendship also invites broader dialogue regarding other forms of social connection (or lack thereof), such as acquaintanceship, intimate relations, contractual ties, isolation, and the role of strangers in our lives.

SOC 331 - Topics in Organizational Analysis

Topics vary. For current offerings, review the schedule of classes. Omnipresent in "modern" settings, organizations are a potent structuring force in social, economic, and political life, and provide a wealth of possibilities for sustained inquiry in a topics course. May be repeated for credit.

Organizational Ethnographies
Organizations are central to our daily lives. They reflect and shape opportunity; create status hierarchies of gender, race, and privilege; generate and alter power relations; and are products and producers of social capital. This course utilizes ethnographic and in-depth case analysis-methods that focus on agency in context, interpersonal processes of meaning making, and social processes over time-to address interaction and influence, the generation of reward systems, (in)formal systems of power, and network dynamics in and between organizations. Across diverse cases-including financial institutions, elite medical practices, day care centers, mining companies, nonprofits, and universities-we will "study up" to consider how power, meaning, and change are constructed at the top, and examine "from-below" practices that shape opportunity and innovation, facilitate succession, shape social capital, and contest hierarchies in bureaucracies.

SOC 340 - American Capitalism

This is a comparative historical course on the development of American capitalism, focusing on the rise of mass markets and giant corporations as its dominant organizing principles. We survey theoretical approaches used to explain American capitalism and engage historical analyses of the key turning points in the development of our economy. A central objective is to document the existence of more efficient, democratic, and decentralized alternatives to the type of capitalism that came to prevail in the United States. Topics include the role of culture, politics, and finance capital in the development of the corporation; the rise and fall of cooperative, regionally based systems; mass production; populist responses to economic centralization; American labor; and state regulation.

SOC 341 - Asian American Geographies

SeeÌýCRES 341Ìýfor description.

SOC 348 - Race, Economy, Public Policy

This course examines the social and institutional structures of economic life, economic policy, and their effects on race, stratification, and the system of ethnic relations in the contemporary United States. It examines those dynamics through the lenses of economic and organizational sociology, which view economic activities and outcomes as socially structured via networks, corporate and state hierarchies, systems of association and interpersonal exchange, and ecologies of public, private, and nonprofit organizations. Topics include the rise and fall of the mass production corporation; the role of unions, ethnic enclaves, and employment networks in allocating resources; the effects of civil rights law on corporate practices; how the state, the law, and neighborhood associations shape segregation, housing market dynamics, and the differential accumulation of wealth; the nature of and transformations in the welfare state; and the role of nonprofit enterprise and small-business formation in shaping the fates of African Americans and other groups.

SOC 351 - Sociology of Finance

Economic and social life now pivot around finance to an astonishing extent, leading one recent observer to suggest that we have experienced a Copernican revolution in which financial markets and logics of portfolio management have displaced corporations, communities and governments and the center around which everything orbits. This course focuses on institutional, organizational and social structures of the contemporary financial system.Ìý It traces the evolution of the financial system since the New Deal settlements, including "deregulation," securitization, and the growing reliance on mathematical modeling.Ìý It tracks the changing role and significance of the financial system within capitalist societies, including the sources and impacts of financial crises and ethno-racial and other inequalities in credit markets. And it considers the historical, present and future role of role of small, more locally rooted and decentralized alternatives to Wall Street, too-big-to-fail institutions, and money center banking. Ìý

SOC 362 - Culture and Inequality in Contemporary Communities

How do cultural processes reinforce social inequality? What meanings and practices serve to hide, normalize, or validate stratifications between individuals and social groups? What makes subordinate groups create subversive cultures in the struggle for community, dignity, and equity? This conference draws on cultural sociology to address all these questions and more. We start with classical texts, establishing key concepts (such as symbolic boundaries and intersectionality) in the field of study. We then focus on case studies tackling issues as diverse as elite education and privilege, poverty and social aids, economic restructuring and gentrification, sexual minorities and the city. Throughout these studies, we pay attention to the cultural processes within which class, gender, and race inequalities are rendered invisible or unproblematic and thus socially normalized. Further, we look at the process of contestation through which communities use social relations and cultural frames to defend themselves against top-down economic, social, and political changes.

SOC 363 - Sociology of Culture

The course surveys recent sociological studies of cultural production. It surveys how cultural materials are used to establish and maintain boundaries that differentiate among middle-class status groups in contemporary America and how diverse organizations such as museums, art galleries, and record companies manage the production and distribution of cultural symbols for a diversified market.

SOC 380 - Networks and Social Structure

Social network dynamics influence phenomena within communities, neighborhoods, families, work life, scientific and technical innovation, terrorism, trade, alliances, and wars. Network theories of social structure view actors as inherently interdependent, and examine how social structure emerges from regularities in this interdependence. This course focuses on the theoretical foundations of structural network dynamics and identifies key analytical questions and research strategies for studying network formation, organization, and development. Attention is paid to both interactionist and structuralist traditions in network analysis, and includes a focus on the core principles of balance and centrality, connectivity and clustering, power and hierarchy, and social structure writ large. Substantive topics include social mobility and stratification, group organization and mobilization, patterns of creativity and innovation, resource distributions, decision-making, the organization of movement and belief systems, conflict and cooperation, and strategic interaction. This course couples theoretical and substantive themes with methodological applications. Approximately one-third of course time is spent on the methodology of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting social network data.Ìý

SOC 401 - Institutional Analysis

This is an advanced treatment of the theory and empirical practices of institutional analysis in sociology and related fields. The course focuses first on structure, treating institutions and fields as contextual determinants of action and identifying the different mechanisms by which institutions promote order, stability, and distinctive patterns of organization, behavior, economic development, and public policy. Topics covered include path dependence and "lock in," isomorphism, structure-induced equilibrium, institutional logics and contingency, diffusion, and institutionalization. The course then focuses on agency and action, tackling the thorny issue of how to explain change without abandoning the contextual insights of earlier formulations. Topics covered include punctuated equilibria vs. evolutionary change, deinstitutionalization, processes of transposition, theorization and recombination, endogenous change dynamics, institutional entrepreneurship, and the relationships between social movements and institutional fields.

SOC 470 - Thesis

SOC 481 - Special Topics

Work is restricted to special fields in sociology-demography, communication analysis, and community surveys.