Sociology electives (Go to Class Search for specific course offerings each semester and prerequisites):

SOCI 2200: The Family
Provides a sociological introduction to patterns of family formation and contemporary trends in family life.  Examines historical and contemporary contexts that shape meaning and importance of family in society.  Examines culture, race and ethnicity, religion, social class, gender, and sexula orientation to understand how individuals define, form and maintain relationships.

SOCI 2480: Sport and Society
The symbiotic relationship between sport and society. Topics that will be examined include the connections between sports and social mobility; sports and race; sports and gender; and sports and community identification. The course will show how sports are a pervasive feature of everyday urban life.

SOCI 2500: Self, Language and Social Interaction

Perspectives on the individual self in society.  The role of language and social interaction in the construction of personal identity.  The self as process and social object.

SOCI 3200: Social Problems in Urban Society
Analysis of selected social problems within the framework of modern American society from the viewpoint of their nature, extent, contributing factors, and programs of prevention and treatment. Concepts and theories related to the analysis of social problems and deviant behavior.

SOCI 3250: Race and Racism

Provides sociological persepctives of how race and racism structure our lives.  Considers both historical and contemporary experiences of racial and ethnic groups in the United States and globally.  Utilizes an intersectional framework to examine how race and racism function in the political, social, legal and economic systems.

SOCI 3280: Race and the Family

Focuses on the family structures and dynamics of major racial and ethnic groups in the United States and/or other societies.  Topics considered may include major perspectives on race and family, historical and contemporary family patterns and practices, the diversity of family forms and relationships, social policies affecting race and family, cultural factors affecting race and family and multiracial families.  

SOCI 3300: Sociology of the Life Course

The study of socialization, the influence of the family, peers, schooling, mass media and other institutions on human development from infancy through late life.  Various sociological perspectives, developmental theories and critiques.

SOCI 3400: Behavior Patterns of Youth

The position of youth in modern society.  Origin and implications of the generation gap, status ambiguity and its consequences, dependency and independence, the pursuit of identity, conformity and rebellion, and the youth culture.

SOCI 3500: Culture, Health and Illness

Social and cultural factors in the disease process, the distribution of disease, the meaning of health, the response to illness and approaches to healing.  Structure and operation of health-related professions and facilities.  Current trends in medicine.  Value conflicts.

SOCI 3550: Race, Gender and Medicine
Historical overview of medical ideas regarding race and gender. Examination of medical and scientific models of mind, body, race, and gender, and their implications for health assessment, medical treatment, and health care policy. Consideration of social, cultural, and political dimensions of medicine in relation to race and gender. 

SOCI 3570: Men, Masculinities and Health

Explores the social and psychological constructions of men's gender identities at various stages during the lifecourse and how those identity constructions are intertwined with health outcomes.

SOCI 3600: Deviance and Social Control

Sociological analysis of deviance and society's response to it.  Issues in defining and identifying deviance, the emergence of deviant behavior and identity, informal and formal reactions to deviance, and organizational and institutional efforts to remedy and control it.  Topics may include crime, delinquency and mental illness.

SOCI 3700: Social Movements, Protest, and Change
Examines collective action and social movements.  Explores the interactions between individuals and social and cultural changes; the strategies, tactics and goals of collective action and social movements; and how institutional, governmental and cultural resources are used. Social movements covered may include civil rights, women’s rights, LGBT rights, labor movements and AIDS movement.

SOCI 3720: Environment and Society
Examines environmental challenges to modern civilizations: overuse of natural resources to support and absorb the consequences of human activities. Focuses on human abilities to cope with these challenges by exploring features of human action, culture, economic structure, organizational forms, and values, such as sustainability. Prereq: SOCI 1001 recommended.

SOCI 3750: Food, Water and Society
Explores individual and sociocultural meanings of, and relationships to, food and water. Examines national and international inequalities and policies regarding access to food and water from multiple perspectives. Topics may include: social movements, food taboos, food insecurity, food aid, potable water shortages, and cooperation and conflict over water.

SOCI 3986: Internship and Seminar in Sociology

Field experience in a community social service agency for the purpose of furthering the student's integration of theory and practice in a professoinal setting.  Placement is for a minimum of 140 hours per term under the supervision of agency personnel and includes a weekly seminar with the internship coordinator.  S/U grade assessment.  Limited enrollment.

SOCI 4050: Urban Ethnography: The City as Laboratory

Explores urban processes and institutions "from the inside"  Initially focuses on the study of various ethnographies.  Next, requires "hands on" research, involving: observing human interaction, preparing field notes, conducting focused interviews, analyzing the collected data, and preparing a data-based research paper.

SOCI 4100: Urban Life

Social psychological aspects of urban life and experience.  Implications of urbanization for individuals and groups.  Ecological, cultural and institutional influences.  Interpersonal and intergroup relations in urban settings  Topics may include conflict, alienation and diversity.

SOCI 4130: Sociology of Human Values

Definitions of values in economics, linguistics, communication and sociology.  The value system of selected sociologists.  Values and sociocultural pluralism.

SOCI 4200: Personal Troubles and Public Issues

Deals with the social realities of troubles, which range from circumstances that we treat as irksome to major traumas in our lives that become social problems.  Focuses on the commonalities shared by these various constructions.  Draws from a variety of disciplines, notably sociology, social work, anthropology, history, psychology, linguistics and rhetorical studies.

SOCI 4250: African-American Social Thought
Examination of historical and contemporary writings of Black social theorists. The impact of historical, social, economic, and cultural factors on Blacks in the United States and alternative strategies for change.

SOCI 4270: Urban Sociology

Urban society with special consideration of the problems of dealing with the structures, institutions, agencies and decision-making units in a metropolitan area.

SOCI 4400: Social Inequality
Theories and systems of social class in modern society. Societal structures and processes resulting from stratification phenomena.

SOCI 4420: Sociology of Religion

The sociological study of religious groups, institutions and behavior, including relationships between religion and other areas of social life.

SOCI 4430: Christianity and Sexuality in the U.S.

Explores the very recent historical development of sexuality and its intersctions with U.S. Christianity.  Engages readings from multiple disciplines, emphasizing intersectional perspectives on religion, gender, sexuality, race and social class through U.S. history.

SOCI 4440:  Sociology of Education

Sociological analysis of educational institutions with primary emphasis on contemporary U.S. urban education, student subcultures, school-community relations and innovations.

SOCI 4450: Sociology of Sex and Gender
Biological and cultural bases of sex and gender patterns. Impact of major social institutions and processes on maintenance of gender patterns, with questions of power and dominance central to discussion. Benefits and costs of stereotypic gender patterns. Mechanisms and alternative directions for change. Historical and cross-cultural research included.

SOCI 4460:  Sociology of Work and Occupations

The diverse ways in which human beings make their livings in both industrialized and nonindustrialized societies.  Career patterns and work problems. Theories about work and workers.  Proposals for improving the quality of modern work.

SOCI 4600:  The Social Reality of Crime and Justice

A critical examination of the ways in which crime is defined, how crime control policies are established, and how the criminal justice system responds to the problem of crime.  Specific attention is given to the social and political context in which crime is talked about and responded to.  Alternative approaches to crime control, such as peacemaking criminology and restorative justice, are examined.

SOCI 4660: Law and Society
The social components of legal organizations and procedural systems. The role of law as an instrument of social control and social change.

SOCI 4680: Sociology of Mental Illness
Review of major sociological and social psychological models of madness. Analysis of definitions and responses to mental illness. Study of the social processing involved in the production, recognition and treatment of mental illness.

SOCI 4700: Political Sociology
The interrelationship of politics and society. Special consideration of leadership analysis, party systems, public opinion, electoral behavior and conflict situations.

SOCI 4720:  Sociology of Community

Discussion of contemporary problems of rural, urban and suburban communities including ecological and communication patterns, problems of identity, organization and motivation.  

SOCI 4730: Capitalism, Socialism and Emancipation
Examines the core dynamics of capitalist society in the Marxist tradition of critical social science.  Does capitalism promote human flourishing, freedom and democracy?  Might socialism or some other system better promote those values? Specific focus on class structure, class struggle, the state and politics, ideas and consciousness, and socialism and emancipation.  Additional topics include capitalism and racial inequality, gender, the environment, the health care system, culture and imperialism.

SOCI 4740: Social Change

Selected topics dealing with models and theories of innovation, diffusion, resistance to change and associated conflict in and between social systems.  Content varies.

SOCI 4931: Topics in Sociology

Lectures and discussions in an area which, because of its topicality, is not the subject of a regular course.  Specific topics are designated in the Schedule of Classes.

SOCI 4986: Advanced Internship and Seminar in Sociology

Continuation of the internship experience (SOCI 3986).  Placement is for a minimum of 140 hours per term of supervised practice at the same agency as the previous term and includes a weekly seminar with the internship coordinator.  Credits earned cannot be counted toward the major.  S/U grade assessment.  Limited enrollment.

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