This introductory study explores the body of knowledge we call 'sociology'-the study of how humans construct their social worlds and how human interactions are influenced by that world. Students will learn about the history of sociology, about the major theories and ways of thinking sociologists have used to make sense of our world, and about key concepts such as class, race, status, ethnicity, gender, socialization, deviance, social control, power and social structure. Students also will be introduced to various research methods social scientists use to help us understand society and the many significant debates about social issues that we face today. This course was previously SOC-282124 Exploring Society.

Attributes: Social Science Gen Ed, *Social Sciences Gen Ed, Liberal

Students have the opportunity to develop individualized studies with their mentor in Sociology (SOCI). Please contact your mentor/advisor for more details.

In this introductory course, students will gain an overview of the ways in which race, class, and gender shape individuals’ identities and experiences, as well as social institutions, in the United States, today and in the past. Students will become familiar with major social science approaches to inequality, power, and oppression. More specifically, students will examine how race, class, gender, and other forms of social difference constitute intersecting systems of identity, solidarity, and oppression that impact everyone’s lives. This course was previously SOC-282264 Thinking About Race, Class and Gender.

Attributes: Social Science Gen Ed, *Diversity Gen Ed, *Social Sciences Gen Ed, Liberal

This course will explore what constitutes a social problem in contemporary US society and why some social issues capture public attention and others do not. A broad range of social issues and problems will be examined such as: poverty, inequality, immigration, housing, mass incarceration, drugs, crime, environmental degradation.

Attributes: Social Science Gen Ed, *Social Sciences Gen Ed, Liberal

Students have the opportunity to develop individualized studies with their mentor in Sociology (SOCI). Please contact your mentor/advisor for more details.

This course focuses on aging as part of the human life cycle. Topics may include: biological and psychological aspects of aging; an examination of aging in various cultures; changing views of aging in the United States; how aging affects different segments of our diverse population; death and dying; health and support services for the aging; and social policy issues. This course was previously HDV-283254 Aging and Society.

Attributes: Liberal

Memory and identity are deeply intertwined. Is there such a thing as individual memory? How do social groups determine what is remembered? When social groups change their understanding or interpretation of an event, how is memory altered? This course examines the construction of memory, transformation of the private experience into the public memory, commemoration of nationalist identity, and the memory dilemma of transnationalism and cosmopolitanism.

Attributes: Liberal

This advanced level course critically analyzes what constitutes global economic, political, and/or cultural issues and problems. Students will use sociological theoretical perspectives to analyze and interpret global responses and possible solutions to these social issues. Topics may include state sovereignty, globalization, transnationalism, global conflicts, the environment, and/or social movements. Prerequisites: at least one course (or equivalent knowledge) in the discipline of a social science. This course was previously SOC-284544 Contemporary Global Social Issues.

Attributes: Liberal

This course aims at conveying basic knowledge about the contemporary research on corruption, including causes, consequences, different forms/levels of corruption, and the basic methods of measuring and fighting corruption. Over the past twenty years, scholars, policy makers and academics have devoted increasing attention to the study of corruption as an obstacle to development. Corruption is now thought of as a serious social ill having detrimental effects on economic prosperity, people’s perceived satisfaction with life, social trust, political legitimacy, and economic equality. In addition, low quality of government is also a causal factor behind violent political conflicts, both inter- and intra-state, and this has also led to an increased interest in the negative effects of corruption on rebuilding post-conflict societies and establishing representative democracy. Prerequisites: Prerequisites: Intro to Sociology and/or Cultural Anthropology, Modern China, or other emerging market nations where corruption impacts the society and economy.

Attributes: Liberal

This course offers a comparative, historical and critical analysis of deviance and social control. The identification and enforcement of societal norms, values, sanctions, laws and punishment will be analyzed. The role of labeling and the subversive appropriation of labels by oppositional and deviant subcultures will also be addressed. This course was previously SOC-263634 Deviance and Social Control.

Attributes: Liberal

What is a disaster? How do social structures, individuals, groups, and institutions react to the loss of social function that occurs as a result of natural, technological, or sociopolitical disaster events? This course explores individual, community, and social causes and effects of disaster from sociological, political, and historical perspectives. Prerequisites: A previous course (or equivalent knowledge) in social theory or social science. This course was previously SOC-283434 Disaster and Society.

Attributes: Liberal

Students will explore the social institution of family, its variations, structures, and functions within the United States. Students will examine how political, historic, economic, and social conditions have had an impact on the evolution of the family as a unit as well as on its internal dynamics. As the family, however it is defined, connects private life with the public world, students might also examine this social institution in the contexts of public policy, workplace, education, and/or other social institutions. Students will also examine "the family" within the contexts of race, class, gender, and evolving family structures. Prerequisites: Exploring Society (introduction to sociology) or comparable prior learning..

Attributes: Liberal

Where does our food come from and what is the Global Food System? This course examines theintersections of local, regional, national, and global interests, the effects of industrial agriculture, the ecological and social impact of Western consumerism, and global flows of foodstuffs. Social justice issues on the local, global, and environmental levels will be discussed, such as, surpluses (e.g. obesity epidemic), shortages(e.g. urban food deserts and global famines), and environmental degradation.

Attributes: Liberal

This course examines the historical and cultural contexts of terrorism from social science perspectives. Students analyze the forms and structures of global terrorist activities and why individuals and state entities engage in terrorist activity. Students explore how media and technology both shape terrorist activity and public perceptions of terrorism.

Attributes: Liberal

This course explores the distribution of power in modern post-industrial societies. We will analyze how different individuals and groups are marginalized or excluded from decision making and equal access to resources and opportunities in those societies. The elements explored in this course focus on the distribution of power within the social unit, the resulting structures of power perpetuation, and the outcomes and impacts of these systems on society and organizations. This course is offered for International Education only. Corequisites: Introduction to Sociology; Macroeconomics This course is designed to allow learners to critically evaluate economic (such as Macroeconomics) and business-related courses (such as Human Resource Management and Organizational Behavior) against a backdrop of prevailing social institutions, behaviors, and structure.

Attributes: Liberal

The course focuses on conservative, alternative and progressive social movements in history and contemporary society. The student will have the opportunity to select and examine local, national or global movements applying critical social science perspectives to specific social movements.

Attributes: Liberal

This course examines education in American society from various sociological perspectives. Students will explore the relationship between education, social structures, and social interactions. Major issues in the field of education will be identified and analyzed from a sociological perspective. Prerequisites: Introductory Sociology or equivalent.

Attributes: Liberal

This sociology study focuses on law and legal systems as products of social structure. As such, this social institution is influenced by political, economic, social, historical and cultural shifts as societies evolve. At the same time, the way societies evolve is affected by the operation and outcomes of the legal system. In many ways, the law defines and drives our understandings and ideas about our social context, such as the meanings of gender and race, what behavior should be criminalized, how the economy works, etc. This study, then, integrates learning in many other areas including psychology, gender, race, class, inequality, social change, social movements, history, etc. How the study will evolve depends greatly on an individual student’s learning and professional goals as well as their interests. Prerequisites: Introduction to Law, Introduction to Sociology, advanced law or sociology studies; OR comparable prior learning Studies in other disciplines such as history, psychology, sociology, etc. will enhance the learning in this study. NOTE: This study could function as a capstone study for a concentration in Law and Society and/or Legal Studies. OR it could function as a first study in these concentrations after foundational studies are completed.

Attributes: Liberal

This course examines sport as a social construction that provides valuable insights to society. Topics may include: how sport is used as an agent of socialization; how gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status influences sport participation; how deviance is defined in sports; the role of sport in a global perspective; how sports interact with other social institutions. This course was previously SOC-284424 Sports and Society.

Attributes: Liberal

This course examines the topic of surveillance in society from cultural and sociological perspectives. Students explore the topic through an interdisciplinary analysis of contemporary scholarship. We will also examine the historical roots of surveillance and privacy to understand how various forms of control have emerged and are manifested in our daily life. This course is designed to articulate with other studies about society and the workplace. In particular, it is designed to sensitize learners to the challenges and trade-offs that are encountered in social systems and to allow learners to consider similar issues and challenges that are present, or which are evolving, in their social and work worlds.

Attributes: Liberal

This course examines the work of C.W. Mills as a cornerstone of sociological thought. The idea of a 'sociological imagination,' first proposed by Mills, situates the social actor at the intersection of biography, society, and history. How does this impact how we view the social world? Learn how to understand the connections between what we often consider to be the 'private' problems of the individual with broader social issues that affect us all.

Attributes: Liberal

In this course, students will focus on what 'religion' is, about the range of religious expressions in American society today, and about the multiple connections between religion and society. In effect, the study will focus around two broad questions: What are the effects of religions and religious beliefs upon society? And, how can we think about religion as a social, political and cultural activity?

Attributes: Social Science Gen Ed, Liberal

Although many of us have grudgingly come to accept violence as an inevitable and almost 'natural' part of our everyday lives, we struggle with developing some understanding of why violence happens and what to we can do about it. This study is intended to explore the multitude of theories about the causes of violence, how violence manifests in today's world, and to think creatively about mechanisms for addressing violence. Specifically, this study will critically examine the following issues: 1. What is violence? What does it mean to say that violence is 'socially constructed?' How is violence measured by government agencies? 2. What are the differences and similarities between individual violence, collective violence and state sponsored violence? How is violence produced by social systems? 3. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the various theories for understanding violence? 4. What approaches have been used to address various forms of violence? Have they been effective? Can we envision new and innovative approaches to addressing violence? Prerequisites: introductory sociology, psychology and/or criminal justice studies; OR comparable prior learning Studies in other disciplines such as history, psychology, sociology, etc. will enhance the learning in this study.

Attributes: Liberal

Students have the opportunity to develop individualized studies with their mentor in Sociology (SOCI). Please contact your mentor/advisor for more details.

Power, privilege, and oppression contribute to how people perceive and experience the world. This course examines how ideas of power, privilege, and oppression are defined, and how they operate in and through social institutions (e.g. the family, education, legal system, etc.), and how they shape social identity (e.g.  race, class, gender, sexuality, age, ability).  Students will also analyze how these dynamics influence issues such as relationships, experiences, expectations, opportunities, and social justice. This course was previously SOC-284264 Power and Privilege Prerequisites: Introductory Sociology and/or one additional social science, human development, CHS and/or public affairs study related to the topics of this course.

Attributes: *Diversity Gen Ed, Liberal

The sociological and philosophical exploration of the questions of privacy, security and freedom in the 21st Century in the context of both the theory and practical, policy-oriented aspects of these social concerns. This study will include an examination of some of the concepts of political and social philosophy, such as private vs. public domains, the individual and the state, freedom, political obligation and their relevance to contemporary society and government, with a particular focus on the Patriot Act, the Homeland Security Act, and current events shaping privacy and security legislation. Prerequisites: Advanced Level Standing This course was previously SOC-283274 Privacy, Security & Freedom.

Attributes: Social Science Gen Ed, Liberal

Visual sociology is the examination of social life through the analysis of visual artifacts. This course explores how visual theories and methodologies are used for sociological inquiry. Students will explore how visual images and artifacts represent and interpret social phenomena, social issues/problems, and social change.

Attributes: Social Science Gen Ed, Liberal

Students have the opportunity to develop individualized studies with their mentor in Sociology (SOCI). Please contact your mentor/advisor for more details.