Sociology
Note: This page contains all of the regular courses taught by this department. Not all courses are offered every year. Check the searchable schedule to see which courses are being offered in the upcoming semester.
SOCY 101 Human Society
Credit: 0.5
This introductory course in sociology explores what is surely the most fascinating of this planet's life forms, Homo sapiens. We are thinking creatures who, lacking a biologically fixed nature, go about constructing societies, at once defining ourselves as we shape our world. Understanding how we accomplish these tasks is the focus of this course. We begin by describing how sociologists see and study the world, and then we apply these tools to the study of human society. Discussions raise issues such as how cultures vary and how they are the same, how people are socialized to take their place in their particular way of life, how traditional and modern societies differ, and why social inequality is found throughout the world. This course combines lecture and discussion, presents various points of view, gives students opportunities to develop writing skills, and highlights ways in which sociology can help with future careers and inform our entire lives. Offered every other year.
Instructor: Staff
SOCY 102 Social Dreamers: Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud
Credit: 0.5
This introductory course for first- and second-year students traces the development of modern social theory from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. It begins by examining the fundamental social institutions and values that characterize modern society and the Enlightenment in the works of Descartes, Locke, Dickens, Weber, and J.S. Mill: (1) rise of modern state, political democracy, and utilitarianism; (2) market economy, industrialization, and economic liberalism; (3) new class system and capitalism; (4) modern personality (self) and individualism; and (5) principles of natural science, technological reason, and positivism. The course then turns to the dreams and imagination of Romanticism in the nineteenth and twentieth century with its critique of modernity in the works of Marx (socialism), Freud (psychoanalysis), Camus and Schopenhauer (existentialism), and Nietzsche (nihilism). We will outline the development of the distinctive principles and institutions of modernity in the following works: Dickens, Hard Times, Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism and Science as a Vocation, Locke, Second Treatise of Government, Mill, On Liberty, Descartes, The Meditations Concerning First Philosophy, Freud, Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria and Five Lectures on Psychoanalysis, Camus, The Fall, Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation, and Nietzsche,
Instructor: McCarthy
SOCY 103 Society and Culture
Credit: 0.5
This course introduces students to the field of sociology through studying the role of culture in society. We examine the connections between culture and society by following four major sociological traditions, and we combine theoretical discussions with concrete sociological studies. For the Conflict Tradition, we read Marx's writing on alienation as well as a study about the complex relationship between domestic help and their employers in contemporary America; for the Durkheimian Tradition, we discuss Durkheim's view of religion and morality while reading about why women turn to orthodox Judaism in New York City today; for the Utilitarian and Rational Choice Tradition, we discuss rational choice theory by examining a sociological and historical analysis of the rise of early Christianity; for the Microinteractionist Tradition, we explore the ideas of Goffman and Bourdieu through reading a French sociologist's ethnographic account of training to be a boxer in an African-American gym in Chicago. This course helps students develop a sociological imagination, as well as familiarity with research methods and social theory. Prerequisites: first- and second-year students only. Offered every year.
Instructor: Sun
SOCY 104 Identity in American Society
Credit: 0.5
This introductory course explores the collective foundations of individual identity within the American experience. In what sense is the self essentially social? How are changes in identity attributable to the organization of experience throughout life? What are the effects of gender, race, and social class on consciousness? How have changes in American industrial capitalism shaped the search for self-worth? In what ways have science and technology altered our relationship to nature? What challenges to identity are posed by emerging events in American history, including immigration and the African Diaspora? How has the very advent of modernity precipitated our preoccupation with the question: "Who am I?" Situated as we are in a farming community, we will consider these questions of identity through an examination of local rural society. Students will conduct group research projects to connect our ideas to everyday life. Prerequisites: first- and second-year students only. Offered every year.
Instructor: Sacks
SOCY 105 Society in Comparative Perspective
Credit: 0.5
From our vantage point in the twenty-first century, we perceive that the nature and fate of American society is increasingly connected to the nature and fate of society in other parts of the world. But what is "society" and how does it change over time? How, exactly, does society shape the human experience and human behavior in the United States and elsewhere? And how can we understand the ties that bind society "here" to society "there"? Sociology crystallized in the nineteenth century to address big questions like these in light of the profound uncertainty and human suffering that accompanied the rise of industrial capitalism, rapid urbanization, and the consolidation of the centralized bureaucratic state. This course introduces students to the discipline by revisiting the work of early sociologists, then using the analytical lenses they developed to examine concrete cases of social change and globalization. Offered every year.
Instructor: Johnson
SOCY 106 Social Issues and Cultural Intersections
Credit: 0.5
The objective of this introductory-level course is to critically examine social problems in the United States by using sociological perspectives to investigate the cultural and structural foundations of our society. Toward that end, students will learn sociological and criminological perspectives that provide a basic understanding of the principles of social-problems research from a sociological perspective. Accordingly we will discuss the social problems endemic to social institutions in society. Among the topics to be covered are education, crime, the family, and work, using examples from the Age of Enlightenment up to the present day. The most fundamental expectation of students in this course will be to use their sociological imaginations each and every class period to engage in focused discussion of the readings and assignments completed outside of class. This is expected to aid students in the goal of mastering the necessary skills of critical thinking and discussion, both verbally and in their writing about contemporary topics of interest and concern. Prerequisites: first- and second-year students only. Offered every other year.
Instructor: Kohlman
SOCY 107 Institutions and Inequalities
Credit: 0.5
This introductory course will focus on an analysis of social structure and its impact on the experiences of individuals. We will look at the ways in which social structures construct and constrain reality for individuals and how society and social institutions shape individual values, attitudes, and behaviors. The course will examine sociological concepts through an analysis of culture, social inequality, social institutions, and social change. The first portion of the class will focus on understanding culture and how we come to be social beings. We will then move to an examination of social stratification and inequalities, paying particular attention to the impact of race, class, and gender on the lives of individuals in American society. We will look at recent changes in the institutions of economics, politics, and education and the impact these changes have had on individuals and society. We will end the semester by looking at social change within one institution. By the end of the course, you should understand common sociological concepts and perspectives and be able to consider aspects of the social world through the sociological lens. Offered every year.
Instructor: Thomas
SOCY 108 Public Life
Credit: 0.5
Sociologists study the intersection of private troubles and public concerns. We argue that participating in a vibrant public life is important to a free and democratic polity. But what is "the public?" Who belongs to it? And can public discussion and participation really affect social and political change? By examining the ways in which public life has changed since the middle ages to the present day, this course introduces the core theories, concepts, and approaches which form the basis of modern sociology. Students will explore the idea of America as "a nation of joiners," the sociology of a social gathering, the tensions inherent in the civilizing effects of modernity, the forces that exclude people from public life, and how we might innovate ways to make our publics -- and our democracies -- more inclusive. No prerequisites.
Instructor: Villegas
SOCY 220 Problems, Politics, and Policy: The Political Construction of Social Problems and their Solutions
Credit: 0.5
Why do some issues become "social problems" while others do not? For example, each year auto accidents claim the lives of three times as many people as violent crime, yet it is crime rather than cars or driving that we see as a "problem." The course begins by explaining how problems emerge as a result of claims-making within the political arena by social movements or interested publics. We then consider what kinds of issues are defined as problems by political conservatives, liberals, libertarians, and radicals, and what policies are viewed as appropriate responses or solutions. These political dynamics will be illustrated with discussion of a number of issues, including inequality of income and wealth, racial and gender inequality, crime, abortion, the aging of the U.S. population, and the state of the physical environment. The course provides students with an opportunity to prepare an in-depth political analysis of one issue of choice. Prerequisite: introductory sociology course (100 level) or permission of instructor.
Instructor: Staff
SOCY 221 Global Religions in Modern Society
Credit: 0.5
Is religion still important in modern society? Consider the following snapshots of active religious life in our contemporary world: a Zen Buddhist center in San Francisco, a Theravada Buddhist temple in Philadelphia, a Catholic church in Northern China, a Confucian temple in Korea, and a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in India. In this class we approach these fascinating developments of global religions from sociological perspectives, and learn how to understand religions in the context of culture, politics, identity formation, and globalization. We begin with an introduction to classical theorists such as Durkheim and Weber, and move on to contemporary sociology of religion classics such as Robert Bellah's Beyond Belief. Using these theoretical tools, we proceed to discussions of specific cases, such as orthodox Judaism in America; immigration and religion; the formation of a Jewish-Buddhist identity; and Islam in contemporary France. Prerequisite: introductory sociology course (100 level) or permission of instructor. Offered every other year.
Instructor: Sun
SOCY 223 Wealth and Power
Credit: 0.5
People in the United States are keenly aware of social differences, yet few have a very precise understanding of "social class," the magnitude of social inequality in U.S. society, or why social inequality exists at all. This course provides a semester-long examination of social stratification--a society's unequal ranking of categories of people--in historical, comparative, theoretical, and critical terms. The historical focus traces the development of social inequality since the emergence of the first human societies some ten thousand years ago, with particular attention to the effects of the Industrial Revolution and, more recently, the Information Revolution. The comparative focus explores how and why societies differ in their degree of inequality, identifies various dimensions of inequality, and assesses various justifications for inequality. Attention is also given to the extent of social differences between high-and low-income nations in the world today. The theoretical focus asks how and why social inequality comes to exist in the first place (and why social equality does not exist), both in a national and an international context. This course offers a true diversity of political approaches, presenting arguments made by conservatives, liberals, libertarians, and radicals about the degree of inequality in the United States and in the world. Finally, this course provides a detailed history of the upper-class in the United States. Prerequisite: introductory sociology course (100 level) or permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Staff
SOCY 224 Sociology of Health and Illness
Credit: 0.5
Critics of the health care system charge that the current system delivers "sick" care, not "health" care. Policies emerging from the 1980s-era opposition to government involvement, the critics argue, have left us with skyrocketing medical costs, increasingly unequal access to health care, little public accountability, and increasing rates of chronic illness. This class will examine these charges by first discussing the social context of health and illness: who gets sick, who gets help, and the medicalization of social problems. We will then look at the health care system (historical development, medical education, institutional settings). We also will explore the interaction between people and their health care providers with respect to language, information exchange, and power relationships. We will then look at the advent of managed care and how it has changed the system in the United States. Several administrators and providers from the community will share their perspectives on these trends. The course will close with a discussion of reform and change within the medical institution and a brief look at health care systems in other countries. Prerequisite: introductory sociology course (100 level). Offered every other year.
Instructor: Thomas
SOCY 225 Notions of Family
Credit: 0.5
We all come from families, and the family is therefore a familiar social institution. But family is constituted not just by our individual experiences but also as a product of historical, social, and political conditions. This course will examine how these conditions have shaped family life as we know it today. We will look at the social construction of the family, the psychosocial interiors of families, and how governmental policy has shaped and will continue to shape families in the future. In addition, we will discuss the increasing diversity of family structures, the institution of marriage, and the social construction of childhood and parenting as represented in empirical research and legal decisions. Our underlying framework for analysis will be the gendered nature of family systems. Prerequisite: introductory sociology course (100 level). Offered every two years.
Instructor: Kohlman
SOCY 226 Sociology of Law
Credit: 0.5
This mid-level course examines the social conditions that give rise to law, how changing social conditions affect law, and how law affects the society we live in. In the first few weeks, it focuses on how classical social theorists--the so-called founders of sociology--viewed the law and its relationship to the rapid social change unfolding before their eyes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In the next several weeks, it explores how social actors such as the environmental, civil rights, and free speech movements attempt to use the law, litigation and legal institutions as instruments of social change. Turning this question around, it then looks at how legal processes, actors, and institutions--criminal trials, lawyers,and the courts, to name a few--interact with the media to shape public opinion, protest, and collective action. This course also explores the diverse ways in which individuals experience and interpret the law, and why this matters for understanding how law operates in the real world. In the final weeks of the semester, it probes how broader cultural shifts in American society are radically redefining the role and scope of our legal system. Prerequisite: introductory sociology course (100 level). Offered every other year.
Instructor: Staff
SOCY 229D Social Movements
Credit: 0.5
This mid-level course will examine social movements as attempts to bring about social change through collective action. The major goals of the course are: (1) to acquaint students with the sociological literature on social movements; (2) to examine the development, life cycle, and impact of several important social movements in the United States; (3) to examine issues of race, class, and gender within social movements; and (4) to develop students' skills in thinking sociologically about social discontent and social change. Substantively the course focuses primarily on U.S. social movements from the 1960s through today. This course also includes a service-learning component. Each student will work with a community agency two to three hours per week. Prerequisite: introductory sociology course (100 level) or permission of instructor. This course is the same as AMST 229D, listed in the American Studies Program. This course may be counted toward the major in American studies. Offered every two years.
Instructor: Thomas
SOCY 230 Sociology of Race and Ethnicity in the United States
Credit: 0.5
This mid-level course provides an introduction to the sociological investigation of race and ethnicity, with a focus on the innovations and limitations of established theoretical paradigms and research agendas of scholars in the U.S. Readings explore central lines of debate concerning the interactions between racial and ethnic groups, the impact of race on social and economic stratification, and the political implications of racialization. Contemporary interrogation of the race concept will also be addressed, with particular attention to the possibilities for change in the social construction of race. Students will actively engage major sociological race paradigms, with the primary objective of understanding how different perspectives can influence interpretations of the significance of race within American society. Prerequisite: introductory sociology course (100 level) or permission of instructor. Offered every two to three years.
Instructor: Kohlman
SOCY 231 Issues of Gender and Power
Credit: 0.5
The primary objective of this mid-level seminar is to explore the sociolegal construction of gender in U.S. society as we interrogate the power of underlying contemporary debates predicated upon gender. The focus of course discussion is specifically on legal issues that seem to be particularly affected by our societal understanding of the feminine and the masculine as presently constructed--for example, sexual orientation, rape, and domestic violence. Prerequisite: introductory sociology course (100 level), LGLS 110, or permission of the instructor. This course also satisfies a requirement of the concentrations in women's and gender studies and in law and society, as well as in the American studies major. Offered every two years.
Instructor: Kohlman
SOCY 232 Sexual Harassment: Normative Expectations and Legal Questions
Credit: 0.5
This mid-level seminar provides the opportunity for students to become conversant with the wide range of experiences that may appropriately be called sexual harassment. The course is guided by the principle that sexual harassment is not, as many seem to think, simply a byproduct of sexual desire or misguided attraction. Sexual harassment is about power--gaining power or retaining power in institutional settings. We will explore this concept both as legal construction, calling for specific determinants, and as a normative concept which arises in casual conversation and lived experience. Prerequisite: introductory sociology course (100 level), LGLS 110, or permission of the instructor. This course also satisfies a requirement of the concentrations in African diaspora studies and in law and society, and it may be counted towards the majors in American studies and in women's and gender studies. Offered every two years.
Instructor: Kohlman
SOCY 233 Sociology of Food
Credit: 0.5
This course explores the social world(s) we live in by analyzing what we eat, where it comes from, who produces it, who prepares it, and how. In the first few weeks of class, we examine the patterned culinary choices of ordinary Americans like ourselves; how American foodways are differentiated by gender, race/ethnicity, and class; and how political, social, and historical forces have shaped these patterns in ways that are not necessarily obvious to the sociologically untrained eye. We then shift our focus away from ourselves and our own sociologically conditioned eating habits to analyze the local, regional, and global processes and factors that bring food to our table. One of the major themes here is the greater social and spatial distances that our food travels from field, farm, or factory to consumers in the United States and in other parts of the Western Hemisphere, and how these distances complicate and sometimes obscure the unequal power relations at the root of food production and consumption. Our exploration of the global ties that bind consumer and producer ends with a look at how social activists around the world have organized collectively to reduce these distances and inequalities. Prerequisite: introductory sociology course (100 level) or permission of the instructor. Offered every other year.
Instructor: Johnson
SOCY 234 Community
Credit: 0.5
Humans are essentially social beings, and so living in communities is fundamental to our humanity. This course will examine the nature and dynamics of community. The changing character of community in modern and postmodern society will provide the central theme of our investigation. Given Kenyon's location, we will pay particular attention to rural community life. The course will close by examining efforts to build effective communities. Throughout our investigation, we'll consider the central place of community study as a method for understanding human society within sociology. Prerequisite: introductory sociology course (100 level) or permission of instructor. Offered every other year.
Instructor: Sacks
SOCY 235 Transnational Social Movements
Credit: 0.5
Especially since the civil rights, student, and anti-war movements of the 1950s and 1960s in the United States, sociologists have studied how individuals mobilize collectively and self-consciously to promote social change at a national level. Building on this tradition, this mid-level course examines a recent wave of protest movements that self-consciously organize across national borders. Under what circumstances and with what chances of success do national movements form alliances that cross borders? Is it true that globalization has generated new resources and strategic opportunities for the rise of transnational movements? In an age of accelerated globalization, do national borders still contain movements in any significant way? We will address these questions and others using case studies of contemporary environmental, anti-sweatshop, indigenous rights, and religious movements. Prerequisite: introductory sociology course (100 level) and sophomore standing. Offered every two years.
Instructor: Johnson
SOCY 237 Borders and Border Crossings
Credit: 0.63
Popular conceptions of globalization often allude to the growing magnitude of global flows and the stunning rapidity with which capital, commodities, culture, information, and people now cross national borders. From this characterization, one might conclude that national borders--and indeed nation-states themselves--are becoming increasingly porous and irrelevant as sources or sites of social regulation and control. This course examines the material reality of border regions and movement across them as a means of interrogating these assumptions and exposing how globalization rescales and reconfigures power differentials in human society but does not eliminate them. It scrutinizes technological, economic, political and ideological forces that facilitate border crossings for some groups of people under particular circumstances, then explores the seemingly contradictory tendency towards border fortification. Topics include: regional trade integration and political economy of border regions; the global sex trade and illegal trafficking of economic migrants; global civil society and sanctuary movements; paramilitary and vigilante border patrols; and the technology of surveillance. This course includes a required off-campus experiential component at the U.S.-Mexico border that takes place during the first week of spring break. Prerequisite: introductory sociology course (100 level) and permission of instructor. Offered every other year.
Instructor: Johnson
SOCY 240 Sociology of Deviance
Credit: 0.5
Our common sense tells us that certain acts are "wrong"; that particular persons who engage in them are "deviant." But common sense suggests little about how and why a particular act or actor comes to be understood in this way. Using a wide range of readings from literature as well as sociology, this course explores the origins and significance of deviance within social life. The distinction between being different and being deviant is carried throughout the semester. Emphasis is also given to the increasing importance of psychotherapy in our response to the deviant. This course provides a substantial introduction to criminology, with consideration of the social characteristics of offenders and victims, crime rates, and various justifications of punishment. This course should be of interest to students within many majors who are concerned with theoretical, practical, and ethical questions concerning the concepts of good and evil as foundations of human society. Prerequisite: introductory sociology course (100 level) or permission of instructor.
Instructor: Macionis
SOCY 241 Sociology of Gender
Credit: 0.5
Sociology has long recognized the different roles of men and women in society, but the systematic, sociological analysis of how and why these roles have been developed and maintained continues to be a contested terrain of scholarship and popular debate. This course will analyze the social construction of gender and its salience in our everyday lives. Using sociological theory in the context of gender, we will link the private experiences of individuals to the structure of social institutions. The course will begin with the familiar world of socialization and move to the more abstract level of institutions of social control and sex-based inequalities within social institutions, including the economy and family. Prerequisite: introductory sociology course (100 level) or permission of the instructor. Offered every two years.
Instructor: Kohlman
SOCY 242 Science and Society: Nature, Ecology, and the Crisis of The Enlightenment
Credit: 0.5
The first part of this mid-level course will examine the underlying philosophical and sociological foundations of modern science and rationality. It will begin by examining the differences between the ancient Greek and medieval views of physics, causality, and organic nature and the modern worldview of natural science in Galileo, Descartes, and Newton. We will then turn to the debates within the philosophy of science (Burtt, Popper, Kuhn, Quine, Feyerabend, and Rorty) and the sociology of science (Scheler, Ellul, Leiss, Marcuse, and Habermas) about the nature of scientific inquiry and the social/political meaning of scientific discoveries. Does science investigate the essential reality of nature, or is it influenced by the wider social relations and practical activities of modern industrial life? Does science reflect the nature of reality or the nature of society? We will deal with the expanded rationalization of modern society: the application of science and technological rationality (efficiency, productivity, and functionality) to economic, political, and social institutions. We will examine the process of modernization and rationalization in science, labor, politics, the academy, and ecology. Finally, we will discuss the debates within the environmental movement between the deep and social ecologists as to the nature and underlying causes of the environmental crisis. Readings will be from T. Kuhn, M. Berman, H. Braverman, E. A. Burtt, M. Horkheimer, C. Lasch, F. Capra, and M. Bookchin.
Instructor: McCarthy
SOCY 243 Social Justice:The Ancient and Modern Traditions
Credit: 0.5
This mid-level course will examine the various theories of ethics and social justice from the ancient Hebrew tradition of Torah and the prophets, New Testament writers Luke and Matthew, and medieval natural law, to modern discussions about social, political, and economic justice. We will explore how critical social theory has been applied within the political and economic context of modern industrial societies and how biblical and later religious teachings have been used as the basis for social ethics. Questions of justice, freedom, development, individualism, and alienation will be major themes in this study of capitalism, Christianity, and Marxism. Special emphasis will be on contemporary debates about the ethics of democratic capitalism from within both conservative theology and philosophy and radical liberation theology. Readings will be from the Bible, Papal encyclicals, the American Catholic bishops' letter on economics and social justice, Friedman, Novak, Baum, Miranda, Fromm, Pirsig, Schumacher, and N. Wolf. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor. This course is also listed as RLST 380 and is team-taught with Professor Royal Rhodes.
Instructor: McCarthy
SOCY 244 Race, Ethnicity, and American Law
Credit: 0.5
This mid-level course focuses on the American legal system's effect on racial, ethnic, and minority groups in the United States as well as on the manner in which such groups have influenced the state of the "law" in this country. It is intended to stimulate critical and systematic thinking about the relationships among American legal institutions and selected racial, ethnic, and minority populations. The class will examine various social and cultural conditions, as well as historical and political events, that were influenced in large part by the minority status of the participants. These conditions will be studied to determine in what ways, if any, the American legal system has advanced, accommodated, or frustrated the interests of these groups. Through exposure to the legislative process and legal policymaking, students should gain an appreciation for the complexity of the issues and the far-reaching impact that legal institutions have on the social, political, and economic condition of racial, ethnic, and minority groups in America. The primary requirement of this course is completion of a comprehensive research project. Prerequisite: introductory sociology course (100 level) or permission of instructor. This course may be counted toward the law and society concentration, African diaspora concentration and the American studies major.
Instructor: Sheffield
SOCY 245 Cultural Sociology
Credit: 0.5
This course examines the influence of shared meanings and practices on a variety of dimensions of contemporary American social life, including race, class, religion, political participation, close relationships, economics, and social commitment. We will consider the following questions: What is culture? How does culture operate in society? How does culture interact with social institutions and with individuals? How do we study culture sociologically? Fundamentally, cultural sociology is a way of seeing society; the goal of the course is for you to learn to see the structured meanings and practices that order all of our lives, and the possibilities the culture provides for us to influence our society's future course. Our emphasis is distinctly on the contemporary American cultural mainstream. We will discuss in class the question of whether or not such a "mainstream" exists and, if so, how we might understand it. Our starting assumption is that it is essential for Americans to understand the themes of their own culture if we are to be responsible global citizens. Prerequisites: introductory sociology course (100 level) or permission of instructor.
Instructor: Staff
SOCY 246 American Folk Music
Credit: 0.5
Music, like all art, is created, expressed, and understood within a social context. This mid-level course examines the relationship between art and society through a focused investigation of American folk music. Themes of particular interest include the movement of music across the color line and between folk and popular culture. Prerequisite: introductory sociology course (100 level) or permission of instructor. Offered every two to three years.
Instructor: Sacks
SOCY 249 Knowledge of the Other: Journey to the East
Credit: 0.5
In this course--cross-listed in Asian Studies Programs, we deal with some of the fundamental questions in our global age: How do we understand a culture or society that is radically different from our own? This course has two parts. In the first half, we read theoretical texts such as Said's Orientalism, excerpts from Hegel's and Marx's writing on race and world history, recent work on the epistemology of ignorance, studies of religion from the East (Lopez and Masuzawa), as well as debates about the "clash of civilizations" (Huntington) and the "geography of thought" (Nisbett) in order to conceptualize the notion of "the Other" and our relationship with "the Other." In the second half, we focus on writings about Asia (Tibet, Japan, and China), such as travel writing, historical analysis, and fiction. By analyzing these accounts of the journey to the East, we learn to recognize the complex relationships we have with the cultural, religious, and social traditions that are radically different from our own, with the hope that we can develop a meaningful connection with them through reflective understanding. This course helps both sociology and Asian studies students theorize the complex and creative relationship between oneself and "the Other," and it is of use to students who have recently returned from study abroad (particularly Asia), as well as the ones who are preparing to go abroad. Prerequisite: introductory sociology course (100 level) or permission of the instructor. Offered every other year.
Instructor: Sun
SOCY 250 Systems of Stratification
Credit: 0.5 QR
The primary objective of this mid-level seminar is to investigate systems of stratification through reading texts and empirical investigation. The class will also provide regular opportunities to investigate several different data sets to pursue questions which arise from a reading of the texts we cover during the course of the semester. Stratification topics to be covered include education, gender, class, sexuality, and race as they have permeated U.S. society and, therefore, as they have shaped the everyday lived experience of U.S. citizens. With a heavy emphasis upon the critical assessment of quantitative information as presented in the readings for this course, as well as the use of quantitative analysis, this course satisfies the "Quantitative Reasoning" requirement of Kenyon's general education requirement. This course also satisfies a requirement of the concentration in African diaspora studies and may be counted toward the American studies major. Prerequisite: introductory sociology course (100 level) or permission of the instructor. Offered every two years.
Instructor: Kohlman
SOCY 251 Social Change, Dictatorship, and Democracy
Credit: 0.5
Why are some countries more democratic than others? What effects have industrialization and colonization had on developing world democracies? This course probes those questions from a comparative and sociological perspective. We will explore the relationship between political regimes and socioeconomic factors, like class relations, state-led development, and racial and ethnic tensions. To do so, we will look at the contrasting political and social trajectories of European nations, the United States, East Asia, and Latin America, using historical texts, sociological theory, and in-depth case study research. Prerequisite: An intro sociology course (100 level) or permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Villegas
SOCY 262 Linking Classical Tradition to Contemporary Theory
Credit: 0.5
The purpose of this course is to guide students to draw linkages from classical theory to the formation of contemporary sociological theory. Discussion will be guided by the personal biographies of the theorists: their family background, where they were educated, and what events or persons they were influenced by as they formulated the theories for which they are known. The emphasis is placed upon acquiring breadth of knowledge, rather than depth. (For a more comprehensive understanding of many of the theorists discussed in this class, students are directed to SOCY 361: Classical Social Theory and SOCY 362: Contemporary Social Theory.) This course is not intended for seniors, although it is required for all majors. Students are advised, then, to enroll in this class as soon as they begin to consider majoring in Sociology. Prerequisite: introductory sociology course (100 level) or permission of instructor. Offered every year.
Instructor: Kohlman
SOCY 271 Methods of Social Research
Credit: 0.5
Knowing how to answer a question, including what constitutes good evidence and how to collect it, is a necessary ability for any sociologist, or for any student reading the sociological research of others. The primary goal is to understand when and how to use research strategies such as survey questionnaires, interviews, fieldwork, and analysis of historical documents. Students will conduct small-scale research projects using these techniques. This course is not intended for seniors, although it is required for all sociology majors. Students are advised, then, to enroll in this class as soon as they begin to consider majoring in Sociology. Prerequisites: introductory sociology course (100 level) and sophomore standing. Offered every year.
Instructor: Staff
SOCY 361 Classical Social Theory: Marx, Weber, and Durkheim
Credit: 0.5
This course examines the development of classical social theory in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. In the first part, we will stress the philosophical and intellectual foundations of classical theory in the works of Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Kant, and Hegel. We will examine how social theory integrated modern philosophy, classical political science (law), and historical political economy in the formation of a new discipline. Distinguishing itself from the other social sciences as an ethical science, classical sociology, for the most part, rejected the Enlightenment view of positivism and natural science as the foundation for social science as it turned instead to German idealism and existentialism for guidance. It also rejected the Enlightenment view of liberal individualism and utilitarian economics, and in the process united the ancient ideals of ethics and politics (Aristotle) with the modern (neo-Kantian) concern for empirical and historical research. The second part of the course will examine the classical analysis of the historical origins of Western society in the structures and culture of alienation (Marx), rationalization (Weber), and anomie and division of labor (Durkheim). At the methodological level, we will study the three different views of classical science: critical science and the dialectical method (Marx), interpretive science and the historical method of understanding and value relevance (Weber), and positivistic science and the explanatory method of naturalism and realism (Durkheim). Prerequisite: introductory sociology course (100 level) and one additional sociology course or permission of the instructor.
Instructor: McCarthy
SOCY 362 Contemporary Social Theory
Credit: 0.5
Social theories offer systematic explanations of human behavior as well as insights into the historical moments in which they were created. In this course we will investigate some of the last century's major theories concerning the nature of society and the human social process. Most of these sociological theories are American in origin, but some new developments in Western European thought will be included as well. Specific theories to be considered include (1) the functionalist theory of Talcott Parsons; (2) social behaviorism, as articulated by George Herbert Mead; (3) Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann's sociology of knowledge; (4) the critical theory of Herbert Marcuse; and (5) intersection theory, as developed by Patricia Hill Collins. The consideration of the intellectual and social contexts in which these theoretical traditions have arisen will be central to our analysis throughout. This course will be of value to students interested in developing a systematic approach to understanding society and should be especially relevant to those concentrating in the social sciences. Prerequisite: sophomore standing, introductory sociology course (100 level) and one additional sociology course or permission of instructor. Offered generally every three out of four years.
Instructor: Sacks
SOCY 372 Quantitative Research Methods
Credit: 0.5 QR
Ever wonder how sociologists gather the information upon which they base their claims? Curious about all those charts and graphs in newspapers and magazines? Thinking about a career in marketing, survey research, or program evaluation? This course is designed for students who want to become proficient in doing and understanding quantitative social research using SPSS. The focus of this class is survey research and design. Students will learn the basics of data mining, recoding and analysis while also learning to write and present their research findings. Prerequisites: sophomore standing, introductory sociology course (100 level) and SOCY 271. Offered every two years.
Instructor: Kohlman
SOCY 373 Qualitative Methods
Credit: 0.5
This course focuses on learning to use qualitative methods to answer questions about social life. We will discuss individual and group interviews, observational techniques, and content analysis of documents and visual images. Students will practice using these techniques by carrying out a semester-long research project using these methods. We will also discuss the "nuts and bolts" of designing a research project, writing research proposals, collecting data, analyzing data, and writing up qualitative research. Finally, we will contextualize this practical instruction with discussions of research ethics, issues of reliability and validity in qualitative research, the relationship between qualitative methods and theory-building, and the place of qualitative methods in the discipline of sociology. Prerequisites: sophomore standing, introductory sociology course (100 level) and SOCY 271. Offered every two years.
Instructor: Johnson
SOCY 374 Comparative-Historical Analysis
Credit: 0.5
Social scientists have used comparative-historical methods to answer "big questions" about social and political phenomena. Indeed, focusing on historical patterns in small numbers of key cases, scholars have contributed canonical texts about democratization, revolutions, identity formation, and economic development (among others). Students will work closely with exemplary texts, learn and apply different techniques of causal inference, and explore the ongoing debate between comparative-historical methods and quantitative analysis. Prerequisite: SOCY 271 or permission of instructor.
Instructor: Villegas
SOCY 421 Gender Stratification
Credit: 0.5
This upper-level seminar critically examines several genres of literature on the social roles of men and women at both the social-psychological and structural levels of society. We will discuss, in particular, how gender relates to concepts such as socialization, attitudes, interpersonal behavior, work roles, and stratification by race, sexuality, and class; and social problems that arise as a result of gender inequality. This course also satisfies a requirement of the concentrations in African diaspora studies, law and society, and women's and gender studies. Offered every two to three years.
Instructor: Kohlman
SOCY 423 Women, Health, and Medicine
Credit: 0.5
This course will examine women's health from a variety of levels. The course will draw mainly on the work of sociologists and gender scholars. Using these theoretical perspectives, we will examine the social, historical, and political context of women's health. We will begin with an overview of the biopsychosocial context of women's health and inequalities in health status. We will then look at women in the medical system as both patients and providers. We will pay particular attention to how these experiences are affected by race, class, gender, and geography. We will then examine several topics which are particularly important for women's well-being, including reproductive health and the medicalization of women's bodies. We will end the course with a look at the political context of women's health and how women have organized for change. In particular, we will look at the women's health movement in the United States and the global politics of women's health. While we will discuss some health problems that are of particular concern to women, we will move beyond specific health problems to analyze how women's health problems develop, are perceived, and are responded to both medically and socially in contemporary society. Prerequisites: sophomore standing and an introductory sociology course (100 level) or permission of instructor. This course may be counted towards the women's and gender studies major. Offered every two to three years.
Instructor: Thomas
SOCY 424 Vigilantism and the Law
Credit: 0.5
Why and under what historical conditions have particular groups of American citizens mobilized to take the law into their own hands? From the posses of the nineteenth-century Wild West, to the twentieth-century Klan lynchings, to the emergence of contemporary right-wing "patriot" and militia movements, American history is replete with instances of extralegal or "self-help" justice administration. This seminar surveys the history of vigilantism in the United States against the backdrop of national state consolidation and the evolution of this country's criminal justice system. Through analysis of primary and secondary texts covering a broad range of vigilante movements, it explores how the line between public and private administration of penal law has shifted over time and across geographical regions. This class will be run as a Socratic seminar that fosters learning through individual and collective analysis of course material. It will also allow students to develop the skills to conduct independent empirical research and to analyze findings in interaction with seminar participants. Prerequisites: sophomore standing and an introductory sociology course (100 level). Offered every two to three years.
Instructor: Johnson
SOCY 425 Gender and the Welfare State
Credit: 0.5
The welfare state refers to a system through which the government provides social insurance programs, social assistance, universal entitlements, and public services to its citizens (such as health care, education, pension, among others). National ideologies of citizenship, motherhood, femininity and masculinity help shape the character of welfare states. This course will look at the relationship between the configuration of welfare states and power relations, men's and women's participation in the labor market, gendered access to resources, and care needs such as child care and elderly care. Readings will focus on the U.S. and European countries. Students' independent research may also focus on other countries, with permission of instructor. Prerequisites: sophomore standing, introductory sociology course (100 level), WMNS 111, or permission of instructor. This course may be counted towards the women's and gender studies major and will be offered every two to three years.
Instructor: Thomas
SOCY 440 Blackface: The American Minstrel Show
Credit: 0.5
The most popular form of stage entertainment in the nineteenth century, the minstrel show continues to have profound effects on American culture. In this advanced seminar we will explore minstrelsy as a musical, theatrical, and social phenomenon. Issues to be considered include the interplay of African and European music and culture on American soil, the rise of popular culture, the public portrayal of gender and ethnicity, and race relations. We will examine readings from a variety of disciplines as well as original materials (scripts, photographs, audio recordings, and film) related to minstrelsy from the last two centuries. Prerequisite: written permission of instructor. This course fulfills the senior seminar requirement in the African diaspora studies concentration and the American studies major. Offered every two to three years.
SOCY 450 French Social Theory
Credit: 0.5
This course offers a systematic account of French social theory since the end of the nineteenth century, when sociology became an institutionalized academic discipline in France. We analyze the key theoretical texts that have influenced sociologists in France and beyond, examine the methodological debates that have engaged generations of theorists, and discuss several empirical studies that shed light on the ways social theories are connected to empirical inquiry. The course follows the historical trajectory from positivism to anthropological theory at the turn of the twentieth century, and from structuralism to poststructuralism in the postwar era. We focus on the key ideas and concepts in classical theorists such as Comte, Durkheim, and Mauss, and contemporary theorists such as Levi-Strauss, Sartre, De Beauvoir, Althusser, Foucault, and Bourdieu. Prerequisites: sophomore standing and an introductory sociology course (100 level) or permission of the instructor. Offered every two years.
Instructor: Sun
SOCY 461 German Social Theory
Credit: 0.5
This seminar examines the evolution of German social theory in the twentieth century. Following a summary of the major tendencies and questions in social theory during the Weimar period, the course will consider a wide range of traditions, including phenomenology, existentialism, psychoanalysis, hermeneutics, Marxism, and Critical Theory. Readings will include the works of Nietzsche, Freud, Adorno, Horkheimer, Fromm, Arendt, Marcuse, Gadamer, and Habermas.
Instructor: McCarthy
SOCY 463 Intersectional Theory
Credit: 0.5
This upper-level seminar explores the emerging paradigm of intersectionality. Its principal objective is to develop an understanding of the ways in which the salient identities of class position, race, and gender function simultaneously to produce the outcomes we observe in the lives of individuals and in society. While there is a large body of literature in each of the three areas (class, race, gender), only recently have theorists and researchers attempted to model and analyze the "simultaneity" of their functioning as one concerted force in our everyday lives. We will pursue this objective in this seminar by exploring the roles of gender and race/ethnicity in the United States during the early development of capitalism and in the present, by re-examining key concepts in conflict theory through the lens of intersectional theory, and by studying the roles of class, gender, and race/ethnicity at the level of the global economy today as in the past. Prerequisites: SOCY 262 or SOCY 361, or permission of the instructor. This course fulfills the senior seminar requirement of the African diaspora studies concentration and may be counted toward the American studies and women's and gender studies majors. Offered every two to three years.
Instructor: Kohlman
SOCY 465 Sociology of Knowledge: The Social Life of Knowledge in the Social Sciences and Humanities
Credit: 0.5
This course is concerned with the social life of knowledge, particularly in the social sciences and humanities disciplines. We begin with questions such as: What are the social factors affecting the formation and production of knowledge? For instance, how is aesthetic knowledge legitimized? How does a new discipline (such as sociology and psychoanalysis in early twentieth century) establish its authority? How is the classification of race socially constructed? What is the gendered nature of knowledge? To answer these questions, we draw upon works of philosophers such as Kuhn and Hacking, as well as social theorists such as Foucault and Bourdieu, to formulate our theoretical framework. We then examine empirical studies by sociologists such as Becker, Lamont, Collins, and Abbott to understand how institutional structures, shifting disciplinary boundaries, professionalization, and power relations play important roles in the social life of knowledge. Prerequisites: sophomore standing and an introductory sociology course (100 level) or permission of the instructor. Offered every other year.
Instructor: Sun
SOCY 466 The Politics of Identity Formation in the Global South
Credit: 0.5
Recent years have seen the growing political importance of identity in the global south. Indigenous movements, religious and ethnic nationalism, and class-based identities have impacted the practice of democracy, relations between social groups, and transnational structures of power. But is what we see a detrimental splintering of identities and belongings or a new era of diversity and pluralism? What will latter-day identities do for democratization and social conflict? This course focuses on the political effects of identity in Latin America, Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Permission of instructor.
Instructor: Villegas
SOCY 477Y Fieldwork: Rural Life
Credit: 0.5
This course provides an introduction to fieldwork techniques and to the ethical and political issues raised by our purposeful involvement in other people's lives. Students will spend considerable time conducting original field research throughout Knox County. Our research will consider issues related to the character of rural society. The results of this research will provide the basis for a major public project.
Instructor: Sacks
SOCY 478Y Fieldwork: Rural Life
Credit: 0.5
See the course description for SOCY 477Y.
Instructor: Sacks
SOCY 489 Senior Seminar
Credit: 0.5
This advanced seminar, required of all senior majors, explores fundamental issues regarding the process of sociological inquiry and the promise of the discipline. Faculty forums and student-directed discussions will consider the boundaries and purposes of sociology, the relationship between theory and research, sociological writing, and the planning and execution of scholarly research. Students will apply their understanding of these issues through individual projects on subjects of their own choosing, presenting their work in progress for critical discussion. This course is limited to senior sociology majors. Offered every fall semester.
Instructor: Staff
SOCY 493 Individual Study
Credit: 0.25-0.5
Individual study is an exceptional, not a routine, option, with details to be negotiated between the student(s) and the faculty member, along with the department chair. The course may involve investigation of a topic engaging the interest of both student and professor. In some cases, a faculty member may agree to oversee an individual study as a way of exploring the development of a regular curricular offering. In others, the faculty member may guide one or two advanced students through a focused topic drawing on his or her expertise, with the course culminating in a substantial paper. The individual study should involve regular meetings at which the student and professor discuss assigned material. The professor has final authority over the material to be covered and the pace of work. The student is expected to devote time to the individual study equivalent to that for a regular course. Individual studies will typically run for no more than one semester and award .5 unit of credit. In rare cases when the course must be halted mid-semester, .25 unit may be awarded.