Sociology

SOCI UN3000 SOCIAL THEORY. 4.00 points.

Prerequisites: Sophomore standing.
Prerequisites: Sophomore standing. Required for all sociology majors. Prerequisite: at least one sociology course of the instructor's permission. Theoretical accounts of the rise and transformations of modern society in the19th and 20th centuries. Theories studied include those of Adam Smith, Tocqueville, Marx, Durkheim, Max Weber, Roberto Michels. Selected topics: individual, society, and polity; economy, class, and status: organization and ideology; religion and society; moral and instrumental action

SOCI UN1000 THE SOCIAL WORLD. 4.00 points.

Identification of the distinctive elements of sociological perspectives on society. Readings confront classical and contemporary approaches with key social issues that include power and authority, culture and communication, poverty and discrimination, social change, and popular uses of sociological concepts

SOCI UN3010 METHODS FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH. 4.00 points.

Prerequisites: SOCI W1000 The Social World or Instructor Permission
Prerequisites: SOCI UN1000 The Social World or Instructor Permission Required for all Sociology majors. Introductory course in social scientific research methods. Provides a general overview of the ways sociologists collect information about social phenomena, focusing on how to collect data that are reliable and applicable to our research questions

SOCI UN3011 METHODS SOCIAL RESEARCH-DISC. 0.00 points.

Prerequisites: SOCI UN1000
Prerequisites: SOCI UN1000 Discussion section for SOCI UN3010: METHODS FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH

SOCI UN3265 SOCIOLOGY OF WORK ＆ GENDER. 3.00 points.

This course examines gender as a flexible but persistent boundary that continues to organize our work lives and our home lives, as well as the relationship between the two spheres. We will explore the ways in which gender affects how work is structured; the relationship between work and home; the household as a place of paid (and unpaid) labor; and how changes in the global economy affect gender and work identities

SOCI UN3921 HIGHER EDUCATION AND INEQUALITY. 4 points.

Prerequisites: (SOCI UN1000)

Higher education in the U.S. is going through a period of rapid change.  State support is shrinking, student debt is increasing, full-time faculty are being replaced by adjuncts, and learning outcomes are difficult to measure, at best. This class will try to makes sense of these changes. Among other questions, it will ask whether higher education is a source of social mobility or a means of class reproduction; how the college experience differs by race, class, and type of college attended; how the economics of higher education have led to more expensive college and more student loans; and how we might make college better. We will consider several different points of view on the current state of U.S. higher education: that of students who apply to and attend college, that of colleges and universities, and that of society at large.  As part of this course, students will conduct research on their own universities: Columbia College or Barnard College.

SOCI UN3960 SEMINAR - PROBLEMS OF LAW ＆ SOCIETY. 4.00 points.

This course addresses basic contemporary social issues from several angles of vision: from the perspective of scientists, social scientists, legal scholars, and judges. Through the use of case studies, students will examine the nature of theories, evidence, facts, proof, and argument as found in the work of scientists and scholars who have engaged the substantive issues presented in the course

SOCI UN3996 SENIOR SEMINAR. 3.00-4.00 points.

Prerequisites: required methods and theory courses for the major, and the instructor's permission.
Prerequisites: required methods and theory courses for the major, and the instructors permission. Students wishing to qualify for departmental honors must take W3996y. Students carry out individual research projects and write a senior thesis under the supervision of the instructor and with class discussion. Written and oral progress reports

SOCI UN1000 THE SOCIAL WORLD. 4.00 points.

Identification of the distinctive elements of sociological perspectives on society. Readings confront classical and contemporary approaches with key social issues that include power and authority, culture and communication, poverty and discrimination, social change, and popular uses of sociological concepts

CSER UN1040 CRIT APPRO-STUDY OF ETH ＆ RACE. 3.00 points.

This course provides an introduction to central approaches and concepts animating the investigation of race and ethnicity. We will not treat either of these categories of difference as a given, nor as separable from other axes of social difference. Rather, we will apply an interdisciplinary and intersectional framework to illuminate how these concepts have come to emerge and cohere within a number of familiar and less familiar socio-cultural and historical contexts. We will consider how racial and ethnic differentiation as fraught but powerful processes have bolstered global labor regimes and imperial expansion projects; parsed, managed, and regulated populations; governed sexed and gendered logics of subject and social formation; and finally, opened and constrained axes of self-understanding, political organization, and social belonging. Special attention will be given to broadening students understanding of racial and ethnic differentiation beyond examinations of identity. Taken together, theoretical and empirical readings, discussions, and outside film screenings will prepare students for further coursework in race and ethnic studies, as well as fields such as literary studies, women’s studies, history, sociology, and anthropology

SOCI UN2208 CULTURE IN AMERICA. 3.00 points.

An examination of the diverse values, meanings and identities that comprise American pluralism, the moral and political clashes and communities that emerge from them, and the sociological concepts that make sense of them. Part One explores larger macro-themes (American exceptionalism; individualism and community; religion and secularism; pleasure and restraint in post-Puritan America; race, immigration and identity). Part Two explores the interplay between these large themes and cultural polarization in post-Trump America, with special focus on the cultural forces at play in the 2024 presidential election: red states, blues states and cultural sorting; changing conceptions of liberalism and conservatism; class divisions and the global rise of cultural populism; the concept of “epistemic tribes” and media silos; fights over religion and race, sexuality and family; the current war on “wokeness” and the debate on free expression

SOCI UN2235 Sexuality in Social Context. 4.00 points.

Despite the ubiquity of sexual imagery in contemporary Western popular culture, most people regard sexuality to be an intimate topic that concerns the drives, experiences and pleasures of individuals. In this course, we will examine the social and pluralistic character of sexual desires, meanings, practices and politics, their variations, cultural locations, institutional determinants and even geopolitical dimensions. We will begin by surveying some of the most influential theoretical works from psychoanalysis, sexology and early sociological writings on sexualities, paying particular attention to how they undergird more contemporary social thought. We then move on to examine the influence of queer theoretical critique on sociological thinking about heterosexuality, whiteness, sexual diversity, and cross-national differences in the interrelationships between gender and sexuality. We will end the course by looking at three discrete topics within the larger sociological subfield of sexuality studies: global sex work, the ethics of participants observation in sexual; communities and contemporary discourses of sexual consent (the last with a particular focus on campus sexual cultures)

SOCI UN3000 SOCIAL THEORY. 4.00 points.

Prerequisites: Sophomore standing.
Prerequisites: Sophomore standing. Required for all sociology majors. Prerequisite: at least one sociology course of the instructor's permission. Theoretical accounts of the rise and transformations of modern society in the19th and 20th centuries. Theories studied include those of Adam Smith, Tocqueville, Marx, Durkheim, Max Weber, Roberto Michels. Selected topics: individual, society, and polity; economy, class, and status: organization and ideology; religion and society; moral and instrumental action

SOCI UN3001 Social Theory- DISC. 0.00 points.

Discussion section for Social Theory (SOCI UN3000)

SOCI UN3010 METHODS FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH. 4.00 points.

Prerequisites: SOCI W1000 The Social World or Instructor Permission
Prerequisites: SOCI UN1000 The Social World or Instructor Permission Required for all Sociology majors. Introductory course in social scientific research methods. Provides a general overview of the ways sociologists collect information about social phenomena, focusing on how to collect data that are reliable and applicable to our research questions

SOCI UN3011 METHODS SOCIAL RESEARCH-DISC. 0.00 points.

Prerequisites: SOCI UN1000
Prerequisites: SOCI UN1000 Discussion section for SOCI UN3010: METHODS FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH

SOCI UN3120 Trust and Mistrust in Science and Expertise. 4 points.

Skepticism about science and expertise is evident today in multiple arenas and clearly can no longer be considered a passing phenomenon. From climate change to vaccines; from mammograms to Coronavirus testing; from opposition to rules regulating acceptable levels of carcinogens to AI algorithms purporting to yield better decisions than human experts; the challenges to the authority of experts come from both sides of the political spectrum and take multiple forms. Most discussions of the challenges to expertise start from the question of mistrust. They ask why do people mistrust science and experts given their obvious and well-documented successes and their contribution to immense improvements in collective well-being? This way of posing the question inevitably leads to the conclusion that people mistrusting experts are irrational, uninformed or duped. This, however, may not be the most productive way to pose the question. For the social scientist, mistrust is not the puzzle, trust is. It is not surprising that people would tend to mistrust decisions taken in locales far removed from their daily lives, that are supported by forms of knowledge and technical arrangements that can be relatively opaque and difficult to grasp. It is not surprising especially since these decisions impact some individuals and groups adversely, while benefitting others. Finally, every now and then, but predictably so, it becomes obvious in hindsight that the wrong decisions were taken. Under these circumstances it is far more puzzling, counter-intuitive and difficult to understand why, how, and under what conditions people do trust science and experts. If we want to understand mistrust, and ultimately arrive at a more balanced arrangement of the relations between experts and laypeople, we need to begin by asking what is trust? How is it typically organized and secured? What sustains trust in experts and scientists? Only after we have some grasp of the mechanisms by which trust is cultivated, can we hope to have an explanation of the contemporary atmosphere of mistrust, that does not deteriorate into mere name- calling (“climate denial,” “anti-vaxxers,” etc.) This course will be organized, accordingly, in two parts. In the first part, we will consider different approaches to trust, and specifically for how trust in science and experts is elicited and secured. The second half of the course will be dedicated to examining contemporary case studies of mistrust in science and experts, while exploring different “engines of crisis”: the demand for parity between doctors and patients/parents, especially in the case of vaccinations; the emergence of “risk” as the central topic of the politics of expertise, especially as regarding environmental pollution; the strategic manufacturing of ignorance (“agnotology”) by tobacco manufacturers and by opponents of climate change research; the replacement of expert judgment with “black-boxed” algorithms in forensics and risk assessment; the legitimation crisis of regulatory science; and the rejection of dependence on experts in the name of an ethics of “care of self.”

SOCI UN3121 Trust and Mistrust in Science and Expertise - DISC. 0.00 points.

Discussion Section for SOCI 3120UN - TRUST AND MISTRUST IN SCIENCE AND EXPERTISE. Skepticism about science and expertise is evident today in multiple arenas and clearly can no longer be considered a passing phenomenon. From climate change to vaccines; from mammograms to Coronavirus testing; from opposition to rules regulating acceptable levels of carcinogens to AI algorithms purporting to yield better decisions than human experts; the challenges to the authority of experts come from both sides of the political spectrum and take multiple forms. Most discussions of the challenges to expertise start from the question of mistrust. They ask why do people mistrust science and experts given their obvious and well-documented successes and their contribution to immense improvements in collective well-being? This way of posing the question inevitably leads to the conclusion that people mistrusting experts are irrational, uninformed or duped. This, however, may not be the most productive way to pose the question. For the social scientist, mistrust is not the puzzle, trust is. It is not surprising that people would tend to mistrust decisions taken in locales far removed from their daily lives, that are supported by forms of knowledge and technical arrangements that can be relatively opaque and difficult to grasp. It is not surprising especially since these decisions impact some individuals and groups adversely, while benefitting others. Finally, every now and then, but predictably so, it becomes obvious in hindsight that the wrong decisions were taken. Under these circumstances it is far more puzzling, counter-intuitive and difficult to understand why, how, and under what conditions people do trust science and experts

SOCI BC3219 RACE, ETHNICITY ＆ SOCIETY. 3.00 points.

Examines the social construction of race and ethnicity in the United States from colonial period to present. Analyzes how capitalist interests, class differences, gender, immigration, and who “deserves” the full rights and privileges of citizenship, shape boundaries between and within racial and ethnic groups. Also considers how racism affects resource access inequities between racial groups in education, criminal justice, media, and other domains. Explores factors underpinning major social change with an eye toward discerning social conditions necessary to create and sustain just social systems

SOCI UN3324 Global Urbanism. 3 points.

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement

Using classical texts about cities (do they still work for us?) and on the diverse new literatures on cities and larger subjects with direct urban implications, we ill use a variety of data sets to get a detailed empirical information, and draw on two large ongoing research projects involving major and minor global cities around the world (a total of over 60 cities are covered in detail as of 2008).  Students will need to register for a discussion section as well; details to be announced.

SOCI UN3235 SOCIAL MOVEMENTS. 4.00 points.

Prerequisites: One introductory course in Sociology suggested.
Prerequisites: One introductory course in Sociology suggested. Social movements and the theories social scientists use to explain them, with emphasis on contemporary American activism. Cases include the Southern civil rights movement, Black Lives Matter, contemporary feminist mobilizations, LGBTQ activism, immigrant rights and more recent forms of grassroots politics

SOCI UN3321 Global Urbanism Discussion Section. 0 points.

Discussion Section for "Global Urbanism" SOCI UN3324

SOCI UN3675 ORGANIZING INNOVATION. 4.00 points.

This course examines major innovations in organizations and asks whether innovation itself can be organized. We study a range of forms of organizing (e.g. bureaucratic, post-bureaucratic, and open architecture network forms) in a broad variety of settings: from fast food franchises to the military-entertainment complex, from airline cockpits to Wall Street trading rooms, from engineering firms to mega-churches, from scientific management at the turn of the twentieth century to collaborative filtering and open source programming at the beginning of the twenty-first. Special attention will be paid to the relationship between organizational forms and new digital technologies

SOCI UN3900 Societal Adaptations to Terrorism. 4 points.

Prerequisites: Junior or Senior standing

Examines how countries have adjusted to the threat of terrorism. How the adaptation reflects the pattern of terrorist attacks, as well as structural and cultural features of the society. Adaptations by individuals, families, and organizational actors.

SOCI UN3914 INEQUALITY, POVERTY ＆ MOBILITY. 4.00 points.

This is an undergraduate seminar in social stratification. The course focuses on the current American experience with socioeconomic inequality and mobility. The goals of the course are to understand how inequality is conceptualized and measured in the social sciences, to understand the structure of inequality in the contemporary U.S. to learn the principal theories and evidence for long term trends in inequality, to understand the persistence of poverty and the impact of social policies on American rates of poverty, and to understand the forces that both produce and inhibit intergenerational social mobility in the U.S. Given the nature of the subject matter, a minority of the readings will sometimes involve quantitative social science material. The course does not presume that students have advanced training in statistics, and any readings sections that contain mathematical or statistical content will be explained in class in nontechnical terms as needed. In these instances, our focus will not be on the methods, but rather on the conclusions reached by the author concerning the research question that is addressed in the text

SOCI BC3916 CROSSOVER CULTURE. 4.00 points.

The rise of crossover culture: racially segregated markets and genres; organizational environments and the rise of independent labels; the creative process and black-white conflict and connection; the emergence of rock as a white genre; civil rights, Black Power, and the politics of soul; cultural borrowing and the postracial ethos

SOCI BC3920 ADV TOPICS GENDER ＆ SEXUALITY. 4.00 points.

This research and writing-intensive seminar is designed for senior majors with a background and interest in the sociology of gender and sexuality. The goal of the seminar is to facilitate completion of the senior requirement (a 25-30 page paper) based on ;hands on; research with original qualitative data. Since the seminar will be restricted to students with prior academic training in the subfield, students will be able to receive intensive research training and guidance through every step of the research process, from choosing a research question to conducting original ethnographic and interview-based research, to analyzing and interpreting ones findings. The final goal of the course will be the production of an original paper of standard journal-article length. Students who choose to pursue their projects over the course of a second semester will have the option of revisiting their articles further for submission and publications

SOCI BC3925 Adv Topics Law ＆ Society. 4.00 points.

The course will focus on a single topic within US law-and-society scholarship: either the profession of lawyering or the criminalization of immigration. We will critically examine existing research, and then create our own. With the support of their peers and instructor, students will design and complete substantial independent research projects. Limited to sociology majors with senior standing (except in exceptional circumstances), and having taken SOCI UN3217 Law and Society is strongly preferred. Fulfills the Research Paper Option for the senior requirement in sociology at Barnard

SOCI UN3926 Race, Place, and the United States. 4.00 points.

The course analyzes the relationship between race/ethnicity and spatial inequality, emphasizing the institutions, processes, and mechanisms that shape the lives of urban dwellers. It surveys major theoretical approaches and empirical investigations of racial and ethnic stratification in several urban cities, and their concomitant policy considerations

SOCI UN3937 Sociology of Human Rights. 4.00 points.

Sociology came to the study of human rights much later than law, philosophy, or political science. In this course, you’ll learn (1) what constitutes a sociology of human rights and (2) what sociology, its classics, and its diverse methods bring to the empirical study and theory of human rights. We’ll explore the history, social institutions and laws, ideas, practices, and theories of human rights. We’ll become familiar with the social actors, social structures, and relationships involved in practices such as violation, claims-making, advocacy, and protection. We’ll consider how social, cultural, political, and economic forces affect human rights issues. We’ll learn about the questions sociologists ask, starting with the most basic (but far from simple) question, “what is a human right?” We’ll tackle key debates in the field, considering – for instance – whether human rights are universal and how human rights relate to cultural norms/values, national sovereignty, and national security. Finally, we’ll apply the concepts we’ve learned to a wide range of issues (ex: how racial, ethnic, gender, and other social inequalities relate to human rights), rights (ex: LGBTQ rights, the rights of laborers, the rights of refugees), and cases (ex: enslavement, the separation of children from their families, circumcision, sterilization, the use of torture). We’ll consider human rights cases in the United States and across the globe, and how events and actions in one place relate to human rights violations in another

SOCI BC3946 GLOBAL HEALTH, POLITICS, AND SOCIETY. 4.00 points.

What is global health? Where do global health disease priorities come from, and how do the ways that we understand disease shape how we respond to it? What happens when good ideas and good intentions go wrong? This course critically examines the politics of global health and its impact on local institutions and people. Drawing on social science research, the course will address three main themes: 1) how global health priorities are defined and constructed, 2) how our understandings of disease influence our response to that disease, and 3) how efforts to respond to disease intersect with people on the ground, sometimes in unexpected ways. We will examine the global health industry from the vantage point of different institutions and actors – international organizations, governments, local healthcare institutions, healthcare workers, and people living with or at risk of various illnesses like HIV/AIDS, malaria, cancer, and Ebola. A primary goal of this course is to help you to develop skills in critical thinking in relation to global health issues and their impact on society. Students will demonstrate their knowledge through individual writing, class discussion, presentations, and a final research project

SOCI UN3974 SOCI OF SCHOOLS,TEACH,LEARNING. 4.00 points.

In this class we will examine the school as a central institution in modern society, and we will grapple with an important question in the sociology of education: what role to schools play in reinforcing or challenging broader patters of social inequality? We will pay special attention to the ways in which students class, race/ethnicity and gender shape their educational experiences. We will also look at how schools are organized, how schools construct differences among students, and how schools sort kids into different (and unequal) groups. Finally we will explore the types of interventions - at both the individual and organizational levels - that can mitigate inequality in educational achievement and help low-income students to succeed. One such intervention that has shown promise is tutoring in academic and social and behavioral skills, and interventions that strengthen self-affirmation. A major component of this class is your experience as a tutor. You will be trained as tutors to work with students from local high schools both through in-person tutoring and through tutoring using social networking technologies. Throughout the semester we will combine our academic learning with critical reflection on our experience sin the field. Because you will be working with NYC high school students, we will pay special attention to how NYC high schools are organized and how current issues in education play out in the context of NYC schools

SOCI UN3996 SENIOR SEMINAR. 3.00-4.00 points.

Prerequisites: required methods and theory courses for the major, and the instructor's permission.
Prerequisites: required methods and theory courses for the major, and the instructors permission. Students wishing to qualify for departmental honors must take W3996y. Students carry out individual research projects and write a senior thesis under the supervision of the instructor and with class discussion. Written and oral progress reports

SOCI GU4043 WORKSHP ON WEALTH ＆ INEQUALITY. 1.00 point.

This Workshop is linked to the Workshop on Wealth - Inequality Meetings. This is meant for graduate students, however, if you are an advanced undergraduate student you can email the professor for permission to enroll

SOCI GU4801 Israel and the Palestinians. 4.00 points.

The seminar will examine the main political, economic, and social processes that have been shaping contemporary Israel. The underlying assumption in this seminar is that much of these processes have been shaped by the 100-year Israeli-Arab/Palestinian conflict. The first part of the course will accordingly focus on the historical background informing the conflict and leading to the Palestinian refugee problem and establishment of a Jewish, but not Palestinian, state in 1948. The second part of the seminar focuses on Israel’s occupation of the West Bank (and Gaza) and the settlement project, as well as on USA's role and its impact on the conflict, the occupation, and Israel. These topics did not get much academic attention until recently, but as researchers began to realize that the Occupation and the West Bank settlements are among the most permanent institutions in Israel, they have come under the scrutiny of academic research. The third part the seminar will concentrate on the development of the conflict after the establishment of Israel and its effects on sociological processes and institutions in contemporary Israel. Analyzing patterns of continuity and change in the past seven decades, we will discuss immigration and emigration patterns, as well as issue relating to ethnicity, gender, religion and politics, and the Israeli military