Graduate Course Atlas - Fall 2007
SOC 500: Research Methods: Statistics, Mullis, MW 5-6:30 p.m.
Maximum enrollment: 10 (written permission from instructor required)
Content: This course is an introduction to descriptive and inferential statistics for univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses. Topics to be covered include summarizing evidence with graphs and numbers, developing and assessing composite measurements, generalizing from a sample to a population, and determining the relationship between two or more variables. The course will prepare you to understand and evaluate research reports in social science publications and in the news media. It will also enable you to do original research of your own. You will learn how to ask meaningful questions of quantitative data and to draw sound conclusions from the evidence you produce. The overall goal of the course is to increase your statistical literacy and prepare you to take additional courses in statistics and research methods.
Particulars: Exams, computer assignments
SOC 501: Research Methods: Design, Franzosi, TTh 1-2:30
Maximum enrollment: 10
Content: Sociologists, as social A scientists, @ have a fundamental concern with methods. The aim of this course is to familiarize students with the three most common methodological approaches used in Sociology: comparative-historical, interpretive, and multivariate analysis. It will outline the fundamental features, advantages, and disadvantages of each research method. The course will also introduce students to the basic jargon of methodology: research design, variables, operationalization, causality, hypothesis testing, models. It will focus on the relationship between theory and method (looking at Galileo = s work!) and on the relationship between research questions and methods as these come together in the research design. The roots of the quality versus quantity debate will be explored (going back to the Newton and Goethe debate!). Most importantly, the rhetoric of science will be analyzed in light of sociologists = obsession with methods ( A a methodological pestilence, @ in Max Weber = s expression).
Texts: There will be a packet of readings (selected book chapters and journal articles) and several methodological texts and monographs. Likely sources include the following:
Liebow, Elliot. 1993. Tell Them Who I Am: the Lives of Homeless Women. New York : Free Press.
Rossi, Peter. 1989. Down and Out in America . The Origins of Homelessness. Chicago : University of Chicago Press.
Robert Alford. The Craft of Inquiry. Theories, Methods, Evidence. Oxford : Oxford University Press.
Howard S. Becker. 1998. Tricks of the Trade. How to Think About Your Research While You Are Doing It. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Weber, Max. 1949. The Methodology of the Social Sciences. Translated and Edited by Edward A. Shils and Henry A. Finch. With a Foreword by Edward A. Shils. New York : The Free Press.
Emile Durkheim. 1938. The Rules of Sociological Method. New York : Free Press.
Barney G. Glaser and Anselm L. Strauss. 1967. The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. New York : Aldine.
Sandra Harding. 1991. Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? Thinking From Women = s Lives . Ithaca , NY : Cornell University Press.
Arthur L. Stinchcombe. 1968. Constructing Social Theories. New York : Harcourt, Brace & World.
C. Wright Mills. 1959. The Sociological Imagination. Oxford : Oxford University Press.
McCloskey, Donald N. 1985. The Rhetoric of Economics. Madison : University of Wisconsin Press.
Edmondson, Ricca. 1984. Rhetoric in Sociology. London : McMillan.
Particulars: There will be weekly homework assignments. Students will be expected to produce a final 6-8 page research proposal (a brief sketch will be due at mid-semester).
SOC 523, Social Change, Lechner, Wed., 1-4 p.m.
Maximum enrollment: 10
Content: This seminar examines the causes and consequences of large-scale social change and shows how modernizing change has been an inextricably global process. While covering some major contributions to comparative-historical sociology, it analyzes how classic issues in the study of social change are transformed in the global age. It focuses specifically on recent trends and key problems in the study of globalization.
SOC 551: Interactionist Approach to Social Relations, Johnson, W 1-4 (Same as PSYC 532)
Maximum enrollment: SOC=7; PSYC=3, Total=10 (permission required from instructor)
Content: There are two sections to this course. In the first section we will examine and critically assess the theoretical statements of selected theorists who have contributed to the foundations of the symbolic interaction perspective. Major theorists covered will include Mead, Cooley, Blumer, Goffman, Couch, Kuhn, and Stryker. The second section will cover recent theoretical developments in the symbolic interaction tradition on the following topics: the looking-glass self, reflected appraisals, identity processes, identity and stress, emotions, social identity theory, and identity negotiation. Recent major theorists include Gecas, Burke, Stets, Thoits, Heise, Smith-Lovin, Snow, Anderson, Cahill and others.
Particulars: 5 page critique, short responses and 1 major research paper.
SOC 585, Aging, Human Development, and Health, Keyes, Tu 4-7 p.m.
Maximum enrollment: 5
Content: Aging is programmed genetically at the level of protein synthesis and cellular function. However, aging occurs with remarkable variability. How humans develop and age are influenced greatly by when it occurs (i.e., historical), where it occurs (i.e., social and cultural context), and how individuals think, feel and behave throughout life. Historical events, society, and cultural context influence everything from the meaning of growing old to the rate of age-related decline and growth.
The passage of our lives through time has taken on two views throughout history. The first, epitomized by the lyrics of a Pink Floyd song, views aging and inevitable decline, because, with each day, "The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older, shorter of breath and one day closer to death." This negative view of aging is now being replaced by research exhibiting the tremendous plasticity (i.e., malleability) in physical, biological, and brain function; in other words, the declines associated with aging that were once assumed fix and inevitable are reversible and malleable. A major theme of this course will be to expose students to this new research and paradigms on what has been variously called "successful," "vital," or "optimal" aging.
A second major them in this seminar will be the attempt to link social structure with biology. Most sociological students will readily grasp that social environments, social structures, and social experiences can accelerate or slow the processes of disability, disease, and death. However, sociological explanations for how this happens remain impervious to the amazing advances in our scientific understanding of the brain and biological body. That is, sociological research in general, and sociologists of aging and health in particular, have yet to engage theoretically or empirically the "life sciences." Here, new research is revealing how the brain, genetics, immune, and endocrine systems operate to shape aging and health. Most of this research, however, is showing that biology and genetics are not deterministic. Rather, biology and genetics are activated by and shaped by social "experience" and "environment." Any sociology that purports to explain the health and aging outcomes of individuals or populations must ultimately show how social structure and environment "get under the skin" and "inside the brain." There is new, exciting research emerging around topics such as epi-genetics showing how the epi-genome is the intermediary that allows environments to "talk to" our DNA (through a process of methylation, e.g.) by activating and suppressing specific genes. We will explore these and other new directions for sociological perspective on aging that are integrative and bio-psycho-social, both of which represent advance topics in Sociological research.
Particulars: Requirements:
- Weekly in class reviews (40% of grade).
- Paper (40% of grade) and peer review (10% of your grade).
SOC 585, Race, Gender and Discrimination, Browne, Tu 9-12 (Same as WS 585)
Maximum enrollment: SOC=7; WS=3; TOTAL=10 (written permission required from instructor)
Content: This class looks at the issue of A discrimination @ and systematic inequality by gender, race and their intersections, focusing primarily on the U.S. About half the semester will cover issues of labor market discrimination, using the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as our starting-point. We will also discuss discrimination in relation to housing, educational institutions and the health care system. We will address debates around topics of discrimination, including definitions of A discrimination, @ problems with researching and A measuring @ discrimination, competing theories about the existence and A causes @ of discrimination, the conditions under which discrimination is likely to occur, responses to discrimination and the effects of discrimination on communities and individuals. We will draw from multiple sociological approaches, including stratification and feminist theories of inequality, organizational theories of perceptions and behavior, and social psychological theories of stereotyping and prejudice.
SOC 585, Qualitative Methods, Scott, Th 4-7
Maximum enrollment: 10 (written permission required)
Content: This introduction to qualitative methods begins with a brief overview of the traditions of qualitative methods. We examine research design issues including: developing research questions, selecting methods, and mixed methods approaches. We then examine the collection, coding, and presentation of qualitative data (focusing on in-depth interviews, observation, and document research). We will be concerned with practical issues that arise at different stages of the research process, reviewing empirical studies that employ these methods, and gaining research experience by carrying out small-scale studies involving qualitative social analysis.
Particulars: Students will be required to complete 3 short exercises and one research proposal
SOC 701, Advanced Multivariate Analysis II, Hicks, TTh 2:30-4
Maximum enrollment: 10
Content: The goal of this course is to extend applied mastery of multiple regression beyond elementary OLS regression. Extensions advance in three directions: (a) ad hoc complements to regression such as non-linearities and interactions; (b) simultaneous equations systems, path analytic as well as non-recursive structural equations; and (c) time-series (and "pooled" time series) regression. The focus will be especially useful for those interested in applied competence in quantitative cross-sectional, time-series and/or pooled analysis of aggregate data.
Texts: Probable texts include: Gujarati, D.N. Basic Econometrics. Kennedy, P., Guide to Econometrics. Selected articles and Sage Monographs
Particulars: Sociology 500 is a prerequisite. Evaluations will be based on three exams (worth 20% of grade each) and several computing assignments (worth the remainder).
SOC 725, Sociology of Religion: Classical and Modern Theories, Tipton, Th 7-10 p.m.(Same as RLSR730)
Maximum enrollment: SOC=3
Content: What do religious phenomena mean to their participants, seen as members of society? The seminar explores answers to this question over successive generations of development in the work of classical social thinkers (e.g. Weber, Durkheim, Du Bois, Marx, Freud) and contemporary theorists (Bellah, Geertz, Douglas, Bourdieu, Abu-Lughod). Topics include the culturally constitutive meaning of religion as symbolic action and embodiment, theodicy and soteriology; the social and moral functions of ritual, myth, and religious experience; religious evolution, social modernization, globalization and nationalism; contemporary religious fundamentalism, politicization, secularization, class differences, and cultural conflict. Particular attention is given to the Black Churches , American Evangelicalism, global Catholicism, U.S. mainline Protestantism, and meditation as a social practice.
Texts: Texts include Weber, The Sociology of Religion; Geertz, Islam Observed; Douglas, How Institutions Think; Asad, Genealogies of Religion; Colin Campbell, The Romantic Ethic and the Spirit of Consumerism; Wuthnow, The Restructuring of American Religion; Smith, American Evangelicalism; Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World; Lincoln & Mamiya, The Black Church in the African-American Religious Experience; Charles Taylor, Varieties of Religion Today; Bourdieu, The Logic of Practice.
Particulars: Active participation in seminar discussion; one short paper and class presentation; term paper.
SOC 741, Theory Construction, Boli, Mon., 1-4 p.m.
Maximum enrollment: 10
Content: Serving as an introduction to fundamental issues in the philosophy of science, this course covers major concerns in constructing good theoretical arguments. Topics include: problem formulation, concept formation, problems of causality, deductive and inductive reasoning, causal diagramming, levels of theoretical analysis, formalization, and evidence and testability. We will analyze examples from a variety of theoretical perspectives as well as student work in several exercises throughout the term.Texts: Kuhn, Structure of Scientific Revolutions; Nagel, The Structure of Science; Laudan, Science and Relativism; Stinchcombe, Constructing Social Theories; Cohen, Developing Sociological Knowledge: Theory and Method; plus articles on reserve.
Particulars: Exercises, class participation and presentations, term paper/research proposal.
SOC 759, Medical Sociology, Archibald, Th 9-12
Maximum enrollment: 7 (written permission required from instructor)
Content: Medical Sociology is a special topics survey course that applies sociological principles to medicine, health, illness, and health care. To fully develop insights generated by this framework, it is necessary to situate medicine, health, illness, and health care in a variety of institutional domains: economic markets, politics, science, religion, and culture, broadly construed. Topics include but are not limited to: medical and sociological models of illness, epidemiology, epidemics, an (abbreviated) history of medicine in the West, public health, the social stratification of illness, medicalization and de-medicalization of illness, individuals' experience of illness, the medical profession, health care systems in developing countries, health care provision, access and delivery, complementary and alternative health care, and health movements.
SOC 759, Gender in U.S. Religion, Eiesland, TTh 1-2:15 (written permission required)
Maximum enrollment: SOC=3; WS=3, TOTAL=6
Content: This seminar examines how religion and gender intersect in American society. We will approach religion sociologically, interpreting its particular roles in the United States and understanding the causes and conditions of religious and social change. We will employ sociological perspectives on gender as well, exploring it as a socially constructed phenomenon - that is to say that gender differences are not innate or "natural," but are responses to cultural norms that are reinforced by society. The seminar explores the ways that gender and religion intersect with race, ethnicity, social class, physical ability, sexuality, and nationality.
Texts: Brown, Karen McCarthy. Mama Lola: A Voudou Priestess in Brooklyn . Updated and Expanded edition. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991, 2001). Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks . Righteous Discontent: The Women's Movement in the Black Baptist Church , 1880-1920 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996). Kimmel, Michael S. The Gendered Society. Second edition. ( New York : Oxford University Press, 2004). Nabhan-Warren, Kristy. The Virgin of El Barrio: Marian Apparitions, Catholic Evangelizing, and Mexican American Activism. ( New York : New York University , 2005). Pascoe, Peggy. Relations of Rescue: The Search for Female Moral Authority in the American West, 1874-1939 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990).Orsi, Robert. Thank You, St. Jude: Women's Devotion to the Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996). Wolcott , Victoria W. Remaking Respectability: African American Women in Interwar Detroit . (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001).
SOC 767, Teaching Sociology, Agnew, F 9-12
Maximum enrollment: 10 (written permission required from Agnew)
Content: The seminar is designed to help prepare you for your first (or next) teaching assignment and enhance your effectiveness as a teacher. These goals will be achieved through a) reading the literature on teaching and learning; b) the observation of classroom processes; c) active participation in the seminar sessions; d) practice in teaching; and e) the preparation of your own course materials (e.g., syllabus, textbook selection, sample exam questions, sample lectures and discussions). The primary text will be Tools for Teaching ( Davis ), supplemented by a collection of readings.
Particulars: Contact Dr. Agnew before May 7, 2007 for special instructions.
| More Information: |
|---|