Sociology
- LAO 334/POL 334/SOC 321: Immigration Politics and Policymaking in the U.S.Founded and built by immigrants, the US has a complicated relationship with newcomers. How have politics shaped US immigration policy and the policymaking process? Do members of Congress follow their constituents' preferences? How are immigration messages used by campaigns; with what effects? Why do changing demographics affect immigration policy views? Do immigrants integrate or conform to nativist fears? In thinking about immigrants, why do most Americans think about Latino immigrants and how does this affect US Latinos? We will tackle these and other questions by examining published research and applying it to recent campaigns and debates.
- POL 345/SOC 305/SPI 211: Introduction to Quantitative Social ScienceWould universal health insurance improve the health of the poor? Do patterns of arrests in US cities show evidence of racial profiling? What accounts for who votes and their choice of candidates? This course will teach students how to address these and other social science questions by analyzing quantitative data. The course introduces basic principles of statistical inference and programming skills for data analysis. The goal is to provide students with the foundation necessary to analyze data in their own research and to become critical consumers of statistical claims made in the news media, in policy reports, and in academic research.
- POL 573/SOC 595: Quantitative Analysis IIISecond course in applied statistical methods for social scientists, building on the materials covered in POL 572 or its equivalent. Course covers a variety of advanced statistical topics, including resampling, non-parametric methods, and maximum likelihood estimation. Material covered corresponds to the quantitative part of the General Exam in Formal and Quantitative Analysis at Level II.
- SOC 101: Introduction to SociologyThis course will introduces students to the discipline of sociology (the systematic study of human groups, institutions and societies). Students will learn the major theoretical approaches within the field as well as the diverse research methods used in sociological investigations. These tools will be applied to a wide variety of special topics studied by sociologists, including family, work, education, religion and social movements, as well as dynamics of class, gender, race and ethnic inequalities within and across countries.
- SOC 102: Police Violence, #BlackLivesMatter, and the Covid-19 PandemicThis course will examine the historic moment in which we are living in order to introduce students to the concept of race and discipline of sociology. Students will learn to study systematically how human groups interact with one another and how social networks and a variety of institutions help shape those interactions and outcomes. How are these interactions and outcomes categorized and understood? Where do different people fit into the social categories we use to make sense of our societies, and why? And how are different actors able to transform those spaces in which to fit?
- SOC 204: Social NetworksThis course provides students an introduction to the study of social networks. In the first half of the course we will learn the core theories that describe the structure of networks and the processes through which things, such as information and disease, spread through networks. Then, in the second half of the course, we will see these theories applied in a variety of areas such as online filter bubbles, HIV/AIDS, and social fads.
- SOC 215: The Sociology of the InternetYou're likely reading this course description online. Next, you'll check your Gmail account, scroll through Instagram, and send a few messages over WhatsApp. The internet permeates our jobs, friendships, finances, politics, family ties and intimate relationships today. How do sociologists analyze activity online, and determine the internet's role in society? We'll develop a toolkit for studying social worlds online, ask which aspects of society have truly changed because of the internet, and return to basic sociological concepts as they play out on the web, as we ask and answer meaningful questions about the sociology of the internet.
- SOC 221/AAS 221/GSS 221: Inequality: Class, Race, and GenderWidening inequality is a key challenge of the 21st Century. This course introduces students to the sociological study of inequality and stratification, motivated by the question of how disparities of wealth, income, and life chances have variously grown, shrunk, and transformed in the United States during recent decades. Distributional inequality and race/class /gender gaps will be examined amid changing systems of education, work and labor markets, housing, healthcare, wealth/financial security, and criminal justice/policing.
- SOC 300: Claims and Evidence in SociologyThis course is an introduction to the logic and practice of social science research. The goal is to provide methodological training that will enable students to design and execute successful independent research projects. We review a range of approaches used by sociologists to answer research questions, including field experiments, surveys, observation, in-depth interviews, and mixed method research.
- SOC 301: Statistical Methods in SociologyMost research in sociology is quantitative, and it is important for students to be able to critically evaluate published quantitative research. Ideally, students should also be able to conduct empirical research involving statistical methods. This course provides the foundation for both goals. The course focuses specifically on how to determine, apply, and interpret statistical methods appropriate for answering a sociological research question given a particular set of data. Basic probability theory is introduced as a building block of statistical reasoning, and a variety of commonly-used statistical methods are covered in the course.
- SOC 311/GSS 451: Sexuality in Global ContextsSexuality is fundamental to the organization of society -- both in the U.S. and across the world. Though sexuality carries important personal significance, the understanding of why and how it influences our lives is inextricably woven into a complex, global fabric. The aim of this course is to unravel this fabric and reveal the deeply globalized nature of sexuality in the modern era and how this shapes understandings of sexuality, the sexual identities available to us, and how the state regulates it -- especially from a global, comparative perspective.
- SOC 371: Genomics and SocietyOver the past 20 years, we have witnessed rapid advances in our ability to collect and analyze human DNA. For the first time, social scientists can integrate molecular genetic data into studies of the processes that shape social and behavioral outcomes like education and BMI. How do genes affect a person¿s chances of developing depression? Do genetic influences vary across environments? What is the difference between race and genetic ancestry? We review the ugly history surrounding genes and social outcomes, introduce the key concepts of molecular genetics, and explore recent discoveries in human genomics and their implications for society.
- SOC 505: Research Seminar in Empirical InvestigationPreparation of quantitative research papers based on field experiments, laboratory experiments, survey procedures, and secondary analysis of existing data banks.
- SOC 508: Proseminar (Half-Term)This course introduces sociology graduate students to the discipline of sociology and to departmental faculty. Student work is evaluated by class participation and attendance. There are no prerequisites.
- SOC 540: Topics in Economic and Organizational Sociology (Half-Term): Culture and Economic SociologyTwenty-first century economic sociology is flourishing as a new generation of scholars develops fresh theoretical approaches and makes startling empirical discoveries. In compressed form, this course provides an introduction to the field and its efforts to develop sociological explanations of economic phenomena. In particular, we focus on the place of cultural meanings and social ties in accounting for economic activity. After a general orientation to the field the course explores a wide range of economic activities, including household finances, credit and debt, migrant transactions, payment systems, and consumption.
- SOC 560: Topics in Social Stratification (Half-Term): Racial and Ethnic Classification and IdentityThis seminar explores the formation of racial and ethnic identities and groups and the rules of racial and ethnic classification for such purposes as official statistics (e.g., censuses) and law (e.g., civil rights enforcement); recent changes in the U.S. ethno-racial order, including the emergence of pan-ethnic categories (e.g., Hispanic/Latino/Latinx; Asian American; people of color; BIPOC); whiteness and white identity politics; and controversies over the future course of racial and ethnic change in the U.S. population and politics.
- SOC 592: Text as Data: Statistical Text Analysis for the Social Sciences (Half-Term)A survey of approaches to statistical text analysis with a focus on applications in the social sciences. We take a task-based approach learning techniques for representation, discovery, measurement, prediction and causal inference.
- SPI 331/SOC 312/AAS 317/POL 343: Race and Public PolicyAnalyzes the historical construction of race as a concept in American society, how and why this concept was institutionalized publicly and privately in various arenas of U.S. public life at different historical junctures, and the progress that has been made in dismantling racialized institutios since the civil rights era.
- SPI 537/SOC 537: Urban Inequality and Social PolicyThis course focuses on the causes, consequences, and responses to urban inequality. The course is organized in four parts. First, we consider how one comes to learn about and understand cities and neighborhoods. Second, we review classic and current ideas about how urbanization affects the way we live and interact with each other. Third, we assess various explanations for urban inequality. Fourth, we focus our attention on central problems and challenges of urban life, from segregation to violence, and consider policy responses.
- SPI 593E/SOC 585: Topics in Policy Analysis (Half-Term): Surveys, Polls and Public PolicyCourse aims to improve students' abilities to understand and critically evaluate public opinion polls and surveys, particularly as they are used to influence public policy. Course begins with an overview of contrasting perspectives on the role of public opinion in politics, then examines the evolution of public opinion polling in the US and other countries. Class visits a major polling operation to get a firsthand look at procedures used for designing representative samples and conducting surveys by telephone, mail and Internet.
- URB 385/SOC 385/HUM 385/ARC 385: Mapping GentrificationThis seminar introduces the study of gentrification, with a focus on mapping projects using GIS (Geographic Information Systems) software. Readings, films, and site visits will situate the topic, as the course examines how racial landscapes of gentrification, culture and politics have been influenced by and helped drive urban change. Tutorials in ArcGIS will allow students to convert observations of urban life into fresh data and work with existing datasets. Learn to read maps critically, undertake multifaceted spatial analysis, and master new cartographic practices associated with emerging scholarship in the Digital and Urban Humanities.