| UNIVERSITY
OF PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
FALL 2003 COURSE OFFERINGS
Undergraduate
Courses | Graduate
Courses | CGS Courses
UNDERGRADUATE COURSES
SOC 001-001 INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY
Registration required
for both the lecture and a recitation.
General Requirement I: Society
Sociology provides a unique way to look at human behavior and the
world. Sociology is the systematic study of the groups and societies
in which people live. In this introductory course, we examine and
analyze how social structures and cultures are created, maintained,
and most importantly, how they affect behavior. The course deconstructs
our taken for granted world of social interactions and behaviors
and examines what theory and research can tell about human social
behavior.
MW 11- 12 NOAKES
201 - REC F 11-12 STAFF
202 - REC F 12-1 STAFF
203 - REC W 3-4 STAFF
204 - REC M 9-10 STAFF
205 - REC M 10-11 STAFF
SOC 001-301 INTRODUCTION TO THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
General Honors- Freshman Seminar
Non-honors students need permission
General Requirement: I : Society
An analysis of the major intellectual perspectives afforded by
economists, political scientists, and sociologists applied to the
growth and development (separate phenomena) of the U.S. This review
will involve systematic comparisons of America’s contemporary
ways and means, as a ‘going concern’, with the treatment
of the U.S. by Alexis de Tocqueville in his wondrously comprehensive
and almost eerily prescient work, Democracy in America (1835). This
volume, is arguably “...the best book ever written on democracy
and the best book ever written on America”. (Mansfield, a
senior American political scientist; emphases added). We will read
a short work on Shays’s Rebellion, at the outset, and de Tocqueville’s
700 page classic, section by section, for our weekly tête-à-têtes.
T 4-7 BERG
SOC 004-401 SOCIOLOGICAL AND POLICY PERSPECTIVES ON FAMILIES
General Requirement: I : Society
Fulfills College Quant Data Analysis Requirement
This course provides an introduction to sociological perspectives
on families and public policies aimed at families. The course begins
with a brief overview of theoretical perspectives on families and
family patterns and change over the last century. The second part
of the course focuses on the private family–the one in which
we live most of our personal lives. Focusing on the contemporary
United States, we will explore variation in families by gender,
race and ethnicity, class, and sexual orientation. We will consider:
who marries and who doesn’t; who cohabits and who doesn’t;
who divorces and who doesn’t; who does the housework and who
doesn’t. In the last section of the course, we will consider
issues involving the public family, in which adults perform tasks
that are important to society (i.e. rearing children, caring for
the elderly). We will examine how society (i.e. taxpayers) provides
for families that cannot provide for themselves (welfare), and how
society regulates family behavior (sexuality and teen childbearing).
Throughout the course, we will critically examine the data and research
on families and the interpretation and presentation of research
on families by the media.
MW 3-4:30 GUZZO
SOC 005-001 AMERICAN SOCIETY
General Requirement: I : Society
A review of the sources of the stabilities and changes in America’s
institutional development as we have re-invented ourselves, from
July 1787 (Shay’s Rebellion) to the surprising advents of
(1) dedicated ‘nation building’ and messianic ‘democratization’
overseas; and (2) increasingly severe conflicts between our very
odd dedications to both liberty and equality, at home, 1970-2003.
We will undertake a systematic inventory of Americans’ contributions
to the development and applications of ever-changing social technologies
to our many structures, to our principal approaches to income allocation,
and to our management of social, political and economic forces,
while attending to the correlates of these social technologies in
“one market under God”.
TR 12-1:30 BERG
Top
SOC 006-401 RACE & ETHNIC RELATIONS
General Requirement: I : Society
For years we have understood that race is, biologically speaking,
an exceedingly complex matter and that preconceived biases much
more than biology govern the way people think about it. We discuss
race as a social construct. We focus on the social significance
of race by examining the reality of racial stratification, the reality
of the experience of race, and the rationality of those who study
racial dynamics and processes.
TR 12-1:30 LUNDY
SOC 011-401 URBAN SOCIOLOGY
Distribution I : Society
A comprehensive introduction to the sociological study of cities.
Topics will include theories of urbanism, methods of research, migration,
history of cities, gentrification, poverty, urban politics, suburbanization
and globalization. Philadelphia will be used as a recurring example,
though the course will devote attention to cities around the U.S.
and the world.
TR 3-4:20 LUNDY
SOC 041-301 PERSPECTIVES ON INEQUALITY
Freshman Seminar
Distribution I : Society
This course will introduce social-science perspectives on inequality
primarily in contemporary societies. We will examine both the distribution
of social rewards as well as processes for the allocation of these
rewards. Topics include the influences on individual success of
education; race and gender, and structural and organizational factors.
Acquaintance with stratification theory and quantitative methods
is not required. Course requirements are a) active class participation;
b) locating issues involving inequality in the newspaper (or online);
c) a midterm exam; d) a final exam; e) one short essay due before
the midterm; and f) a short project report after the midterm.
MW 3-4:30 JACOBS
SOC 041-401 DYNAMICS OF RACIAL RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION
Freshman Seminar
Distribution I : Society
This course examines trends in the residential segregation of blacks,
Hispanics, and Asians from whites and recent research focused on
understanding the causes of persisting segregation. These topics
are organized around two broad theoretical perspectives—spatial
assimilation and place stratification. The spatial assimilation
model emphasizes group differences in social class statue, whereas
the place stratification model includes explanations placing primacy
on persisting prejudice and/or discrimination. As such, residential
segregation has implications for both intergroup relations and social
mobility. Topics also include a) the emergence of racially segregated
neighborhoods; b) the renewed interest in segregation among social
scientist interested in better understanding the emergence of the
urban underclass; c) the consequences of residential segregation;
and d) what can be learned from the minority of American neighborhoods
that are stably integrated. The course concludes with a discussion
of whether and how public policy might shape the future of America’s
neighborhoods. This course is designed for students unfamiliar with
sociological theory and /or methods.
M 2-5 CHARLES
Top
SOC 100-001 INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH
Fulfills College Quant.
Data Analysis Requirement
Distribution
I : Society
This course examines several different sociological methods, including:
survey development and administration, content analysis, historical-comparative,
participant observation and ethnographic perspectives. It reviews
research design, experimental design, evaluation methods, research
ethics and the uses of research. Students explore these methods
and perspectives in class assignments and exercises. A brief introduction
to SPSS (statistical package for the social sciences) is also provided.
TR 10:30-12 KOPPEL
SOC 100-402 INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH
Distribution I : Society
This course provides an introduction for undergraduates to research
methods in the social sciences. The course covers major research
designs-experiments, surveys and case studies, as well as specific
data collection techniques like participant observation, interviewing,
survey administration, and historical and unobtrusive methods. Students
will discuss research ethics and data analysis and will also have
the opportunity to craft a formal research proposal as part of a
group project.
TR 12-1:30 FISHMAN
SOC 101-401 BIOETHICS
Registration
required for both the lecture and a recitation.
Bioethical conundrums such cloning, stem cells, transplantation,
the use of psycho pharmaceuticals, end-of-life technologies, preimplantation
diagnosis of embryos, artificial reproductive technologies, and
the genetic manipulation of life will challenge policy-makers and
moral thinkers throughout the twenty-first century. In this course,
a philosopher and a sociologist team up to frame and explore these
important issues. Guest lecturers, multimedia presentations, and
spirited debate will allow the student to understand the science,
the social implications, and the philosophical, ethical, and religious
implications of the coming biotechnological revolution.
MW 2-3 WOLPE/MCGEE
402 - REC F 2-3 STAFF
403 - REC F 2-3 STAFF
404 - REC F 2-3 STAFF
405 - REC R 2-3 STAFF
406 - REC R 2-3 STAFF
407 - REC F 1-2 STAFF
408 - REC F 1-2 STAFF
409 - REC F 12-1 STAFF
Top
SOC 103-401 ASIAN AMERICAN IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY
Distribution I: Society
This class is an introduction to sociological research of Asian
Americans in the United States. The class will introduce you to
the immigration experiences, socioeconomic attainments, identity,
and political movements of Asian Americans. We will also focus on
the relative heterogeneity of Asian American ethnic groups and their
experiences relative to other race and ethnic groups in the United
States.
TR 10:30-12 LEE
SOC 120-401 SOCIAL STATISTICS
General Requirement IV: Formal
Reasoning and Analysis
This course offers a basic introduction to the application/interpretation
of statistical analysis in sociology. Upon completion, you should
be familiar with a variety of basic statistical techniques that
allow examination of interesting social questions. We begin by learning
to describe the characteristics of groups, followed by discussion
of how to examine and generalize about relationships between the
characteristics of groups. Emphasis is placed on the understanding/interpretation
of statistics used to describe and make generalizations about group
characteristics. In addition to hand calculations, you will also
become familiar with using PCs to run statistical tests.
TR 1:30-3 CHARLES
SOC 122-401 SOCIOLOGY OF GENDER
General Requirement I: Society
In this course, gender is studied in a comparative perspective
using examples from Germany. Current gender theory emphasizes the
division of labor, power, social control, violence, and ideology
as structural and interactional bases of inequalities among men
and women of different social classes and racial ethnic groups instead
as an individual trait or outcome of childhood socialization. Gender
is an organizing principle of society and its institutions like
culture, economy, politics, and the family. How gender is constructed
varies across time and space. What is considered “natural”
for a woman (or a man) to do in one society is conceived as inappropriate
in another. But there are not only differences between societies
but also within societies – race and class interact with gender
resulting in different norms.
TR 10:30-12 ROTH
Top
SOC 125-001 CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY
Distribution I: Society
An examination of the 19th and early 20th century social thought,
with emphasis on the works of Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Simmel, and
G. H. Mead. Nietzsche and Freud will also be considered. In addition
to careful study of the works themselves, connections will be made
to matters of theoretical interest today, for example, postmodernism,
globalization, rationalization, and question of agency.
R 1:30-4:30 MORAWSKA
SOC 135-401 LAW & SOCIETY
DIstribution I: Society
After introducing students to the major theoretical concepts concerning
law and society, significant controversial societal issues that
deal with law and the legal systems both domestically and internationally
will be examined. Class discussions will focus on issues involving
civil liberties, the organization of courts, legislatures, the legal
profession and administrative agencies. Although the focus will
be on law in the United States, law and society in other countries
of Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America will be covered in a comparative
context. Readings include research reports, statutes and cases.
MW 4:30-6 FETNI
SOC 137 SOCIOLOGY OF THE MEDIA & POPULAR CULTURE
Registration required for both
the lecture and a recitation.
General Requirement III: Arts and Letters
This course relies on a variety of sociological perspectives to
examine the role of popular cultures in contemporary life, with
a particular emphasis on the organization of the mass media industry,
the relationship between cultural consumption and social status,
social significance of leisure activities from sports to shopping.
Specific course topics will include the rise of tabloid TV talk
shows; the marketing of Nike and Starbucks; the excessive media
coverage of contemporary celebrities; the blurring boundaries between
news and entertainment; and the commodification of the Chicago blues.
001 - LEC MW 1-2 GRAZIAN
201 - REC M 5-6 STAFF
202 - REC F 11-12 STAFF
203 - REC W 11-12 STAFF
204 - REC W 6-7 STAFF
205 - REC F 1-2 STAFF
206 - REC M 3-4 STAFF
207 - REC W 10-11 STAFF
208 - REC F 1-2 STAFF
209 - REC F 1-2 STAFF
210 - REC M 2-3 STAFF
211 - REC F 12-1 STAFF
212 - REC W 11-12 STAFF
NOTE: You MUST take BOTH THE LECTURE
AND A RECITATION.
If you need to switch your recitation section, please make sure
there is an available slot BEFORE dropping your section, as the
SRS system may drop you from the course altogether if you’re
not registered for both lecture and recitation. As slots become
available, you may register for them through Penn In Touch.
Top
SOC 140-301 SOCIAL CONFLICT
General Honors
Non-honors Students Need Permission
General theory of social conflict, with an emphasis on violent
conflict. Specific applications include fights, riots, combat, and
gang violence; tribal and modern war; abuse of the weak; domestic
conflict; sexual conflict and rape; homicide; social movements and
moral crusades; conflict management and social control; state breakdowns
and revolutions; ethnic conflict and genocide.
MWF 11-12 COLLINS
SOC 222-001 FIELD METHODS OF SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH
Distribution I: Society
Permission needed from instructor
This class is intended as an introduction to the field methods
of sociological research, with a focus on ethnographic observation
and interviewing. It will function as a workshop, not a lecture
class. The social role of the field worker, the ethics of research
and qualitative methodology will be addressed. Students will conduct
a piece of original research as part of the course.
M 2-5 HART
SOC 230-402 ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY
Distribution I: Society
Ethnographic study of the African American community. Selected
ethnographic and historical literature will be read and assessed,
with particular attention to substantive, conceptual, and methodological
issues. Topics will include the social significance of race, class,
tradition, residence, place, outlook, identity, poverty, among others.
M 2-5 ANDERSON
SOC 233-001 CRIMINOLOGY
General Requirement I: Society
This introductory course examines the multi-disciplinary science
of law-making, law-breaking, and law-enforcing. It reviews theories
and data predicting where, when, by whom and against whom crimes
happen. It also addresses the prevention of different offense types
by different kinds of offenders against different kinds of people.
Police, courts, prisons, and other institutions are critically examined
as both preventing and causing crime. This course meets the general
distribution requirement.
TR 3-4:30 LAUFER
Top
SOC 300-302 SENIOR RESEARCH SEMINAR
Permission needed from instructor
The purpose of this course is to guide senior sociology majors
in writing a research proposal for a senior honors thesis. Students
will learn about various research approaches, how to write a focused
literature review, and kinds of data necessary to answer a wide
variety of research questions, including their own. Throughout the
course, students will work on designing a research question, generation
researchable hypotheses, and coming up with a design for their proposed
study. The final paper for this course will be a research proposal
that is the basis for students’ independent research project
in Spring 2003. This course satisfies the research requirement for
sociology majors and is designed primarily for seniors who are planning
to write an honors thesis.
T 1:30-4:30 ELO
SOC 300-303 MAKING ETHNOGRAPHY MATTER
Permission needed from instructor
Ethnography and in-depth interviewing provide detailed understanding
about particular settings and experiences, but how can they be used
to learn about the broader processes that create these settings
and experiences? This seminar will explore strategies for using
qualitative research to understand forces that extend beyond local
settings and in fact structure these settings. Students will collaborate
on research aimed at discovering and analyzing the forces and processes
that shape everyday experience.
R 2-5 LEIDNER
SOC 420-401 PERSPECTIVES ON URBAN POVERTY
This course provides an interdisciplinary introduction to various
perspectives and philosophies that have dominated the discourse
on urban poverty throughout history. The course is primarily concerned
with the ways in which historical, cultural, political, racial,
social, geographical, and economic forces have either shaped or
been left out of contemporary debates on urban poverty. Of great
importance the course will evaluate competing knowledge systems
and their respective implications in terms of the question of competing
knowledge systems and their respective implications in terms of
the question of "what can be known" about urban poverty
in the contexts of policy circles, academic literature seeking to
theorize urban poverty, ranging from sociological; Anthropological/ethnographic;
geographical; Marxist; historical; social welfare; and cultural
analyses. Primacy will be granted to critical analysis of course
readings, particularly with regard to the ways in which various
knowledge systems - or "regimes of truth" - create, sustain,
and constrict meaning in reference to urban poverty.
M 2-5 FAIRBANKS
Top
SOC 473-401 COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION: HISTORY & THEORY
Distribution I: Society
Much of what counts for social activism in the United States represent
the application of passion and good will to social problems. Yet
there is an increasingly clear body of knowledge in practice on
how people can build and use power through organization to influence
the forces that shape their lives, families and communities. The
development over the past two decades of an effective community
organizing methodology that can be replicated across different social
contexts represents a fundamental innovation in American democracy.
The clearest expression of this innovation has been the emergence
of large-scale national networks of broad-based community organizations,
working, sometimes in competition with one another, in almost every
major city in the United States.
T 6-9 WHITMAN
GRADUATE
LEVEL COURSES
SOCI 514-401 MEDICINE AND THE BODY
A Research Seminar for Students in a Variety of Disciplines Taught
by Prof. Nathan Sivin, History and Sociology of Science Wednesday
2-5 337 Logan Hall Until very recently no society's physicians,
seeking to understand the contents of the living human body, could
do better than construct a disciplined fantasy. The ingredients
of this fantasy were what experts knew about the outsides of bodies
and the insides of cadavers, what people felt going on inside them
and, equally important, each culture's notions of order and process
in the world of Nature and in society. The results were remarkably
diverse, as we learn not only from comparing the medicine of different
cultures, but from looking at discourse about the body at different
times in the same culture. In each case we can reconstruct the relations
between the lay imagination, medicine, cosmology, and values. We
will draw on tools that many disciplines---from literary analysis
to social theory to history of Chinese medicine---apply to the study
of the body. Although medicine is the main area we will explore,
individuals may choose any topic that relates it to the body. We
will spend the first few weeks discussing a very wide variety of
studies of the body. For the rest of the term, as each student works
on a research project, the class will discuss each project every
week. The course thus offers the experience of a substantial piece
of research carried out in a supportive atmosphere.
W 2-5 SIVIN (nsivin@sas.upenn.edu or 215-242-1596)
SOC 524-401 ADVANCED TOPICS IN SOCIOLOGY OF THE FAMILY
The course will review a series of theoretical issues in the sociology
of the family and examine major empirical studies in which theoretical
advances have been made. Special attention will be given to work
that has a historical and comparative perspective. Opportunities
will be provided for original research on the family.
T 2-5 FURSTENBERG
SOC 530-301 DEMOGRAPHIC BEHAVIOR, POPULATION & SOCIAL
CHANGE
The course investigates economic and social determinants of fertility,
mortality, and migration and it discusses the effects of population
variables on economic and social conditions, including economic
and social development. Topics discussed in the course include:
How do social/economic changes affect marriage, divorce, and childbearing
decisions? How do households make decisions about transfers and
bequests? How does immigration to the U.S. affect the demographic
situation in the U.S. and how does this affect the native population?
What causes the aging of populations, and how will population aging
affect the economies of industrial nations, including pension programs
like Social Security? What accounts for the rise in women’s
participation in the wage labor force over the past century? How
are family composition and poverty interrelated? Does rapid population
growth slow economic development in Third World countries, and how
does rapid population aging affect social and economic change in
developed countries? The course consists of lectures as well as
a hands-on component in which students are asked to obtain census
and related population data from the Internet and conduct guided
and independent small research projects on topics related to the
class.
TR 9-10:30 KOHLER
SOC 530-401 ORGANIZING FOR CHANGE
This course will survey, compare and contrast a variety of organizations
that are involved in social change: governmental and non-governmental;
local, regional, national, transnational; voluntary associations,
social movement organizations, and NGOs; charitable, social, political,
developmental. We will focus on differences and commonalities. How
are social movements and NGOs related? Are NGOs one form of SMOs?
If not, what constitutes the difference? Who joins such organizations,
how do such organizations recruit membership and staff? How are
such organizations financed, to whom are they accountable? How do
they influence their members and how are they influenced by their
membership? How do organizations seek to influence their environment?
Under what circumstances are they successful?
T 3-6 ROTH
SOC 530-402 ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY
Ethnographic study of the African American community. Selected
ethnographic and historical literature will be read and assessed,
with particular attention to substantive, conceptual, and methodological
issues. Topics will include the social significance of race, class,
tradition, residence, place, outlook, identity, poverty, among others.
M 2-5 ANDERSON
Top
SOC 535-001 QUANTITATIVE METHODS I
Registration REQUIRED
for both the Lecture and a Recitation section.
This course is an introduction to the practice of statistics in
social and behavioral sciences. It is open to beginning graduate
students and--with the permission of the instructor--advanced undergraduates.
Topics covered include the description of social science data, in
graphical and non-graphical form correlation and other form; of
association, including cross-tabulation; bivariate regression; an
introduction to probability theory; the logic of sampling; the logic
of statistical inference and significance tests. Some data manipulation
will require the use of a statistical computer “package,”
STATA; but the greater emphasis of the course will be on conceptualization
and the ability to manipulate these new ideas both with and without
access to statistical software. There is a lecture twice weekly
and a mandatory “lab.”
TR 12-1:30 SMITH H.
201 - REC W 11-12 STAFF
202 - REC W 1-2 STAFF
SOC 541-401 GENDER, THE LABOR FORCE & LABOR MARKET
Drawing from sociology, economics and demography, this course examines
the causes and effects of gender differences in labor force participation,
earnings and occupation in the United States and in the rest of
the developed and developing world. Differences by race and ethnicity
are also considered. Theories of labor supply, marriage, human capital
and discrimination are explored as explanations for the observed
trends. Finally, the course reviews current labor market policies
and uses the theories of labor supply, marriage, human capital and
discrimination to evaluate effects on women and men.
MW 10-11:30 MADDEN
SOC 561-301 SOCIOLOGY OF CULTURE
This course will focus on theories and research on the social
organization of the production and consumption of high culture.
There will also be some consideration of the determinants of class,
ethno-religious and gender cultures (Bourdieu and rival theories).
Other topics include: highbrow and middlebrow cultures and intellectuals;
sociology of literature; sociology of philosophy; sociology of science;
sociology of art and music.
T 9-12 COLLINS
Top
SOC 577-301 PROFESSIONS AND SOCIETY
This course will examine the role of the professions in contemporary
society. The first third of the class will cover classic studies
of professional autonomy, self-regulation and professional power.
In the middle third we will read and discuss studies of the transformation
of the professions over the last 30 years. The final third of the
class will focus on issues of access to the professions by women
and minorities, and individuals from working class and poor backgrounds.
Requirements: active participation in class, three memos and a term
paper.
T 2-5 JACOBS
SOC 600-001 PRO-SEMINAR IN CRIMINOLOGY
This course explores the basic scope, mission and methods of the
science of criminology. it begins with the conception of "consilience"
in science, then provides an overview of the multi-disciplinary
doctoral program in criminology. The course proceeds to cover the
current state of theory, research, and accomplishments in both knowledge
and policy about criminality and criminal events. Students will
read widely and report to the seminar on their readings, as well
as assessing key readings and central ideas for their potential
guidance of future research. The course focuses primarily on criminology
of criminal events, including law-making and law-braking. The criminology
of reactions to crime is covered in the second semester pro-seminar
in criminal justice, CRIM 601.
R 5:00pm-8:00pm STAFF
SOC 602-301 PROSEMINAR IN CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGY
An overview of the German, French and Anglophone traditions in
sociological theory. The major focus will be on the works of Marx
and Engels, Weber, Simmel, Durkheim, Mead and DuBois and on developments
in these classic schools of theory and research. The works of Nietzsche
and Freud will also be considered.
W 2-5 MORAWSKA
SOC 603-401 PROSEMINAR OF SOCIAL RESEARCH
This course is intended to hone the skills and judgment required
in order to conduct independent research in sociology. We will discuss
the selection of intellectually strategic research questions and
practical research designs. Students will get experience with proposal
writing, the process of editing successive drafts of manuscripts,
and the oral presentation of work in progress as well as finished
research projects. The course is designed to be the context in which
master’s papers are written. This is a required course for
second year graduate students in Sociology.
W 5-8 WATKINS
Top
SOC 604-401 METHODOLOGY OF SOCIAL RESEARCH
This is a class on methodology used in social research. We shall
study the history, logic and design of social research. Several
classes will include presentations by other members of the standing
faculty. Discussions will be based in part on student responses
to weekly assignments and critiques of published research. Students
will discuss their assignments in class. Attendance is mandatory.
There will be no grades of Incomplete.
R 2-5 ZUBERI
SOC 607-401 INTRODUCTION TO DEMOGRAPHY
A nontechnical introduction to fertility, mortality and migration
and the interrelations of population with other social and economic
factors.
R 2-5 WATKINS
SOC 609-401 BASIC DEMOGRAPHIC METHODS
The course is designed to introduce students to basic concepts
of demographic measurement and modeling used to study changes in
population size and composition. The course covers basic measures
of mortality, fertility and migration; life table construction;
multiple decrement life tables; stable populations; population projections;
and age patterns of vital events. Students will learn to apply demographic
methods through a series of weekly problem sets.
M 2-5 ELO
Top
SOC 619-301 SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH I
The primary goal of this course is to aid sociology graduate students
in the framing, writing and revising of their dissertation proposals,
as well as provide a forum for the presentation of their research
progress. In the first semester, we will focus on the development
of a topic of study and a central set of research questions, with
emphasis given to the set of theoretical issues relevant to the
selected topic. In the second semester, emphasis will shift to the
selection of data and methods necessary for addressing these questions.
A second goal of this course is to assist in the acquisition of
professional skills necessary for success in the academic world.
In both semesters, attention will be given to a number of practical
issues confronting advanced graduate students, including: 1) completing
field examinations; 2) submitting manuscripts for conferences, journals
and book publishers; 3) preparing a curriculum vitae; 4) job search
strategies; and 5) preparing for effective professional presentations.
It is expected that third year graduate students in Sociology will
enroll in 619 in the Fall semester, followed by 620 in the Spring.
T 2-5 GRAZIAN
SOC 623-401 WORKSHOP IN URBAN ETHNOGRAPHY
The ethnographic and sociological interpretation of urban life.
Conceptual and methodological issues will be thoroughly discussed.
Ongoing projects of participants will be presented in the “workshop”
format, thus providing participants the opportunity of learning
from and contributing to ethnographic work in progress. Selected
ethnographic works will be read and assessed.
W 2-5 ANDERSON
SOC 640-401 GLOBAL HEALTH & HEALTH POLICY
This participatory interdisciplinary seminar course examines contemporary
issues in public health policy and global health. The organizing
framework is social determinants of health. We consider evidence
that inequalities in education, income, and occupation influence
health status, and the policy dilemma that broad interventions to
improve population health may increase health disparities. We critically
examine whether prevention is always better than cure, and what
modern medicine has to offer in terms of health. We explore the
public policy process in health using the “tobacco wars”
as a case example, of how politics, policy, law commercial interests,
and research intersect to affect the public’s health. We examine
whether global health is in a state of decline, and the extent to
which failures in public health, public policy, and foreign policy
have contributed to increasing threats to world health. Likewise
we will examine the potential for greater integration of health
into foreign policy to create global infrastructure upon which to
advance health. We will examine the global health workforce and
the impact of widespread global migration of health professionals
on receiving and sending countries. There are no prerequisites.
The course is designed for graduate students in the social and behavioral
sciences, health professions, public health, business and law. Advanced
undergraduate students will be admitted with permission.
T 4-6:30 AIKEN
Top
SOC 707-401 SEMINAR IN DEMOGRAPHIC RESEARCH I
This course is intended to hone the skills and judgment required
in order to conduct independent research in sociology. We will discuss
the selection of intellectually strategic research questions and
practical research designs. Students will get experience with proposal
writing, the process of editing successive drafts of manuscripts,
and the oral presentation of work in progress as well as finished
research projects. The course is designed to be the context in which
master’s papers are written. This is a required course for
second year graduate students in Sociology.
W 5-8 WATKINS
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C G S COURSES
Note on registering for CGS courses:
Courses offered through the College of General Studies are
open to students in the College of Arts and Sciences, but CGS imposes
some restrictions on registration. During the pre-registration period,
about half of the places in CGS classes are reserved for CGS students.
Once all of the non-reserved places are filled, College students
will find that they cannot register without permission. Please be
aware that the Sociology Department cannot grant permission and
override the restrictions CGS has imposed. These registration restrictions
will be lifted on the second day of classes. At that time, College
students will be able to register for any CGS courses that still
have openings.
SOC 001-601 INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY
There are many different perspectives from which to look at the
world and ourselves in it. Sociology is one of them. This course
will teach you “sociological imagination” together with
basic concepts and major theories used in this discipline. In the
process, you will also be introduced to examples of good sociological
work.
M 6-9:10 KULKARNI
SOC 010-601 SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
The American Dream highlights opportunity for individuals to achieve
success based on their own ability and initiative. How well does
our society live up to this ideal? Who gets ahead, and who falls
behind? Who gets what and why? This course will examine the distribution
of societal resources and rewards in the United States, focusing
on poverty, inequality, and the widening gap between the rich and
poor. This course will discuss factors that affect access, opportunities,
and life chances in contemporary U.S. society: education, income,
wealth, race, ethnicity and gender. We will review sociological
explanations of inequality, the mechanisms that produce and maintain
inequality and the consequences of inequality. Class will emphasize
active participation and discussion.
M 5:30-8:40 MAZELIS
SOC 011-601 URBAN SOCIOLOGY
In this course, we critically examine the main problems of contemporary
urban society: economic opportunities of different segments of (sub)urban
population; patterns of residential segregation/concentration and
their implications for group and individual life chances; varieties
of immigrant adaptation to urban America; (dys)functions of the
urban welfare system; processes of decay and “resurrection”
of the center-cities; and the areas and mechanisms of persistent
racism in the frameworks of the major sociological theories of urbanism;
segmentation and anomie model (classical and reformulated), urban
political economy, world-system theory, and a postmodern-city perspective.
T 6:30-9:40 MORAWSKA
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SOC 100-601 INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH
This course provides an introduction for undergraduates to research
methods in the social sciences. The course covers major research
designs-experiments, surveys and case studies, as well as specific
data collection techniques like participant observation, interviewing,
survey administration, and historical and unobtrusive methods. Students
will discuss research ethics and data analysis and will also have
the opportunity to craft a formal research proposal as part of a
group project.
R 6-9:10 LUNDQUIST
SOC 143-601 MODERN SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
When and how do groups of people decide social change is critically
needed in our society? How do they attempt to make that social change
become a reality? Can social activists actually produce the social
and cultural outcomes they desire? These are the types of questions
that have long intrigued sociologists studying collective action.
In this class, we will examine those questions in-depth by reading
case studies of past and present day social movements including
the Civil Rights Movement, the Feminist Movement and the Homeless
Movement. We will examine the development of sociological theories
regarding social movements: from the early emphasis on spontaneous
emotion to the now domination theory that organized and resourceful
actors are integral to a successful movement. Additionally, through
in-class exercises and take-home assignments, we will get a taste
of some of the difficulties social movement actors are likely to
face and we’ll learn what it means to organize large groups
of people for purposeful action.
R 5:30-8:40 LANDRISCINA
SOC 230-601 LAW & SOCIAL CHANGE
After a discussion of various general perspectives on social change,
this course will examine the interdependent relationship between
changes in legal institutions and changes in social institutions.
Emphasis will be placed on how and when law can be an instrument
for social change, and how and when social change can cause legal
change. In the assessment of this relationship, both domestic and
international law will be studied. Throughout the course, discussions
will include controversial legal issues relevant to social change,
such as civil liberties and women and the law.
T 6:30-9:40 FETNI
SOC 230-602 SOCIOLOGY OF CHILDHOOD
Childhood is not a naturally defined period or a universal phenomenon;
rather it reflects a culture’s assigned role for children.
At the same time, there are many different experiences of childhood
within the same culture, such that race, gender, and class all have
an impact on children’s lives. This course will include a
history of childhood, how and why the role of children has changed
over time, as well as current ideas of childhood and adolescence.
Children are often defined by adults’ perspectives which see
them as adults-in-the-making and passive recipients of adult culture.
This course will emphasize more recent sociological theories of
childhood that are beginning to look at children as active agents
in shaping their own worlds. We will explore both how children create
their own social worlds and how adult institutions, such as families
and schools, view children and influence children’s experiences.
The course will include issues of childhood from infancy to adolescence
with an emphasis on gender and class differences.
W 5:30-8:40 KAPLAN
SOC 230-603 SOCIOLOGY OF GENETICS
The biological revolution of the 21st century is well underway.
The human genome is sequenced, physicians and patients are requesting
genetic tests, and technologies that sounded like science fiction
just five years ago are being debated as realistic possibilities.
The rising genetic paradigm is changing the way we think about disease,
behavior, social problems and kinship. At the moment, public discourse
about genetics outdistances validated scientific knowledge. Throughout
the course, we will apply sociological theory and the recent scholarship
of anthropology, history and social and cultural studies of science
to make sense of contemporary issues in genetics, including the
continuing specter of the eugenics movement, genetic discrimination,
the genetics of race, and the so-called gay gene.
W 6-9:10 KEMPNER
SOC 389-601 JAPANESE POP CULTURE
Among the topics covered are the cultural context of East Asian
economic systems, structure of the peasant economy within the nation-state,
economic impact of colonialism, neo-colonialism, and the role of
East Asia in the global economy, including the causes and consequences
of the current East Asian economics crisis.
TR 4:30-6 HARRINGTON
SOC 435-601 GLOBALIZATION & WELFARE STATE
This seminar will examine the contemporary transformation of cities
within the larger context of globalization. We will emphasize the
role of economic and industrial restructuring, the increasing importance
of global markets, deindustrialization and the emerging service
sectors, information technologies, suburbanization, new concepts
of urban spaces, and the changing role of the state in urban development.
We will read both specific case studies of North American and European
cities, as well as broader analyses of contemporary urban development.
M 6:30-9:40 VONMAHS
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SOC 530-640 MEDIA AND CULTURE
The course is designed to give students a conceptual framework
with which to examine the relationship between media, culture and
society and the complex roles the mass media play in the production
of culture and social power and stratification. The course examines
the theories and research of mass communication and analyses the
media in relation to their cultural, institutional, economic, and
social contexts. The course examines a variety of popular cultural
forms (e.g. advertising, news, talk shows, fashion, art collection)
and looks closely at media texts, media production and consumption
as cultural practices with attention given to issues of class, race
and gender. This course will particularly focus on recent changes
in media ownership, convergence, and new media, addressing how those
influence influences media products, particularly news and information.
R 6-8:40 BRADLEY
SOC 591-640 RACIAL JUSTICE AND THE SOCIOLOGY OF LAW
A critical examination of the law in perpetuation and eradication
racial injustice. The semester covers the period from the inception
and rise of slavery during the colonial period through the Civil
War.
W 6:30-9:40 CHAIN
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Last Modified:
09-Oct-2003
For updates, comments please contact:
saunderc@ssc.upenn.edu
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